This paper aims to contribute to educators' understanding of the contextualist nature of literacy, specifically in its relation to school learning. A particular view of literacy is proposed, as comprising three intermeshing dimensions: the operational, the cultural, and the critical. A notion of subject-specific literacy is presented which acknowledges the significance of the school subjects as specific contexts for learning and meaning and, via concepts drawn from recent linguistic-semiotic work, seeks to provide greater purchase on the nature of subject-area learning. A case is made for a strategic emphasis on writing in school learning, and also for the importance of notions of register and genre for writing pedagogy generally. The paper is to be seen in relation to considerable work, in Australia and overseas, in the area of language and learning theory, and has a whole-curriculum orientation.
ApplebeeA. N. (1981). Writing in the Secondary School. Urbana, IL: National Council for the Teaching of English.
2.
ApplebeeA. N. (1984). Contexts for learning to write: Studies of Secondary School Instruction. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
3.
BarnesD. (1976). From Communication to Curriculum. Harmondsworth, MX: Penguin.
4.
BeazleyK. (Chair). (1984). Education in Western Australia: Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Education in Western Australia. Perth: WA Education Department.
5.
BennettB. (1983). Writers and their writing, 15–17. In FreedmanA.PringleI.YaldenJ. (Eds.), Learning to write: First Language/Second Language. London: Longman.
6.
BernsteinB. (1971). Class, Codes and Control (Vol. 1). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
7.
BoomerG.(in press). Reading the whole curriculum. In GreenB. (Ed.), Metaphors and Meanings: Essays on English Teaching by Garth Boomer. Adelaide: Australian Association for the Teaching of English.
8.
BrandtD. (1985). Versions of literacy. College English, 47 (2), 128–38.
9.
BrittonJ. (1970). Language and Learning. Harmondsworth, MX: Penguin.
10.
BrunerJ. (1984). Language, mind and reading. In GoelmanH.ObergA.SmithF. (Eds.), Awakening to Literacy. London: Heinemann Educational Books.
11.
CambourneB. (1985) Change and conflict in literacy education: What it's all about. Australian Journal of Reading, 8 (2), 77–87.
12.
CherryholmesC. H. (1983). Knowledge, power and discourse in social studies education. Boston University Journal of Education, 165 (4), 341–58.
13.
ChristieF. (1984a). Varieties of written discourse. In Language Studies: Children Writing, Study Guide (ECT 418). Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press.
14.
ChristieF. (1984b, August). Young children's writing development: The relationship of written genres to curriculum genres. Paper presented at the Language in Education Conference, Brisbane.
15.
ChristieF. (1985a). Language and schooling. In TchudiS. (Ed.), Language, Schooling and Society. Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook.
16.
ChristieF. (1985b). Language in learning: The hidden curriculum of schooling. Deakin University, Geelong, Vic. (mimeo.).
17.
Cook-GumperzJ.Literacy and schooling: An unchanging equation? In Cook-GumperzJ. (Ed.), The Social Construction of Literacy. London: Cambridge University Press.
18.
DonaldJ. (1983). How illiteracy became a problem (and literacy stopped being one). Boston University Journal of Education, 165 (1), 35–52.
19.
EmigJ. (1983). The Web of Meaning. Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook.
20.
GirouxH. A. (1983). Theory and Resistance in Education. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey.
21.
GreenB. (1987). Gender, genre and writing pedagogy. In ReidI. (Ed.), The Place of Genre in Learning: Current Debates (Centre for Studies in Literary Education, Typereader Publications No. 1). Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press.
22.
HallidayM. A. K. (1975). Learning how to mean. London: Edward Arnold.
23.
HallidayM. A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.
24.
HarsteJ. (1983). Read better, write better, reason better: Literacy in transaction. In AndersonJ.LovettK. (Eds.), Teaching Reading and Writing to Every Child. Adelaide: Australian Reading Association.
25.
HarsteJ.WoodwardV.BurkeC. (1984). Language Stories and Literacy Lessons. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational.
26.
HenryJ. A. (1984). Curriculum change in classrooms: What can be within the context of what is. Curriculum Perspectives. 4 (1), 35–42.
27.
KemmisS.ColeP.SuggettD. (1983). Towards the Socially Critical School. Melbourne: Victorian Institute of Secondary Education.
28.
KressG. (1982). Learning to write. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
29.
KressG. (1985a). Linguistic Processes in Sociocultural Practice. Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press.
30.
KressG. (1985b). Socio-linguistic development and the mature language learner: Voices for different occasions. In WellsG.NichollsJ. (Eds.), Language and Learning: An Interactional Perspective. London: Falmer Press.
31.
LemkeJ. L. (1982) Talking physics. Physics Education, 17 (1), 263–7.
32.
LemkeJ. L. (1984a) Action, context and meaning. In Education and Semiotics (Toronto Semiotic Circle Monograph). Toronto: University of Toronto.
33.
LemkeJ. L. (1984b). Making trouble. In Education and Semiotics (Toronto Semiotic Circle Monograph). Toronto: University of Toronto.
34.
LemkeJ. L. (1985). Using Language in the Classroom. Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press.
35.
LemkeJ. L. (1988). The language of science teaching. In EmihovichC. (Ed.), Locating Learning across the Curriculum. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
36.
LemkeJ. L.(in press). Social semiotics: A new model for literacy education. In BloomeD. (Ed.), Learning to use Literacy in Educational Settings. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
37.
MartinJ. R. (1984). Language, register and genre. In Language Studies: Children Writing (Reader) (ECT 418). Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press.
38.
MessengerT. (1980). Language across the curriculum. In GathererW. A.JeffsR. J. (Eds.), Language Skills through the Secondary Curriculum. Edinburgh: Holmes McDougall.
39.
Moffett, (1981). Coming on Centre: English Education in Evolution. Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook.
40.
OlsonD. R. (1984). ‘See! Jumping!’ Some oral language antecedents of literacy. In GoelmanH.ObergA.SmithF. (Eds.), Awakening to Literacy. London: Heinemann Educational.
41.
OngW. J. (1982). Orality and Literacy. London: Methuen.
42.
PattisonR. (1982). On Literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
43.
RichardsJ. (1978). Classroom Language: What Sort?London: George Allen & Unwin.
44.
RobinsonJ. L. (1985). Literacy in the department of English. College English, 42 (5), 482–98.
45.
RosenH. (1986). The importance of story. Language Arts, 63 (3), 226–37.
46.
SchribnerS.ColeM. (1981). The Psychology of Literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
47.
SinclairJ.CoulthardM. (1975). Towards an Analysis of Discourse. London: Oxford University Press.
48.
SmithF. (1983). Essays into Literacy. London: Heinemann Educational.
49.
SpencerM. (1980). Handing down the magic. In SalmonP. (Ed.), Coming to know. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
50.
StreetB. (1984). Literacy in Theory and Practice. London: Cambridge University Press.
51.
VygotskyL. S. (1962). Thought and Language. New York: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press & John Wiley.
52.
WalkerdineV. (1982). From context to text: A psychosemiotic approach to abstract thought. In BeveridgeM. (Ed.), Children thinking through Language. London: Edward Arnold.
53.
WellsG. (1981). Language, literacy and education. In WellsG. (Ed.), Learning through Interaction. London: Cambridge University Press.
54.
YoungM. F. (Ed.). (1971). Knowledge and Control. New York: Collier Macmillan.
