Blog Post V - Research Paper Proposal

That was tough writing. Hopefully the paper itself will be smoother.

Margarita Kravchenko

Theories and Models of Literacy

Prof. Barbara Gleason

11/7/13

Research Essay Proposal

            I have chosen to research the works of John Dewey, the man who was responsible for transforming America’s educational system. Originally my intention was to focus on the ideas of the great philosophers like Plato and Jean Jacques Rousseau; I planned to compare and contrast them and trace their influence – or the lack of it – on the modern educational system. The reason I chose to write about this is, first, I love history, and I am always interested in finding out how things came to be what they are now. Also, I find it fascinating that the ideas of the distant past can still be traced in the works of modern thinkers. However, after doing some initial research, I decided to shift gears and focus solely on the works of John Dewey. It seems that his ideas are more closely connected with the various concepts of literacy. Dewey’s work could be summarized by a phrase “learning by doing”; he aimed at integrating schools with society and creating a curriculum that would include solving real-life problems. This content-based approach is similar to the view of literacy as social practices; according to this theory, the meanings embedded in spoken or written words are viewed as social constructs. This fits rather well with Dewey’s ideas of making education functional and applicable to the every day’s challenges. One of his essays is titled My Pedagogic Creed, and one of the very first principles of that creed is belief in that “all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race” (19). In other words, the goal of education is to provide the individuals with the tools they need to be a part of the “social consciousness” of the society. This, in turn, ties in closely with the concept of functional literacy which defines literacy “in terms of its social purposes, the demands made on individuals within a given society, to function within that society, to participate and to achieve their own goals” (Papen quoting Baynham, 9).

            To sum it up, it seems that Dewey’s ideas can be traced in two rather different approaches to literacy: functional literacy and literacy as social practices. While functional literacy exists as a set of skills necessary for an individual to successfully function within a society, with an emphasis on employment and economic development, literacy as social practices emphasizes personal development and encompasses context within which the individuals are performing their daily activities. Could such dissimilar ideas have stemmed from the writings of one man? Which view of literacy could lay a stronger claim on the connection to Dewey’s works? And finally, how did Dewey’s idea of integrating schools with society fare in relation to adult literacy learners? These questions will be the main ones I will focus on answering. In my research I will rely both on primary and secondary sources, such as works by Dewey himself as well as works by authors like Uta Papen and E.D. Hirsh, Jr on various theories of literacy.

Annotated Bibliography:

Dewey, John. Dewey on Education: Selections with an Introduction and Notes by Martin. S. Dworkin. New York: Teachers College Press, 1959. This publication consists of Dewey’s several writings on education, including My Pedagogic Creed, The School and Society, The Child and the Curriculum and Progressive Education and the Science of Education. Dworkin’s compilation provides the look at Dewey’s ideas about progressive education and the interaction between schools and society.

Dewey, John. Experience and Education. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997. In this volume Dewey focuses on the connection between experience and education. He postulates that education – or, rather, learning – should not be a mere “acquisition of what already is incorporated in books and in the heads of the elders” (19). Instead, the educators are tasked with creating the classroom experiences that will provide the student with a desire to learn more. In other words, Dewey posits that education, and the process of learning, should be relevant to students’ lives and interests.

Hirsch Jr., E.D. Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Boston: Houghton Muffin; 1987. In this controversial work, Hirsch coins the concept of cultural literacy, shared background knowledge that he thinks is crucial for a successful and well-balanced development of individuals. He brings in Dewey as an example of short-sightedness claiming that Dewey “mistook a half-truth for the whole. He placed too much faith in children’s ability to learn general skills from a few typical experiences and too hastily rejected ‘the piling up of information’” (xv). Hirsch posits that there exists a need for a new educational theory that would rely heavily on the presence of “specific, communally shared information” in the curriculum.

Papen, Uta. Adult Literacy as Social Practice: More than Skills. London and New York: Routledge, 2005. A social anthropologist, Papen studies literacy as cultural and social practice. In this book, she investigates the sociocultural view of literacy, namely, how this theory compares to other theories of literacy and how literacy is being taught in adult basic education. Papen also argues that “teachers and curriculum developers have much to gain from understanding the role of literacy in learners’ lives, in relation to such central aspects as their families, their social networks and their jobs” (2). In other words, Papen posits that social life of adults can have a major impact on how they learn.

Sontag, Frederick. “Science and Evolution in Education: Dewey’s Dream and Reality”. Journal of General Education 17:2 (1965): 91-100. Sontag, a philosophy professor, examines Dewey’s views on science in the context of evaluating his theory of education. Sontag questions Dewey’s “confidence that all natural sciences can and should serve as models for the social sciences, and that both in turn can provide the context for the humanistic study” (92). Sontag posits that science (and natural sciences) is not always the solution to the problems of education – and life in general.