Kintgen, E., Kroll, B.
& Rose, M.
Southern Illinois
University Press
Perspectives on Literacy
X
Semester 96-2 Session: Regular Semester
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Instructor: V. Lunga
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341 -3 LITERACY, EDUCATION AND CULTURE
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Office:
Tel:
291-291-3395
Fax:
291-3203
Section: E1.00
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Scheduled Final Exam: Y
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E-mail:
PREREQUISITE
60 credit hours
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides an introduction to the study of literacy from an interdisciplinary perspective. We shall explore
the origins of western literacy, the conditions of which favored 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.
OBJECTIVES
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 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.
REQUIREMENTS
Grades are based upon three components:
1.
A book review of one of the supplementary texts.................................................................................
30%
2. Mid-term ?
Exam ?
.................................................................................................................................
30%
3.
Final ?
Exam ?
.......................................................................................................................................40%
READINGS
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REQ REC
deCastell,
& Egan, K.
S,
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Luke, A. ?
University
Cambridge ?
Press
Literacy. Society and Schooling