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Literacy, subjectivity and the gender divide: 'The freedom of writing implies the freedom of the citizen' (Sartre, 1948)
Abstract
The aim of the research project was to explore new ways in which we might evaluate boys’ and girls’ engagement and ‘performance’ in English at Key Stage 3. This paper draws on recent theories regarding literacy, identity and gender and includes an analysis of short stories written by boys and girls aged 12‐ to 13‐years‐old. An exploration of literacy, which relates here to the pupils’ treatment of theme, style and structure, will develop further an understanding of their ability to access the imagination and express original creative ideas. This discussion suggests ways to develop the teaching of creative writing and explores to what extent reading pupils’ narrative fiction might reveal their cultural literacy.
... 68). It is perhaps not surprising to find that successfully literate boys are not attracted by "boy-friendly" teaching pedagogies and strategies when, as Howell (2008) says, "There is little satisfaction in reading a short passage but never a full novel or story. Similarly, writing the opening paragraphs to a detective or gothic story cannot be as rewarding as the creation of a whole text" (p. ...
... For example, there were two boys in our study of high-achieving students who commented on their enjoyment of writing. Yet, this conflicts with the idea that boys "find writing hard, do not enjoy it and make limited progress" (Ofsted, 2009) Similarly, successfully literate boys do engage with discussions, reading and writing on emotions, empathise with characters and are as prepared as girls to develop elaborated contexts for their stories (Howell, 2008;Martino & Pallotta-Chiarolli, 2003). Observations of our high-achieving students in an English class where the lesson revolved around developing a story from a picture of the Lady of Shallot showed the boys had more to say on a text that had a female central character than the girls. ...
The National Assessment of Educational Progress statistics show that boys are underachieving in literacy compared to girls. Attempts to redress the problem in various Global North countries and particularly Australia and the United Kingdom have failed to make any impact. However, there are boys who are doing well in literacy. The aim of this article is to explore how high-status constructions of masculinity are maintained alongside “successfully literate” identities. Using existing studies of successfully literate boys and data collected from an investigation into high achievers and popularity, the article will show how a “real boy” construction of masculinity is being reworked by some groups of academically successful boys to produce “Renaissance Masculinity.” The argument here is that tackling the gender gap in literacy requires attention to social success and aesthetic factors as much as to the structural variables of gender, social class and “race.”
... Therefore, one purpose of this study was to evaluate children's ability to develop a sense of structure in a 'whole' text. Emerging patterns which might suggest gender differences in the Primary stage were also explored as in a previous story telling project with older pupils [5]. ...
... From these small samples some similarities and differences between the boys' and the girls' compositions regarding theme, character, setting and structural devices have been identified. These correlate to a certain extent to findings from a previous pilot project and may inform future pedagogical intervention, as suggested elsewhere, in order to encourage boys' sustained engagement with whole text [5]. ...
This paper draws on theory and educational policy about creativity and literacy; it includes an analysis of short stories composed orally by boys and girls aged 8-11 years. Data was collected during two small scale exploratory projects conducted in British Primary Schools, one in the North of England and one on a Hebridean island off the coast of Scotland. A consideration of literacy, which relates here to the pupils’ treatment of theme, character, setting and structure, will help to develop an understanding of their ability to access the imagination, express original ideas and compose a coherent, whole text. This discussion will explore how story telling may enhance children’s sense of identity and cultural literacy; it also points to some routes for practical implementation of creative teaching and learning.
... W dziedzinie pedagogiki zwraca się uwagę na wartość cyfrowego opowiadania jako sposobu umożliwiającego twórcze podejście do pisemnej i ustnej ekspresji. Dzięki jego wykorzystaniu zarówno uczniowie, jak i nauczyciele mogą włączyć informacje, wiedzę i doświadczenia, aby lepiej zrozumieć siebie, otaczający ich świat i rozwijać zdolność twórczego wyrażania się poprzez wzbogacanie swojego myślenia (Howell 2008). Digital storytelling łączy cztery metody nauki dzięki: angażowaniu uczestników, refleksji sprzyjającej głębokiemu przyswajaniu wiedzy, oparciu na projektach jako metodzie nabywania umiejętności oraz skutecznemu scaleniu technologii z procesem nauczania (Barrett 2006: 1). ...
This article presents a survey conducted by the author in order to understand
the emotions that accompany students during online learning in relation to having their cameras on. In addition, the students were also asked their opinions about the usefulness of cameras, the differences in being visible online and in the classroom and practices related to having cameras on. The results of the study both confirmed and expanded on previous findings of other researchers on the sources of anxiety and discomfort associated with showing oneself. At the same time, suggestions were formulated for encouraging students to turn on cameras, which can increase the comfort of all students in the class and the lecturer.
... This study in art and design can find correlations in Bethan Howell's research in creative writing; Howell refers to Sartre as a theoretical basis for exploring transformative representations of the self in education (Howell 2008). However, I intend to demonstrate that conceptualisation of the immanent present/future self through a space for creative free will is viable in art education through an equality framework. ...
Learning in the arts has the potential to be a co‐constructive means of inquiry for students, which enables experience of the self in relation to practice. This research explores a practice‐based investigation of agency as self‐definition, amid normative social constructions of the subject. The focus for data analysis is a project taught to BTEC Level 2 Art and Design students in a deprived area of North London (2010–12). A dialogue is presented between the implications for Sartre's theory of free‐will and a Foucauldian critique of social construction. Applications for this comparative theory are discussed here as a form of resistance to the compression of learning identities in art and design, and across the curriculum. This is an approach which encourages emancipated self‐representation, acknowledging cultural diversity, for a discursive environment viable at all levels of study. In exploring the data, a positioning of free‐will with social responsibility is identified as an inclusive forum for creative understanding, and the tolerance of difference.
... Indeed, theoretically informed identity work on written texts has focused on non-fiction (Ivanic 1998). In contrast, studies of creative writing have not developed a theoretical framework for identity, instead focusing on 'intertextuality' (Pantaleo 2007) or on students' transcending their own fixed identities (Howell 2008). Bakhtin's bridging of sociolinguistics and literary criticism gave me a means of conceptualising the boys'writing as discourse; as Gee (2011) emphasises, it is through participation in discourse that identity is manifest. ...
Focusing on the creative writing of Year 6 boys as they make the transition to Year 7, this article establishes a theoretical model for creative writing as response. In line with Bakhtin's notion of utterances as ‘interpersonal’ (1986), the model demonstrates the complexity of creative writing – the text is influencing of and influenced by an author's participation in ‘figured worlds’ (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner and Cain 1998), but also influencing of and influenced by future respondents. This article suggests that ‘weaker framing’ (Bernstein 2000) in creative writing pedagogy has the potential to alter boys' identities and refigure their worlds.
... Spence has taken Tobin's useful term 'generous reading' (Tobin 2000)a framework for considering media-based non-fiction writing in terms of pupil identityto make some overarching comments about gender, story content and structure (Spence 2008). And Howell takes a structuralist approach to analysing Key Stage 3 pupils' writing in terms of the extent to which they are able to transcend their own (presumably fixed) identities in the construction of a narrative point of view (Howell 2008). The lack of research into the ways in which creative writing can offer authorial agency is perhaps due to the problematic nature of the creative text. ...
Identity studies relating to writing in educational setting have tended to focus on the analysis of non-fiction texts. Aligning a Bakhtinian view of language with the concept of identity as participation in ‘figured worlds' [Holland et al. 1998, Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds. London: Harvard University Press], this research paper puts forward a way of thinking about Year 6 boys' creative writing as identity performance. Undertaking participant observation in a co-educational inner city primary school, the researcher writes the opening of a play script which is completed by two groups of boys. Subsequent analysis of the boys' play scripts indicates the ways in which creative writing can be used to disrupt hegemonic masculinity and potentially refigure localised worlds.
he series for learning Polish for children in Germany From Another Fairy Tale consists of textbooks, exercises, a key with a methodological guide for learners, as well as tasks on the educational platform. The authors of the materials made sure not only that the tasks they designed supported the linguistic and cultural development of the recipients, but also that they responded to the various needs of learners, and thus had a positive impact on motivation to learn. The way children and young people react to various stimuli became both an inspiration and a challenge in the creation of this glottodidactic proposal. This article briefly presents what multimodality and multimodal competence are, then discusses the concept of the textbook and focuses primarily on the multimodal aspects present in selected types of tasks. Their analysis leads to the conclusion that taking into account and using multimodality in teaching materials not only makes working with them more attractive, but also positively affects the development of various linguistic competences of children (as defined in the CEFR). It also deepens their understanding of culture - their own, common, surrounding culture. It allows students to become mediators and intercultural facilitators. It seems that this may be one of the key skills in the modern world.
Keywords: multimodality, textbook, From another fairy tale, Polish as a foreigner, multimodal analysis
A doctoral dissertation discusses the use of comics as a literary-didactic method for reducing gender differences in reading literacy at the primary level of education. Differences between genders in school environment often occur in the field of reading literacy. Literacy is one of the basic skills of the individual need for effective function in modern society. Reading literacy is a type of literacy composed by various factors affected by teacher's observance of modern principles, guidelines and selection of methods used in class that represents the difference between achieving or not achieving objectives set in curriculum.
The main purpose of study was to verify quasi-experimentally the effects of using comics as a literary-didactic method for reducing gender differences in reading literacy at the primary level of education. The sample consisted of 143 students from second to fifth grade from two Slovenian primary schools in a rural environment, of which 73 students participated in the experimental group and 70 students in the control group. We designed a program of using comics as a literary-didactic method in class and we have examined its effect on reading literacy at the primary level of education. Comics as a literary-didactic method were implemented in current educational practice at Slovene and Art lessons in order to verify its effect on reading literacy, attitude towards reading, reading motivation, and reading interests.
The hypotheses were not confirmed. Our predictions were based on researches carried out on samples of older students while results obtained are based on younger students and have shown the use of comics in the classroom must be designed differently than anticipated. Using comics at the primary level of education has proved to be very complex and should be explored and planned by taking into account primary level students' age and abilities. Guidelines for further researches and work in the classroom are provided.
Bilingual education has been based on theories and research stemming from fields of linguistics, psychology, first and second language acquisition while the study of second language acquisition requires a change of paradigm that involves the social and cultural views of language and literacy learning. Within the context of this analysis, the paradigm in question includes the conception of literacy processes based on the ideas of identity, subjectivity, and agency. This study used classroom observations, open interviews, and students' documents to conceptualize the literacy processes of Spanish/English learners in a bilingual K-12 school in Colombia. The data of this study indicate that students have a sense of their identity as bilingual learners. It should be remarked that the variables of these concepts greatly depend on the school culture's official first and second agenda for literacy education, which often overlooks the facts on how students understand their circumstances of being bilingual and biliterate.
Cyberbullying in the adolescent years can have a devastating impact on mental health and the social and emotional development of teens. Responses to the issue have been widespread. While many whole school programmes include elements such as role modelling, few interventions appear to use a participatory approach with adolescents. This chapter considers the use of narrative based participatory approaches that capture and utilise the student voice. It is suggested that these approaches be added as creative, complementary components of whole school anti-bullying programmes. Drawing on Turner’s concept of liminality and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed model, we propose a creative process that places the adolescent voice at the centre of anti-bullying initiatives and advocate for a return to the development of more bottom-up approaches to school-based interventions. In line with United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Articles 12 and 13, we suggest that adopting a participatory approach that invites and supports adolescents to tell their own stories is an opportunity for schools to give voice to students and to consult them in making decisions about themselves. The practice of drawing on students’ own stories and personal accounts can have a cathartic and empowering effect on participants. We contend that such an approach may provide more powerful points of entry to discussions on cyberbullying, and ultimately a more transformative experience for participants, than that offered by approaches that preclude the student voice or by participatory approaches that require less creative input and less social and emotional investment.
Austerity politics in Britain are edging towards compressed learning and teaching identities, driven by competition for resources and normative standards. Policy changes since 2010 have impacted particularly on the arts, and have had an adverse effect on cultural diversity across society. This situation has international resonance for those encountering protectionist reactions to globalisation. Practitioners in creative fields face dilemmas of agency, as they seek to maintain the presence of their roles, and ability to make choices. This paper focuses on how practitioners in post-compulsory art and design and gallery education challenge hegemonic constructions of the self through practice. It reflects on Herne’s research of relational differences between teachers and gallery educators, raising points for connective interventions as boundary work. A comparative lens draws upon theories of agency to support critically engaged practice. Empirical data is investigated through Sartre’s concept of free will, and Foucauldian negotiations of autonomy.
This article maps the diverse theoretical disciplines that inform writing research and in particular, how these disciplines have researched the relationship between writing and gender. This is presented against the background of a changing theoretical landscape in research in gender. In particular, it will consider the paradigm shift from discourses of difference and disadvantage to discourses of diversity. Research on writing has not always acknowledged this changing lens, and gender research rarely focuses on writing. The aim therefore is to map out these different approaches, explore how they have impacted writing classrooms and to add to the call for a reconfiguring of gender in writing research as a complex and diverse category rather than as a fixed and essential characteristic we each possess.
This study examined the effects of a collaborative creative writing project on identity formation and overall language proficiency development among advanced Hebrew students. In an exercise called ‘The Zoning Committee’, college students created the fictional Israeli-American town of Beit Shemesh, located in northern Michigan. Qualitative data collection methods consisting of semi-structured group interviews, observation and text analysis of story drafts showed that the writing project gave students an opportunity to explore significant issues about the Jewish community and their personal lives as manifested in themes and motifs in their fiction. In addition to the social and intrapersonal benefits, the project was beneficial to language proficiency development: it increased confidence and classroom morale, required strategy use, improved writing level and honed listening and speaking skills.
This article explores the gender dynamics of boys' responses to one Particular aspect of English teaching. oral performance work. It focuses on the possibility that the requirement to perform publicly in dramatic and other oral tasks may be an important factor in the rejection of English by many boys, and may contribute to boys' relatively poor achievement in English. The article provides a study of boys' engagement in English oral activities in two classrooms, and identifies a number of factors influencing boys' English learning. In particular, it shows that there is no simple relation between the performance requirements of English learning activities and boys' disengagement with English.
Outline of a Theory of Practice is recognized as a major theoretical text on the foundations of anthropology and sociology. Pierre Bourdieu, a distinguished French anthropologist, develops a theory of practice which is simultaneously a critique of the methods and postures of social science and a general account of how human action should be understood. With his central concept of the habitus, the principle which negotiates between objective structures and practices, Bourdieu is able to transcend the dichotomies which have shaped theoretical thinking about the social world. The author draws on his fieldwork in Kabylia (Algeria) to illustrate his theoretical propositions. With detailed study of matrimonial strategies and the role of rite and myth, he analyses the dialectical process of the 'incorporation of structures' and the objectification of habitus, whereby social formations tend to reproduce themselves. A rigorous consistent materialist approach lays the foundations for a theory of symbolic capital and, through analysis of the different modes of domination, a theory of symbolic power.
Currently considerable interest is being shown in creativity by the government and bodies such as QCA and Ofsted. A ‘creativity agenda’ has emerged with important implications for teaching and learning in schools. Drawing on research literature, as well as work completed by Secondary PGCE English and Drama trainees, this paper aims to provoke discussion about how creativity in education is defined and the impact of more explicit understandings of creativity in classrooms.
This paper argues that it's a mistake to aim for equality of performance in English. Boys and girls are differently literate, and need to play to their greatest strengths as well as widen their repertoire. If boys are to perform better, teachers need to guide them away from replicating restricted narrative models. Within narrative writing, however, they can learn much from a skills approach to writing - despite nature, culture or zomboid aliens.
Meetings with the minister: five children’s authors on the National Curriculum
- B Ashley
- A Fine
- J Gavin
- C Powling
- P Pullman
Reading: National Centre for Language and Literacy
- B Ashley
- A Fine
- J Gavin
- C Powling
- P Pullman