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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 398 571 CS 012 599 AUTHOR Marum, Ed, Ed. TITLE Children and Books in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives on Literacy. REPORT NO ISBN-0-7507-0543-4 PUB DATE 96 NOTE 163p. AVAILABLE FROM Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis, 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007-1598 (hardcover: ISBN-0-7507-0542-6, $69.95; paperback: ISBN -O -7507- 0543 -4, $24.95). PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) (120) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC07 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Childrens Literature; *Cultural Context; Elementary Secondary Education; Futures (of Society); Instructional Effectiveness; Interdisciplinary Approach; *Literacy; Literature Appreciation; *Mass Media; *Theory Practice Relationship IDENTIFIERS Cultural Studies; Educational Issues; *Literacy as a Social Process; Teaching Perspectives; Text Factors ABSTRACT This collection of articles is concerned with contemporary attitudes and approaches to the teaching of literacy, children's literature, and other non-book texts and media. The collection offers practical as well as theoretical perspectives and addresses issues of good pracice as well as of policy. It provides interdisciplinary perspectives drawn from Great Britain, Europe, and the United States and deals with a range of important literacy issues, including: the changing meanings and applications of literacy in the 20th century; literature as cultural heritage and its place in contemporary society; literature defined in the social frame; and the quality of literacy teaching in relation to social expectations. Following an introduction by the editor, articles in the collection are:(1) "Literacy: Its Roller-coaster Ride through U.S. Education" (John S. Simmons);(2) "Beyond England's National Curriculum for English" (Ed Marum);(3) "Core Curriculum; Cultural Heritage; Literacy: Recent Perspectives and Trends in Norwegian Education" (Bjorg B. Gundem);(4) "How Do We Evaluate the Literature Curriculum?: About a Social Frame of Reference" (Gert Rijlaarsdam and Tanja Janssen);(5) "Students as Self-assessors: Learning Experiences of Literature Teaching in Secondary Schools" (Tanja Janssen and Gert Rijlaarsdam); (6) "Outside Forster's Machine: Re-representing Technology in the Age of Cyberspace" (Neil Campbell);(7) "Reading More Than Print" (Ed Marum); and (8) "A Tentative Non-conclusion" (Ed Marum). (NKA) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** 1. t -4431 Ilmortie dilitissmsza&adifit L -qtr _ 0zer-d-e 4444' 4-trf U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Researcn and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) ErThis document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality I: I o O. IA OA "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY , Points of view or opinions stated in this 2 document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy ) 1TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCESL- Children and Books in the Modern World Children and Books in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives on Literacy Edited by Ed Marum at The Falmer Press (A member of the Taylor & Francis Group) London Washington, D.C. UK The Falmer Press, 1 Gunpowder Square, London, EC4A 3DE USA The Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis Inc., 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007 © E. Marum 1996 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publisher. First published in 1996 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available on request ISBN 0 7507 0542 6 cased ISBN 0 7507 0543 4 paper Jacket design by Caroline Archer Typeset in 10/12 pt Garamond by Graphicraft Typesetters Ltd., Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd., Guildford and King's Lynn on paper which has a specified pH value on final paper manufacture of not less than 7.5 and is therefore 'acid free'. Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Literacy Now 1 Ed Marum Section 1National Perspectives on Literacy Policy 5 1 Literacy: Its Roller-coaster Ride through US Education 7 John S. Simmons 2 Beyond England's National Curriculum for English 42 Ed Marum 3 Core Curriculum; Cultural Heritage; Literacy: Recent Perspectives and Trends in Norwegian Education 55 Bjorg B. Gundem Section 2Teaching and Research Perspectives on Literacy 73 4 How Do We Evaluate the Literature Curriculum?: About a Social Frame of Reference Gert Rijlaarsdam and Tanja Janssen 75 5 Students as Self-assessors: Learning Experiences of Literature Teaching in Secondary Schools 98 Tanja Janssen and Gert Rijlaarsdam 6 Outside Forster's Machine: Re-representing Technology in the Age of Cyberspace 115 Neil Campbell Section 3Books, Literacy and Other Things 139 7 Reading More than Print 141 Ed Marum 8 A Tentative Non-conclusion 146 Ed Marum Notes on Contributors 151 Index 111 153 BEST COPY AVAILA,111LE 6 Acknowledgments As ever, the contributors would like to thank colleagues, students and children who have worked with us and helped us define and articulate our views about, and feeling for, the importance of literacy in society. The editor thanks, in particular, his fellow contributors, who responded positively and enthusiastically at short notice to his invitation to help make this book. Every attempt has been made to identify sources; these are acknowledged in specific chapters. However, given the final impossibility of knowing all one's sources, one can only acknowledge one's indebtedness: The few adults who have really given me something to read have always effaced themselves before the books, and they've always been careful not to ask me what I had understood in these books. To them, of course, I'd talk about what I'd read. To them, be they living or dead, I offer up these pages. (Pennac, D. (1994) Reads Like A Novel, London, Quartet Books) vii The secret garden was not the only one Dickon worked in. (Burnett, F.H. (1993) The Secret Garden, London, Diamond Books) The world in which our educational system has developed has made immense demands upon it to mould its charges in the image of ration- ality and the objective standpoint. The tremendous forces unleashed in the productive enterprise of the twentieth century have appeared to require as much from society's operations. This process cannot con- tinue indefinitely. Man as object, as self, has grown through object- reflexive action at the expense of man as subject, as Being. To overcome this disjunction, man as Being must grow. Education must discover a real concern with subject-reflexive action. Subject-reflexive action is the foundation of an intelligence of feeling. (Witkin, R.W. (1981) The Intelligence of Feeling, London, Heinemann Educational) Some people believe that being literate is 'knowing the facts'. My experience reacts against this because I am persuaded that, as human beings, we shall always interpret what we know in the sensitive con- text of our own human experience, and we shall undoubtedly teach our children to do the same. (Meek, M. (1991) On Being Literate, London, The Bodley Head) viii Introduction: Literacy Now Ed Marum I ended a previous volume on literacy (Marum, 1995) with the following short section entitled 'Towards a Beginning' and, because the present volume is both a continuation and a development of the previous one, I should like to intro- duce this book with that same section: The concept of childhood is not quite dead. If the inevitable pressures upon young people will continue to accelerate their premature desires for the imagined worlds of adolescence and maturity, it will be all the more important that the formal education they receive should seek to directly address the 'specific conditions of their lives' from nursery to secondary schooling. If the other face of innocence is enquiry, edu- cators must acknowledge and act upon the very real enthusiasm for learning that young people regularly, and often despite the odds, dis- play. They must, above all, radically change their practice to retain and stimulate that enthusiasm through the years of formal schooling. We need, in the first instance, a new generation of teachers who are 'multiliter- ate' in the sense I have identified, and who will be able and willing to inform and guide children and adolescents in the new kind of partnership learning requires. Our approach to the literacies of the future will both condition and reflect the kind of society we wish to be. We will need to acknowledge the truth about our condition, rather than to erect still more false windmills to tilt at. English teachers, above all others, must be able to stand in unity with Pennac (1994): Man builds houses because he is alive, but he writes books because he knows he's mortal. He lives in groups because he is gregarious, but he reads because he knows he's alone. His reading keeps him com- pany, but without replacing any other; rather no other company can take its place. Reading offers him no definitive explanation of his fate, but weaves a tight network of correspondences between life and him. These correspondences, tiny and secretive, speak of the paradoxical good fortune of being alive, even while they're illuminating the tragic absurdity of life. The result is that our reasons for reading are quite as strange as are our reasons for living. And no one is charged to have us render an account of that intimate strangeness. (pp. 177-8) 9 Ed Marum The first step that English teachers must now take is to acknowledge the situ- ation they are in before they go on to change it. The first part of that process is not yet complete.