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last.updated 9.7.09

Histories of Literacy Education

Purpose

As with any theoretical discussions, it helps to know where we have been to get a better understanding of where we are going–or where we may be able to go. Thus we will ues this opportunity to both examine the rhetorical moves made in historical narratives and consider the implications of nineteenth-century literacy practices and literacy education for modern English Studies programs.

Lecture–Graduate Writing as the Burkean Parlor

The instructor will present Graduate Writing as the Burkean Parlor to explain the expectations for your writing throughout the course (and your graduate career).

Discussion–Literacy Histories as Narratives

Historians tell stories about our past. And each of these narratives, based on what the historians choose to emphasize or de-emphasize, has actors responding in particular ways to specific situations and exigencies. By examining the construction of these narratives, we learn just as much about the historical event as we do about the historians agenda or argument. As a result we will ask the following questions of Graff's, Brereton's, and Fox's histories...

• What questions do you have about these texts?
• What are the narratives each author uses? What themes get addressed in these texts? What do we learn about these themes?
• What are their respective arguments?
• Based upon these themes and arguments, what can we learn from these histories that are still applicable to the modern English department's treatment of literacy?

Activity: What does it mean to be literate in English Studies?

You all will be divided into four groups–some using IM–and given 25 minutes to discuss the following question: What does it mean to be be literate in English Studies? Another way to think about this question is to ask yourselves: What literacies should students who earn a BA in English Studies have learned by the time they graduate? Also address the question: How does this differ from what it means to be literate after earning one's undergraduate degree?

To answer this question, your group should contextualize your English Department. Your group will want to answer...

• What type of institution are you at?
• How does your English Department define English Studies? (You may choose to look at some programs to get an idea, but don't spend a lot of your time doing this).

Take notes on what your group discusses and be prepared to talk about it during the last part of class.