Holistic Literacies and Democracy in Education

• In Event: Enhancing Children's Experience of School: Happiness, Care, and Holistic Pedagogy

Abstract

By examining how holistic educators, in the words of Wilhelm and Novak (2011), “teach literacy for love and wisdom,” this paper argues that essential to truly democratic schooling are two pedagogical frameworks: multiliteracies and holistic curriculum. Lived experiences give students what Gee (2001) called 'discourses': identity kits brought to school. These lived experiences involve the whole child, not merely reading and writing activities, which are commonly misconstrued as skills divorced from social context. This misconstrual is what Street (1993) called the 'autonomous model' of literacy. Diverse democracies must transcend conceptions of literacy as autonomous, and instead acknowledge students’ lived experiences. This work also shows that elementary teachers have more holistic approaches to literac(ies) than secondary teachers.

Author

• Mishael (Misha) Abarbanel, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education