Historical Development of Literacy Research

Abstract

The history of literacy research is like a series of slow, undulating waves. Just as a wave reaches its crest, it wanes and another overtakes it. The ebb and flow of literacy scholarship follows a similar pattern. In this entry we focus on the topical shifts in literacy research during the last 140 years by using the language arts as our analytic frame (i.e., reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing; National Council of Teachers of English [NCTE] and International Reading Association [IRA], 1996).

Right to read: what we can learn from neurosciences to augment childhood and literacy policies1

“…Many early studies focused on reading, specifically, as being isolated from its environmental settings and as a strict schooling process. Early research also focused on physical aspects of reading, such as eye movement, pauses, and visual perception (MARTIN et al, 2012). Only later in the last century, research in early childhood literacy that observed individual children (BAGHBAN, 1984;CRAGO;CRAGO, 1993;PAYTON, 1984;BISSEX, 1980 apud GILLEN;HALL, 2003), and a broader number of children (CLAY, 1975;MASON, 1980;HIEBERT, 1981;HARSTE et al, 1982;SULZBY, 1985 apud GILLEN;HALL, 2003), pointed that literacy should be reevaluated as more than simply reading and writing that begins at school: it should be observed as a continuum that begins earlier and continues throughout the individuals' lives.…”

“…Also, in this period, with the rise of sociocultural theoretical perspectives on learning, research in literacy shifted, observing the interplay between families, school, communities, and their cultural backgrounds, and understanding literacy as more than reading and writing, but rather a cultural and contextual phenomenon (MARTIN et al, 2012). This shift appears to be highly influenced by later translations of Vygotsky's work, which suggested that children first observe the language around them and then use it (GILLEN;HALL, 2003).…”

Bridging Language Education and “New Literacy Studies”: Reinvigorating Courses of General English at an Iranian University

“…Dealing with the teaching and learning of reading and writing as a modern area of theorization and inquiry has a history of one and a half century (Martin et al, 2012). For most of this period, perhaps the most compelling concerns have been understanding mental aspects of people's becoming literate, in the sense of gaining the ability of producing scripts, decoding texts, and grappling with ever-present challenges like spelling (Gee, 2015;Smith, 2004).…”

If “Black Lives Matter in Literacy Research,” Then Take This Racial Turn: Developing Racial Literacies

“…As this special issue demonstrates, somehow our institution seems none the wiser. Looking back beyond the last 4 years, then, the institution of literacy research has been mighty, mighty quiet about race for as far back as we can see (in contrast to significant individual or group work by fellow literacy scholars and “race critical” scholarship within and beyond our field [Croom, 2020]; see a review of multimodal literacies by Mills & Unsworth, 2018; also consider literacy research historically with Alexander & Fox, 2004; Gray, 1969; Lalik & Hinchman, 2001; Hoffman, Hikida, & Sailors, 2020; Martin et al, 2013; Morrison et al, 2011; Parsons et al, 2020; Pearson, 1984; Shanahan, 2020; Shanahan & Neuman, 1997; Willis, 2019).…”