Literacy and Empowerment: The Meaning Makers

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The first volume of the series "language and ideology", this work explores "mature" literacy. Patrick L. Courts argues that while by society's standards many people can read well, they are unable to create meaning from the world of oral and written language. His theory derives from psycho- and sociolinguistics, cognitive psychology, philosophy, literary criticism and "whole language" theory. Courts criticizes programmed activities, texts and workbooks - challenging the control that commercial textbook publishers and test-makers exert on education. He shuns overemphasis on methods and offers an alternative approach firmly grounded in theory and aimed at empowering teachers and students. Courts begins with a discussion of liberatory pedagogy, drawing from "whole language" theory, the social semiotics of Halliday, reader-response theory and the ideas of Heidegger and Derrida. The subsequent methodological chapters build a case for what Courts calls a "conservative revolution" in literacy education: teachers combining a sound base of theory with methodologies to tap students' generative, creative powers. Courts's methodology aims to empower people as "meaning makers". This book is valuable to teachers and administrators, textbook publishers and students of education.

Reviews

"This is an absolutely excellent book. . . . What is truly remarkable about [it] is that it not only recognizes that theory and practice are mutually informing and dialetically constituted, but that it works on the level of critical pedagogy. . . . I will use it myself with both graduates and undergraduates. I feel it is a book that is sorely needed."-Peter McLaren Associate Professor of Educational Leadership Miami University

Author Bio

PATRICK L. COURTS is Professor of English at the State University of New York at Fredonia. He is author of The Creative Word and has published numerous articles on literacy.