The late Ruqaiya Hasan was an enthusiastic but exacting reader of Vygotsky: she reproached him for lacking a theory of language use, for using an asocial model of education without class variation in semantic code, and above all for using an atomistic unit of analysis, namely lexical word meaning. In this paper, I take up these criticisms and…

Argues that the sociological frameworks developed by Pierre Bourdieu provide a model for understanding the functions and consequences of literacies in the students' life paths. The article identifies implications for educators, administrators, curriculum developers, and teacher-educators, i.e., the need for broader public discussions and classroom…