Dividing Ourselves from the Past: The Constitution of ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Literacies

Abstract

Representational strategies work to locate literacies, and more broadly, educational programs, in time. Histories are not simply attributes but are assigned. Locating a text, practice or program in time is always a statement of value in relation to ‘other’ times. The key problematic addressed in the chapter is how the quality of innovation—inherently, a break from the past—is attributed to literacy programs, movements, or figures. A key text in the history of New Literacy Studies is subjected to analysis which focuses on how temporal qualities are attributed to actors in the text and, in the process, invested with value. The role of visual images in depicting literacies is then addressed through the case of archival photographs embedded in a range of texts. Critical deconstruction of these texts (viewing against the grain) challenges the logics within which certain literacies and educational practices are depicted as outdated, in order to reinforce the value of contemporary innovations.