While biologically all cancers have the same aetiology, cancer is experienced, talked about and appraised very differently depending on its physiological location within the human body. However, socio-cultural interpretations and understandings of cancer tends to approach the study of cancer as 'cancer writ-large' or 'cancer' as 'cancer;' and not 'breast cancer', 'reproductive cancer' or 'lung cancer'. The failure to recognize that different physiologically located cancers have different and very unique meanings is a failure to fully understand the highly complex political, cultural, social, and economic relations of power, knowledge and discourse. This thesis examines historical and contemporary discursive constructions of risk, responsibility, lifestyle and morality as they relate to three cancerous bodies. What is revealed from this investigation is a 'cancer hierarchy,' where sufferers and potential sufferers' place on the hierarchy is contingent on their ability to attend to 'practices of the self and normalized conceptions of 'appropriate neoliberal citizenship'. especially like to thank my colleague and friend Benita Loewen who has always been there when I needed her. Also, I would like to thank Jackie Orsetto who has always been a source of laughter, support, kindness, intellectual stimulation and has never failed at being a true friend. This thesis would not be possible without the unwavering support and love of my family. They have never once questioned my abilities and have always been there to encourage me every step of the way. I am eternally grateful for their encouragement and love. Finally, I would like to thank my partner for her patience, love, encouragement, and incredible calm. She has supported me in every way possible and I am forever grateful for her presence in my life.

The field of literacy and primary literacy education is patterned by multiple discourses and this raises challenges for those educating the next generation of primary literacy teachers. In England, the last 15 years have seen considerable levels of prescription in the primary literacy curriculum and compliance by the school and teacher education sectors has been enforced through demanding accountability regimes. In this paper, we draw on findings of a small-scale interview study to consider how understandings of literacies associated with different contexts may or may not inflect student-teachers' orientations towards literacy provision in school. We explore how five student-teachers presented their experiences of literacy within and beyond the classroom and how they seemed to position themselves in relation to literacy pedagogy. We focus particularly on continuities and discontinuities between literacies in their personal and professional lives, and on tensions they identified between the teachers they felt they wanted to, and were expected to, become. Reflecting on this work, we consider how we can best equip pre-service primary and early years teachers to develop as critical reflective literacy practitioners in the current context.