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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.