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    SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
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    EDUCATION 341-3
    LITERACY:
    Fall Semester, 1989
    Monday
    4:30 - 7:20 p.m.
    ORIGINS, CONSEQUENCES AND IMPLICATIONS
    FOR EDUCATION AND CULTURE
    Instructor: ?
    Dr. S. deCastell
    Office: ?
    MPX 8639
    Telephone: 291-3627
    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.
    PurDose
    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.
    Grades are based upon three components:
    1.
    consistent and active participation in seminars, including presentations of assigned
    course readings - 30%.
    2.
    a major paper on a topic of the student's own choice, relevant to topics covered in the
    course - 40%.
    3.
    A final exam, for which questions will be provided in advance - 30%.
    Required Texts
    Literacy. Society and Schooling: A Reader (eds. S. deCastell, A. Luke and K. Egan). Cambridge
    University Press, Cambridge, 1986.
    Additional readings will be made available to students at cost.
    A detailed outline of topics and schedule of readings will be made available at the first class, along
    with a list of recommended readings.

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