Literacy Matters: Issues for new times

by Mary Kalantzis (Editor)

Literacy Matters is an important and timely addition to the current education debate. The emergence of literacy and its teaching during a period of dramatic social change has promoted a move towards an understanding of literacies, or multiliteracies, linked to a new multimodal vehicles of information. Meanings are now created from a variety of viewpoints that reflect a diversity of racial, social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The contributors to this collection explore broad perspectives and policy implications for different literary settings. As well, a range of case studies and materials that engage at the more immediate centre of classroom and home settings are presented. Within both theoretical and practical perspectives, the following issues are canvassed. The enhancement of literacy development in educational settings via the establishment of the recent "virtual nodes" initiative in partnership between USM in Penang and RMIT University in Melbourne. The increasing worldwide penetration of market ideology into educational institutions. Australian immigration and multicultural policies that impinge upon literacy and language policies. A historical review of English literacy in Malaysia and a call for appropriate action to enhance English language learning. Practical matters about the teaching and learning of the English language, diversity in literacy development, how media and film shape learning experiences, identifying quality student project work, the promotion of emotional literacy and media literacy and the challenge of online or e-learning in higher education as a consequence of globalisation and the new information and communication technologies. This collection offers a diverse range of understandings of literacy hoping to highlight the importance of research, teaching and learning experiences, with a challenge to the reader to transform this research into action plans for the construction of new literate societies.

Paperback

Published May 1, 2001