Literacy and empowerment : the meaning makers
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Literacy and empowerment : the meaning makers
（Series in language and ideology / edited by Donaldo Macedo）
Bergin & Garvey, 1991
- pbk. : alk. paper
Available at 4 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-176) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The first volume of the series Language and Ideology, this work explores mature literacy. Patrick L. Courts argues that while by society's standards many people can read well, they are unable to create meaning from the world of oral and written language. His theory derives from psycho- and sociolinguistics, cognitive psychology, philosophy, literary criticism, and whole language theory. Courts criticizes programmed activities, texts, and workbooks--challenging the control that commercial textbook publishers and test-makers exert on education. He shuns overemphasis on methods and offers an alternative approach firmly grounded in theory and aimed at empowering teachers and students.
Courts begins with a discussion of liberatory pedagogy, drawing from whole language theory, the social semiotics of Halliday, reader-response theory, and the ideas of Heidegger and Derrida. The subsequent methodological chapters build a case for what Courts calls a conservative revolution in literacy education: teachers combining a sound base of theory with methodologies to tap students' generative, creative powers. Courts's methodology aims to empower people as meaning makers. This book is valuable to teachers and administrators, textbook publishers, and students of education.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Donaldo Macedo Introduction Language and Literacy An Historical Perspective: or, How We Got from Here to There Anxiety and Language in Society: or, Penetrating the Impenetrable Readers and (as) Texts Readers as Authors Literacy beyond the English Class Bibliography Index
by "Nielsen BookData"