1. LITERACY: ORIGINS, CONSEQUENCES AND IMPLICATIONS ?

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EDUCATION 341-3
LITERACY: ORIGINS, CONSEQUENCES AND IMPLICATIONS
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FOR EDUCATION AND CULTURE
Fall, 1988 ?
Instructor: ?
Dr. S. deCastell
Mondays ?
Office: ?
MPX 8639
5:30 - 8:20 p.m. ?
Phone: ?
291-3627
MPX 9511
OVERVIEW
This course provides an introduction to the study of literacy from an interdisciplinary perspective. We
shall explore the origins of western literacy, the conditions which favoured its development and the
role of literacy in social evolution, the economic and cultural values of literacy, and the effects of
literacy on cognitive processes. Of particular interest is the reliance on formal educational institutions
for the mass transmission of literacy. We will be looking in some detail at the varying conceptions of
literacy that educators have traditionally valued, and we will be looking at some of the current research
and scholarship that attempts to explain, justify and prescribe educational practices intended to
increase literacy.
PURPOSE
By the end of the course, students should be able to identify, analyze, and justify or criticize the
aesthetic, communicative, cognitive and socially-transformative consequences attributed to or
associated with the acquisition of literacy. They should know something of its history and be aware of
the range of definitions traditionally and currently given to literacy. They should have some
understanding of the distinctive contributions of conceptual study and empirical research into literacy,
and understand both the capacities and limitations of each of these approaches to literacy research
and practice.
EVALUATION
Grades are based upon three components:
(1)
consistent and active participation in seminars, including the presentation of one of the
assigned course readings - 25%
(2)
a mid-term essay - 25%
(3)
a final paper (for which both a first draft and a final draft will be required) on a topic of the students
own choice, relevant to topics covered in the course - 50%.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Literacy. Society and Schooling: A Reader (eds. S. de Castell, A Luke, and K. Egan). Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1986.
A detailed outline of topics and schedule of readings will be made available at the first class.
[Text is also available from Bernard. He has the book table just outside the main cafeteria on the
southwest side of campus, near the CNIB stand]
Any additional readings will be made available to students at cost.

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