At Play in the Space: The concept of 'the social practice approach' in the Scottish adult literacies field

Abstract

This paper focuses on Scotland's policy response to the International Adult Literacy Survey (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998) and the 'grand experiment' (Merrifield 2005) to implement a social practices perspective of literacies. This radical perspective, derived from the New Literacy Studies (NLS), has profound implications for pedagogy and is promoted in Scotland as 'the social practice approach'.The paper begins with a discussion of the distinctive developments in Scottish policy in the context of the international interest in Adult Literacy. The rhetorical claims made in Scotland are then examined through a study which used a methodology drawn from Personal Construct Theory (PCT) to explore how practitioners understand 'the social practice approach'. This research found little connection between the theoretical concepts of the New Literacy Studies and practitioners' interpretations. Dissonances in the data highlighted power issues between policy and practice. In the latter part of the paper, Bernstein's (2000) ideas about how theoretical knowledge is translated into pedagogical knowledge are used to explore the dissonances further. The paper concludes that there is an ideological conflict of purpose within the discourses of adult literacies in Scotland and that the critical pedagogy implied by the New Literacy Studies is also necessary within teacher education if practice is to be transformed in response to the radical social theory.

Adult literacies from the perspective of practitioners and their learners: a case study from the north of England

“…However, her study also highlights the difference between policy perceptions and those forming the basis of practice, in that the employers in her workplace are more concerned with the use of language and literacy in the context of the workplace, that is, as the 'social practices of the workplace' (ibid. ); In contrast, Scottish policy for adult literacy education is recognised for its social practice perception of literacy, although the extent to which this is put into practice in adult literacies education has been questioned (Ackland, 2013). Differences between policy perceptions of literacy and those of practitioners enacting policy are among the issues considered later in this paper.…”

The Teaching Focus of Adult‐Reading Teachers When Developing Word Reading Skills

“…Research and practice in adult literacy has been shaped by complex and long‐standing theoretical debates about the nature of literacy (Street, 1984). In recent years, the New Literacy Studies view of literacy, as socially constructed and ideological (Ackland, 2013), has offered an alternate to what has been described as the autonomous view where literacy is assumed to be value and context free (Street, 1984). Increasingly, emphasis is on a framework that views literacies as multiple, and as something people do, as social practice (e.g.…”

“…Adults who experience reading difficulties frequently have limitations at the word level, with many demonstrating deficits in recognising and reading words fluently (Macaruso and Shankweiler, 2010). While it is acknowledged that reading is more than just decoding and reading words (Ackland, 2013), the reader must be able to read the words to engage in any critical understanding of the text. If word recognition is not fluent, working memory resources cannot be used efficiently to comprehend text and the reading process stalls (MacArthur et al, 2010; Macaruso and Shankweiler, 2010).…”