Shaping Literacy in the Secondary School: Policy, Practice and Agency in the Age of the National Literacy Strategy

British Journal of Educational Studies 51 (1):20 - 35 (2003)
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Abstract

This article examines the definitions of literacy in operation in secondary schools, and the relationship between official literacy policy and the practices of the agents responsible for implementing this policy. We trace the history of national 'policy' back to the Language Across the Curriculum movement of the 1970s as it provides an illustrative point of comparison with the first five years of the National Literacy Strategy. Drawing on empirical data which illuminate the views, perceptions and practices of key agents on a number of levels, we critically review the concept of 'school literacy' promoted in government policy, defining it as 'school-centric literacy' and question its ability to facilitate participation in the practices associated with the media and technological literacies which are increasingly a feature of school life. There is evidence of some unplanned effects of the current national policy but also that levels of agency, for literacy teachers in particular, may be rapidly diminishing.

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References found in this work

Pedagogy of the Oppressed.Paulo Freire - 1970 - New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Edited by Myra Bergman Ramos, Donaldo P. Macedo & Ira Shor.
Reforming Education and Changing Schools.Richard Bowe, Stephen J. Ball & Anne Gold - 1992 - British Journal of Educational Studies 40 (4):429-431.
Education Reform: A Critical and Post-Structural Approach.Stephen J. Ball - 1995 - British Journal of Educational Studies 43 (2):221-223.
Changing Literacies.C. Lanksheer, J. P. Gee, M. Knobel & C. Searle - 1998 - British Journal of Educational Studies 46 (2):236-237.

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