Boost Blog

We had a great time with the e-fellows last week when they came to Wellington to kick off their fellowship projects. First, we met the Minister of Education, Hon Anne Tolley, and snapped a photo. (In the photo: Esme Sutherland, Sue Smith, Marilyn Small, Minister Tolley, Claire Amos, Helen Rennie-Younger, Tia Fraser, Virginia Mitchell, Robyn Hurliman, Marion Lumley, absent: Deidre Senior.)

Because the theme of the e-fellows’ projects this year is literacy, on the agenda was a discussion about what we mean by literacy. Sue McDowall from NZCER framed our thinking. Definitions of literacy are highly contested, and Sue’s list of ‘literacy is/is not’ is a useful starter for discussion:

• Literacy is the way we communicate in different contexts or discourses (it is more than standard English).
• Literacy is using the language and knowing the values of the communities we belong to (it is more than the ability to know how to do something).
• Literacy is situated and multiple (it is not generic and singular).
• Literacy is constantly evolving (it is not fixed and there is no end point).
• Literacy is multimodal (it is more than print and word based).

The discussion with the e-fellows highlighted for me that while we want our young people to be proficient in the language of ‘success’ and of schooling (reading and writing in standard english), this is not the only literacy, it is constructed and value laden, and other literacy practices (social, cultural, ethical, digital, networked …) are equally as important for our young people.

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