What Do We Mean When We Say Disciplinary Literacy? Exploring a Messy Construct

• In Event: Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Understanding Intruction, Motivation, and Learning in Literacy

Abstract

Given the recent rise in the field of disciplinary literacy, it is important to clarify and deeply understand the construct itself. This content analysis is focused on the past decade of publications in high-impact factor literacy journals that focus on disciplinary literacy. Preliminary findings indicate patterns of publishing on this topic in journals that are more for practitioners and that tend toward more qualitative work, and while there are many theoretical articles, there are fewer studies, and almost all are very small scale. The studies that do exist tend to focus on single disciplinary areas and instruction within those areas. No studies analyzed thus far have questioned the efficacy of disciplinary literacy or examined it in comparison to other approaches.

Authors

• Christina L. Dobbs, Boston University

• Jacy C. Ippolito, Salem State University

• Megin Charner-Laird, Salem State University