A Bernsteinian Analysis of Content Area Literacy

Abstract

This article examines two approaches to teaching content area literacy: a strategies approach focused on general practices of reading and writing and a disciplinary approach attuned to the particular discourses of particular domains. Basil Bernstein's theory of the pedagogic device is used to critique both approaches' assumptions about content area literacy. Neither approach, it is argued, accounts for the ways content areas bring together discourses from multiple fields. The strategies approach, for instance, does not account for the ways literacies in different content areas are bound up with different discourses. The disciplinary approach, on the other hand, conflates content area discourses with university and professional discourses. At the same time, the disciplinary approach minimizes content area discourses' connections to the discourses of domains such as the public sphere and everyday life. At the end of the article, Bernstein's ideas are used to formulate questions content area teachers might consider when teaching different ways of reading, writing, speaking, thinking, and listening.One of the most productive debates currently underway in literacy studies revolves around content area literacies, or literacies used in secondary school math, science, social studies, and so forth. Parties to the debate argue over whether and how content area literacies should be taught as discrete sets of practices used in discrete communities. Some educators and researchers, including authors of popular texts on literacy instruction, emphasize continuities across content areas and promote common strategies for

Drawing on What We Do as Readers

“…We agree with Brozo et al. () and Collin () that neither approach does a thorough job of accounting for the “ways content areas bring together discourses from multiple fields” (p. 306). Instead of arguing about which approach is correct, we suggest positioning all teachers as experts and supporting them to discover what strategies they use.…”

Operationalizing and validating disciplinary literacy in secondary education

“…For practitioners, the results can help inform the current content area or disciplinary literacy debate (e.g., Collin, 2014 ; Heller, 2010 ; Moje, 2010 ; Monte-Sano et al, 2017 ), supporting subject area teachers teaching the literacy practices most strongly related to their discipline. The three-factor model of disciplinary literacy provides implications for metacognitive scaffolds as teachers make literacy practices explicit to students.…”

U.S. and Chilean College Students' Reading Practices: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

“…Despite the national attention paid to student reading in these reports and research findings, a considerable number of policymakers, educators, and citizens in the United States have grown concerned about adolescents' literacy skills, including those of college students (Applegate et al., ; Collin, ). The concern is often expressed that the United States is not “producing enough technologically literate workers for a global knowledge economy” (Collin, , p. 308).…”