Language: English
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Literacy and Life: Serendipity, Generosity, and Goodwill in the Academic Study of Literacy as Social Practices is a retrospective account of a serendipitous academic life that unfolded over 40 years as an organic interplay of fortunate happenstance, regular acts of collegial kindness, and a personal disposition to spontaneously follow ideas, events, and arguments wherever they led.
Early chapters explore how a chance encounter with Space Invaders players inspired an initial interest in literacy as a phenomenon, and how the work of Paulo Freire led to considering functional literacy and critical literacy as a social praxis. Middle chapters describe how experiences of literacy and everyday life in a rural Nicaraguan village, and exploring literacy in the context of the "new capitalism" of the 1990s, led to multiple rethinkings of critical literacy. Later chapters trace work done over more than 20 years with Michele Knobel around their shared interests in “new literacies” and pedagogical approaches to enhancing teacher research literacy.
Literacy and Life celebrates rich experiences of collegiality and goodwill throughout an entire trajectory of thinking, researching, writing, and teaching about literacy as social practices. Each chapter describes how the author’s activity and endeavor were mediated and powerfully enabled by generosity, collaborative support, sharing, and trust on the part of many people, from many different walks of life in many different countries. Literacy and Life bears witness to a life blessed with everyday experiences where beneficence was very much an enabling and personally liberating norm.
Perfect for courses such as: Literacy in Society; Literacy as Social Practice; Literacy Education: Research, Practice, Policy and Politics; Contemporary Literacies; Literature/Composition courses on Memoir; Approaches to Teaching and Learning in a Complex World; Thinking, Learning and Reflective Practice (Philosophy)
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword James Paul Gee
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Bibliography
About the Author
Index
Reviews & Endorsements
James Paul Gee, Regents Professor, Retired, Arizona State University"In Literacy and Life Colin Lankshear delivers an extraordinary, soul-stirring account of an iconic intellectual journey. The book demonstrates that true scholarship is never just about words on a page, but about serving communities, honoring lived experience, and understanding literacy as a vital social practice."
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Ilana Snyder, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia"Lankshear makes a rare and distinguished contribution to our understanding of literacy studies over changing times. Lankshear’s gift is his ability to show how equality and justice in education might yet prevail. His reflections are first hand: he has lived literacy and has something wise and humane to say in eloquent prose. A book that has both breadth and depth, Literacy and Life is an absorbing read from beginning to end."
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Dennis Sumara, Professor of Literacy Education, University of Calgary"During a week when I already had more than enough to do, I could not put down Literacy and Life—a masterclass in storytelling about how ideas and the people who make them co-emerge. If it is possible to write an intellectual biography that reads like a novel, Colin Lankshear has done it."
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Kevin Leander, Professor, Southern Denmark University"The New Literacy Studies have taken up many forms of self-understanding and representation: maps, comics, games, charts, stories, arguments. What Lankshear offers us in this case is a beautifully crafted poem. This epic account stitches together, simultaneously, an expansive social world of literacy scholarship that is also personally intimate and courageous. In Lankshear’s odyssey, we encounter all manner of literacy “stuff” through his ever-questioning eyes: Monte Fresco, the new basics, fast capitalism, Paulo Freire, Space Invaders, text as carĩno, attention structures, zines, Discourse, memes, and covert war. The complexities of Lankshear’s landscape, and the transformations of his personal understanding and responsive work while on the journey are saturated with deep insight, wit, and the generous grace of a seasoned scholar and poet."
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Donna E. Alvermann, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Language and Literacy Education, University of Georgia, Athens, USA"This book should be guaranteed a hands-off policy that makes manipulation by Generative Artificial Intelligence tools illegal. The author’s account of his own pathway into and through the New Literacy Studies movement is unique. From the first chapter onward, it reads like a novel, but I recognize the facts it documents because I lived through the same slice of history and interacted with Colin Lankshear both personally and professionally. His grounded stance on the politics and culture of literacy remains fresh in my memory of how a paradigm shift took place that is still alive and well. I have a sense this book will lead to a sequel, written in the same style. In the meantime, enjoy Colin’s gift of communicating with his readers, be they longtime friends or new acquaintances."
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