"Educational researchers and practitioners incorporate research and ideas from many different fields in developing conceptual frameworks for understanding literacy.  Their conceptual frameworks, for example, draw on the ideas of the social practice of literacy found in cultural and anthropological study (Barton, 1994; Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Heath, 1983; Taylor, 1983; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988); and on the social constructivism found in psychology (Bruner, 1984; Piaget, 1962; Stirer & Maybin, 1994).  Another source of ideas is the social change perspective that comes from research examining the discourses between and among various social groups in society (Belenky, 1996; Horseman, 1990, 1994; Lytle & Cantafio, 1993; Rockhill, 1987).  Ideological frameworks are based on political awareness and describe literacy programs as places of potential transformation (Barton, 1994; Graff, 1979; Limages, 1990; Street, 1993, 1994)"
    - Richmond and Miles, Boys' and Girls' Literacy: the Male Mentors Pilot Project, 2002
 
 
Summary of the Theoretical Models of Literacy Education Transmission                                            Transaction                                           Transformation
  • based on traditional views of society research focus 
  • based on specific skills in reading, standardized testing, norm- referenced evaluations, and knowing a canon of selected      knowledge
  • an academic, mechanistic,      autonomous view
  • literacy defined in terms of the purposes of dominant societal    institutions which are “given a high value legally and culturally” (Barton & Hamilton 1998, p.252)
  • literacy education planned, then measured and evaluated externally
  • examples — public school system in North America, GED
  • based on structuralist views
  • a rationalistic cognitive perspective which understands that meaning may be socially constructed
  • literacy defined in terms of a response to learners and societal needs
  • literacy education may be planned, outcomes predicted, 
  • evaluation done by all participants (internal), a curriculum- based assessment
  • examples — workplace literacy programs, community-based adult literacy programs, alternative public schools 
  • based on post-structuralist views 
  • a complex societal view that reflects many ways of knowing 
  • a social change perspective which problematises issues 
  • curriculum emerges through experience and action by the learners 
  • outcomes rarely predictable 
  • evaluation is done holistically by the group or individual 
  • often raises more questions than it answers 
  • examples — culture circles (Freire, 1978); public homeplaces (Belenky, 1996); political parties focussed on social action
©   Dr. H.J. Richmond