Literacy pedagogical content knowledge

Love, K. (2010). Literacy pedagogical content knowledge in the secondary curriculum. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 5(4), 338–355. doi:/10.1080/1554480X.2010.521630

Background

The author highlights the challenge of raising the consciousness of prospective secondary teachers about their roles in supporting their students in the advanced literacy demands of their subject specializations. The author presents three key components of literacy pedagogical content knowledge:

• knowledge about how spoken and written language are structured for learning;

• recognition that subject areas have their own characteristic language forms and hence entail distinctive literacy practices; and

• a capacity to design learning and teaching strategies which take into account subject-specific literacies and language practices.

Aims

The researcher proposed that secondary teachers required an understanding of the pervasive role of language and literacy in learning and wanted to show that, after even a short but intense input, one group of prospective teachers with no prior knowledge of language developed a capacity to plan content area learning with an informed consciousness of the role of language and literacy in the learning of diverse groups of students.

Sample

The sample comprised just over 300 teacher candidates (TCs) on a Master of Teaching Programme at the University of Melbourne in 2008.

Method

The author reports on the development of teacher candidates as they complete units of the Masters course, drawing on teacher reflections as part of the process.

Findings

Across the cohort of 300 TCs the vast majority demonstrated a similar awareness of:

• how language, both spoken and written, mediates the development of important forms of disciplinary reasoning; and

• how language strategies support secondary students in ways that might avoid the high incidences of disengagement from schooling.

Implications

Teachers can incorporate previously alien knowledge about language into their professional repertoires. However, there are challenges such as the extent to which teachers absorb externally produced ‘expert’ knowledge depending on complex factors such as the context of the teaching, the perceived relevance of the ‘expert’ knowledge, the degree of autonomy available, the opportunities for sustained professional development, and the presence or absence of a like-minded professional community. Another challenge the author claims is that secondary teachers have a traditionally strong resistance to incorporating language and literacy practices into their teaching.

Original article retrieved from Taylor & Francis Online.