Learning, literacy and identity: ‘I don’t think I’m a failure any more’

Tett, Lyn

doi:10.1080/01425692.2014.939265

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The curriculum they have offered has instead been based on a 'funds of knowledge' approach (González, Moll and Amanti, 2005), which other research has suggested (e.g. Tett, 2016), can help learners to develop the effective strategies and skills they already use rather than being seen as having individual deficits that need to be corrected. As we have shown, the values that drove the practitioners' pedagogical practices was a focus on the learners' goals and so the learning arose out of 'the inherently socially negotiated character of meaning … in, with, and arising from the socially and culturally structured world' (Lave and Wenger 1991, 51).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, changes in the welfare benefits meant that claimants needed increased literacy skills to apply for JSA because applications had to be made on-line so people that had had sufficient literacy to manage their daily lives were no longer able to cope. Finally those that did find a place on a programme were often given a curriculum that prioritised narrow employment-skills focused outcomes that neither respected learners' own goals nor valued their life experiences and this can have a negative impact on their learning (Tett, 2016).…”

Section: Human Capital Discourses In Transnational and National Educamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Adult literacy practitioners and employability skills: resisting neo-liberalism?

Allatt

Tett

2018

Journal of Education Policy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We draw on theories of policy enactment to explore the ways in which the situated, material and external contexts and professional cultures in adult literacy in the UK have influenced practitioners. Our analysis of the transnational (OECD, EU) and UK external policy contexts found that skills-related education is prioritised, with a focus on economic growth through increased productivity and accountability. This can lead to a narrow conceptualisation of literacy as a set of information processing skills needed for employment that limits the curriculum so that the knowledge of the participants is ignored. However, our findings show that there is not a one-way flow from the transnational to the local. Instead, literacy practitioners translate and enact policy texts based on their situated contexts and professional cultures leading to approaches to teaching and learning that keep learners and their goals at the centre of the curriculum. We conclude that shared understandings of good practice and an underpinning value system, along with creative ways of delivering pre-set outcomes, allow practitioners to resist to some extent the neoliberal discourse whilst meeting the requirements of policy and funding. However, how feasible delivering this alternative curriculum is over the longer term remains to be seen.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Human Capital Discourses In Transnational and National Educamentioning

confidence: 99%

Adult literacy practitioners and employability skills: resisting neo-liberalism?

Allatt

Tett

2018

Journal of Education Policy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Individual teachers can be very influential in a student's learning career and research has shown that students can change their learning disposition as a result of a positive student/tutor relationship (Tet, 2016). The idea that students can change how they see themselves as learners speaks to a core motivation for learning developers.…”

Section: Writing and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Power and paragraphs: academic writing and emotion

Forster

2020

jldhe

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Emotions play an important role in academic writing (Cameron, Nairn and Higgins, 2009), and, as learning developers, we often support students with the emotional aspects of their work. The process of writing is strongly linked to identity. Research into academic literacies has highlighted the fact that this often involves complex negotiations, especially for students from widening participation backgrounds (Lea and Street, 1998). Students’ past experiences of learning strongly shape their identity as learners. For example, the early challenges with literacy faced by people with dyslexia often continue to affect their emotions in adulthood (Pollak, 2005; Alexander-Passe, 2015). The concept of learning identities (Bloomer and Hodkinson, 2000; Christie et al., 2007) helps us to understand students’ emotional responses in the wider context of their lives. This paper uses two case histories of students with dyslexia, who were also the first in their family to go to university, to explore the role of academic writing in shaping a student’s learning identity. It argues that learning developers are in a good position to help students develop a positive sense of themselves as academic writers.

show abstract

“…This narrowing of literacy toward a purely functional model is, however, heavily contested. Indeed, in addition to the seminal contribution of Street (1984) on the autonomous and ideological models of literacy, recent theorizations have focused upon the social nature of literacy (Duckworth, 2014;Tett, 2016).…”

Section: Theoretical Approaches A) Social Approaches To Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformative and emancipatory literacy to empower

Duckworth

Tett

2019

International Journal of Lifelong Education

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper draws on sociological and critical educational frames, particularly Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence, in order to contest the dominant model of literacy education that is driven by the premise of a 'knowledge economy'. Instead it foregrounds the political, social, and economic factors that marginalise learners. Data from two projects: an ethnographic study in a Further Education (FE) College in England and a study of community-based literacy programmes in Scotland, are probed to show how literacy classes can offer spaces to challenge symbolic violence and facilitate learners to reclaim identities of success. These changes are illustrated from the learners' views of the contrasts between their experiences of school education and literacy programmes that use transformative and emancipatory approaches. Our research demonstrates how critical education can open up spaces for a more equitable approach based on the co-production of knowledge. It is argued that making changes to policy and practice could inform and shape the literacy curriculum and its pedagogy if adult literacy can disentangle itself from instrumental approaches driven by neoliberal fusion and instead create critical space for contextualised and emancipatory learning.

show abstract

Learning, literacy and identity: ‘I don’t think I’m a failure any more’

Cited by 11 publications

References 21 publications

Adult literacy practitioners and employability skills: resisting neo-liberalism?

Adult literacy practitioners and employability skills: resisting neo-liberalism?

Power and paragraphs: academic writing and emotion

Transformative and emancipatory literacy to empower

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About