عنوان

Rethinking literacy :

Number

TLets568475

Title Proper

Rethinking literacy :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Bearne, Eve

Title Proper by Another Author

communication, representation and text

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Middlesex University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2003

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Middlesex University

Text preceding or following the note

2003

Text of Note

The dominant thread of the work I present here is an analysis of children's textproduction. I begin with a book I co-wrote in 1991 [Cath Farrow wrote Chapter3] containing a framework which forms the basis of much of my later analysis ofmultimodal texts. In that first book I offer a critique of genre theory so that asecond thread traceable through A Writing Policy in Action and the later chapterspresented here is about genre in writing from its early adoption into a view ofliteracy in the UK through to current issues of multimodal texts [see Kress andvan Leeuwen, 1996] and the ways in which these cross genre boundaries. Myinterest lies in the ways in which texts are shaped to have coherence, and thismeans considering what has become a pivotal part of my current work: aconcentration on text cohesion. The gradual shift in my focus towardsmultimodal texts relates to two other areas of interest: popular forms of text, theirplace in cultural settings and their impact on children's text production; and thedemand for a more precise description of the texts children now produce whichgoes beyond simply giving status to the verbal elements. In presenting a criticalreflection on my publications, my concern is to outline the possibilities for a newtheory of' literacy', based on cohesion, which takes into account a range of textsbeyond written genres. For me, it must also be a critical theory and thisinevitably means taking into account the popular cultural forms of texts whichchildren absorb and use, so that this statement presents a cultural theory of textwhich acknowledges and honours the agency of the young text-maker.Any adequate educational theory has to take into account: theories of individualdevelopment; issues of pedagogy, classroom culture and the nature ofknowledge; and social, cultural ideological and political discourses whichsurround schools, classrooms and learners. This is a demanding agenda in arelatively short context statement and whilst I offer background discussion, Ihave decided to concentrate on my analysis of children's texts and theirproduction. In sketching an integrated theory of multidimensional text, mystarting points are: children's production of texts, how these can be analysed andthe implications for teaching. However, I begin with some of the theoretical background to my writing over the years to give the broad context.

Bearne, Eve

Middlesex University

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y