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S
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY?
EDUCATION 341-3
LITERACY: ORIGINS, CONSEQUENCES AND IMPLICATIONS?
FOR EDUCATION
AND
CULTURE
Spring Semester, 1990
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Instructor: Dr. S. deCastell
Location:
Monday, 4:30
MPX
- 7:20
8620p.m.
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Telephone:
Office: ?
291-3627
MPX 8639
Prere q uisite:
60 hours of credit.
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.
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 four components:
1.
consistent and active participation in seminars, including presentations of
assigned course readings - 20%.
2.
a book review of one of the supplementary texts - 20% (6-8 pages)
3.
a major paper on a topic of the student's own choice, relevant to topics
covered in the course - 30% ( 10-12 pages)
4.
a final exam, for which questions will be provided in advance - 30%.
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LI
Literac
y
. Society and Schooling: A Reader (eds. S. deCastell, A. Luke and K.
Egan). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986.
And one of the following (student's own choice):
Illich, I., Sanders B. ABC: The Alphabetization of the popular mind. San
Francisco: Northpoint Press
Ong, W. (1982). Qralitv and Literac
y
. Routledge, Chapman & Hall.
Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. Seabury Press
Kozol, Jonathan. (1985). Illiterate America. Anchor/Doubleday Co.
Heath, Shirley Brice. (1983). Wa
y
with words. Cambridge University Press.
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.
