Book Reviews

Scholes, Laura. 2018. Boys, Masculinities and Reading: Gender Identity and Literacy as Social Practice. New York: RoutledgeVillavicencio, A. (2021). Am I My Brother’s Keeper? Educational Opportunities and Outcomes for Black and Brown Boys. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

CULTURA ESCRITA E ESCOLARIZAÇÃO: ATUAÇÃO DOCENTE NA AMPLIAÇÃO DOS USOS SOCIAIS DA ESCRITA POR ESTUDANTES ORIUNDOS DE UM PROGRAMA DE CORREÇÃO DE FLUXO

O tema deste estudo é atuação docente na ampliação dos usos sociais da escrita por alunos oriundos de um programa de correção de fluxo. Tem como fundamentação teórica os Estudos do Letramento e é movido pelo objetivo de descrever analiticamente um processo de ensino escolar desenvolvido a partir de um projeto de letramento. Busca apresentar formas de empreender um processo escolar que promova participação em eventos de letramento, ampliação das práticas de letramento e imersão na cultura escrita. As compreensões provenientes desta pesquisa repercutiram no desenvolvimento de ações movidas pelo compromisso de contribuir para o processo de imersão dos alunos na cultura escrita. BARTON, David. Literacy: an introduction to the ecology of written language. Oxford: Blackweell, 2010 [1994].HAMILTON, Mary. Expanding the new literacy studies: using photographs to explore literacy as social practice. In: BARTON, D.; HAMILTON, M.; IVANIC, R. (Orgs.). Situated literacies. London: Routledge, 2000.KLEIMAN, Angela B. (Org.) Os significados do letramento: uma nova perspectiva sobre a prática da escrita. Campinas, SP: Mercado dos Letras, 2001 [1995].KLEIMAN, A. (Org.) O ensino e a formação do professor: alfabetização de jovens e adultos. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas, 2000.OLIVEIRA, Maria do Socorro; Gêneros textuais e letramento. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, Belo Horizonte, v. 10, n. 2, p. 325-345, 2010.STREET, Brian. Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge: CUP, 1984. ______. Abordagens alternativas ao letramento e desenvolvimento. Teleconferência Brasil sobre o letramento, outubro de 2003.

Reconceptualizing cultural literacy as a dialogic practice

Culture and heritage are plural and fluid, continually co-created through interaction between people. However, traditional monologic models of cultural literacy reflect a one-way transmission of static cultural knowledge. Using the context of a large European project and augmenting the work of Buber with models of literacy as social practice, in this article cultural literacy is reconceptualized as fundamentally dialogic. We argue that cultural literacy empowers intercultural dialogue, opening a dialogic space with inherent democratic potential. Considering implications for the classroom, we outline how a dialogic pedagogy can provide a suitable context for the development of young people's cultural literacy.

Letramento escolar em aula de língua inglesa: uma proposta pedagógica de leitura crítica

Teaching a Foreign Language (FL) in Basic Education has among one of its goals contributing to the learner’s singular experience of building meaning by a discursive basis domain (Brasil, 1998), by means of reading and writing activities that promote his engagement in varied social practices and his formation as a citizen (Schlatter, 2009). This way, it’s presented a reading activity to Elementary School students based in Critical Reading (CR) and literacy as social practice (Street, 2014). It is started from reading as a process, proposing steps to achieve it (pre-reading, while-reading e post-reading), which involve previous knowledge of the text issue, text comprehension and interpretation and the development of the learner’s criticism through the text, respectively. Considering this proposal, it’s expected to emphasize the importance of CR to increase the learners’ participation in literate social practices, contributing to the formation of a critical reader and a citizen.

The Students’ Perspectives on Observing Language Use in Social Media as Social Practice

In this digital era, college students have become familiar with social media such as Facebook, twitter, and Instagram. For English Letters Students, they also use English when updating their status, tweeting their thought, or giving captions in their photos. That phenomenon results in the students’ interest in analyzing language use in social media, proven by some theses examining social media as the data. It means that the students have started to observe English language and literacy as social practice, for example is when a student observed English Letters students’ grammatical errors in their social media accounts. That fact reveals the student’s awareness of the importance of English language and literacy as social practice. A questionnaire was distributed to 64 students who take Language Research Methodology Class. Most of them access Instagram and Facebook in their daily life and spend half of their day accessing the media. Their activities involve reading posts on information and observe comments in the form of sentences. Pedagogical implication of the students’ responses was teachers should bring social issues which happen in society in which the students live to build their critical thinking. Therefore, the students are involved in social practice while developing their critical literacy.

Teachers’ discourses of literacy as social practice in advantaged and disadvantaged early childhood contexts

This article examines two teachers’ discourses of literacy as social practice in advantaged and disadvantaged early childhood centres for three- to four-year-olds. The intention is to make sense of the dominant discourse of literacy, its constitutive nature and its effects on children, teaching and learning. Foucault’s theory of discourse is used to make salient the influence of interpretive frames of references on the understanding and practice of literacy. The data for the study was produced through a qualitative approach using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The findings show that teachers in both the advantaged and disadvantaged contexts are located in the dominant discourse of early literacy as a technical, autonomous skill. This discourse foregrounds children as adults-in-the-making (the becoming child) and a maturationist-environmentalist view of readiness for early literacy development. This narrow view of literacy discounts young children’s positioning as social actors, issues of diversity and contextually situated practice.

Religious Youths’ Motivations for Reading Complex, Religious Texts

Background/Context Research confirms that religion is a significant part of the lives of American youths, that religious texts are an essential part of their experiences in the world, and that as part of their everyday cultural practices, religious youths demonstrate strong commitments to reading religious texts. Currently, however, the field of literacy has yet to develop a body of research that examines the motivations that drive young people to engage with the religious texts that appear to mean so much to them. Focus of Study and Research Questions Situated within social and cultural perspectives of literacy and motivation, the purpose of this study is to examine religious youths’ personal motivations for reading complex, religious texts such as the Bible and the Book of Mormon by looking closely at the connections among their literacy practices, religious ideologies, and the expression of their religious identities. Two questions operationalize this purpose: 1. What are the similarities and differences among Latter-day Saint and Methodist youths’ personal motivations to engage with religious texts? 2. In what ways are these motivations influenced by the youths’ religiocultural traditions, ideologies, practices, and commitments. Research Design Qualitative methods were used to examine youths’ motivations for religious literacies. Nine months of ethnographic observations in multiple contexts and 59 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted over two years were transcribed and analyzed to address the purpose of the study. Analytic procedures were informed by grounded theory. Findings The findings revealed a broad-level framework that explained the youths’ personal motivations for reading religious texts that transcended religious affiliation. Youths in both congregations were motivated to engage with complex, religious texts because they providing them with (a) knowledge about their religious traditions, (b) tools for applying religious knowledge to the lives, (c) strength to endure life's challenges, (d) comfort during stressful times, and (e) a connection to God. Conclusions/Recommendations As a space to explore the interactions among religion, literacy, and motivation, this study contributes to a more robust understand about the manner in which young people engage with complex, religious texts. This research also has implications for conceptualizing motivated literacy, engaging students with complex, academic texts, and studying motivation for literacy as social practice.