Literacy, Rurality, Education: A Partial Mapping

  • Bill Green

Abstract

How might we go about understanding and researching rural literacies? Is it indeed appropriate to speak of “ rural literacies”? Is it possible or even meaningful to refer to rural literacies, with the adjective in this case being a genuine modifier? What does the adjective “rural” do? How does it add value to either literacy studies or rural education, as scholarly fields? What relationship exists between literacy studies and rural schooling, and between literacy studies and rural education more generally? This chapter seeks to engage and explore questions such as these, in order to open up discussion and debate in this undervalued and misrecognized area.

Keywords

Literacy Research Literacy Study Literacy Practice Place Resource Rural Education 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Allen, J., D. Massey, and A. Cochrane, 1998, Rethinking the Region, Routledge, London and New York.Google Scholar
  2. Balfour, R. J., C. Mitchell, and R. Moletsane, 2008, “Troubling Contexts: Toward a Generative Theory of Rurality as Education Research,” Journal of Rural and Community Development, vol. 3, no. 3: pp. 95–107.Google Scholar
  3. Barton, D. and M. Hamilton, 2008, Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in One Community, Routledge, London.Google Scholar
  4. Barton, D., M. Hamilton, and R. Ivanic (eds.), 2000, Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context, Routledge, London and New York.Google Scholar
  5. Baynham, M. and M. Prinsloo, 2009, “Introduction: The Future of Literacy Studies,” in M. Baynham and M. Prinsloo (eds.), The Future of Literacy Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmill, UK, and New York, pp. 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Brandt, D. and K. Clinton, 2002, “Limits of the Local: Expanding Perspectives on Literacy as a Social Practice,” Journal of Literacy Research, vol. 34, no. 3: 337–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Brooke, R. (ed.), 2003, Rural Voices: Place-Conscious Education and the Teaching of Writing, Teachers College Press, New York.Google Scholar
  8. Cloke, P. 2006, “Conceptualizing Rurality,” in P. Cloke, T. Marsden, and P. Mooney (eds.), Handbook of Rural Studies, Sage, London, pp. 18–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Collins, J. and R. K. Blot, 2003, Literacy and Literacies: Texts, Power and Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Comber, B. 2011, “Making Space for Place-Making Pedagogies: Stretching Normative Mandated Literacy Curriculum,” Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, vol. 12, no. 4: 343–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. —, 2012, “Mandated Literacy Assessment and the Reorganisation of Teachers’ Work: Federal Policy, Local Effects,” Critical Issues in Education, vol. 53, no. 2: 119–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Comber, B., H. Nixon, and J-A. Reid, 2007, Literacies in Place: Teaching Environmental Communications, Primary English Teachers Association (PETA), Sydney.Google Scholar
  13. Cook-Gumperz, J. 1986, “Literacy and Schooling: An Unchanging Equation?,” in J. Cook-Gumperz (ed.), The Social Construction of Literacy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 16–44.Google Scholar
  14. Corbett, M. 2008, “Wharf Talk, Home Talk, and School Talk: The Politics of Language in a Coastal Community,” in K. A. Schafft and A. Youngblood Jackson (eds.), Rural Education for the Twenty-First Century: Identity, Place and Community in a Globalizing World, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania, pp. 114–131.Google Scholar
  15. Cormack, P., B. Green, and J-A. Reid, 2008, “Writing Place: Discursive Constructions of the Environment in Children’s Writing and Artwork about the Murray-Darling Basin,” in F. Vanclay, J. Malpas, M. Higgins, and A. Blackshaw (eds.), Making Sense of Place: Exploring Concepts and Expressions of Place through Different Senses and Lenses, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, pp. 57–75.Google Scholar
  16. Crang, M. and N. Thrift, 2000, “Introduction,” in M. Crang and N. Thrift (eds.), Thinking Space, Routledge, London and New York.Google Scholar
  17. Donehower, K., C. Hogg, and E. E. Schell, 2007, Rural Literacies, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
  18. —, 2011, Reclaiming the Rural: Essays on Literacy, Rhetoric, and Pedagogy, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
  19. Edmondson, J. 2003, Reclaiming the Rural: Essays on Literacy, Rhetoric, and Pedagogy, Rowman, Lanham, MD.Google Scholar
  20. Green, B. (ed.), 2008, Spaces and Places: The NSW Teacher (Education) Project, Centre for Information Studies, Wagga Wagga, NSW.Google Scholar
  21. Green, B. , 2009. “The Primacy of Practice and the Problem of Representation,” in B. Green (ed.), Understanding and Researching Professional Practice, Sense, Rotterdam, pp. 39–54.Google Scholar
  22. Green, B. , 2012a, “Into the Fourth Dimension? Literacy, Pedagogy and the Future,” in B. Green and C. Beavis (eds.), Literacy in 3D: An Integrated Perspective in Theory and Practice, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Camberwell, Victoria, pp. 175–188.Google Scholar
  23. Green, B. (ed.), 2012b, “Literacy, Place and the Digital World,” Language and Education, vol. 26, no. 4: 377–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Green, B. and C. Beavis (eds.), 2012, Literacy in 3D: An Integrated Perspective in Theory and Practice, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Camberwell, Victoria.Google Scholar
  25. Green, B. and W. Letts, 2007, “Space, Equity and Rural Education: A ‘Trialectical’ Account,” in K. N. Gulson and C. Symes (eds.), Spatial Theories of Education: Policy and Geography Matters, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 57–76.Google Scholar
  26. Green, B., P. Cormack, and H. Nixon, 2007, “Introduction: Literacy, Place, Environment,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 30, no. 2: 77–81 [Special Issue].Google Scholar
  27. Gregory, E. and A. Williams, 2000, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Routledge, London and New York.Google Scholar
  28. Grenfell, M., D. Bloome, C. Hardy, K. Pahl, J. Rowsell, and B. Street, 2012, Language, Ethnography and Education: Bridging New Literacy Studies and Bourdieu, Routledge, New York and London, pp. 27–49.Google Scholar
  29. Gruenewald, D. A. and G. A. Smith (eds.), 2008, Place-Based Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New York and London.Google Scholar
  30. Halfacree, K. 2006, “Rural Space: Constructing a Three-Fold Architecture,” in P. Cloke, T. Marsden, and P. Mooney (eds.), Handbook of Rural Studies, Sage, London, pp. 44–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. — 2009, “Rurality and Post-Rurality,” in R. Kitchin and N. Thrift (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, vol. 9, Elsevier, Oxford, pp. 449–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Ivanîc, R. 2009, “Bringing Literacy Studies into Research on Learning across the Curriculum,” in M. Bayhnam and M. Prinsloo (eds.), The Future of Literacy Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, UK, and New York, pp. 100–122.Google Scholar
  33. Jackson, M., 2004, “Pedagogy’s Topographies of Power,” ACCESS: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural and Policy Studies, vol. 23, no. 2: 13–20.Google Scholar
  34. Janks, H., 2010, Literacy and Power, Routledge, New York and London.Google Scholar
  35. Kelly, U. A., 2009, Migration and Education in a Multicultural World, Palgrave Macmillan, New York and Houndmills, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Kinloch, V. (ed.), 2011, Urban Literacies: Critical Perspectives on Language, Learning and Community, Teachers College Press, New York.Google Scholar
  37. Kress, G., C. Jewitt, J. Bourne, A. Franks, J. Hardcastle, K. Jones, and E. Reid, 2005, English in Urban Classrooms: A Multimodal Perspective on Teaching and Learning, Routledge, London and New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Luke, A. and A. Woods, 2009, “Policy and Adolescent Literacy,” in L. Christenbury, R. Bomer, and P. Smagorinsky (eds.), Handbook of Adolescent Literacy, Guildford Press, New York.Google Scholar
  39. Marsden, W. E., 1977, “Historical Geography and the History of Education,” History of Education, vol. 6, no. 1: 21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Massey, D., 2005, For Space, Sage, London.Google Scholar
  41. McInerney, P., J. Smyth, and B. Down, 2011, “‘Coming to a Place Near You’: The Politics and Possibilities of a Critical Pedagogy of Place-Based Education,” Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 39, no. 1: 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Mills, K. A. 2008, “Will Large-Scale Assessments Raise Literacy Standards in Australian Schools?,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 31, no. 3: 211–225.Google Scholar
  43. Ministry of Education, 2005, Education for Rural People (EPR)—South Africa, Working paper prepared for the Ministerial Seminar on Education for Rural People in Africa: Policy Lessons, Options and Priorities, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, September 7–9.Google Scholar
  44. Muspratt, S., P. Freebody, and A. Luke, 2001, “Technologies of Inclusion, Geographies of Exclusion: Schooling and Literacy in Small Rural Communities,” in P. Freebody, S. Muspratt, and B. Dwyer (eds.), Difference, Silence, and Textual Practice: Studies in Critical Literacies, Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ, pp. 153–188.Google Scholar
  45. Nespor, J., 2004, “Educational Scale-Making,” Pedagogy, Culture and Society, vol. 12, no. 3: 309–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. —, 2008, “Education and Place: A Review Essay,” Educational Theory, vol. 58, no. 4: 475–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  47. Nixon, H. and B. Comber, 2009, “Literacy, Landscape and Learning in a Primary Classroom,” in M. Somerville, K. Power, and P. de Carteret (eds.), Landscapes and Learning: Place Studies for a Global World, Sense, Rotterdam, pp. 119–138.Google Scholar
  48. Pegg, J. and D. Panizzon, 2007, “Inequities in Student Achievement for Literacy: Metropolitan versus Rural Comparisons,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 30, no. 3: 177–190.Google Scholar
  49. Prinsloo, M., 2005, “The New Literacies as Placed Resources,” Perspectives in Education, vol. 23, no. 4: 87–98.Google Scholar
  50. Prinsloo, M. and M. Baynham, 2008, “Renewing Literacy Studies,” in M. Prinsloo and M. Baynham (eds.), Literacies: Local and Global, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 1–16 [preprint manuscript].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  51. Prinsloo, M. and M. Breier (eds.), 1996, The Social Uses of Literacy: Theory and Practice in South Africa, John Benjamins, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
  52. Prinsloo, M. and J. Rowsell, 2012, “Digital Literacies as Placed Resources in the Globalised Periphery,” Language and Education, vol. 26, no. 4: 271–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  53. Reid, J-A., B. Green, M. Cooper, W. Hastings, G. Lock, and S. White, 2010, “Regenerating Rural Social Space? Teacher Education for Rural-Regional Sustainability,” Australian Journal of Education, vol. 54, no. 3: 262–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  54. Ruitenberg, C. 2005, “Deconstructing the Experience of the Local: Toward a Radical Pedagogy of Place,” in K. R. Howe (ed.), Philosophy of Education 2005, Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society, pp. 212–220.Google Scholar
  55. Schatzki, T. R., K. Knorr Cetina, and E. van Sauvigny (eds.), 2001, The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, Routledge, New York and London.Google Scholar
  56. Soja, E. W., 1996, Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Real-and-Imagined Places, Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
  57. —, 2010, Seeking Spatial Justice, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis and London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  58. Street, B., 1984, Literacy in Theory and Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
  59. —, 2012, “The New Literacy Studies,” in M. Grenfell, D. Bloome, C. Hardy, K. Pahl, J. Rowsell, and B. Street (eds.), Language, Ethnography and Education: Bridging New Literacy Studies and Bourdieu, Routledge, New York and London, pp. 27–49.Google Scholar
  60. Tan, J. P-L. and E. McWilliam, 2009, “From Literacy to Multiliteracies: Diverse Learners and Pedagogical Practice,” Pedagogies, vol. 4, no. 3: 213–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  61. Welch, A., S. Helme, and S. Lamb, 2007, “Rurality and Inequality in Education: The Australian Experience,” in R. Teese, S. Lamb, and M. Duru-Bellat (eds.), International, Studies in Educational Inequality: Theory and Policy. Vol. 2: Inequality in Educational System, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 271–293.Google Scholar
  62. White, S. and J-A. Reid, 2008, “Placing Teachers? Sustaining Rural Schooling through Place-Consciousness in Teacher Education,” Journal of Research in Rural Education, vol. 23, no. 7: 1–11.Google Scholar
  63. Woods, M 2010, “Performing Rurality and Practising Rural Geography,” Progress in Human Geography, vol. 34, no. 6: 835–846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Bill Green and Michael Corbett 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Bill Green

There are no affiliations available

Personalised recommendations