Disciplines in Secondary literacy teaching

Moje, E. B., (2008). Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and learning: A call for change. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96-107

Background

The writer looks at literacy across subjects at the secondary school level in the USA given the background of the reported failure to improve literacy rates or even a possible drop in literacy rates.

Aims

The writer seeks to review the theoretical approaches to literacy across the subjects and to suggest possible approaches to improving the ability of students to deal with the content of their subject areas.

Sample

As this is a theoretical commentary, there is no actual research and thus no sample. However, the writer does bring in the writings of other researchers and theoreticians in this area.

Method

The writer summarizes and critiques the theoretical positions of a number of other writers. She suggests that the idea of teaching generic literacy skills across all subjects has failed to improve the situation and then discusses how disciplinary literacy approaches, i.e. literacy approaches specific to particular subjects, might solve the problem.

Findings

The writer believes that students need to develop fluency in ‘making and interrogating knowledge claims, which in turn require fluency in a wide range of ways of constructing and communicating knowledge’ (p. 99). While these skills are to be taught within the subjects, it is important that links are made across the subjects and even with the language skills used by students outside the school. However, she believes there are a number of impediments to teachers adopting the approach. One of these is that the teachers themselves are not always competent in these areas. Another is that they feel constrained by the need to transfer their content knowledge to the student as quickly as possible. Finally, some complex repair work along different parameters is required for different students as some students may lack the disciplinary background, some the literate skills and some the motivation. This complexity might be beyond the skill of individual teachers to deal with.

Implications

A lot of work needs to be done to convince teachers (pre-service and in-service) that the approach helps to develop students’ skills in the various subjects of which disciplinary literacy is an important constituent.

Original article retrieved from EBSCOHost.