"Luminous Literacies" shares examples of teachers and educators using local knowledge to illustrate literacy engagement and curriculum-making through scholarly accounts of experiences in teacher preparation courses, classrooms, and other community spaces in New Mexico. This edited collection includes chapters focusing on the teaching of…

This longitudinal study aimed at examining the relationship between children's task persistence, mothers' academic help, and the development of children's literacy skills (reading and spelling) at the beginning of primary school. The participants were 870 children, 682 mothers, and 53 class teachers. Data were collected three times--at the…

This study of three science teachers' lessons on heat and temperature seeks to characterise classroom talk that highlighted the ways language is used and to examine the nature of the language demands revealed in constructing, negotiating, arguing and communicating science ideas. The transcripts from the entire instructional units for these…

Much of the current research on scientific literacy focuses on particular text genres read by students within the classroom context. We offer a cross-case analysis of literacy as social practice in multicultural communities around the world, through which we reveal that individuals with no formal education, as well as people with varied levels of…

This study builds on research examining the in-school technology practices of adolescent language learners by exploring the patterns of classroom literacy practices that emerge when a telecollaborative project is introduced into a conventional secondary language classroom. We draw on the conceptual frameworks and discourse analytical tools…

Rural children are a largely understudied population in language and literacy research, despite the fact that these children often enter school with delays in their language development. Since most rural areas suffered from so-called selective rural outmigration, many parents in rural areas are lower or middle educated. The home literacy climate,…

This study describes the use of literacy--including the written word--in the maintenance and practice of Lukumí, a Diasporic African spiritual tradition. While Lukumí is decidedly orally transmitted, the written word is still a critical part of its contemporary practice. Relying on data collected during participant observation of ceremonies and…

In the Budding Science and Literacy project, we explored how working with an integrated inquiry-based science and literacy approach may challenge and support the teaching and learning of science at the classroom level. By studying the inter-relationship between multiple learning modalities and phases of inquiry, we wished to illuminate possible…

Unparalleled amounts of energy derived from fossil fuels now drive societies and shape people's worldviews. Geography's unique perspectives have significant potential to expand understandings of the effects of production and consumption of energy by drawing on the concept of sustainability using an integrated systems approach. As citizens' energy…

This article aims at validating a coding scheme designed to investigate the precursors of academic language occurring in early caretaker-child interactions. Exposure to the academic dimensions of language is an important asset for children to be successful in academic settings. The proposed analytical framework, based on systemic functional…

This article looks at the way in which the changing visual environment affects education at two levels: in communication patterns and research methodologies. The research considers differences in the variance and quantity of types of visual media and their relationship to the written mode in the urban landscapes of Tokyo and London, using…

In this article, we report on the results of a project devoted to improving literacy in South Africa's rural schools; specifically we report the results of an intervention study that centered on improving mother-tongue literacy instruction offered to learners in Grades 1 and 2 in South African schools. Our findings demonstrate that there are…

In May 2008, the first National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test was administered across Australia to determine the standard of literacy and numeracy achievement of Australia's students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Some students did very well on the tests and some did not. This type of test can tell a great deal about…

This dissertation investigated the concepts of literacy held by Thai teachers of university-level Foundation English courses, the connection between concepts of literacy and EFL literacy instruction, teachers' literacy-teaching practices, and the challenges these teachers faced in teaching EFL literacy. The relationship between the concepts of…

Gives examples of the use of Freire's notion of codes or generative themes in problem-posing literacy education. Describes how these applications expand Freire's conceptions by involving students in code production, including multicultural perspectives, and rethinking codes as representations. (SK)