SFU/Matsqui

Summer 1988

Education 341-3?

Literacy, Education and Culture

Maureen Stout

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to the study of literacy from an interdisciplinary

perspective. We will examine the evolution of western literacy from its origins to the

present day, selecting certain eras and events for particular study. We shall review

some socio-economic changes relevant to this evolution and study the effects of literacy

on cognitive and communicative processes. We will, in particular, look at the ideological

and political infrastructures that affect both the defining of literacy and its transmission

through formal educational institutions. Finally, we will critically evaluate some

modern scholarship on literacy with perspectives from the disciplines of psychology,

anthropology, sociology and linguistics, studying the pedagogical methods and their

relevance to literacy development and its cultural impact.

Throughout the course, students should be critically examining the theoretical and

practical problems associated with the range of definitions of literacy and its

transmission. They should be able to identify some ideological problems associated with

diverse and sometimes subtle pedagogical methods, and be able to evaluate current

theories in light of contemporary institutions and practice. Students should have some

knowledge of the origins and development of literacy and be familiar, with the aesthetic,

communicative and cognitive consequences associated with its acquisition. By the end of

the course, students should be able to evaluate critically, both as a group and

individually, the above topics, and arrive at an understanding of the critical import of

the polemics of literacy definition and its impact on language, culture and education.

Texts

S De Castell, A Luke, and K Egan.

Literacy, Society and Schooling: A Reader.

Various articles will be handed out at the beginning of the course and at appropriate

times throughout the course.

Course Requirements

A short paper on one of the assigned readings or topics and the presentation of that

paper to the class-25%.

A final paper (for which both a first draft and a final draft will be required) on a

topic of the student's choice, relevant to the topics covered in the course-50%.

A final exam, essay-style, with a choice of 2 or 3 out of 5 or 6 questions-25%.

An outline of topics and readings will be handed out at the first class.