Candice Satchwell

Improving Learning in College : Rethinking Literacies Across the Curriculum

Part 1: What Are The Issues? 1. Literacies as a resource for learning in college Part 2: What Does The Research Tell Us? 2. What students do with reading and writing in their everyday lives 3. Ways of understanding literacy practices 4. Literacies across the college curriculum 5. Comparisons across contexts: The textual mediation of learning on Childcare courses Part 3: What Are The Implications? 6. Making a difference: The conception, implementation and analysis of changes in practice 7. Recontextualizing the research: Bilingual literacies for learning in Wales 8. Conceptualizing the interface between everyday and curriculum literacy practices 9. Implications for learning in college and beyond

The effect of beliefs about literacy on teacher and student expectations: a further education perspective

With reference to the Literacies for Learning in Further Education TLRP project, this article suggests that teachers’ and students’ views of students’ literacy capabilities are often influenced by a deficit model of literacy which does not take account of students’ everyday literacy practices. The article revisits some of the literature on ‘teacher expectancy’, which has indicated that students’ experience of education is affected by their teachers’ expectations of them. We propose that these expectations are often shaped in turn by beliefs and attitudes about teaching, learning and literacy. We suggest that a recognition and respect of students’ everyday literacy practices will enhance teachers’ understanding of their students and increase potential for negotiating the borders between vernacular and curriculum literacies, thereby improving students’ experience of Further Education.

“Carbon literacy practices”: textual footprints between school and home in children's construction of knowledge about climate change

This paper examines the notion of “carbon literacy practices” through reporting on a small research project aimed at understanding how children make sense of climate change, and their subsequent related practices at school, at home, and in the community. Drawing on a background in New Literacy Studies [e.g. Barton, D., Hamilton, M., and Ivanic, R., 2000. Situated literacies. London: Routledge; Satchwell, C., and Ivanic, R., 2009. Textual mediation of learning in Further Education. In: M.S. Thorpe, G. Biesta and R.G. Edwards, eds. Rethinking contexts for learning and teaching. London: Routledge; Satchwell, C., and Ivanic, R., 2010. Reading and writing the self as a college student: fluidity and ambivalence across contexts. In: K. Ecclestone, G. Biesta and M. Hughes, eds. Lost in transition? Change and becoming through the lifecourse. London: Routledge Falmer], the paper explores the relationships among childrens understanding of climate change, their literacy practices in relation to climate change, and their environmental social practices. Data are included from a project involving children and their families from three primary schools – with and without “eco-school” status, which asked: What and how do children learn about climate change at school? What and how do they learn at home and outside of school? How do these kinds of learning relate to each other? How is what they learn put into practice? Put simply, how might children become “carbon literate” citizens? In addition, the paper interrogates the notion of children as agents of change. The concept of children influencing the behaviour of others sounds convincing, but is based on a straightforward model, described by Shove [2010. Beyond the ABC: climate change policy and theories of social change. Environment and Planning A, 42, 1273–1285] as the ABC model – which is considered an effective strategy in health care (stopping parents smoking) and in marketing (persuading parents to buy certain products), but is not necessarily transferable to other contexts. Further, it is clear from work in literacy studies and education [Reinking, D., et al. eds., 1998. Handbook of literacy and technology: transformations in a post-typographic world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc; Gee, J., 2003. What video games have to teach us about literacy and learning. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan; Tuomi-Gröhn, T., and Engeström, Y., eds., 2003. Between school and work: new perspectives on transfer and boundary crossing. Amsterdam: Pergamon; Ivanič, R., et al., 2009. Improving Learning in College. London: Taylor & Francis] that the transfer of linguistic and semiotic signs is by no means equivalent to the transfer of knowledge, values or functions. In other words, a school lesson or a computer game about climate change and its effects does not automatically mean that a child will turn the lights off at home. The paper considers these issues with reference to qualitative data collected from observations, conversations on “Twitter”, focus groups, and individual interviews.

Literacy practices in the learning careers of childcare students

This paper draws from the Literacies for Learning in Further Education research project, funded through the Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Drawing on the empirical study of literacy practices in eight childcare courses in Scotland and England, we seek to demonstrate that, integral to the learning careers of students are literacy careers through which their learning is mediated. In the process, by drawing upon the lens of literacy, we also challenge some of the common‐sense understandings of learning in childcare. In particular, we suggest that the literacy practices of lower level courses can be more diverse than those of higher level courses, producing potentially confusing literacy careers for the students involved. We also highlight the complexity of the range of literacy practices in childcare, which can go unrecognised as requiring explicit tuition, and unacknowledged even when students use them appropriately. Courses in childcare are textually mediated in many different ways, which vary depending on the level of study. A greater acknowledgement of this multiplicity and diversity could lead to more appropriate forms of assessment, and more relevant ways of interpreting the curriculum. We argue that students on vocational courses have more complex literacy careers than is often assumed and that a literacies approach to learning helps to reveal this complexity.

Health social movements and the hybridisation of ‘cause regimes’: an ethnography of a British childbirth organisation

Abstract This article reports on an ethnographic study of the UK’s largest health advocacy organisation dedicated to pregnancy, childbirth and parenting, the National Childbirth Trust or NCT. Working from interview data, textual materials and fieldnotes, we articulate three key phases in the NCT’s historically shifting relationships to feminism, medicine, the state and neoliberal capitalism. The concept of folded cause regimes is introduced as we examine how these phases represent the hybridisation of the organisation’s original cause. We argue that for the NCT the resulting multiplicity of cause regimes poses significant challenges, but also future opportunities. The apparent contradictions between cause regimes offer important insights into contemporary debates in the sociology of health and illness and raises critical questions about the hybrid state of health advocacy today. Focussing on cause allows for a deeper understanding of the intense pressures of diversification, marketisation and the professionalisation of dissent faced by third-sector organisations under current social and economic conditions.

The mismeasure of a young man: an alternative reading of autism through a co-constructed fictional story

ABSTRACT The combination of academic article and the fictional story it contains represents an attempt to convey our combination of qualitative participatory research and collaborative creative writing as used in a project with a group of young people with disabilities. Through our story involving the fictional character Jasper, we have tried to distil some of the essence of his real-life inspiration, Peter, a young man with autism. At the same time, we recognise the impossibility of “pinning down” any character as a representation of any psychological condition. By questioning the boundaries between science and art, and by considering alternative ways of creating research reports, we present the story as an alternative reading of autism. We suggest that the value of fiction in this context is that it allows a reframing of problems while presenting readers with an accessible means of connecting with others across disciplinary, methodological, and social divides.

Chapter 2.3: Children and Young People in Dialogue with Researchers to Create Connections in the Community and the Classroom

Understanding concepts from the perspective of the learner is a crucial but often overlooked notion in education. We argue that children’s concepts are based in a logic which is not always identified or acknowledged by adults, and therefore the children’s perspective is not always taken into account when designing the curriculum. Our paper addresses pedagogical approaches and bridging diversity and communities. Examples from our research illustrate our agreement with Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum, New York, 1970) that: “One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people.”

Reading circles, novels and adult reading development

policy and then becomes a critical education researcher. In a third section of the text, the research recorded takes on a more theoretical approach to evaluate School–University Research Partnerships, the identity of the academic researcher and issues of virtue and ethics as part of a critique of New Labour’s modernising ideology. Chapter 8 in this section explores the role of master’s level study as part of the training route for ‘Teach First’ recruits into teaching. The policy context is delineated and a small-scale research project designed to investigate what value and benefits teachers identified from participating in M level research. This research identifies the benefits of M level study not only in the opportunity it provided to engage with issue and debate but for the resilience it gave the practitioners to deal with the growing pressures and tensions developing in schools as a culture of performativity takes hold. This book represents a worthy endeavour in presenting the research interests of a range of practitioners and theorists. It is valuable not only for the insight it gives into the research journey of the 11 authors whose research is presented here, but it also offers concrete and research informed evidence of the changing educational landscape and the impact of policy iterations on the professional lives of those who work in the field of education. It should be a text that graces all university library shelves and one identified as compulsory reading for all Ph.D. and Ed Doctoral students as they plan their research design. I would also go so far as to say that it sets the standard for high-quality student research. Gunter and her fellow editors have produced a book that clearly delineates the quality and rigour that all universities should expect from doctoral-level research. They have set the standard to which all researchers should aspire when they start on their doctoral journey.

O-136 Consulting With Children Prior To Designing Research: Is It Really Worth The Effort?

Background and aim Although many studies still either do not engage service users or only do so in a tokenistic way, service user engagement is now seen as best practice within research design. Not only is it respectful to engage service users, but it can also identify potential barriers, explore solutions and generate more robust research. In this paper we explore our experience of working with child service users as we developed a study exploring children’s pain literacy. Methods Using Appreciative Inquiry we worked with 38 children (5–17 years) in schools, hospitals and home settings. During our consultations with the children we explored the feasibility of the methods we were considering for data collection, asked them for suggestions of alternative approaches and explored core aspects of the observation element. Results The children enjoyed the use of the collage-based data generation activities we planned. In response to our questions about whether they thought other children would feel safe talking about their pain; they felt that such would work best on a one-to-one basis or in small groups. They provided feedback on where we should position ourselves in ward settings whilst undertaking non-participant observation of children during the post-operative period. They made practical suggestions about how children could assent and withdraw from the study. Conclusions From our experience our consultations were invaluable and worth the effort; our final design was more robust and grounded in the children’s realities.