DOCSLIB.ORG

The Transition to a Literate Society

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Transition to a Literate Society THE TRANSITION TO A LITERATE SOCIETY THE CASE OF IRELAND Maurice Coakley Thesis for PhD Department of Educational Studies University of Sheffield April 2008 ''1Jie goafrom wfiose fiand wn'ting fias emergea a{ways possesses a particufar andpn'vilegea pface in tfie fiierarcfiy ofdivine powers.' [Cassirer] Contents Acknowledgements iv Thesis Abstract v 1 Writing and Historical Change: The 'Great Divide' in Literacy Studies 2 Methodology 25 3 Literacy and Social Organisation in Late Gaelic Ireland 40 4 Literacy and Social Organisation in the Anglo-French Colony 60 5 Literacy and the Reformation that went wrong 81 6 The Diffusion of Literacy in a Comparative Perspective: Wales, Scotland and England 103 7 Literacy and the Genesis of Capitalism in Ireland and Scotland 136 8 The Paradox of Anglicisation 175 9 Writing and Historical Change: Implications of the Irish Case 209 Conclusion 232 Glossary 234 Historical Time Line 236 Bibliographic References 237 Acknowledgements I am very grateful to the Education Department of the University of Sheffield for their support in preparing this study. At all times they have shown an openness of mind and a generosity of spirit that I could only marvel at. In particular, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Peter Hannon, for his constant encouragement and constructive criticism of the thesis. Michael Barry, Paddy O'Brien and Guy Robinson read earlier drafts and supplied encouragement and helpful advice. My especial gratitude is to Petra SchiirenhOfer, without whom this thesis would most likely never have been completed. Petra's close reading, and critical engagement with the thesis have immeasurably improved earlier drafts and her emotional support throughout has been invaluable. iv Thesis Abstract Has writing changed history or has it merely recorded historical change? Within the field of Literacy Studies, opinions on the role of writing in bringing about historical change have tended to polarise into two camps. The 'autonomous' school sees literacy as a dynamic force for change and accords it a central role in the development of civilisation. The 'ecological' school sees literacy as embedded in specific social contexts and disputes that it plays any autonomous role in historical change. This thesis will discuss both theoretical approaches and evaluate these contrasting positions in a specific historical context. The focus of this study is on the role that literacy played in Ireland from the medieval to the modem period. Ireland is a useful case study because it contains virtually all the elements that arise in the wider debate: restricted literacy and pragmatic literacy, the relationship of language change to literacy, the presence of disparate literate practices, and the role of literacy in advancing development and spawning uneven development. As well as examining the role of literacy in Ireland from the late Middle Ages to the early modem period, this study compares the development of literate practices in Ireland to those in England, Scotland and Wales and assesses their role in responding to the Reformation and political centralisation. This thesis also compares the origins and the early development of capitalism in Ireland and Scotland, and attempts to assess the role of literacy in explaining the divergent paths taken by these societies. Finally it examines the relationship between the emergence of mass literacy and the rise of national identities. From the study of Ireland and its neighbours, the thesis attempts to draw some general conclusions about the relationship between literacy and historical change. v 1 Writing and Historical Change: The 'Great Divide' in Literacy Studies Introduction How has writing changed the world? Has it done so at all, or has it merely recorded changes? Within the field of Literacy Studies, opinions on the role of writing in bringing about historical change have tended to diverge into opposing currents. A pioneering generation of scholars stressed the transformative role of literacy and writing, while a later generation challenged this emphasis for failing to acknowledge the extent to which writing and literacy are always embedded in specific social contexts. This thesis will examine whether the historical role of literacy in Ireland fits either of these models or whether an alternative approach, perhaps involving a synthesis of elements of both, might prove more fruitful for the development of Literacy Studies. This particular chapter will introduce some of the most important writings on the question of the relationship between literacy and historical development and attempt to evaluate them. The Pioneering Works of Literacy Studies Until fairly recently the question 'how has writing changed the worldT would have been understood to mean how particular texts or writers or schools of thought have changed the way people think. Attention was focused on the content of writing or its literary technique rather than on writing itself as a form of communication. In the decades following the Second World War a series of pioneering works appeared that have opened up the study of writing as a mode of communication. In this context people's capacity to read the written word acquired a new significance, and literacy itself became a focal point of research. In France, Lucien Febvre and Jean-Marie Martin published the original version of L 'Apparalion du Livre in 1958 while in Germany Jtirgen Habermas published The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in 1962. Eric Havelock's Preface 10 Plato and a seminal essay by Jack Goody and lan Watt, The Consequences of Literacy, were both published in 1963 and came to have an influence that transcended disciplinary boundaries. In the same decade a number of other innovative works appeared, including Carlo Cipolla's Literacy and Development in the West and WaIter Ong's The Presence of the Word, that together helped to open up a new field of study and a new perspective on history. The timing here is worth noting. These were decades that saw the flowering of new forms of communication. Radio and cinema had of course preceded the war, but it was the combination of the audio and visual elements into a widely accessible new medium, television, that most likely encouraged social thinkers to investigate the older medium of writing, which some now perceived as redundant. This emphasis on writing as a mode of communication also carried with it a new emphasis on literacy, or more to the point, saw the question of literacy brought to a more central position in the human sciences, no longer a sole concern of educationalists but of crucial importance to the study of history, anthropology, sociology, psychology. In 1958, Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin published L 'Apparation du Livre, later translated as The Coming of the Book, a study of the origins of the modem book and of the impact of printing from the Renaissance era to 1800. The Coming of the Book covered an enormous range of issues from the technical and economic factors involved in book production, to a study of the social world of printing. It explored the geographical distribution of the book and assessed the cultural impact of this new commodity. One of the notable conclusions of Febvre and Martin's work was the extent of cultural entropy evidenced by book production. Up until the seventeenth century most book titles being published were still in Latin and most books being published were of a religious character, many of them devotional. The most important of all was Luther's German translation of the Bible which remained the best selling book in Germany for centuries. Another notable conclusion was the singular failure of successive attempts at censoring books by most of the anciens regimes of Europe. With its 2 emphasis on the crucial importance of prmtmg in bringing about the Refonnation, the Coming of the Book helped to change people's understanding not only of communications, but also of the emergence of modem Europe. Four years later, Jiirgen Habermas published Strukturwandel der (~ffenllichkeil, translated into English in 1989 as The Structural Transformation (~f the Puhlic Sphere. According to Habermas, from about 1700 onwards a new social sphere emerged which sought to mediate between people's private lives and the larger social and political world. Previously the only arena where opinion mattered was at the courts of kings and princes. Now with the spread of journals and newspapers and the proliferation of coffee-houses, pubs, clubs, and salons, people could get much more information about the world and debate the issues of the day. This new public sphere did not so much give a voice to public opinion, as create a public opinion in the first place. Habermas did not discuss the question of literacy at length, though he was obviously aware that a certain level of literacy was necessary for such a sphere to arise in the first place. He was aware that literacy in England, one of the societies he studied, may well have fallen in the eighteenth century, in the very era when the public sphere was supposed to be coming into being, though he did not explore this issue closely. He has been criticised for focusing almost exclusively on the bourgeois public sphere and failing to acknowledge the presence of a vibrant plebeian culture, an alternative public sphere. The main point, however, that Habennas wanted to make was to contrast the openness of public debate in the eighteenth century compared to its closure in the twentieth century, where media ownership had become monopolised by a small number of corporations and any project of facilitating rational debate had been discarded in favour of manipulating mass opinion. Lucien Febvre was editor of Annales, one of the most influential journals of History and the Human Sciences in France. Habermas worked with Adorno, and was seen as a representative of the younger generation of the Frankfurt School.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • FROM NATIONALISM to REVOLUTIONARY ISLAM This
    FROM NATIONALISM TO REVOLUTIONARY ISLAM This study of dominant social movements in the Middle and Near East by a group of social scientists and historians is the first attempt to bring nationalism and the contemporary Islamic movements into a unified thematic perspective. The process of national economic and political integration supplies the unifying context for the analyses of the various social movements to which it gives rise. The examination of nationalism in general, and of the rise of the Arab nationalist movement in Greater Syria in the early decades of the century in particular, is followed by a close analysis of the interplay of ethnic identity and Islam in the local politics of the tribal North-Western Frontier Province of Pakistan. The politicisation oflslam in Algeria, Turkey and Egypt is then explored and explained, together with the characteristics of the emergent Islamic movements. The last three essays cover Shi'ite Islam in Iran since the opening decade of the century, focusing on various components and aspects of the Islamic movement which culminated in the revolution of 1979.. The case-studies thus chart the recent upsurge of revolutionary Islam and the concomitant decline of nationalist movements in the contemporary Middle and Near East. The introduction offers an analytical perspective for the integration of this major theme which is forcefully suggested by the juxtaposition of the essays. St Antony's! Macmillan Series General editor: Archie Brown, Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford Said Amir Arjomand (editor) FROM NATIONALISM TO REVOLUTIONARY ISLAM Anders Aslund PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN EASTERN EUROPE Archie Brown and Michael Kaser (editors) SOVIET POLICY FOR THE 1980s S.
    [Show full text]
  • Long Live Eurasian Civ!: Towards a New Confluence of Anthropology and World History
    Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Hann, Chris Long live Eurasian civ!: towards a new confluence of anthropology and world history Recommended Citation Hann, Chris. 2017. Long live Eurasian civ!: towards a new confluence of anthropology and world history. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 142(2): 225–244. This is the accepted version of an article from the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, published by Dietrich Reimer Verlag. When citing, please refer to the publisher's version. Long Live Eurasian Civ! Towards a new confluence of anthropology and world history1 Chris Hann Abstract When socio-cultural anthropology was consolidated in the latter half of the nineteenth century, most practitioners adhered to evolutionist theory in unilineal forms. In the twentieth century, disciplinary specialization and an emphasis on fieldwork led many in the dominant schools to limit themselves to synchronic investigations of localised “cultures” or “societies”, with little or no historical depth. This paradigm shift was qualified for some decades by the vitality of diffusionist theory in the German-speaking countries, but eventually these too fell into disrepute. By the end of the twentieth century, socio-cultural anthropologists wishing to engage with the larger contours of human history outside evolutionist theory had to work out new approaches. This paper begins by reviewing the efforts of Ernest Gellner, Eric Wolf, David Graeber, and Jack Goody to re-engage with "big history". Goody‟s approach is the most promising foundation, but it pays insufficient attention to economic anthropology and to religion. It is argued that a “great dialectic” between market and redistribution can be traced back to the agro-literate Eurasian civilizations of the Bronze Age and the new belief systems of the Axial Age.
    [Show full text]
  • Ernest Gellner: Civilizational Analysis As a Theory of History
    Comparative Civilizations Review Volume 41 Number 41 Fall 1999 Article 6 10-1-1999 Ernest Gellner: Civilizational Analysis as a Theory of History Leonidas Donskis Dickinson College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr Recommended Citation Donskis, Leonidas (1999) "Ernest Gellner: Civilizational Analysis as a Theory of History," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 41 : No. 41 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol41/iss41/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Comparative Civilizations Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Donskis: Ernest Gellner: Civilizational Analysis as a Theory of History 56 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS REVIEW Ernest Gellner: Civilizational Analysis as a Theory of History LEONIDAS DONSKIS There seems to be no general reason why specialists in coercion, and specialists in ritual and legitimation, should not be identical. These two supremely impor- tant specializations are indeed sometimes combined. But it is a fact crucial for the history of mankind that they were very often distinct to a greater or lesser degree. The sword may dominate, but the priests help crystallize cohesion among swordsmen. Ernest Gellner In mapping Gellner's (1925-1995) philosophy of history and civilizational theory, it is very important to refer to his intellectu- al and even ideological background. He obviously belongs to a small minority of the twentieth-century social theoreticians who never passed through a Marxist phase. Gellner's consistent, severe and analytically incisive criticism of Marxism and its sociopolitical effects brings him to the company of such critics of the totalitarian regimes and their ideologies as Hannah Arendt, Karl Jaspers, Raymond Aron, Leszek Kolakowski, and Czeslaw Milosz.
    [Show full text]
  • Family Feuds: Gender, Nationalism and the Family1
    Family Feuds: Gender, Nationalism and the Family1 Anne McClintock All nationalismsare gendered,all are invented,snd all are dangerous- dangerous,not in EricHobsbawm's sense as havingto be opposed,but in the sense of representing relations to political power and to the technologiesof violence.Nationalism, as ErnestGellner notes, invents nationswhere they donot exist, andmost modern nations, despite their appeal to an august and immemorialpast, are of recent invention (Gellner,1964). Benedict Anderson warns, however, that Gellnertends to assimilate 'invention'to 'falsity' rather than to 'imagining'and 'creation'.Anderson, by contrast,views nationsas 'imaginedcommuni- ties' in the sense that they are systems of cultural representation wherebypeople come to imagine a shared experienceof identification with an extendedcommunity (Anderson, 1991: 6). As such, nations are not simply phantasmagoriaof the mind, but are historicaland insti- tutional practices through which social differenceis invented and performed.Nationalism becomes, as a result, radicallyconstitutive of people'sidentities, throughsocial contests that are frequentlyviolent and always gendered.But if the invented nature of nationalismhas found wide theoreticalcurrency, explorations of the genderingof the nationalimaginary have been conspicuouslypaltry. All nations dependon powerfulconstructions of gender.Despite nationalisms'ideological investment in the idea of popular unity, nations have historicallyamounted to the sanctionedinstitutionaliz- ationof genderdifference. No nationin
    [Show full text]
  • JACK GOODY, the Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe~ ANDREJS PLAKANS, Kinship in the Past: an Anthropology of Europ
    REV I E W ART I C L E HISTORY AND KINSHIP: TWO RECENT BOOKS JACK GOODY, The development of the family and marriage in Europe~ Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press xii, 22lpp., Maps, Figures, Tables, Appendixes, Bibliography, Index. £25.00. ANDREJS PLAKANS, Kinship in the Past: An Anthropology of European Fami Life 1500-1900~ Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell 1984. x, , Figures, Tables, Bibliography, Index. £24.50. Evans-Pritchard regarded social anthropology as being closer to certain kinds of history than to the natural sciences,l and thus distanced himself from the anti-historicism of the funct­ ionalists. Indeed, the lecture in which this then iconoclastic view was expressed also recorded the increasing acceptability of to post-functionalist British anthropologists in particu­ lar, though it certainly did not precipitate it, for as Evans­ Pritchard himself made clear, the trend was already under way. But there was still a long way to go before there would be a true meeting of minds from the two disciplines; despite sharing the overall aim of evaluating the nature of human society, their dif­ methods and the particular themes on which they focused their attention still served to keep them apart. These two recent books are, on the face of it, admirably suited to assess how far that situation has improved in the quarter of a century since Evans-Pritchard delivered his lecture. Both deal with themes in the history of European kinship, and in that sense they unite the two areas that have traditionally been at the heart of these respective disciplines.
    [Show full text]
  • In New Literacy Studies? Critical Approaches to Literacy in Theory and Practice
    What's "new" in New Literacy Studies? Critical approaches to literacy in theory and practice Brian Street Kings College, London The Context and Background A rich vein of articles and books has recently addressed some critical issues in the field of New Literacy Studies, both in terms of theoretical perspectives and of their implications in educational and policy contexts. I address some of these critiques as a way of both updating NLS and of addressing its implications for practice. What has come to be termed the "New Literacy Studies" (NLS) (Gee, 1991; Street, 1996) represents a new tradition in considering the nature of literacy, focusing not so much on acquisition of skills, as in dominant approaches, but rather on what it means to think of literacy as a social practice (Street, 1985). This entails the recognition of multiple literacies, varying according to time and space, but also contested in relations of power. NLS, then, takes nothing for granted with respect to literacy and the social practices with which it becomes associated, problematizing what counts as literacy at any time and place and asking "whose literacies" are dominant and whose are marginalized or resistant. To address these issues ethnographically, literacy researchers have constructed a conceptual apparatus that both coins some new terms and gives new meanings to some old ones. My own work, for instance, begins with the notion of multiple literacies, which makes a distinction between "autonomous" and "ideological" models of literacy (Street, 1985) and develops a distinction between literacy events and literacy practices (Street, 1988). The standard view in many fields, from schooling to development programs, works from the assumption that literacy in itself--autonomously--will have effects on other social and cognitive practices.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Nationalism in an Age of Globalization: the Case of 1
    74 Religious Nationalism in an Age of Globalization: The Case of 1 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2236-463320161405 Benjamin W. Goossen History Department of Harvard University, Cambridge MA, Estados Unidos da América [email protected] Abstract: This article uses the example of Mennonite nation-building in Paraguay during the 1920s and 1930s to argue that state formation is not inherently modernist. Tracing nineteenth and early twentieth-century discourses of Mennonite colonies in Imperial e essay advocates a reevaluation of theories of modern statehood advanced by thinkers like James C. Scott and Ernest Gellner. As conservative, pacifist Mennonites traveled from North America to the Paraguayan Chaco to escape the pressures of assimilation in democratic society, their migration paved the way for coreligionists fleeing persecution in the Soviet Union to join internationally, characterized by deep religious observance, and conceived in opposition to high modernist projects. Keywords: State-building, nationalism, Mennonites, modernity, diaspora, globalization 1 This essay draws on research for my forthcoming book, Chosen Nation: Mennonites and Germany in a Global Era. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017, conducted with funding from the Fulbright Commission, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and Harvard University. I wish to thank Uwe Freisen of the Menno Colony Archive and Gunolf Niebuhr of the Fernheim Colony Archive for providing primary sources, as well as Rachel Waltner Goossen for her comments. Except where otherwise noted, all translations are my own. While all qualifications in brackets are mine, italicized words are emphasized in the original documents. Almanack. Guarulhos, n.14, p.74-90 dossiê scales of global history 75 During 1936 and 1937, the German geographer Herbert Wilhelmy visited German- speaking settlements across southern Latin America.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 CURRICULUM VITAE Ronald NIEZEN Professor of Anthropology Associate Member, Faculty of Law Mcgill University Stephen Leacock B
    CURRICULUM VITAE Ronald NIEZEN Professor of Anthropology Associate Member, Faculty of Law McGill University Stephen Leacock Building, Room 718 855 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal,QC Canada, H3A 2T7. Tel: (514) 229-3476 Fax: (514) 398-7476 E-mail: [email protected] EDUCATION 1983-87 University of Cambridge, England. PhD, Social Anthropology. 1982-83 University of Cambridge, England. M.Phil, Social Anthropology. 1979-81 University of British Columbia. B.A. (Honours), Anthropology (Summa Cum Laude). 1977-79 Camosun College (Victoria, Canada). Associate of Arts Diploma. RESEARCH INTERESTS The social study of law Information technologies and communication The anthropology of organizations Transitional and restorative justice Indigenous peoples, health and human rights History of anthropology/social theory Social change in Africa THESES PhD. (1987) University of Cambridge. Diverse Styles of Islamic Reform among the Songhay of Eastern Mali. Supervisors: Jack Goody (1983-84, until retirement) and Ernest Gellner (1984-87). M.Phil. (1983) University of Cambridge. Literacy and Prophetism: A Comparative Study of the Sacred Value of Writing. Supervisor: Malcom Ruel. 1 B.A. Honours. (1981) University of British Columbia. Theoretical Considerations of Millenarianism and Totalitarianism. Supervisor: Kenelm Burridge. LANGUAGES English (native language); French (fluent); German (proficient); Italian (proficient); Spanish (reading); Dutch (reading); Cree, “N” dialect (elementary speaking and syllabic literacy); Arabic (intro to Modern Standard). EMPLOYMENT AND AFFILIATIONS June 2020 - Present. Professor of Anthropology, McGill University. Aug. 2013 – May 2020. Katharine A. Pearson Chair in Civil Society and Public Policy. Faculty of Law and Department of Anthropology, McGill University. July 2018 – June 2019. William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.
    [Show full text]
  • Violence and Democracy - John Keane Index More Information
    Cambridge University Press 0521836999 - Violence and Democracy - John Keane Index More information Index Akihiko, Tanaka 19, 177 A Letter to John Farr and John Harris, Al-Fanjari, Ahmad Shawqi 183, 188 Esqrs., Sheriffs of the City of Al-hurriyat’ as-siyasiyyah fi’l Islam 184 Bristol, on the Affairs of America Al-Ghannouchi, Rachid 183, 188, 189, 191 122 ‘The efficiency of using violence to establish an Islamic State’184 Carmichael, Stokely 11 ‘The Islamic movement and violence’ Castoriadis, Cornelius 88 184 China 20, 23 Althusius, Johannes 116, 190 civil society 4, 42–3, 96–9 Politica Methodice digesta atque Ernest Gellner on 43–5 exemplis sacris et profanis ilustrata incompatibility of violence with 38 116 its role in American Revolution 144–6 American Revolution 144–6 rebuilding civil society 129, 130–2 Battle of Trenton 145–6 civil war 25, 112–13 anti-party politics 150–3 civilisation see ‘civilisation’ passim 42–52, apocalyptic terrorism see terrorism 53 Arendt, Hannah 6, 7, 12, 100, 118, 146 civilising process according to Elias Correspondence 1926–1969 (with Karl 55–6 see civility Jaspers) 79 civility 3, 56 On Violence 6, 7, 100, 146 Zygmunt Bauman on 66–7 The Origins of Totalitarianism 98 Samuel Johnson on 42 Aristotle 38–9, 205 and modern state 60–2 on violence 38–9 civility politics 82, 90 Politica 38 civilising process according to Elias 55–6 Aron, Raymond 21, 111 dialectics of 105 Le grand schisme 111 rebuilding civil society 129, 130–2 Les dernieres` annees´ du siecle` 163 Clastres, Pierre 115 Augustine 11, 206 Recherches d’anthropologie
    [Show full text]
  • THEORY and PRACTICE in LITERACY and DEVELOPMENT Expenditure, a Drop of 40% Between 2010 and 2016/17, Indicate the Lack of Importance Placed on Literacy
    Teory and Practice in Literacy and Development Teory and Practice in Literacy and Development Papers from the BALID Informal Literacy Discussions Edited by Juliet McCafery and Brian Street Uppingham Press on behalf of the British Association for Literacy in Development Uppingham Press Warren House, 68 Whiting Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1NR [email protected] The British Association for Literacy in Development c/o Feed the Minds, The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR United Kingdom http://balid.org.uk ISBN 978-0-9542114-8-6 First published in the United Kingdom 2016 Second edition 2017 Compilation © BALID 2016 Individual chapters © Individual contributors 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without prior permission from the British Association for Literacy in Development, [email protected] Dedicated to Brian Street Distinguished professor, inspirational scholar, teacher, mentor and friend Brian Street, co-editor of this book, sadly died shortly before the second edition was published. Brian challenged conventional thinking on literacy and championed a social and cultural practice approach. He was the President of BALID for many years and a committed participant in the BALID Informal Literacy Discussions, valuing the opportunity to engage in dialogue on literacy and to bridge the gap between research and practice, as exemplified in this book Contents I Policies Introduction 1 1. International Advocacy on Literacy and Development: 3 Challenges and Opportunities David Archer 2. Adult Literacy: Policies and Structures 13 Lalage Bown 3. Skills Development and Literacy for Adults: a Failed Experiment 20 Alan Rogers 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Hidden Literacies
    HIDDEN LITERACIES: Ethnographic studies of literacy and numeracy practices in Pakistan Rafat Nabi Alan Rogers Brian Street Uppingham Press: Bury St Edmunds 2009 Published by: Uppingham Press Warren House, 68 Whiting Street Bury St Edmunds Suffolk IP33 1NR [email protected] Printed by: www.abramis.co.uk © Uppingham Press 2009 First published 2009 ISBN 978-0-9542114-2-4 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 the prior written permission of the publisher. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Rafat Nabi iii FOREWORD: Alan Rogers and Brian Street ix PART I: An Ethnographic Approach to Literacy and Numeracy: Alan Rogers and Brian Street 1 PART II: Case Studies: Rafat Nabi Introduction 23 Shazia, domestic servant 34 Rana, street beggar 46 Rozina the dyer 55 Amen Baba, vegetable and fruit seller 65 Zia the plumber 86 Shirin’s family 98 Sajid, bangle seller 110 PART III: Some Important Findings: Rafat Nabi, Alan Rogers and Brian Street 129 iii Dedication I dedicate this book to my father, mother and David Kahler, my guru. iv INTRODUCTION Rafat Nabi In 2007, I came to the University of East Anglia to work with Professor Alan Rogers and Professor Brian Street. The main purpose was to write a book on Adult Literacy from a practitioner’s point of view, in the light of my field experience. I have been in the field of Education and Adult Literacy for twenty years. I always felt some unease with the Adult Literacy Programmes that we were running and was intrigued to find out what the users felt about these programmes, and to solicit suggestions about how the participants thought that the programmes could be improved.
    [Show full text]
  • Synthetic Phonics and the Teaching of Reading: the Debate Surrounding England’S ‘Rose Report’ Dominic Wyse and Morag Styles
    Literacy Volume 41 Number 1 April 2007 35 Synthetic phonics and the teaching of reading: the debate surrounding England’s ‘Rose Report’ Dominic Wyse and Morag Styles Abstract of words (i.e., onsets, rimes, phonogrammes, spelling patterns) as well as phonemes. The Rose Report, commissioned by the Secretary of State for Education for England, recommended in During the 1980s and early 1990s in the United March 2006 that early reading instruction must include Kingdom, influential ideas about English teaching synthetic phonics. This paper evaluates the extent to came from intellectual teachers and scholars, whose which research evidence supports this recommenda- work had vision as well as professional and academic tion. In particular, a review of international research into the teaching of early reading shows that the Rose credibility. These intellectuals included Margaret Meek Report’s main recommendation on synthetic phonics (1982), Connie Rosen and Harold Rosen (1973), James contradicts the powerful body of evidence accumu- Britton (1970), Douglas Barnes (1976) and Brian Street lated over the last 30 years. In this paper it is argued (1984). The influence of American socio-cultural that action already taken by the UK government theorists such as Shirley Brice Heath (1983) was also to change the National Curriculum in line with the strong. Rose Report’s recommendations represents a change in pedagogy not justified by research. 1997 marked the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) Framework for Teaching (Department for Key words: literacy policy, literacy research, phonics, Education and Employment (DfEE), 1998). The Frame- reading teaching, synthetic phonics work was a comprehensive document that specified the detailed objectives of literacy teaching for primary classes in England, together with a set format for Background lessons.
    [Show full text]