This handbook marks the transformation of the topic of literacy from the narrower concerns with learning to read and write to an interdisciplinary enquiry into the various roles of writing and reading in the full range of social and psychological functions in both modern and developing societies. It does so by exploring the nature and development of writing systems, the relations between speech and writing, the history of the social uses of writing, the evolution of conventions of reading, the social and developmental dimensions of acquiring literate competencies, and, more generally, the conceptual and cognitive dimensions of literacy as a set of social practices. Contributors to the volume are leading scholars drawn from such disciplines as linguistics, literature, history, anthropology, psychology, the neurosciences, cultural psychology, and education.

The debate on the social and psychological implications of literacy enters a new stage with the publication of this volume. Distinguished scholars provide a sustained and detailed examination of the relations between orality and literacy, the traditions based on them, the functions served by them, and the psychological and linguistic processes recruited and enhanced by them. By shedding the romantic view that literacy is the royal road to rationality and modernity, the volume provides a more functional view of literacy. It places a new emphasis on the relationship between speaking and writing, and highlights the different ways in which people exploit the particular resources of speech and writing for special purposes such as building community, creating records, specialising genres such as prose fiction, enhancing private study and meditation, and enhancing the specialisation and organisation of knowledge.

Literacy is a concern of all nations of the world, whether they be classified as developed or undeveloped. A person must be able to read and write in order to function adequately in society, and reading and writing require a script. But what kinds of scripts are in use today, and how do they influence the acquisition, use and spread of literacy? "Scripts and Literacy" systematically explores how the nature of a script affects how it is read and how one learns to read and write it. It reveals the similarities underlying the world's scripts and the features that distinguish how they are read. Scholars from different parts of the world describe several different scripts, e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian Amerindian -- and how they are learned. Research data and theories are presented. This book should be of primary interest to educators and researchers in reading and writing around the world.

Modes of Thought addresses a topic of broad interest to the cognitive sciences. Its central focus is on the apparent contrast between the widely assumed 'psychological unity of mankind' and the facts of cognitive pluralism, the diverse ways in which people think and the developmental, cultural, technological and institutional factors which contribute to that diversity. Whether described in terms of modes of thought, cognitive styles, or sensibilities, the diversity of patterns of rationality to be found between cultures, in different historical periods, between individuals at different stages of development remains a central problem for a cultural psychology. Modes of Thought brings together anthropologists, historians, psychologists and educational theorists who manage to recognise the universality in thinking and yet acknowledge the cultural, historical and developmental contexts in which differences arise.

This work is an important contribution to the multidisciplinary study of literacy, narrative and culture, arguing that literacy is perhaps best described as an ensemble of socially and historically embedded activities and of cultural practices. It suggests viewing written language, producing and distributing, deciphering and interpreting signs, as closely related to other cultural practices such as narrative and painting. The book makes the point that there is no theory and history of writing that does not presuppose a theory of culture and social development. At the same time, it demonstrates that every theory and history of culture must unavoidably entail a theory and history of writing and written culture. The book brings together perspectives on literacy from psychology, linguistics, history and sociology of literature, philosophy, anthropology, and history of art, and addresses these issues in plain language not coded in specialized jargon.

Essays examine how culture, social interaction, and human relations affect the development of language and thought in children.

An important contribution to the multi-disciplinary study of literacy, narrative and culture, this work argues that literacy is perhaps best described as an ensemble of socially and historically embedded activities of cultural practices. It suggests viewing written language, producing and distributing, deciphering and interpreting signs, are closely related to other cultural practices such as narrative and painting.

The papers of the first and second parts illustrate this view in contexts that range from the pre-historical beginnings of tracking signs' in hunter-gatherer cultures, and the emergence of modern literate traditions in Europe in the 17th to 19th century, to the future of electronically mediated writing in times of the post-Gutenberg galaxy. The chapters of the third present results of recent research in developmental and educational psychology.

Contributions by leading experts in the field make the point that there is no theory and history of writing that does not presuppose a theory of culture and social development. At the same time, it demonstrates that every theory and history of culture must unavoidably entail a theory and history of writing and written culture.

This book brings together perspectives on literacy from psychology, linguistics, history and sociology of literature, philosophy, anthropology, and history of art. It addresses these issues in plain language not coded in specialized jargon and addresses a multi-disciplinary forum of scholars and students of literacy, narrative and culture.

The chapters collected in this volume represent the "state-of-the-art" of research on the development of intentional action and intentional understanding--topics that are at the intersection of current research on imitation, early understanding of mental states, goal-directed behavior in nonhuman animals, executive function, language acquisition, and narrative understanding, to name just a few of the relevant foci. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate that intentionality is a key issue in the cognitive and social sciences. Moreover, in a way that was anticipated more than a century ago by the seminal work of J. Mark Baldwin, they are beginning to reveal how the control of action is related in development to children's emerging self-conscious and their increasingly sophisticated appreciation of other people's perspectives.
This volume brings together the world's leading researchers on early social and cognitive development in an in-depth exploration of children's understanding of themselves and others.

The chapters collected in this volume represent the "state-of-the-art" of research on the development of intentional action and intentional understanding--topics that are at the intersection of current research on imitation, early understanding of mental states, goal-directed behavior in nonhuman animals, executive function, language acquisition, and narrative understanding, to name just a few of the relevant foci. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate that intentionality is a key issue in the cognitive and social sciences. Moreover, in a way that was anticipated more than a century ago by the seminal work of J. Mark Baldwin, they are beginning to reveal how the control of action is related in development to children's emerging self-conscious and their increasingly sophisticated appreciation of other people's perspectives.
This volume brings together the world's leading researchers on early social and cognitive development in an in-depth exploration of children's understanding of themselves and others.

Understanding, as Descartes, Locke and Kant all insisted, is the primary 'faculty' of the mind; yet our modern sciences have been slow to advance a clear and testable account of what it means to understand, of children's acquisition of this concept and, in particular, how children come to ascribe understanding to themselves and others. By drawing together developmental and philosophical theories, this book provides a systematic account of children's concept of understanding and places understanding at the heart of children's 'theory of mind'. Children's subjective awareness of their own minds, of what they think, depends on learning a language for ascribing mental states to themselves and others. This book will appeal to researchers in developmental psychology, cognitive science, education and philosophy who are interested in the cognitive and emotional development of children and in the more basic question of what it means to have a mind.

Jerome Bruner is indisputably a major thinker in education. David Olson's volume offers the most coherent account of Bruner's educational thought. This work is divided into: intellectual biography; critical exposition of Bruner's work; the reception and influence of Bruner's work; the relevance of the work today; and excerpts from an interview with Jerome Bruner.This volume is part of a major international reference series providing comprehensive accounts of the work of seminal educational thinkers from a variety of periods, disciplines and traditions. It is the most ambitious and prestigious such project ever published - a definitive resource for at least a generation. The thinkers include: Aquinas, Aristotle, Bourdieu, Bruner, Dewey, Foucault, Freire, Holt, Kant, Locke, Montessori, Neill, Newman, Owen, Peters, Piaget, Plato, Rousseau, Steiner, Vygotsky, West and Wollstonecraft.

David Olson offers a theoretical account of the relationship between the minds of learners and the institutional structure of the school. Why do efforts at reforming schools routinely fail? It is because schools are by and large successful in achieving their two primary responsibilities. They meet the needs of the bureaucratic society which funds them as well as the goals and beliefs of the students who attend them. In meeting the needs, however, minds and societies are altered in conspicuous and important ways that are revealed in this book.

What role has writing played in the development of our modern understanding of language, nature and ourselves? Drawing on recent advances in history, anthropology, linguistics and psychology, the author offers a bold new perspective on how writing and reading have historically and developmentally altered our understanding of language, mind and nature. These understandings, Olson argues, are by-products of living in a "world on paper."

In this study of the social and psychological implications of literacy, sixteen distinguished scholars provide a sustained and detailed examination of the relations between orality and literacy, the traditions based on them, the functions served by them, and the psychological and linguistic processes recruited and enhanced by them. By shedding the romantic view that literacy is the road to rationality and modernity, the volume provides a more functional view of literacy. The articles place new emphasis on the relationship between speaking and writing and highlight the different ways in which people exploit the particular resources of speech and writing for special purposes, such as building communities, creating records, and specializing genres, such as prose fiction, enhancing private study and meditation, and enhancing the specialization and organization of knowledge.

This handbook marks the transformation of the topic of literacy from the narrower concerns with learning to read and write to an interdisciplinary enquiry into the various roles of writing and reading in the full range of social and psychological functions in both modern and developing societies. It does so by exploring the nature and development of writing systems, the relations between speech and writing, the history of the social uses of writing, the evolution of conventions of reading, the social and developmental dimensions of acquiring literate competencies, and, more generally, the conceptual and cognitive dimensions of literacy as a set of social practices. Contributors to the volume are leading scholars drawn from such disciplines as linguistics, literature, history, anthropology, psychology, the neurosciences, cultural psychology, and education.

David Olson offers a theoretical account of the relationship between the minds of learners and the institutional structure of the school. Why do efforts at reforming schools routinely fail? It is because schools are by and large successful in achieving their two primary responsibilities. They meet the needs of the bureaucratic society which funds them as well as the goals and beliefs of the students who attend them. In meeting the needs, however, minds and societies are altered in conspicuous and important ways that are revealed in this book.

A central problem in cultural psychology is the diversity of patterns of rationality among cultures, historical periods, and stages of personal development. The distinguished contributors to this volume maintain that the acknowledgement of the inconsistency of rational patterns is not necessarily at odds with the traditional notion of the "psychological unity" of humankind. Leading psychologists, anthropologists, historians, and educational theorists explore this issue in considerable depth, citing relevant examples and problems relating to their specific areas of expertise. Scholars of social and psychological disciplines will find this text to be informative and thought-provoking.

Although the importance of literacy is widely acknowledged in society and remains at the top of the political agenda, writing has been slow to establish a place in the cognitive sciences. Olson argues that to understand the cognitive implications of literacy, it is necessary to see reading and writing as providing access to and consciousness of aspects of language, such as phonemes, words and sentences, that are implicit and unconscious in speech. Reading and writing create a system of metarepresentational concepts that bring those features of language into consciousness as a subject of discourse. This consciousness of language is essential not only to acquiring literacy but also to the formation of systematic thought and rationality. The Mind on Paper is a compelling exploration of what literacy does for our speech and hence for our thought, and will be of interest to readers in developmental psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, and education.

Jerome Bruner is the vanguard of "the cognitive revolution" in psychology and the predominant spokesman for the role of culture and education in the making of the modern mind. In this text Olson encourages the reader to think about children as Bruner did, not as bundles of traits and dispositions to be diagnosed and remediated, but as thoughtful, keenly interested, agentive persons who are willing and indeed able to play an important role in their own learning and development. Through the unique approach of combining commentary and conversation with Bruner, the author provides an insight into what it is like to engage with one of the intellectual masters of our time and highlights the relevance and importance of his contribution to educational thinking today.