Challenging Dominant Conceptions of School Literacy Through a Theory of Language as Local Practice

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Literacy and Learning in Local Contexts

Abstract

This conceptual paper explores the potential of Pennycook’s (2010) theory of language as local practice to guide teachers and scholars who seek to challenge dominant, exclusive conceptions of what it means to be a literate person in schools. Focusing particularly on adolescent literacy practices, this paper argues that Pennycook’s contention that language practices and the spaces/places in which they occur are mutually constitutive suggests several potential means by which teachers and researchers might challenge the dominance of traditionally “academic” literacy practices in their daily work. This paper also explores the limitations of this framework and suggests areas where additional theorization will be helpful in mounting such challenges to dominant practice in research and in classrooms.

Author

• Christopher Kolb, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities