Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures

by Bill Cope (Editor), Mary Kalantzis (Editor)

Multiliteracies considers the future of literacy teaching in the context of the rapidly changing English language. Questions are raised about what constitutes appropriate literacy teaching in today's a world that is both a global village yet one which local diversity is increasingly important. This is a coherent and accessible overview of the work of the New London Group, with well-known international contributors bringing together their varying national experiences and differences of theoretical and political emphasis. The essays deal with issues such The book concludes with case studies of attempts to put the theories into practice and thereby provides a basis for dialogue with fellow educators around the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Theory, Writing, Academic

350 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 1999

Reviews

[Mk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was more than satisfying because it included everything regarding the topic.
However, it losses one star because although at some points it gives very general information regarding a sub topic at other points it becomes super fixated, which may cause difficulty and frustration to a person not deeply informed about these topics.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just Kress's chapter.

[Jessica Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give parts of this book 5 stars and parts 3. On one hand, I've rarely encountered a collection of articles by different authors that are so well integrated and connected. On the other hand, the last 1/3 of the book didn't feel very connected to the first 2/3.

I really like the way Cope and Kalantzis frame this collection. By using the introduction to tell readers about the New London Group's original meeting in 1994 and share the outcomes of those sessions, they effectively set up the rest of the book since most chapters elaborate on principles first explained here. The two articles by Kress were the strongest, in my opinion, with the James Paul Gee piece following closely behind. Actually, the introduction, written by Cope and Kalantzis, explained somewhat difficult principles in clear and articulate ways and was one of the best chapters in the whole book.

That said, chapters 11-16 felt disconnected from the first ten chapters to me. These chapters were supposed to be devoted to application of the principles espoused previously, and while they did relate, they were not clearly focused on the parts of the theory that were most important. These final chapters showed how the four types of pedagogy--situated learning, overt instruction, critical framing and transformed practice--were applied in diverse cultures from Australia to South Africa. At times, these teachers utilized multimodal approaches and lessons, but other times, the focus was just on how they experienced and taught cultural identity. While some authors had previously stressed the importance of cultural identity, of understanding where students come from as a whole, in my opinion, this was not the most effective connection to make in the final section of the book. After reading about such innovation as Kress's new language for understanding and teaching multimodal texts, this felt like a letdown to me.