Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching and Learning English: Connections with Critical Numeracy

Abstract

Together with literacy, numeracy has been acknowledged as a foundation of formal schooling. Once considered the domain of the mathematics and English classrooms respectively, numeracy and literacy—in all their forms—are increasingly recognised as important social practices pertinent to all subjects (Luke and Freebody in Practically Prim 4(2):5–8, 1999, Steen in J Singap Assoc Math Educators 6(1):10-16, 2001, Unsworth in Changing contexts of text and image in classroom practice. Open University Press, Buckingham, 2001, Watson in Math Teach 69(1):34-40, 2009, Goos, Geiger, & Dole in Changing classroom practice through a rich model of numeracy across the curriculum, 2012). In the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority’s [ACARA] in General Capabilities, (2015b), which lists skills required in order to ‘live and work successfully in the twenty-first century’, literacy and numeracy occupy prominent positions amid the seven general capabilities emphasised across all Key Learning Areas (KLAs). Increasingly, highly developed skills in multiple forms of literacies and numeracies are considered vital for citizens in the knowledge society.