Elaine Millard

Words with Pictures: The Role of Visual Literacy in Writing and its Implication for Schooling

This paper reports on two studies undertaken independently by the authors, both of which provide indicative evidence that the system of target setting in writing is exerting an influence on children’s perception of what is involved in authoring meaningful texts. In particular, the current emphasis on technical accuracy and neatness in handwriting has worked to limit the role of drawing in children’s construction of text. The authors suggest that this tendency has adverse consequences for the development of pupil confidence as the authors of their own meanings, particularly marked in boys. They argue that teachers and educators need to be more understanding of differences in the modes in which pupils choose to make sense of their social and cultural contexts.

The Means of Correct Training? Teachers, Foucault and disciplining

ABSTRACT The explanatory potential of Foucaults theory of disciplinary power is considered in relation to recent innovations in educational policy in schools in England. Foucault maintains that ‘correct training’ is central to the maintenance of disciplinary power; the nature of current changes being forced upon initial teacher education institutions by central government offers further illustration of the explanatory power of Foucaults theory. The argument as a whole is used to illustrate the importance of developing theoretical perspectives in teacher education.

To enter the castle of fear: engendering children's story writing from home to school at KS2

This paper describes a small‐scale writing project in which a class of KS 2 primary pupils were invited to import their own narrative interests into a task designed by their teacher and the researcher within the constraints of the National Literacy Strategy. By employing an adventure genre, based on problem and puzzle solving, pupils were encouraged to introduce familiar scenarios and characters from their favourite stories in books, comics, videos or computer games. The work produced has been analyzed to highlight the different ways in which boys and girls engaged with key aspects of narrative and how this enabled discussion of gendered literacy practices in which boys and girls held an equal stake. The author discusses the importance of developing strategies by means of which childrens understanding and transformations of their preferred modes of narrative pleasures can be housed within the current literacy framework.

Books for Babies means books for parents too: the benefits of situating the earliest stages of literacy in the framework of the wider community

This paper describes some findings from the Books for Babies project, a central strand of Derbyshire’s county-wide literacy initiative, Read On – Write Away! (ROWA!). The original project, initiated by the Derbyshire Libraries and Heritage Service in 1995 was extended through ROWA! by being incorporated into wider ranging community literacy provision. This paper describes preliminary evidence that indicates that there are additional benefits for other family group members when a Book Start project includes follow-up activities and is connected to wider ranging community literacy initiatives.