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English 750: Introduction to Graduate Study in Literacy - Farr WI 2009

Introduction to Graduate Study in Literacy

This course introduces graduate students to the field of literacy studies. It emphasizes interdisciplinary research and scholarship that explores definitions of literacy and its uses across historical and cultural contexts. As such, it is relevant for graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, education, public policy, and related fields.

The study and understanding of literacy has changed dramatically in recent decades. Although the term literacy is widespread and often unquestioned as to its importance, literacy in actual use emerges as a much more complicated, mediated, and context-dependent subject than previously appreciated. Writing and reading now are seen as pluralistic cultural practices whose forms, functions, and influences take shape as part of larger social, political, historical, material, and ideological contexts. Literacy studies thus require new, interdisciplinary, comparative, and critical approaches to conceptualization, theories, analysis, and interpretation. This course examines these currents as they take shape, and seeks to understand how a field of study is created among the disciplines of linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and history, among others.

Toward that end, our topics include: "great debates" over literacy, its uses, impacts, and meanings; theories of literacy; histories of literacy; literacy and literacies; reading and writing and beyond; ethnographies of literacy in everyday life; academic and school literacies; literacy and language; literacy and schooling; literacy and social order—class, race, gender, ethnicity, generation, and geography; literacy and collective and individual action; recent research; research design and methodologies. Readings include the work of scholars across the humanities and social sciences.

The course has a number of goals:

• Developing new understandings of literacy and literacies, their importance in history and contemporary society, culture, polity, and economies
• Probing the nature of literacy in theory and practice, with respect to definitions, conceptualization, contextual understanding, and complex relationships
• Learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and interpretations, and practicing analysis and critical evaluation from a number of perspectives
• Developing advanced skills in written and oral expression
• Engaging in an interdisciplinary conversation about literacy studies, including critical approaches to literacy/ies followed in different disciplines and professions
• Comparing and evaluating different approaches, conceptualizations, theories, methods, and sources that relate to the study and understanding of literacy in its many contexts

Books: Background and Overview

• Barton, David. 2007. Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell. (1-4051-1143-7)
• Collins, James and Richard K. Blot. 2003. Literacy and Literacies: Texts, Power, and Identity. Cambridge: CUP. (0-521-59661-0)
• Cushman, Ellen and Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, and Mike Rose, eds. 2001. Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook. New York: Bedford/St. Martins. (0-3122-5042-8)

Books: Case Studies

• Deborah Brandt. 2001. Literacy in American Lives. Cambridge: CUP. (0-5210-0306-7)
• Shirley Brice Heath. 1983. Ways With Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge: CUP. (0-5212-7319-6)
• Brian Street (Ed.). 1993. Cross-cultural Approaches to Literacy. Cambridge: CUP. (0-5214- 0964- 0)
• Harvey J. Graff (Ed.). 19??. Literacy and Social Development in the West.

Other Readings (Available on Carmen)

Requirements

• Regular reading, attendance, and participation in seminar discussion. Attendance is expected and taken into account in evaluation. Each week one or more students (depending on the size of the group) will draft and circulate questions for discussion in advance of that week's class meeting. Questions must be posted on Carmen by 5:00 pm on Monday of each week.
  
  The student(s) responsible for circulating discussion questions each week is also responsible for leading seminar sessions that week.
  
  Preparation for class includes writing at least 4 1-2-page commentary papers offering critical perspectives and raising questions about the assigned reading in a particular week. Select any 4 class sessions from week 2 to week 10. In addition, each student should come to all other sessions prepared and with questions. Papers are due at the class at which that topic is discussed. None will be accepted late.
• Annotated bibliography of 6-8 items on a topic or theme of your own choice, selected with the advice and consent of the instructor. Due week 5
• A comparison of two studies in a critical essay that focuses on authors' distinct approaches and methods including their conceptualization and contextualization of literacy, their uses of theory, their sources, their research design, the basis for their interpretation and conclusions, the significance of the work, etc. Your choice of entries for the bibliography assignment might well reflect this assignment. This final essay should be between 6 to 8 pages. Due week 10

1=approx. 40%; 2=approx. 20%; 3=approx 40% of final grade

Assigned reading. A seminar is pointless, and painful, unless the participants have read the assigned material with care. I expect you to read all the material assigned for each week's discussion. So plan ahead. I encourage you to think about useful questions for discussion, or issues that occur to you during and even after the seminar is over

Leadership of one or more seminar sessions. One student is responsible for leading each seminar. The most important task of this assignment is to present questions and perspectives on the major topics and issues of that week, and on the reading specifically, that will generate good discussion. Think about how you will stimulate discussion. Questions and tasks should be made available on Carmen to all seminar members prior to class, no later than 5:00 p.m. on Mondays.

Suggestions: choose particularly important passages in the works for analysis, photocopy them, and spend some time on their explication. (Better yet, include them in your Carmen posting, along with discussion questions.) Choose key ideas and terms for elucidation, or focus on the questions the work asks, its answers, and its relation to larger issues or themes, including previous weeks' work. Collect some reviews from academic journals and serious publications for nonspecialists and organize discussion around the assessment of these evaluations. Remember that the goal is not especially to find out what is wrong with the work, although that may be important, but to understand its significance and contribution to large issues and questions. Think of ways of identifying themes and issues that include specific readings but may also look back to earlier weeks or look ahead to future weeks and topics. Depending on class size, the plan for the session might include breaking into small groups with specific tasks for part of the time. Seminar leaders are not expected to be responsible for the entire session; generally, seminar leaders will use the first half of class, but may use more, if discussion warrants it.

Commentary papers. Students should write at least four two-page papers commenting on the week's reading. These should not summarize the material. Rather, the papers should present your reaction to the book: what strikes you as particularly interesting, important, outrageous, thought-provoking or worth thinking or talking about. These short papers should include questions the readings raise for you and/or questions you wish to raise about the material. Those questions as well as your comments will help you to prepare for seminar sessions. I will keep track of these papers, but they will not be given formal grades. They are very important. They prompt you to think about the reading before you come to the seminar, and they give me a good idea of how you are reading the material and how you write.

I expect one paper every two weeks, approximately, starting with the second week's reading assignment. These papers are due at the end of the session at which a book or articles are discussed. They are not acceptable later, and they are an integral part of the seminar. To receive credit for the seminar, you must turn them in on time. I may ask students with especially interesting papers to share them with the whole seminar.

Turning in assignments
All work that is turned in for evaluation or grading should be double-spaced, 12 point font, in a legible type face. Follow page or word limits and meet deadlines. Follow any specific assignment requirements (formatting or endnotes or references, for example). Use footnotes and endnotes as necessary and use them appropriately according to the style guide of your basic field (APA, MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, etc.). Your writing should be gender neutral as well as clear and concise. If you have a problem, see me, if at all possible, in advance of due dates. Unacceptable work will be returned, ungraded, to you. Submitting work late without excuse will result in lowered grades.

Civility
Mutual respect and cooperation, during the time we spend together each week and the time you work on group assignments, are the basis for successful conduct of this course. The class is a learning community that depends on respect, cooperation, and communication among all of us. This includes coming to class on time, prepared for each day's work: reading and assignments complete, focused on primary classroom activity, and participating. It also includes polite and respectful expression of agreement or disagreement—with support for your point of view and arguments--with other students and with the professor. It does not include arriving late or leaving early, or behavior or talking that distracts other students. Please turn off all telephones, beepers, electronic devices, etc.

Academic Honesty
Scholastic honesty is expected and required. It is a major part of university life, and contributes to the value of your university degree. All work submitted for this class must be your own. Copying or representing the work of anyone else (in print or from another student) is plagiarism. This includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas. Please ensure that you include references when quoting or using ideas from the work of others. All cases of suspected plagiarism, in accordance with university rules, must be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. For information on plagiarism, see http://cstw.osu.edu/ especially http://cstw.osu.edu/writingCenter/handouts/.

Writing Center
All members of the OSU community are invited to discuss their writing with a trained consultant at the Writing Center. The Center offers the following free services: Help with any assignment; one-on-one tutorials; one-on-one online tutorials via an Internet Messenger-like system (no ads or downloads); online appointment scheduling. Visit www.cstw.org or call 688-4291 to make an appointment.

Disabilities Services
The Office for Disability Services, located in 150 Pomerene Hall, offers services for students with documented disabilities. Contact the ODS at 292-3307

Class cancellation
In the unlikely event of class cancellation due to emergency, I will contact you via email and request that a note on department letterhead be placed on the classroom door. In addition, I will contact you as soon as possible following the cancellation to let you know what will be expected of you for our next class meeting.

Class Meetings

*Available on Carmen

Jan. 6 - Week 1 - Literacy as an Inter-disciplinary Field of Study

• David Barton, Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language, Ch.1-4.

Jan. 13 - Week 2 - Definitions of Literacy

• James Collins & Richard Blot, Literacy and Literacies: Texts, Power, and Identity, Ch. 1-3.
• *Jack Goody and Ian Watt, "The Consequences of Literacy," in Literacy in Traditional Societies, 27-68. See also Goody's Introduction.
• *Ruth Finnegan, "Literacy versus Non-Literacy: The Great Divide," in Modes of Thought, ed. Robin Horton and Finnegan, Faber & Faber, 1973, 112-144.
• *Kathleen Gough, "Implications of Literacy in Traditional China and India," in Literacy in Traditional Societies, ed. Goody, 69-84.
• *Harvey J. Graff and John Duffy, "Literacy Myths," in Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol. 2 Literacy, ed. Brian Street; Nancy Hornberger, general editor (Berlin and New York: Springer, 2007)

Jan. 20 - Week 3 - Impacts and Influences of Literacy

• Jack Goody, in Cushman et al, Ch. 2
• Dennis Baron, in Cushman et al, Ch. 4
• David Olson, in Cushman et al, Ch. 6
• Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole, "Unpackaging Literacy," in Cushman et al, Ch. 7 [originally published in Variation in Writing: Functional and Linguistic-cultural Differences, ed. Marcia Farr Whiteman (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981)]
• Niyi Akinnaso, in Cushman et al, Ch. 8
• Victoria Purcell-Gates, in Cushman et al, Ch. 23
• Elizabeth Eisenstein, in Graff, Ch. 3

Additional:

• Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole. The Psychology of Literacy. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981. Rpt. 1999)
• Brian V. Street, Literacy in Theory and Practice. (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
• Shirley Brice Heath, "Protean Shapes in Literacy Events," in Cushman et al, Ch. 26.
• *_____, "The Functions and Uses of Literacy," Journal of Communication, 29 (1980), 123-133

Jan. 27 - Week 4 - Literacy, History, and Myth

• James Collins & Richard Blot, Literacy and Literacies, Ch. 4 & 6
• Harvey Graff, Introduction, Literacy and Historical Development.
• Michael T. Clanchy, "Literate and Illiterate; Hearing and Seeing: England, 1066-1307," in Graff, Ch. 2.
• Robert Scribner, "Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas," in Graff, Ch. 6
• Natalie Zemon Davis, "Printing and the People: Early Modern France," in Graff, Ch. 5.
• Egil Johansson, "The History of Literacy in Sweden," in Graff, Ch. 9.
• Peter Probst, "The Letter and the Spirit: Literacy and Religious Authority in the History of the Aladura Movement in Western Nigeria," in Street, Ch. 8.
• *Marcia Farr, "Literacies and Ethnolinguistic Diversity: Chicago," in Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol. 2 Literacy, ed. Brian Street; Nancy Hornberger, general editor (Berlin and New York: Springer, 2007)

Feb. 3 - Week 5 - Literacy, Language, and Writing

• David Barton, Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language, Ch. 5-8
• *Marcia Farr Whiteman, "Dialect Influence in Writing," in Marcia Farr Whiteman (Ed.), Variation in Writing: Functional and Linguistic-Cultural Differences, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981.
• *Marcia Farr, "Essayist Literacy and Other Verbal Performances," Written Communication 10:1, 4-38.
• *Marcia Farr, "Literacy Ideologies," paper presented at Latin American Literacy Studies Conference, April, 2008
• Shirley Brice Heath, "Protean Shapes in Literacy Events: Ever-Shifting Oral and Literate Traditions," in Cushman et al, Ch. 26
• James Paul Gee, "Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy?" in Cushman et al, Ch. 30

Feb. 10 - Week 6 - Literacy and Culture

• Niko Besnier, "Literacy and Feelings: The Encoding of Affect in Nukulaelae Letters," in Street, Ch. 2.
• *Elizabeth Hill Boone and Walter D. Mignolo, eds., Writing Without Words: Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica and the Andes (Duke UP, 1966), Boone, "Introduction: Writing and Recording Knowledge," 3-26; Stephen Houston, "Literacy among the Pre-Columbian Maya," 27-49; Boone, "Aztec Pictorial Histories: Records without Words," 50-75; Mignolo, "Signs and their Transmission: The Question of the Book in the New World," 221-70; Mignolo, "Afterword: Writing and Recorded Knowledge in Colonial and Postcolonial Situations," 293-313
• Marcia Farr, in Cushman et al, Ch. 27
• *Marcia Farr, "Literacy and Religion," in Marcia Farr (Ed.), Latino Language and Literacy in Ethnolinguistic Chicago (Erlbaum, 2005).

Additional:

• John Duffy, Writing From These Roots: Literacy in a Hmong Community (University of Hawai'i Press, 2007)
• Niko Besnier. Literacy, Emotion and Authority: Reading and Writing on a Polynesian Atoll. (Cambridge UP, 1995)
• Walter D. Mignolo, The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization (Michigan, 1995)

Annotated bibliography due week 5 Feb. 17 - Week 7 - Literacy, Community, Ethnography

• Shirley Brice Heath, Ways With Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms (Cambridge University Press, 1983). Prologue, Part I, Epilogue
• Elizabeth McHenry and Shirley Brice Heath, "The Literate and the Literary: African Americans as Writers and Readers—1830-1940," in Cushman et al, Ch. 15 [reprinted from Written Communication, 11 (1994), 419-444]
• Brian Street, Introduction, Cross-Cultural Approaches to Literacy
• John Szwed, "The Ethnography of Literacy," in Cushman et al, Ch. 24 [originally published in Marcia Farr Whiteman (Ed.), Variation in Writing: Functional and Linguistic-Cultural Differences, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981]

Additional:

• Ralph Cintron, Angels' Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life and Rhetorics of the Everyday (Beacon 1997)
• Jacqueline Jones Royster, Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change Among African American Women (Pittsburgh, 2000)
• Elizabeth McHenry, Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies. (Duke, 2002)

Feb. 24 - Week 8 - Popular and Vernacular Literacies

• Anne Haas Dyson, "Coach Bombay's Kids Learn to Write: Children's Appropriation of Media Material for School Literacy," Ch. 20 in Cushman et al.
• _____, "'Welcome to the Jam': Popular Culture, School Literacy, and the Making of Childhoods," Ch. 15 in Graff.
• Glynda Hull, "Hearing Other Voices: A Critical Assessment of Popular Views on Literacy and Work," in Cushman et al, Ch. 38.
• Amy Shuman, "Collaborative Writing: Appropriating Power or Reproducing Authority?" in Street, Ch. 10.
• Anne Ruggles Gere, "Kitchen Tables and Rented Rooms: The Extra Curriculum of Composition," in Cushman et al, Ch. 16.
• Margaret Spufford, "First Steps in Literacy: The reading and Writing Experiences of the Humblest Seventeenth-Century Spiritual Autobiographers," in Graff, Ch. 8.

Additional:

• Dyson, Writing Superheroes (Teachers College Press, 1997)
• Glynda Hull and K Schultz, eds., School's Out! Bridging Out-of-School Literacies with Classroom Practice (Teachers College Press, 2002)
• Victoria Purcell-Gates. Other People's Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy. (Harvard University Press, 1995)

Mar. 3 - Week 9 - Literacy, the State, and Education

• Robert Arnove and Harvey J. Graff, "National Literacy Campaigns," in Cushman et al, Ch.34.
• Paolo Freire, "The Adult Literacy Processes Cultural Action for Freedom," in Cushman et al, Ch. 35
• Maurice Bloch, "The Uses of Schooling and Literacy in a Zafimaniry Village," in Street, Ch. 3
• Marilyn Jaeger Adams, "Theoretical Approaches to Reading Instruction," in Cushman et al, Ch. 18
• Yetta Goodman, "The Development of Initial Literacy," in Cushman et al, Ch. 19
• Christina Haas, "Learning to Read Biology," in Cushman et al, Ch. 21.
• Susan L. Lytle, "Living Literacy: Rethinking Development," in Cushman et al, Ch. 22.
• Irwin S. Kirsch, Ann Jungeblut, Lynn Jenkins, and Andrew Kolstad, "Adult Literacy in America," in Cushman et al, Ch. 37.
• *Julie Lindquist, "Class Ethos and the Politics of Inquiry: What the Barroom Can Teach Us about the Classroom," CCC 51:2, December, 1999.
• *_____, "Hoods in the Polis," Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 1:2, 2001.

Additional:

• Robert F. Arnove and Harvey J. Graff (Eds.), National Literacy Campaigns in Historical and Comparative Perspective (Plenum, 1987).
• Margaret J. Finders, Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High (Teachers College / NCTE, 1997).
• Amy Shuman, Storytelling Rights: The Uses of Oral and Written Texts by Urban Adolescents (Cambridge UP, 1986).

Mar. 10 - Week 10 - Literacy and Lives

• Deborah Brandt, Literacy in American Lives (Cambridge 2001)
• Collins & Blot, Ch. 5 & 7
• Barbara Sicherman, "Sense and Sensibility: A Case Study of Women's Reading in Late Victorian America," in Graff, Ch. 13.

• The Future? Reflecting together...

Additional:

• Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (Harper, 1994)
• Cynthia L. Selfe, Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Paying Attention (Southern Illinois UP, 1999)

Final essay due week 10