Offering the wisdom that only experience and expertise in the field can bring, this book takes a critical look into the present and the future of literacy as envisioned by leading reading researchers. The lead author of each chapter, and in some cases more than one, of the authors, is a distinguished reading researcher elected by their peers into the Reading Hall of Fame. In this book these distinguished literacy leaders extend their role as researchers to speak directly to issues of practice and policy.

All chapters address the theme of literacy and the teaching of literacy as being in a constant state of change. The authors are theoretical as they describe literacy, literacy acquisition, and the teaching of literacy; they are practical as they examine the issues that classroom teachers and reading specialists engage with on a daily basis; and they are political as they advocate for informed policy at the local, state and national levels. A key message in this book is that literacy professionals must take an active role to shape change.

Major campaigns to raise levels of literacy have taken place for centuries and share many common elements. But despite literary campaigns spanning over five decades, 860 million adults still lack minimal ability to read, write, and calculate. Why is literacy of such great importance and why have so many years of campaigning for it not been successful in fully overcoming this obstacle? "National Literacy Campaigns and Movements" explores these questions by examining campaigns in vastly different societies from a historical and comparative perspective.

The volume focuses on literacy movements from the past, including those of Reformation Germany, early modern Sweden and Scotland, nineteenth-century United States, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russia and the Soviet Union, pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary China, and Tanzania, Cuba, Nicaragua, and India. Contributors analyze literacy goals and outcomes in specific contexts. The editors distinguish quantitative and qualitative dimensions of literacy activities, such as the difference between the spread of literacy and patterns of its use. The common enterprise of this book is to expand upon the contributors' previous research to include a comparative dimension.

This book offers the first systematic attempt to examine, critically and comparatively, the concepts and facts of large-scale literacy campaigns in more than a dozen societies over nearly five-hundred years. It offers a valuable historical lesson not only for historians, but also for educators: that instead of concentrating only on the recent period, we should use the vast and complex history of literacy movements to shed understanding on the present and future of literacy. A major new introduction to this edition asserts recent literary campaigns and the lessons provided by their success and failures. It also describes how the focus of some movements has evolved.

"Burniske shows us how to expand our instruction so that electronic literacy becomes an essential component of our classrooms. He challenges us to realize our commitment to develop our students as critical and reflective language users. This is a book all serious literacy professionals need to read and discuss with colleagues." -From the Foreword by Donna Ogle Help students become ethical, well-informed online communicators! Living in today's digital age provides a wealth of learning opportunities and a wide range of communication possibilities. Along with its many benefits, the World Wide Web poses real challenges to even the most informed user, from misinformation to unedited work to plagiarism. How can we teach students to use the Internet intelligently and responsibly? In this insightful resource, internationally recognized professor and author R. W. Burniske takes an in-depth look at the Internet's advantages and risks and shows teachers how to incorporate technology to help students communicate clearly, accurately, and purposefully. Using specific case studies, teacher tips, and practical ideas, this valuable resource gives teachers guidelines to help students develop their ability to: Use language critically and tactfully Assess visual content on the Web Critically evaluate Web sites for validity and reliability Practice ethics and etiquette on the Internet Analyze online information for credibility, logic, and embedded emotional content Literacy in the Digital Age, Second Edition, provides everything educators need to make digital literacy a vital part of their classroom instruction.

Key Words: Reclaiming Children's Precious Vocabulary is about early and emergent literacy- it promotes the concept that each child possesses a key vocabulary of words that are special and magical. These words conjure emotions that can lead them into the enterprise of reading. Words such as mom or love or a sister's name, a friend, or a beloved game - these expressions are read by the young child even before they have commenced formal decoding. They are sight words - but of a special kind, because they evoke an emotional response. They are called "key" and each child might well produce her or his own key ring of thirty or forty words. They become the stuff of writing, the personal and the meaningful, in accordance with all of the honored theory about nurturing young writers. This book is full of classroom stories that elaborate the process of a key word approach. The stories are humorous, engaging and inspiring. They are accompanied by specific, detailed guidelines for instituting a key word program in any early childhood classroom. Special attention is paid to students' progression into writing curriculum as an outgrowth of doing words. The context of culturally relevant, equity and anti-bias education is established throughout every chapter.

The book has two aims. First, to examine the extent and significance of the connection between Hume's aesthetics and his moral philosophy; and, second, to consider how, in light of the connection, his moral philosophy answers central questions in ethics. The first aim is realized in chapters 1-4. Chapter 1 examines Hume's essay "Of the Standard of Taste" to understand his search for a "standard" and how this affects the scope of his aesthetics. Chapter 2 establishes that he treats beauty in nature and art and moral beauty as similar in kind, and applies the conclusions about his aesthetics to his moral thought. Chapter 3 solves a puzzle to which this gives rise, namely, how individuals both accept general standards that they also contravene in the course of aesthetic and moral activity. Chapter 4 takes up the normative aspect of Hume's approach by understanding moral character through his view of moral beauty. The second aim of the book is realized in chapters 5-7 by entertaining three objections against Hume's moral philosophy. First, if morality is an immediate reaction to the beauty of vice and the deformity of virtue, why is perfect virtue not the general condition of every human individual? Second, if morality consists of sentiments that arise in the subject, how can moral judgments be objective and claim universal validity? And third, if one can talk of "general standards" governing conduct, how does one account for the diversity of moral systems and their change over time? The first is answered by showing that like good taste in aesthetics, 'right taste' in morals requires that the sentiments are educated; the second, by arguing against the view that Hume is a subjectivist and a relativist, and the third (chapter 6), by showing that his approach contains a view of progress left untouched by any personal prejudices Hume himself might harbor. The book concludes in chapter 7 by showing how Hume's view of philosophy affects the scope of any normative ethics.

This volume presents studies and research syntheses on the significance of play in the literacy development of young children and pushes the study of play and literacy into new areas. Children' s play is under serious attack that puts it in a precarious position in today' s brave new world dominated by early learning standards and achievement outcomes. Reflecting this paradigm shift that has taken place since the publication of the first edition, this edition is organized around a different set of focal perspectives on the play-literacy interface:
*The Playful Mind;
*The Play-Literacy Instructional Environment; and
*The Play-Literacy Social Context.

Looking both back and ahead-- re-visiting previously reported studies and also introducing new inquiries into the role of play in early literacy development and learning, especially as these shed light on school readiness-- this volume mines studies that directly focus on play-literacy links as well as new studies and syntheses that take these links in new directions and to new starting places for research. It challenges play-literacy researchers to use their imaginations to overcome persistent methodological problems, to break from the past into new territories of study (such as neuroscience), to strive for multi-disciplinary perspectives, and to push harder for the incorporation of play into the literacy education of young children.

"Play and Literacy in Early Childhood" is intended for researchers and practitioners in the fields of early childhood education and early literacy development and as text for upper-level courses in these areas.

This volume presents studies and research syntheses on the significance of play in the literacy development of young children and pushes the study of play and literacy into new areas. Children' s play is under serious attack that puts it in a precarious position in today' s brave new world dominated by early learning standards and achievement outcomes. Reflecting this paradigm shift that has taken place since the publication of the first edition, this edition is organized around a different set of focal perspectives on the play-literacy interface:
*The Playful Mind;
*The Play-Literacy Instructional Environment; and
*The Play-Literacy Social Context.

Looking both back and ahead-- re-visiting previously reported studies and also introducing new inquiries into the role of play in early literacy development and learning, especially as these shed light on school readiness-- this volume mines studies that directly focus on play-literacy links as well as new studies and syntheses that take these links in new directions and to new starting places for research. It challenges play-literacy researchers to use their imaginations to overcome persistent methodological problems, to break from the past into new territories of study (such as neuroscience), to strive for multi-disciplinary perspectives, and to push harder for the incorporation of play into the literacy education of young children.

"Play and Literacy in Early Childhood" is intended for researchers and practitioners in the fields of early childhood education and early literacy development and as text for upper-level courses in these areas.

This volume presents case studies of literacy practices as shaped by culture, language, community, and power. Covering a range of contexts and exploring a number of relevant dimensions in the evolving picture of literacy as situated, multiple, and social, the studies are grouped around four overarching themes:
*Language, Literacy, and Hegemony;
*The Immigrant Experience: Language, Literacies, and Identities;
*Literacies In-/Out-of-School and On the Borders; and
*New Pedagogies for New Literacies.
It is now generally recognized that literacy "is" multiple and woven within the sociocultural lives of communities, but what is not yet fully understood is "how" it is multiple--how this multiplicity plays out across and within differing sociocultural contexts. Such understanding is critical for crafting school literacy practices in response to the different literacy sets brought to school by different learners. Toward this end it is necessary to know what those sets are composed of. Each of the case studies contributes to building this knowledge in new and interesting ways. As a whole the book provides a rich and complex portrait of literacy-in-use.
"Cultural Practices of Literacy: Case Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice, and Power" advances sociocultural research and theory pertaining to literacy" "development as it occurs across school and community boundaries and cultural contexts and in and out of school. It is intended for researchers, students, professionals across the field of literacy studies and schooling, including specialists in family literacy, community literacy, adult literacy, critical language studies, multiliteracies, youth literacy, international education, English as a second language, language and social policy, and global literacy.

This landmark volume articulates and develops the argument that new directions in sociocultural theory are needed in order to address important issues of identity, agency, and power that are central to understanding literacy research and literacy learning as social and cultural practices. With an overarching focus on the research process as it relates to sociocultural research, the book is organized around two themes: conceptual frameworks and knowledge sources.
*Part I, "Rethinking Conceptual Frameworks," offers new theoretical lenses for reconsidering key concepts traditionally associated with sociocultural theory, such as activity, history, community, and the ways they are conceptualized and under-conceptualized within sociocultural theory.
*Part II, "Rethinking Knowledge and Representation," considers the tensions and possibilities related to how research knowledge is produced, represented, and disseminated or shared--challenging the locus of authority in research relationships, asking who is authorized to be a legitimate knowledge source, for what purposes, and for which audiences or stakeholders.
Employing the lens of "critical sociocultural research," this book focuses on the central role of language and identity in learning and literacy practices. It is intended for scholars, researchers, and graduate students in literacy education, social and cultural psychology, social foundations of education, educational anthropology, curriculum theory, and qualitative research in education.

This volume presents case studies of literacy practices as shaped by culture, language, community, and power. Covering a range of contexts and exploring a number of relevant dimensions in the evolving picture of literacy as situated, multiple, and social, the studies are grouped around four overarching themes:
*Language, Literacy, and Hegemony;
*The Immigrant Experience: Language, Literacies, and Identities;
*Literacies In-/Out-of-School and On the Borders; and
*New Pedagogies for New Literacies.
It is now generally recognized that literacy "is" multiple and woven within the sociocultural lives of communities, but what is not yet fully understood is "how" it is multiple--how this multiplicity plays out across and within differing sociocultural contexts. Such understanding is critical for crafting school literacy practices in response to the different literacy sets brought to school by different learners. Toward this end it is necessary to know what those sets are composed of. Each of the case studies contributes to building this knowledge in new and interesting ways. As a whole the book provides a rich and complex portrait of literacy-in-use.
"Cultural Practices of Literacy: Case Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice, and Power" advances sociocultural research and theory pertaining to literacy" "development as it occurs across school and community boundaries and cultural contexts and in and out of school. It is intended for researchers, students, professionals across the field of literacy studies and schooling, including specialists in family literacy, community literacy, adult literacy, critical language studies, multiliteracies, youth literacy, international education, English as a second language, language and social policy, and global literacy.

This volume revisits, problematizes, and expands the meaning of quality in the context of adult basic education. Covering a wide range of relevant topics, it includes contributors from the realms of both policy and practice and encompasses both the major instructional areas-reading, writing, and mathematics-as well as larger issues of literacy, learning, and adulthood. Each chapter focuses on what improving quality in the field might look like through the particular lens of the author's work. As a whole, the broad scope of topics and ideas addressed will raise the level of discussion, knowledge, and practice regarding quality in adult basic education.
In this book, the term "adult basic education "refers to the broad range of services for adults who wish to improve their literacy and language skills, including beginning and intermediate writing, writing and numeracy, preGED, GED/Adult Secondary Education, and ESL instruction that takes place in a range of contexts including schools, community-based programs, and workplace development programs. The volume is organized around three themes:
*Accountability, Standards, and the Use of Documentation and Research;
*Program Structures and Instruction; and
*Rethinking Our Assumptions and Concepts.
Coming at a time of increasing pressure to standardize, to be accountable, and to improve outcomes, and when calls for evidence-based practice are fueling stakeholders' interest in the relationship between research and practice at all levels of the system, "Toward Defining and Improving Quality in Adult Basic Education" is particularly timely for scholars, graduate students, and professionals in the field ofadult basic education.

This book draws on a longitudinal study which highlights the beneficial impact of film in the primary curriculum. It provides detailed accounts of both the reading process as understood within the field of literacy education, and of film theory as it relates to issues such as narration, genre and audience. The book focuses on a small cohort of children to explore how progression in reading film develops throughout a child's time in Key Stage 2; it also examines how the skills and understanding required to read film can support the reading of print, and vice versa, in an 'asset model' approach. Since children's progression in reading film is found to be not necessarily age-related, but rather built on a period of experience and opportunity to read and/or create moving image media, Bulman clearly illustrates the importance of the inclusion of film in the primary curriculum. The book provides an accessible study to a large audience of primary teachers and practitioners, and will be a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of education, English and media studies.

This book reviews what the authors term advocacy research in literacy education-research that explicitly addresses issues of social justice, equity, and democracy with the distinct purpose of social transformation. It surveys what educational researchers who are working for social justice have accomplished, describes current challenges, and outlines future possibilities. The first section maps the terrain of advocacy research in literacy education. The authors group this large and expanding body of research into four categories: Critical Literacy(ies); Radical Counternarratives in Literacy Research; Literacy as Social Practice; and Linguistic Studies. Each chapter describes the research area, traces its history, provides example studies, and assesses the contributions of research to advocacy work now and potentially in the future. The second section provides a deeper consideration of challenges to the field of advocacy research and suggests future directions for research and scholarship; this section reflects the need to complicate and trouble the terms and relations between and among social justice, ethics, democracy, freedom, and literacy. As a whole, this book is a response to the current popular understandings of literacy education that limit the efficacy of advocacy work in these troubled times-understandings that support the proliferation of standardized testing, teacher testing, and scripted lessons and programs, along with the privileging of particular forms of research. Intended for those who work or soon will work in literacy education-students, teacher educators, researchers, and practitioners-this book represents the authors' belief that it is time for advocacy workers to strengthen and intensify their efforts to promote the most principled, effective literacy education for democratic life. It is their hope that this book will contribute to such an effort.

Using literacy practices in the newly independent post-apartheid Namibia as a lens through which to examine the effects of globalisation, this broad case study looks at issues surrounding tourism, state control and the new forces of consumerism. By placing literacy at the centre of an investigation into social and cultural change as experienced by individuals, Papen shows that in times of change, reading and writing are always implicated in structures of power and inequality. The book considers language practices that can exclude some members of Namibian society and also looks at the strategies used by local people to accommodate and even embrace the onward march of global English and the influx of foreign visitors, practices and modes of commerce and interaction.

"The Language of Experience" examines the relationship between literacy and change--both personal and social. Gorzelsky studies three cases, two historical and one contemporary, that speak to key issues on the national education agenda.
"Struggle" is a community literacy program for urban teens and parents. It encourages them to reflect on, articulate, and revise their life goals and design and implement strategies for reaching them. To provide historical context for this and other contemporary efforts in using literacy to promote social change, Gorzelsky analyzes two radical religious and political movements of the English Civil Wars and the 1930s unionizing movement in the Pittsburgh region. Charting the similarities and differences in the function of literate practices in each case shows how different situations and contexts can foster very different outcomes.
Gorzelsky's analytic frame is drawn from Gestalt theory, which emphasizes the holistic nature of perception, communication, and learning. Through it she views how discourse and language structures interact with experience and how this interaction changes awareness and perception.
The book is methodologically innovative in its integration of a macro-social view of cultural, social, and discursive structures with a micro-social view of the potential for change embodied in them. Through her analysis and in her use of the voices of the people she studies, Gorzelsky offers a tool for analyzing individual instances of literate practices and their potential for fostering change.

The goal of this book is to encourage educators and researchers to understand the complexities of adolescent gang members' lives in order to rethink their assumptions about these students in school. The particular objective is to situate four gang members as literate, caring students from loving families whose identities and literacy keep them on the margins of school. The research described in this book suggests that advocacy is a particularly effective form of critical ethnography. Smith and Whitmore argue that until schools, as communities of practice, enable children and adolescents to retain identities from the communities in which they are full community members, frightening numbers of students are destined to fail. The stories of four Mexican American male adolescents, who were active members of a gang and Smith's students in an alternative high school program, portray the complicated, multiple worlds in which these boys live. As sons and teenage parents they live in a family community; as CRIP members they live in a gang community; as "at risk" students, drop-outs, and graduates they live in a school community, and as a result of their illegal activities they live in the juvenile court community. The authors theorize about the boys' literacy in each of their communities. Literacy is viewed as ideological, related to power, and embedded in a sociocultural context. Vivid examples of conversation, art, tagging, rap, poetry, and other language and literacy events bring the narratives to life in figures and photographs in all the chapters. Readers will find this book engaging and readable, yet thought provoking and challenging. Audiences for Literacy and Advocacy in Adolescent Family, Gang, School, and Juvenile Court Communities include education researchers, professionals, and students in the areas of middle/high school education, at-risk adolescent psychology, and alternative community programs--specifically those interested in literacy education, sociocultural theory, and popular culture.

This book examines the history of women's bookstores in the US from the 1970s to the 1990s. It establishes that women's bookstores played an important role in feminism by enabling the dissemination of women's voices and thereby helping to sustain and enrich the women's movement. They improved women's literacy - their abilities to read, write, publish, and distribute women's voices and visions - and helped women to instigate a feminist revolution in literacy.

The third edition of With Literacy and Justice for All: Rethinking the Social in Language and Education continues to document Carole Edelsky's long involvement with socially critical, holistic approaches to the everyday problems and possibilities facing teachers of language and literacy. This book helps education professionals understand the educational/societal situations they are dealing with, and literacy instruction and second language learning in particular contexts. Edelsky does not offer simplistic pedagogical formulas, but rather, progressively works through differences and tensions in the discourses and practices of sociolinguistics, bilingual education, whole language, and critical pedagogy--fields whose practitioners and advocates too often work in isolation from each other and, at times, at cross purposes. In this edition, what Edelsky means by rethinking is improving and extending her own views, while at the same time demonstrating that such rethinking always occurs in the light of history. The volume includes a completely new Introduction and two entirely new chapters: one on reconceptualizing literacy learning as second language learning, and another on taking a historical view of responses to standardized testing. Throughout, in updating the volume, Edelsky uses a variety of structural styles to note contrasts in her views across time and to make the distinction clear between the original material and the current additions. This edition is a rare example of a scholarly owning-up to changes in thinking, and a much needed demonstration of the historically grounded nature of knowledge. As a whole, the third edition emphasizes recursiveness and questioning within a deliberately political framework.

The third edition of With Literacy and Justice for All: Rethinking the Social in Language and Education continues to document Carole Edelsky's long involvement with socially critical, holistic approaches to the everyday problems and possibilities facing teachers of language and literacy. This book helps education professionals understand the educational/societal situations they are dealing with, and literacy instruction and second language learning in particular contexts. Edelsky does not offer simplistic pedagogical formulas, but rather, progressively works through differences and tensions in the discourses and practices of sociolinguistics, bilingual education, whole language, and critical pedagogy--fields whose practitioners and advocates too often work in isolation from each other and, at times, at cross purposes. In this edition, what Edelsky means by rethinking is improving and extending her own views, while at the same time demonstrating that such rethinking always occurs in the light of history. The volume includes a completely new Introduction and two entirely new chapters: one on reconceptualizing literacy learning as second language learning, and another on taking a historical view of responses to standardized testing. Throughout, in updating the volume, Edelsky uses a variety of structural styles to note contrasts in her views across time and to make the distinction clear between the original material and the current additions. This edition is a rare example of a scholarly owning-up to changes in thinking, and a much needed demonstration of the historically grounded nature of knowledge. As a whole, the third edition emphasizes recursiveness and questioning within a deliberately political framework.

The goal of this book is to encourage educators and researchers to understand the complexities of adolescent gang members' lives in order to rethink their assumptions about these students in school. The particular objective is to situate four gang members as literate, caring students from loving families whose identities and literacy keep them on the margins of school. The research described in this book suggests that advocacy is a particularly effective form of critical ethnography. Smith and Whitmore argue that until schools, as communities of practice, enable children and adolescents to retain identities from the communities in which they are full community members, frightening numbers of students are destined to fail. The stories of four Mexican American male adolescents, who were active members of a gang and Smith's students in an alternative high school program, portray the complicated, multiple worlds in which these boys live. As sons and teenage parents they live in a family community; as CRIP members they live in a gang community; as "at risk" students, drop-outs, and graduates they live in a school community, and as a result of their illegal activities they live in the juvenile court community. The authors theorize about the boys' literacy in each of their communities. Literacy is viewed as ideological, related to power, and embedded in a sociocultural context. Vivid examples of conversation, art, tagging, rap, poetry, and other language and literacy events bring the narratives to life in figures and photographs in all the chapters. Readers will find this book engaging and readable, yet thought provoking and challenging. Audiences for Literacy and Advocacy in Adolescent Family, Gang, School, and Juvenile Court Communities include education researchers, professionals, and students in the areas of middle/high school education, at-risk adolescent psychology, and alternative community programs--specifically those interested in literacy education, sociocultural theory, and popular culture.

The acquisition and maintenance of literacy is of pressing interest and concern to educators and educational policy makers worldwide. What are the common themes, the common questions, and the unique circumstances and initiatives that spring from this interest and concern? To address these questions, Understanding Literacy Development: A Global View brings together leading experts from around the world to explore ways to best provide teaching and learning opportunities, tailored to specific educational needs, to help all children become better readers. The premise is that current generic "one-size-fits-all" approaches are inappropriate for many children and can lead to underachievement and failure. The contributors write from a stance that reflects not only their own particular expertise and experience, but also sheds light on literacy development across cultures, countries, and circumstances. Taken together, chapters in this volume target a wide and comprehensive set of literacy issues, and offer an extensive exploration of the complexities of literacy development, including issues related to early literacy, school instruction, family literacy, adolescent and adult literacy, and teacher development. At a time when education is burdened by increasing economic pressure to do more with less, it is imperative that educators and decision makers at all levels have access to current, broad-ranging, and in-depth information and evidence to inform their choices. This volume, compiling critical research on a wide spectrum of literacy concerns, is an invaluable tool for scholars, teacher educators, professionals and graduate students in the fields of literacy education, early childhood education, educational psychology, educational policy, and related areas.

Review of Adult Learning and Literacy: Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice, Volume 6, is the newest volume in a series of annual publications of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) that address major issues, the latest research, and the best practices in the field of adult literacy and learning. Each Review opens with an overview of significant recent developments in the field of adult literacy during the previous year, followed by a set of chapters presenting in-depth reviews of research and best practices on topics of high interest to the field. Volume 6 includes chapters on: Demographic change and low-literacy Americans; The role of vocabulary in Adult Basic Education; Implications of research on spelling for Adult Basic Education; Issues in teaching speaking skills to adult ESOL learners; The preparation and stability of the Adult Basic Education teaching workforce; The adult literacy system in Ireland; and Broad-based organizing as a vehicle for promoting adult literacy. the field and is an essential resource for all stakeholders who need to know what research can reveal about how best to serve adult learners.

Designed to stimulate debate and critical thinking and to draw readers' attention to the ideological nature of literacy education across a broad range of literacy contexts, this book crosses traditional boundaries between the study of family, community, and school literacies to offer a unique global perspective on multiple literacies, from theory to case studies of various settings. These examples suggest ways that literacy practices should be created by simultaneously shaping relationships and identity, and by privileging particular literacy practices in particular situations. The dialogue within the book among chapter authors writing across traditionally distinct fields highlights the interconnections among diverse literacy sites and stimulates the pursuit of a more integrated and interdisciplinary approach to literacy education. The critical and dialogic approach serves to challenge and extend many conventional notions surrounding literacy education in communities, schools, and families.
"Portraits of Literacy Across Families, Communities, and Schools: Intersections and Tensions" is particularly relevant for scholars and students in the area of literacy, broadly speaking, including family literacy, community literacy, adult literacy, critical language studies, multiliteracies, youth literacy, English as a second language, language and social policy, and global literacy. Additionally, the inclusion of studies derived from a variety of research methods and designs makes this is a useful text in research methodology courses that aim to present and analyze real-life examples of literacy research designs and methods.

The book provides a historical overview of adult literacy theory, policy, practice, and research from the mid-1980s to the present. The main focus is a descriptive analysis of three distinctive schools of literacy: the Freirean-based participatory literacy movement grounded in oppositional politics and grass-roots community activism; the British-based New Literacy Studies that focuses on the ways in which diverse students utilize various literacy practices in their daily lives; and the U.S. federal government's focus on functional literacy linked to a 45-year policy emphasis on workforce readiness. These three schools of thought lead to substantially different implications over such critical areas as curriculum, assessment and accountability, and the socio-cultural role of literacy, policy, and political culture, which are discussed throughout the chapters of the book. This discussion includes a chapter on research traditions that closely parallels these perspectives on literacy education. Demetrion argues that unless values grounded ultimately in political culture emerge, it is exceedingly unlikely that the adult literacy field will be able to move from its current marginalized status toward that of achieving the level of public and policy legitimacy many believe it needs for its long-term institutional flourishing. It is argued that any settlement of this issue must be accomplished in the field of practice rather than the ground of theory, even as theoretical insight can help to frame the issues. Conflicting Paradigms in Adult Literacy Education: In Quest of a U.S. Democratic Politics of Literacy speaks to a wide audience, including not only the adult literacy community, but anyone interested in educational theory, practice, policy, research traditions, or political culture, and more fundamentally, in their intersection. Given the breadth of the topics covered, as well as the broad scope of the argument, the book is also meant for those who would like to gain a useful perspective on contemporary U.S. culture, through the window of these conflicting tensions within the field of adult literacy education.

The book provides a historical overview of adult literacy theory, policy, practice, and research from the mid-1980s to the present. The main focus is a descriptive analysis of three distinctive schools of literacy: the Freirean-based participatory literacy movement grounded in oppositional politics and grass-roots community activism; the British-based New Literacy Studies that focuses on the ways in which diverse students utilize various literacy practices in their daily lives; and the U.S. federal government's focus on functional literacy linked to a 45-year policy emphasis on workforce readiness. These three schools of thought lead to substantially different implications over such critical areas as curriculum, assessment and accountability, and the socio-cultural role of literacy, policy, and political culture, which are discussed throughout the chapters of the book. This discussion includes a chapter on research traditions that closely parallels these perspectives on literacy education. Demetrion argues that unless values grounded ultimately in political culture emerge, it is exceedingly unlikely that the adult literacy field will be able to move from its current marginalized status toward that of achieving the level of public and policy legitimacy many believe it needs for its long-term institutional flourishing. It is argued that any settlement of this issue must be accomplished in the field of practice rather than the ground of theory, even as theoretical insight can help to frame the issues. Conflicting Paradigms in Adult Literacy Education: In Quest of a U.S. Democratic Politics of Literacy speaks to a wide audience, including not only the adult literacy community, but anyone interested in educational theory, practice, policy, research traditions, or political culture, and more fundamentally, in their intersection. Given the breadth of the topics covered, as well as the broad scope of the argument, the book is also meant for those who would like to gain a useful perspective on contemporary U.S. culture, through the window of these conflicting tensions within the field of adult literacy education.