Leandri Visagie 17753757

Literacy Pedagogies: A Crosswalk Approach

Acrossthecenturies,approachestoliteracyeducationhavechangedvastly,witheachone
reflectingthesocietalviewsrampantatthetime.Therearemanyforcesweighinginonwhat
shouldandshouldnotbedoneintheliteracyclassroom,ashasbeenevidentintheliteracy
wars(Kalantzis&Cope,1993),butultimatelyitisuptotheeducator,asaprofessional,to
decideontheapplicationsandimplicationsofeachpedagogicalapproach.Didactic,
authentic,functionalandcriticalpedagogieshavetheiradvantagesanddisadvantagesinthe
literacyclassroom,sotocreateabalancedliteracyapproach;allfourpedagogiesshouldbe
incorporated.
Didacticpedagogyoriginatedfromthenineteenthcentury,reflectingtheIndustrialAge,with
theaimofpreparingstudentstobegoodworkers,whoworkhardandobeysinstructions
(Graff,1987).Itisoftensynonymouswithexplicitteaching(Meyer,2002),becauseinthis
approachtheteacheristhesolepossessorofknowledge,teachingstudentsthroughdictation,
repetition,memorizationandcopyingfromtheboardortextbooks(Kalatzis&Cope,2012;
Ong,1958).Thereisaheavyrelianceonstandardizedteststoassessstudentslearning(Ong,
1958),andduetothis,manycriticizedidacticapproachestobeineffectiveatdeveloping
criticalandcreativecitizens(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).
Thiscriticismmaybewellfounded,asinteachingwriting,studentsallreceivethesame
topic,withclearinstructionstoplancarefullyandtrytoavoidwritingthefirstthingthat
entersyourmind(Lake,1965,para.6).Thetopicsarerarelyopenendedtoallowstudentsto
drawonpersonalexperience;instead,itisoftenabstractwithfocusongrammar,punctuation
andvocabularyeveninthefirstdraft(Lake,1965).Studentsareexplicitlytaughtgrammar
rulesbyworksheetpractice,meaningtheyhavetotransferthisknowledgetowritingwithout
havingpracticeditincontextsfamiliartothem(Kalantzis&Cope,2012).
Thereisalsothebeliefthatstudentsneedtobeexposedtotheclassicliteraturebecauseit
teachesthemabouthumannatureandthemselves(Birkerts,1994;Bloom,1994).Students
beingsweptawayinadigitalliteracyagemeansthattheclassictextsmaynotbestudiedand
thisisseenasseparatingstudentsfromtheirculturalhistoryandtheidentityboundinit
(Birkerts,1994),withthefirmbeliefthatthereisonlyonemeaningtomakefromreading
suchtexts:thatwhichtheauthorintended(Kalantzis&Cope,2012).

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Despitecriticisms,thereisevidencethatthistypeofexplicitliteracyteachingiseffectivein
thememorizationofspellingandvocabularyspecifically(Esler&Sciortino,1991ascitedin
Varnado,2011).Didacticteachingalsoallowsforalotofcontenttobecoveredinlesstime
(Devlin,2006,ascitedinVarnado,2011),howeverinordertoretainthesefactsstudentsneed
torepeatandusetheinformationregularly(Sabbagh,2009,ascitedinVarnado,2011).The
didacticapproachisstillnecessarybecauseauthenticapproachesareonlyeffectivefor
studentswhoalreadypossessliteracyskillsandknowledge,butforstudentswhodonot,there
needstobeexplicitandstructuredteachingforthemtolearntheseskills(Goeke,2009;
Varnado,2011).
Consideringthisstatement,authenticpedagogyisinoppositiontodidacticpedagogy,
meaningthatitischildcenteredinsteadofteachercenteredandisastrongadvocatefor
naturallearningofwriting,whichisbelievedtooccurinauthenticexperiencesonly
(Kalantzis&Cope,1993;2012).ItisbasedontheworkoftheoristssuchasDeweyand
Montessori,whobelievedthechildshouldbeanactivemeaningmakerandtheteacher
shouldmerelyassistthisprocessbycreatingastructuredenvironment,withincidental
teachingalongtheway(Kalantzis&Cope,2012).
Asopposedtodidacticpedagogywheregrammaristaughtexplicitlyandexpectedtobe
transferredintowritingorreallifeuses,authenticpedagogybelievesthatembedding
grammarandwritinginreallifesituationscreatespurposeforstudentsandretainsthe
knowledgebetter(Christmas,2014).Itisbelievedthatstudentsaremoremotivatedtoengage
withliteracylearningwhenitisembeddedinexperienceandsociallearning(Kalantzis&
Cope,2012).Thereistheviewpointthatthispedagogyisbeneficialbecauseitisbelievedto
focusonskillsandprocessesinsteadofeverchangingcontent(Christmas,2004).Realworld
problemsandsituationsofrelevanceareusedtoengagestudentsinproblemsolving
(Christmas,2014)withthehopethattheygainliteracyskillsalongthewaythroughfrequent
writingexperiences(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).
Withinauthenticpedagogy,thereislittleexplicitteaching,withonlyminilessonsof
punctuationorgrammarbeingtaughtwithinwritinglessonswhentheneedarises(Dwyer,
1985).Studentsareencouragedtowriteaboutpersonalexperiencesrelevanttothemandto
notworryaboutspelling,punctuationandgrammarinthefirstdraftofwriting(Dwyer,1985).
Itisbelievedthatifwritingisembeddedwithinapurposeofpublishing,thatstudentsare
automaticallymoremotivatedtofurthereditandcorrectmistakesinfollowingdrafts(Dwyer,

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1985).Processconferencewritingisacommonpractice,wheretheteacherquestionsstudents
toguidetheirwriting,andstudentsareprovidedwithtimetowritedaily(Dwyer,1985).
Authenticpedagogyplacesfocusonmeaningmakingasreadersandwriters,withanalytical
phonicsbeingevidenceofthewholelanguageapproachused(Goodman,2005).Yet,
KalantzisandCope(1993)advocateforsyntheticphonics(didactic)asbeingmoreeffective,
astheystatethatusingonlyanalyticalphonicsisleavingmanystudentsilliterate.However,if
howstudentslearntoreadisanalysedcarefully,bothdidacticandauthenticapproachesare
usefulwhenusedincombinationinabalancedapproachtoliteracy(Kalantzis&Cope,
1993).Analyticphonics(linkedtoauthentic)isthewholelanguageapproachthataids
comprehension,whereasthesyntheticapproach(linkedtodidactic)aidsdecodingbyputting
lettersrepresentingsoundstogether(Kalantizis&Cope,2012).Itisonlyoncestudentshavea
firmgrasponseveralsightwordsthroughtheuseofanalyticphonicsthattheycanstartto
learnpatternsanddecodethesoundsasistaughtinsyntheticphonics(Kalantizis&Cope,
2012).Inthisway,bothdidacticandauthenticpedagogiescanworktogethertoteachphonics
literacy.
Criticismoftheauthenticapproachisthatitcaneasilyturnintotheprocessofstudentstrying
toguesswhattheteachermaybethinking,especiallyforstudentswhoarefromdifferent
culturalbackgrounds(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).Itisdisadvantagingstudentswhocomefrom
contextswheretheyarenotimmersedinlanguageandtextsoutsideofschool(Kalantzis&
Cope,1993).Authenticpedagogyisfailingtoengagestudents,duetolackofcultureand
contextualconsideration,andisnothavinganyimpactontheeducationalinequalities
(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).Thisiswhereexplicitordidacticteachingcanonceagainproveits
usefulness(Kalantzis&Cope,1993),ortheviewneedstobeturnedtoexplorefunctionaland
criticalapproachestoliteracy.

Afunctionalapproachtoliteracyexploresthepurposeofthetextandhowthepurposethen
influencesstructure(Macken,Kalantzis,Kress,Martin&Cope,1989).Itisoftenalsocalled
thegenreapproach,meaningthattextsaredeterminedbygenreandregister(Mackenetal.,
1989;Callaghan,Knapp,&Noble,1993).Thefunctionalapproachisbeneficialbecauseit
canbeusedasthebridgebetweenexplicitteachingandstudentssocialexperienceinschool
(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).

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Functionalpedagogyisbasedonthescaffoldingprocessthatyoungchildrenengageinwhen
learninganorallanguageasinfants,butitisimportanttopointoutthatwrittenlanguagehas
differentpurposes,structuresandcontenttoorallanguage(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).This
approachisusedinwritingbyfirstmodellinganddeconstructing,thenjointconstruction,
workingtowardsindependentconstruction(Kalantizis&Cope,2012).Itisimportanttonote
thateachstageisvitalbecausestudentexpectationsofwritingwillonlybemetbystudents
withlanguageresources(Callaghanetal.,1993).Inthisapproach,thereisadvocacyfor
grammartonotonlybelaidoutasstructureorrulesbutalsotobeexplainedintermsof
purposeandfunction(Lock,1996).Thistypeofgrammarteachinggivesstudentsand
teacherstechnicaltermstodiscusswriting(Mackenetal.,1989).Therefore,theteaching
needstobeexplicitandefficient,withtheoutcomesclearlystatedateachpartoftheprocess,
aswellasgrammarandcontentknowledgelessonsmixed(Callaghanetal.,1993).
Thecriticismsoffunctionalliteracypointsoutthatalltextsdonotfitneatlyintocategoriesor
genresandthatitignoresthecomplexnatureoftexts(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).Thismeans
thatculturallyrelevantandsociallyimportanttextssuchasthosefoundinmediaspacesis
definedasbeingirrelevantandisignoredintheclassroom(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).With
theriseofdigitaltechnologytherolesofwriter,editor,publisherandreaderhavealsobeen
intermingled(Birkerts,1994),whichmeansthatstudentsnowrequiredigitalliteracyskillsin
ordertopickupeachroleandmovewitheasebetweenthem(Birkerts,1994).Onlysetgenres
aretaughtastheyarebelievedtobeimportantforschoolsuccess,butcertaingenresthat
mightbeusefulforfuturesuccessisignored(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).Thereisalsofearthat
onlyteachingsetgenresislimitingtostudentsbynotencouragingthemtobecriticalreaders
andwriters,whichisnecessarytofunctioninthisnewdigitalsociety(Kalantzis&Cope,
1993).
Tobecomecriticalcitizens,criticalapproachedtoliteracyshouldbetaught,asitislinkedto
studentslivesandissuesthatimpactthem(Comber,Thomson&Wells,2001).Inwriting,
thismeansthatstudentsdrawontheirownlifeexperience,andarethenguidedtolink
personalviewpoints,tolocalandglobalones(Comberetal.,2001;McLaren,2007).Thereis
afocusonliteraciesintheplural,astherearemanydifferenttypesofliteraciesstudentsneed
tofunctioninsociety(Kalantzis&Cope,2012).Alltheskillsstudentslearnareembeddedin
theirsocialidentityandarepracticesthattheyneedforeverydaylife,whichiswhatengages
them(Comberetal.,2001).Criticalliteraciesteachstudentstoreflectandreshapeidentity,
basedondifferentpointsofview(Shor,2009).Itistheresponsetothefunctionalanddidactic

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approaches,whichfailedtotakeintoconsiderationthecontextualinfluencesinthe
interpretationandconstructionoftexts(Kalantzis&Cope,1993;McLaren,2007).
Mediaandtechnologyliteraciesareimportant,asthecommunityisthepurposeofengaging
andparticipatingintextinterpretationandcreation(Jenkins,2009).Thesetypesofliteracy
buildontheconventionalliteracyskillsofreadingandwriting,byaimingtodevelopresearch
skills,technicalskills,play,performance,simulation,appropriation,multitasking,distributed
cognition,collectiveintelligence,judgment,transmedianavigation,networkingand
negotiation(Jenkins,2009,pp.105106).Thecurriculumhastobeexpandedtoincludethese
newtechnologiesaspartoftheexplorationofcontextsandpowerinsociety(Giroux,1999).
Acriticismofthisapproachisthatthereissuchafocusonbuildingtheselfesteemof
previouslymarginalizedgroupsthattheremayalsobeanavoidanceofactuallyaddressingthe
socialequityissuesinvolved(Giroux,1999).Treatingalllanguageasequallimitsthe
studentsrealworldopportunitiesbynotprovidingthemwiththeskillsnecessarytocode
switchtoactuallysucceedinsociety(Kalantzis&Cope,1993).
Thereareadvantagesanddisadvantagestousingeachoftheliteracyapproaches;therefore
teachersneedtounderstandeachapproachwellinordertobuildabalancedapproachto
literacythatismostbeneficialfortheirclass.Thiswillmostlikelymeanthatthemethodsare
usedinafluidcombination,crossingfromonetotheotherthroughouttheliteracyprogram.
Didacticapproachesmaybeusedingrammarteaching,authenticanddidacticmaybe
combinedintheformofsyntheticandanalyticalphonicsteaching,functionalandcriticalmay
beusedincombinationwhenreadingtextsandconstructingrelevantassessmentsandso
forth.Eachteacherasaneducationalprofessionalshouldhavetheabilitytoidentifywhen
eachapproachwouldbemostbeneficialandshouldbeallowedthefreedomtoconstruct
literacyprogramsthatreflectthesechoices.

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