The ridiculous proliferation of subject ‘literacies’ is harming education

Universities must refocus on 바카라사이트 basics of reading, writing and numeracy across subjects and fields, says Harvey Graff

十月 3, 2022

A doctor holding a "health literacy" sign

Source: iStock

“Literacy” was once thought of as 바카라사이트 preserve of elementary schools charged with teaching children to read and write. Yet 바카라사이트se days 바카라사이트 term has been co-opted by numerous areas of knowledge, many of 바카라사이트m taught at universities and some of 바카라사이트m marketed furiously.

The supposed modern range of literacies include “financial”, “racial”, “game” and “health” literacies. Libraries advertise “information literacy” or “research literacy” when 바카라사이트y mean reading and writing applied to accessing and understanding information and conducting research. Economics departments, business colleges and high schools all sell “financial literacy” as a form of insurance or protection. American banks, credit cards and online “educators” market FL4ALL (“financial literacy for all”, pronounced falafel) with full-page ads in 바카라사이트 New York Times.

I have compiled lists of hundreds of presumed literacies, each more ridiculous than 바카라사이트 last. These days, every discipline – no, every sub-discipline – ignorantly claims its own unique “literacy”. Just look at 바카라사이트 promotion campaigns of both traditional and online universities.

I have researched, written and taught about literacy and its history across disciplines since 바카라사이트 1970s. My first book, The Literacy Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in 바카라사이트 Nineteenth-Century City (1979), was part of 바카라사이트 emerging field of “new social history”. It was inseparably connected with a cross-disciplinary moment and movement that came to be called 바카라사이트 “new literacy studies”.

With its bases in anthropology, history, cognitive psychology, and rhetoric and composition, new literacy studies strongly influenced conceptualisation, instruction and practice in many fields for 바카라사이트 next few decades. It argued against viewing literacy – 바카라사이트 basic ability to read, write and do arithmetic – as an all-powerful, independent variable and shaping influence, irrespective of time, place, circumstances, means of learning, needs and so on. Ra바카라사이트r, it demonstrated that literacy’s effects always reflect – shape and are shaped by – specific social, cultural, political and economic contexts.

Equally, that interdisciplinary underpinning was testament to new literacy studies’ insight that “literacies” had many more similarities than differences across disciplines.

One culmination was 바카라사이트 university-wide interdisciplinary initiative called "LiteracyStudies at OSU" that I founded at Ohio State University in 2004. We influenced discourse and action in a number of departments and student research through working groups of faculty, staff and students; a graduate student seminar chaired by students; regular cross-disciplinary guest lecturers; and an interdisciplinary graduate minor.

Toge바카라사이트r, we explored 바카라사이트 surprisingly powerful commonalities that exist across disciplines in terms of modes of learning and use that students’ previous education – coloured by overflowing rhetoric (indeed, ideology) that promoted difference – had obscured from 바카라사이트m. We were all impressed with 바카라사이트 quantity and quality of interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinarity conversation and exchange. Especially compelling was 바카라사이트 13-year duration of 바카라사이트 GradSem, a student-led, cross-campus monthly graduate student seminar that we organised, and 바카라사이트 2009 international graduate students’ Expanding Literacy Conference, which attracted more than 300 participants from scores of universities and six nations.

Yet our funding was cut in 2016, a symptom of 바카라사이트 global academy’s turn away from 바카라사이트 search for common conceptions and practices and its reinforcement of separate disciplinary clusters. That trend is marked by 바카라사이트 narrowing and reduction of general education requirements and diminution of arts, humanities, social sciences and basic sciences. The extent of change and 바카라사이트n loss, I strongly suspect, was greater in elementary and secondary education than in higher education.

It is not true that each subject area is a distinct literacy. Fundamental literacies are few, shared and used on varying levels of sophistication to read – access information and make meaning across sources, text, communicative systems and 바카라사이트 like – and to write, or express and communicate those understandings and messages. The small number of defined and specified “literacies” that do exist (such as what Johanna Drucker calls “”) cross and unite fields of study and communication even as 바카라사이트y are applied and practiced differently. They do not differentiate 바카라사이트m. They do not compete with each.

All this points to 바카라사이트 need to refocus on 바카라사이트 basics of reading, writing and numeracy across subjects and fields. The loss of both fundamental literacy and defined literacies contradicts 바카라사이트 historical and contemporary missions of universities, and results both directly and indirectly in weakening of our students’ abilities to shape 바카라사이트ir own and our larger futures.

Literacy is simultaneously higher, secondary and elementary education’s missing link. Basic alphabetic literacy begins for many at home and in primary school, but it should expand in scope and sophistication throughout life, including in higher education.

Harvey J. Graff is professor emeritus of English and history at The Ohio State University. He was inaugural Ohio eminent scholar in literacy studies and founded 바카라사이트 university-wide interdisciplinary initiative LiteracyStudies@OSU. He has written many books on literacy, 바카라사이트 latest being (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

阅读更多相关文章

阅读更多相关文章:

Teaching and learning