Doctor of Education EdD Programme: ER1 Module 2 Contemporary Debates in Education

New Literacy Studies and Adult Literacy Programmes:

education for empowerment/employability in a bilingual small-state nation

Introduction: Square pegs in round holes

Teaching literacy can be complicated. Diverse scientific theories, assessment tools and programmes are
continuously reviewed and implemented within most Western countries. Politically, most state funded
educational programmes give greater validity to scientific standardisation rather than qualitative and
ethnographic-style research (Street, 2003). Policymakers and education authorities find it easier to work
with programmes and practices that are replicable as ‘this approach suggests ways in which what is
known from experimental studies of literacy acquisition can be built into programs and policies for early
schooling’ (Street, 2003:86). It is also easier to ‘sell’ such literacy initiatives to the general public since
the validity of rigorous scientific results issue a sense of confidence in their superiority over local
learning practices. Nevertheless, despite such programmes, a number of children remain unable to
apply what they are being taught in school to everyday life (ibid:83).

In adulthood these students cannot utilise their school experiences for employment or personal
purposes (Street, 2003). Often, they transmit this deficit model to their children, who they either view
as having some kind of hereditary learning or social problem, or else try to mould to the system of
formal schooling to overcome their perceived limitations according to socially and culturally acceptable
standards. Students thus risk becoming subjects, labeled according to their learning difficulties. If
specific deficiency theories are inapplicable, they are perceived to have a spectrum of possible literacy
problems, simply because they do not fit within scientific models of learning. As an adult literacy
professional, I meet many young people and adults who have not benefitted from such models of
education. Possessing no specifically diagnosed special educational needs, they nonetheless display
puzzling gaps in their skills, knowledge and understanding. They are the ones in limbo, muddling
unsuccessfully through the mainstream education system; square pegs in round holes.

Often relegated to my class as a last resort, they seek an elusive sense to and motivation in learning as
they struggle to engage with the learning and sometimes with the culture of formal schooling itself. The
young ones wrestle with a suddenly adult world, the mature students are optimistic but bewildered by a
fast changing workforce dominated by new alien concepts of competences, certification, standards and

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the Common European Framework to name but a few. Living in a small bilingual country resembles
being teletransported – your insular identity being the molecules being projected onto the wider
universe. Sometimes, some people get descrambled or worse lost in transmission.

This essay thus explores the contemporary issue of empowerment versus employment within the wider
background framework of New Literacy Studies (NLS). It is majorly influenced by the writing of Gee
(1990) and especially of Street (1984, 1993, 1995, 1997). Empowerment and employment are discussed
in the light of the ‘new tradition’ of NLS, where the focus is not on how people acquire traditional
literacy skills but rather on what it means to think of literacy as a social practice (Street, 1984).

‘This entails the recognition of multiple literacies, varying according to time and space, but also
contested in relations of power. NLS, then, takes nothing for granted with respect to literacy
and the social practices with which it becomes associated, problematizing what counts as
literacy at any time and place and asking “whose literacies” are dominant and whose are
marginalized or resistant.’ (Street, 2003:77)

The implications of traditional literacy and NLS on adult literacy programmes are thus considered. In
Malta, adult education often replicates the methodologies of compulsory schooling since most
practitioners move through the system from the early years before teaching adults (Mayo, 1994,
Baldacchino and Mayo, 1997). Therefore, there is little effort to see how literacy ‘relates more to
general issues of social theory regarding textuality, figured worlds, identity and power’
(Street, 2003:87-88). This is evident in my organisation where working within a Further Education
vocational college exposes the challenges my students face vis a vis empowerment and employability,
particularly since as a small nation state issues of ex-colonisation, bilingualism, economic challenges and
a small island mentality prevail. The baggage that my students carry throughout their formal education
is consequently discussed in the light of related NLS studies.

NLS research has often been criticised as being limited by local instances of literacy and that its
ideologies might need to take into account more general aspects of formal literacies in order to be more
widely accepted by policymakers (Street, 2003). This, critics say, would make even more sense given ‘the
powerful role of consolidating technologies that can destabilize the functions, uses, values and meanings
of literacy anywhere’ (Brandt and Clinton, 2002:1 in Street, 2003). However, this essay discusses NLS
and presents an ideology that challenges the ‘evidence-based social engineering approach to
educational improvement’ (Street, 2003:87) while focusing on ‘hybrid literacy practices’ without

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‘romanticizing the local or conceding the dominant privileging of the supposed “global”’
(Street, 2003:80). Thus, in discussing NLS ideology in relation to local issues, this essay revolves around
the issues of literacy which blend the local with the global, particularly around the issues of
oral versus multiple literacies.

The discussion departs from a consideration of bilingualism and traditional theories of literacy. It
proceeds to consider the contribution of NLS studies, exploring the contemporary issues of
empowerment versus employability focusing on orality and technology. Ultimately, the essay reflects
on the local educational system, its nature and implications upon my own practice and how I as
practitioner/researcher can contribute to the further development of my students’ skills and perhaps to
that of my department if not my organisation.

Maltese bilingualism: issues in orality and traditional literacy

Linguistic development and teaching in Malta is the legacy of Western cultural and political
colonialisation. Initially, predominantly pro-Italian educated classes applied Italian alphabet and
grammar to a phonetic but Semitic language widely spoken by the greater number of the non-reading
population. Their orality was further complicated with British colonialisation, as the English language
infiltrated all sections of society due to various political and economic factors (Mayo, 1994). While ‘the
Maltese labour force was developed in such a way as to serve Britain’s strategic military interests in the
Mediterranean’ (ibid:33), the clergy and philanthropists concurrently spearheaded an educational
system very much concerned with social justice, eradicating poverty and providing employment to
thousands of families dependent on the British military machine (Baldacchino and Mayo, 1997). This
small colonial island at the edge of Europe depended on bilingualism ‘as a useful asset for prospective
emigrants with whose interests the post war adult literacy effort has traditionally been associated’
(Mayo, 1994:33).

Economic development evened out the rate of emigration, however stability required investing in the
country’s major resource, the population. The necessity of having a ‘language of international currency’
as well as the political, social and cultural upheaval of adapting to globalisation widened the gap
between local and predominantly oral literacy and traditional literacy learning (Mayo, 1994). Traditional
learning made it easier for local authorities to replicate the dominant Western system and thus

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aid economic growth and trade with developed countries (ibid). Learning English was thus a symbol of
Western advancement and the teaching of Maltese was done by replicating the traditional methods of
these countries. Consequently, development of literacy education in Malta has been ‘by and large,
traditional and smacks of the transmission model, ‘Banking Education’ (ibid:35).

Exposure to traditional literacy starts early as both languages have long been compulsory from the early
years of schooling (Mayo, 1994). Nevertheless, the Maltese everyday vernacular was and remains
particularly rich in oral transmission and tradition and local media use Maltese and English widely ( ibid),
often reflecting and even initiating current trends of ‘street talk’. Although linguistic fluency varies, most
students display a personal form of ‘Maltenglish’ bilingualism and on close questioning will admit to
have a basic grasp of both languages. Rapid post-war development often ignored traditional oral
literacy in an effort to eradicate illiteracy or rather the state of not knowing how to decode and use
traditional print literacy (ibid). However, orality is ingrained in the culture through songs, jokes and
satire and similar communication. It is currently regaining momentum, albeit informally, through the
various means of communication especially the media and the internet.

Currently, orality is of particular local education contemporary debate as new curricula try to holistically
target the key competencies in each language. Education authorities are investing a huge amount of
money in multimedia and digital technology. This is admirable and probably somewhat effective,
however there is confusion as to whether there is concurrent understanding of the implications this new
kind of language has upon traditional literacy and vice versa (Lankshear and Knobel, 2008). Nationally,
teaching/supporting students is frequently a replication of traditional literacy methods through the use
of new technology. The debate remains on whether we teach new skills or support existing ones and
which skills we are actually talking about, whether traditional or emerging ones, and where exactly do
traditional and digital competences fit in this discussion (ibid). My department frequently conflicts with
official organisation policies that target literacy for ultimate employability thus regarding increasing
general computer literacy as a means to an end. There are confusing viewpoints regarding what literacy
actually is in today’s world and particularly in our society (Street, 2003, Lankshear and Knobel, 2008) and
in Malta the conflict mainly revolves round the bipolar issue of empowerment versus employability.

My belief is that literacy professionals, irrespective of which literacy they are supporting as opposed to
teaching, should guide students to each ask themselves how they can holistically develop ‘my potential’
as a person. Organisationally and nationally, we often render lip service to this ideal whilst in practice
retaining traditional employability targets. ‘Smart technology’ propaganda and other similar initiatives

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link education to the workplace community (Lankshear and Knobel, 2008). Ironically, ‘myPotential’, a
public-private partnership between the Maltese government and local training providers, delivers
information and communication technology (ICT) courses leading to a variety of low- and high-end ICT
certifications and ultimately employment. Certainly, money talks but this language is not understood by
voiceless students generally considered illiterate and unskilled by the more ‘modern’, ‘literate’ and
technophile Maltese society.

Nevertheless, new forms of culture and society require a ‘plurality of literacies’ enabling people to
access, interpret, criticise and participate within the various settings in which they operate (Lankshear
and Knobel, 2008:184). Kress (2003) considers that instead of addressing a multitude of literacy skills, it
is necessary to develop a new theoretical framework which addresses the various aspects of literacy
holistically. This view challenges cognitive psychological models of learning that all children ‘progress in
similar ways and acquire specific skills in sequence’ thus predetermining literacy and creating
‘misunderstandings about the needs of specific groups of learners’ (Larson and Marsh, 2009:4-5). The
narrative and discourse features of NLS theories consider what a student brings to the classroom be it
an oral, print or digital literacy and challenge this traditional deficit ideology.

Traditional literacy education

Dominant, traditional, stereotypical literacy models are greatly concerned with the ‘great divide
between oral and literate’ (Street, 2003:80). Cognitive psychology approaches highlight this divide as
they outline specific and linear models of learning that enable the child to bridge orality and formal
reading and writing skills (Larson and Marsh, 2009:4-5). Traditional literacy education assumes that all
children develop in similar, linear and sequential ways (Larson and Marsh, 2009:5). Reading and writing
are taught in independent and isolated steps drilled through constant repetition via detailed cognitive-
psychological models emphasising that ‘children are taught phoneme-grapheme relationships in seven
sequential steps’ (ibid). It is thus assumed that students will be able to link all the steps to become
literate to the standards required by society. Those who do not are considered inadequate or deficient
and ‘when this happens with whole groups (…) who share socioeconomic backgrounds, then the
creation of a deficit model is quickly established’ (ibid). The bilingual Maltese child
is faced with an additional challenge; coping concurrently with two phonetically diverse languages, each
language itself associated with particular social class or socially structured situation.

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Although, ‘the threat of extinction does not exist even though the use of Maltese in influential sectors of
social life is restricted by the strong presence of English’ (Mayo, 1994:34), both languages have
historically been assigned different socio-cultural and political values with
associated preconceptions and judgments.

‘English still remains the dominant language in the Maltese educational system today.
My feeling is that, unless people from the underprivileged Maltese social categories learn
English, they remain at the periphery of political life.’ (Mayo, 1994:34)

Globally and nationally, societies are changing fast. Although the perceived deficiencies of the
underprivileged half a century ago may have changed from those of today, the ability to access and
communicate within dominant social, cultural, political, religious, economic and technological spheres
remains a stumbling block for most people general society traditionally continues to call ‘illiterate’.

‘Literacy is very much tied to the concept of citizenship since it is regarded as central to a
person’s ability to exercise and make full use of citizenship rights. A question which arises in
this context is: according to whose terms is citizenship defined? In Malta, the struggle over
these terms was reflected in the struggle over language.’ (Mayo, 1994:31)

This struggle is evident throughout in the Maltese educational system and specifically within my
organisation. In planning literacy sessions, even the imminent embedded literacy programme, the
question of why support the Maltese language continues to arise. Educators who value functional
employment skills believe that empowerment may only come through the acquisition of those specific
language skills that are used in industry, in technology and in ICT. Hence the overarching importance
given to what they term ‘functional English’ or ESOL/English for Specific Purposes. English Literacy thus
encompasses a variety of views of what we should actually be teaching to achieve confident bilingual
communicators. Added to this, the dilemma remains as to what should be predominantly taught and
assessed within a limited academic year, whether it should be speaking and listening or reading and
writing. My experience in contributing to working groups planning syllabi, schemes of work and various
assessments tends to slant my belief that while we tend to over assess all skills anyway, the organisation
continues to value traditional English writing skills overall, whether produced through the student’s own
handwriting or through the use of computers and similar technology.

Within such a traditional system, there is the danger that perceived higher standards are pursued
through traditional literacy skills so as to normalize traditional literacy inadequacies.

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Whether using print-based or digital methodologies, these intervention programmes disregard the
baggage of other experiences that students bring with them into the microcosm of the classroom. At
worse, the intention is to cure the afflicted or reform the deviant. In a nation where the majority of
educators come from a middle-class background, traditional models of literacy risk reinforcing values
and attitudes that violate other socio-cultural backgrounds which ‘ unfortunately, is a model of literacy
education which pervades the developed world and creates misunderstandings about the needs of
specific groups of learners’ (Gee, 2004, in Larson and Marsh, 2009:5).

Discourse and oral literacy

Western cultural superiority is steeped in the acquisition of traditional reading and writing skills where
dominant societies create literacy myths transforming literacy into ‘an instrument of domination
or an instrument of liberation’ (Olson, 1994, in Street and Lefstein, 2007:124). Literacy is not simply the
acquisition of ‘the magical powers of the three Rs’ (ibid, 2007:125). According to Olson (ibid), writing
can neither be considered as the mere transcription of speech nor can it be said to be superior to
speech. Olson states the West traditionally considers the alphabet as a superior technological
achievement and so seeks to develop highly literate populations since it considers this as a desirable
condition conducive to industrial development and economic growth and consequently to cultural and
scientific development. Thus, schooling emphasizes traditional literacy where ‘the acquisition of ‘basic
skills’, which for reading consists of ‘decoding’, that is, learning what is called the alphabetic principle,
and which for writing, consists of learning to spell’ (ibid, 2007:127).

The perceived superiority of these skills follows an interpretation of literacy that ‘imparts a degree of
abstraction to thought which is absent from oral discourse and from oral cultures’ (Olson, 1994, in Street
and Lefstein, 2007:127). My experience within my organisation confirms that when lower-ability
students are being assessed on listening and reading, their skills are mostly assessed on their ability to
communicate interpersonally in very familiar informal and formal situations that are common to both
languages and are primarily gained through oral communication.
Written assessments are more complex and abstract and often alien to students since they present skills
from unfamiliar work-related contexts. Students, if lucky enough to be receiving support with their
assignments, necessitate models and scaffolded tasks to decode written assignments.
Otherwise, copying and reformulating reproduce conservative tasks and traditional literacy teaching

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since assessment overall remains formative rather than geared to support an emergent personality as a
potential contributor to the workplace.

Thus the very definition of literacy needs to be questioned generally as well as organizationally. At the
very minimum, such a reflection would reveal that even that which is traditionally considered as basic
skills or functional literacy at my vocational college may not be what would be considered as functional
literacy in another post-secondary situation or by an adult following an in-house training course at the
workplace; possibly it would not even be considered to be of equal importance in another culture or
context. Therefore, the use of traditional literacy skills ‘as a metric against which personal and social
competence can be assessed is vastly oversimplified’ (Olson, 1994, in Street and Lefstein, 2007:130). It
disregards the importance of the baggage of understanding that students of all ages bring with them to
the classroom as well as ‘the importance of oral discourse in bringing those understandings into
consciousness in turning them into objects of knowledge’ (ibid, 2007:130).

Following McLuhan’s theory (1994) that the medium is the message, despite the possibility of using
various media for communicating knowledge, content should not be regarded in isolation from the
textual context and discourse surrounding it. ‘The role of the school is not to displace children’s pre-
school perceptions and beliefs but to explicate and elaborate them, activities that depend as much or
more on speech as on writing’ (Olsen, 1994, in Street and Lefstein, 2007:129). I believe that the link
between oral processing and eventual in-class written production is often disregarded through lack of
knowledge or perhaps time. In my sessions, students able to express their ideas and process their
thoughts before a written task are able to ‘see the point’ better than those who do not.
Using computers or similar technology is often helpful as it breaks the traditional
set up of classrooms, enabling students to interact more with the task and the teacher.
Peer tutoring is also more possible as sharing technology frees students from the usual highly
competitive traditional class methodology. Computer literacy seems to bridge the bilingual gap freeing
students from the bilingual prejudices of what ought to be Maltese or English. Freed from this identity
constraint, and often perhaps being more competent than their teacher in using ICT, it allows greater
student-interaction, more informality and personal expression which can be beneficial steps before
attempting to translate anything in conventional written form. However, the relationship between oral
and technological literacy is not as straightforward as would appear, due to the
missing oral to writing link.

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Critical literacy and social constructs

It cannot be denied that what is being majorly imparted within traditional literacy programmes, whether
in Malta or in other countries with similar educational systems, is immensely influenced by writing
(Derrida, 1976, Olsen, 1994 in Street and Lefstein, 2007:130-1). Traditional literacy practices form
and shape the mind:

‘learning to cope with them puts an indelible stamp on human cognition (…)But there seems
little doubt that writing and reading played a critical role in producing the shift from thinking
about things to thinking representations of those things, that is, thinking about thought. Our
modern conception of the world and our modern conception of ourselves are, we may say, by-
products of the invention of a world on paper.’ (Olson, 1994 in Street and Lefstein, 2007:131)

Our knowledge-economy world associates functional literacy with reading and writing that not only
serve the individual’s needs but especially employment and economic development (Papen, 2005). This
has shifted the way educational institutions assess functional literacy as quantifiable educational
outcomes are increasingly being measured through testing procedures aimed at addressing ‘economic
needs’ (Rassool, 1999:6). Basic literacy skills are reduced to ‘the acquisition of technical skills involving
the decoding of written texts and the writing of simple statements within the context of everyday life
(ibid, 1999:7) which might have little if anything to do with the individual’s culture and society (Rassool,
1999, Papen, 2005). As a reaction to this, critical literacy moves away from the ‘utilitarian vocational
meanings’ (Rassool, 1999:8). Freire states ‘what is important is that the person learning words be
concomitantly engaged in a critical analysis of the social framework in which men exist’
(Freire, 1972:31-2). Thus, people can read behind the literal text, reflect on their society and the
struggles of power within and ‘engage in a critical discussion of the positions a text supports’
(Papen, 2005:11).

Through critical literacy, adults who are considered illiterate by traditional literacy standards are
encouraged to bridge the gap between their orality and the social constructs of written text. The ‘Great
Divide’ theories focus on ‘the assumed gap between oral and written societies’ which ‘allows us to
objectify speech and to store and disseminate knowledge in ways that are not possible in purely oral
societies’ (Papen, 2005:32). Literacy thus transforms social organizations. Aware of such theories, my
sessions include critical analysis of texts, pointing out what makes ‘us in class’ bilingual, although each to
different degrees. Whilst emphasising our relationship and my belief in their potential,

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the ‘strong pressure for adult educational activities to conform to the general system of state schooling
in the country’ (Mayo, 1994:36) is discussed to explain why students are requested to keep reproducing
seemingly unattainable traditional literacy.

However, it may be that this view still conforms to the notion that traditional literacy skills contribute to
individual’s and society’s development in much the same ways. This stance is coloured by theories of
social justice, critical literacies and the concept of lifelong education, which in post-1987 Malta, another
political milestone, have reconceptualised the views about education by academics and politicians alike.
Having gone through my formative years throughout this period, this is part of my professional baggage.
Researching bilingualism and literacy, the challenges to my inherited traditional assumptions and the
Great Divide theories are presented through the concepts of NLS that originating in the 1980s are locally
still struggling to gain ground.

New Literacy Studies and literacy

‘Dominant cultures with dominant languages, like English today, tend to support
monolingualism and to ignore or brush aside varieties, dialects, creoles and vernacular
languages; they also tend to play down fluidity and change in languages and to ignore overlap
and similarities between languages.’ (Barton, 2007:59)

This threat is not immediately apparent to Maltese as, although the language is not as adaptable and as
applicable to all influential sectors especially economic, technological and scientific fields, the majority
of the population and various media make use of the spoken vernacular (Mayo, 1994),. Nevertheless,
this strong oral presence is sometimes offset at other times mixed with words from other languages,
predominantly English, which seems to restrict the usage of the native language when it comes to
writing for employment and workplace purposes. Mayo (ibid) quotes Bray (1991:19) that:

‘many small states, perhaps even more than medium-sized and large states, are heavily
dependent on foreign trade. This influences the structure of the labour market, and thus also
the educational system. It may require people to learn foreign languages, perhaps to the
detriment of local ones.’ (Mayo, 1994:34)

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Although globally most people today are bilingual, ‘when measuring literacy in national surveys or when
discussing literacy in schools and colleges, it is common to count only certain literacies’
(Barton, 2007:59). Thus, the real extent, range and purpose of language learning in a bilingual country
remains restricted to the study of traditional literacy abilities when probably people are learning and
using language according to different needs and contexts and as such may not require to be literate in
the traditional sense, nor are they acquiring their literacy skills from traditional sources and through
traditionally assessed methods.

‘It is also probably true that most people in the world are bilingual to some extent, that they
use more than one language in their lives. (…) Another sense of this term is the idea of
different literacies being associated with different languages. This idea can be applied to
bilingual or multilingual situations and it gives rise to another whole set of possibilities based
upon whether or not the different languages are written down, and people’s relative
knowledge of the languages and the writing systems.’ (Barton, 2007:59)

NLS views literacy ‘as a culturally embedded practice rather than an individual skill’ (Papen, 2005:32).
Attention relocates ‘from educational settings and teaching issues towards an interest in the uses and
meanings of literacy and numeracy in people’s everyday lives’ (ibid). This shift emphasizes that ‘writing-
centred views are ethnocentric and therefore prejudicial’ (ibid, 2005:33). NLS research

‘offers a theoretical framework that assumes literacy is a critical social practice constructed in
everyday interactions across local contexts. New Literacy Studies emphasizes literacy as a
more complex social practice than mandated curricula and assessments address’
(Larson and Marsh,
2009:3).

NLS does not assume that all cultures have similar literacy purposes nor that they develop the same
intellectual uses. Street and Lefstein (2007) state literacy takes place within wider communicative and
sociopolitical practices. Following the theories of Foucault and others, Gee (1990) places literacy as
central to Discourse with a capital D. Indeed, Street (1984) defines literacy as encompassing what
occurs beyond environments where formal learning usually takes place and brings this experience inside
the classroom in order to validate its contribution.

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‘The concept of literacy practices is pitched at a higher level of abstraction and refers to both
behavior and the social and cultural conceptualizations that give meaning to the uses of
reading and/or writing.’ (Street, 1995:2)

Kress (2003) emphasises that literacy is a mixture of inextricable processes occurring both internally and
externally within formal educational settings (Larson and Marsh, 2009:21). Various NLS proponents
have criticized the Great Divide theories as they ignore cultural or societal specific forms of knowledge,
understanding and experience that are not set out in writing thus ignoring any oral or other semiotic
means of communication (Papen, 2005:33). Larson and Marsh (2009:20) state that traditional western
schooling can dominate and prevent ‘critical analysis of (…) social and political contexts’ and thus since
no text is independent of the context of its use, the dominant sector of society would maintain their
position of superiority thus ‘marginalizing other forms of literate knowledge’ (ibid). Thus the traditional
methods of western schooling methods are criticized as having had limited success. On the other hand,
critics of NLS have observed that up to recently ‘the potential of the social view of literacy for policy and
practice remained obscure and links had not been systematically developed’ (Papen, 2005:33-4).
Increasing levels of traditional literacy skills have been justified by linking them to economic
development, modernization and globalization which would enable developing countries to catch up
with their developed counterparts. However, Rassool (1999), commenting upon large international
programmes such as the UNDP-funded Experimental World Literacy Programme, states that linking such
commendable aims with traditional literacy skills is often misleading.

Perhaps the most significant work that addresses this impasse is the cross-cultural ethnography research
carried out by Brian Street (Street 1993, 1995, Larson and Marsh, 2009:20). Street (1993, 1995) departs
from traditional concepts of reading and writing as the tools to access information and contents of texts
to focus on how different societies and languages to give meaning to various types of texts used within
their local context. Progressing from the ideological to the concrete, NLS can definitely contribute to
traditional literacy programmes. As Street (1995) observed, commonalities between autonomous and
ideological definitions of literacy exist, it all depends how they are tackled in practice. However, if
literacy does not take into consideration context, it becomes a political tool not to access information
but to establish the power of those who are more advantaged in society, ‘specifically the rich and varied
practices that students bring to the classroom’ (Street, 1984).

‘Literacy is intimately tied to the contexts of use or what people do with literacy in formal and
informal settings, both inside and outside school. Literacy is not just reading and writing

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English text (in English dominant settings), but is a multimodal social practice with specific
affordances in different contexts (Kress, 2003).’ (Larson and Marsh, 2009:20-21)

Multimodal bilingualism

Discourse-based studies of how people make choices regarding their literacy consider ‘the social, the
ideological and functional interpretations’ (Street and Lefstein, 2007:45). As Kress and others have
described, people, even those who are literate according to traditional standards, use various other daily
strategies apart from decoding to deal with instances of literacy (ibid). This multimodality ‘can also be
applied to the work of classrooms’ and ‘to a range of subject areas both within schooling and in adult
programmes and less formal educational contexts’ (ibid). Pahl and Roswell (2005, 2006)
link multimodality and NLS.

‘When we talk about multimodality in the local/global context we are talking about
communication in the widest sense, including gesture, oral performance, artistic, linguistic,
digital, electronic, graphic and artifact-related. (…) The multimodal offers wider affordances
than print-based literacy. It stretches out meaning.’ (Pahl and Rowsell, 2006:6)

Encompassing literacy expressions varying from drawings to computers, this ethnographic approach
considers the crossing-over from local to global environments and vice versa. Nichols (2006, in Pahl and
Rowsell, 2006) explores how new knowledge economies require ‘technologies to facilitate the
exteriorization of knowledge, and to form appropriate thinking subjectivities’ (ibid, 2006:174). This
presents a chilling scenario of how thinking and the internet may be used.

‘What one might call ‘thinking literacies’ are currently high on the agenda for schools which
are now charged with the responsibility of producing new kinds of thinking subjects, able to
produce ideas at need, responding quickly to whatever contingencies the vicissitudes of the
marketplace and the generation of new technologies may throw up (Hartley, 2003).’
(Nichols, 2006, in Pahl and Rowsell,
2006:174)

Thinking literacies may be regarded within the wider term of thinking discourses. The use of technology
to aid creative thinking claims it is ‘particularly well suited for exteriorizing knowledge in material social
contexts’ (Nichols, ibid:174), an assertion upheld by De Bono (2000, quoted in Nichols, 2006) one of the
leading thinking gurus in business and education, globally and in his native Malta.

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This thinking pedagogy advocates social interaction that proceeds from the oral to the written text and
finishes in cyberspace where the results of this systemic thinking and verbal processing
are published through multimodal hypertexts (Nichols, ibid:175).
This exploits thinking, oral expression and the use of digital technology through blatant corporate
domination. Although this may appear to be acknowledging orality, this globalization of knowledge
deals in the commercialisation of thinking. When such technology is used in the classroom teachers
become ‘consumers in this marketplace and part of the network through which circulate discourses of
thinking and technologies for producing thinking subjects’ (ibid).

ICT and the internet are central to new knowledge economies where workers are expected to deal in
knowledge as a commodity of the digital age. This undisputed fact in Maltese economics has also
infiltrated vocational education due to a co-dependent relationship. In addition to the widespread use
of ICT in the classroom, De Bono’s Thinking Skills are also taught throughout local primary to tertiary
education as part of an effort to create a modern, literate competitive population and workforce.
However this ‘utopian vision of a workforce or student group that is simultaneously compliant,
collaborative, self-regulatory, and generative of top-class ideas’ (Nichols, ibid:188) is very disturbing.
The humanity, identity and individuality of learners become reduced to
‘corporatized knowledge production’ (ibid).

‘Missing is any notion of subjective investment in one’s own ways of thinking, speaking or
representing (except as a management problem). Missing also is any sense of the continuity of
‘old’ ways of thinking, of histories of practice and their possible impact on social subjects (…)
confronted with the demand to re-orient themselves to new regimes.’
(Nichols, 2006, in Pahl and Rowsell,
2006:188)

Consequently, this essay’s original issue becomes complex beyond traditional concerns regarding
bilingualism. The concern no longer remains how to value student voice by allowing them to express
their personal literacy backgrounds and contexts through oral and technological media before
supporting their traditional literacy skills. Borrowing and reinterpreting Mayo (1994) a ‘critical
appropriation of the dominant language’ should extend an analysis of literacy in a bilingual beyond the
traditional linguistic sphere to include digital and thinking literacies. These are transforming our
capacities for multimodal literacy, altering our traditional view of language and literacy through a
scenario where ‘in a multi lingual setting, language and literacy practices are inevitably bound up with

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issues of power relationships between linguistic groups’ (Barton, 2007:63-64).

This linguistic group now also includes the language of digital technology and so this kind of literacy
requires a critical discourse analysis that examines ‘the level of text, the level of interaction in the
specific local context, and the level of discourse’ (Nichols, 2006, in Pahl and Rowsell, 2006:176).
‘This should be an important goal not just for underprivileged groups but for all of us Maltese who seek
to ‘decolonise our mind’ (Mayo, 1994:35) – from more than the traditional bilingual restrictions.

Conclusion: Practical reflections on literacy practices

NLS emerged as one of the movements reacting ‘against the behaviourism of the early part of the
twentieth century and the ‘cognitive revolution’ of the 1960s and 1970s that replaced behaviourism’
(Gee, 2000 in Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic, 2000:181). It moved away from the overarching importance
given to higher order thinking and the processing of information as idealised by the use of computers
and digital technology. Instead the importance of reflecting on ‘networks’ has transformed the way we
look at literacy (ibid:184). An awareness of what Gee (ibid) calls sociotechnical designing also arose in
response to a new evolved capitalism.

‘Workers in the new capitalism are meant to continuously gain and apply new knowledge by
understanding the whole work process in which they are involved, not just bits and pieces, and
they are meant to proactively and continually transform and improve that work process
through collaboration with others and with technology.’
(Gee, 2000 in Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic,
2000:185).

New capitalism subtly controls social communication through ‘communities of practice’ (Gee, ibid:186).
Social interaction and orality are transmuted into ‘taken-for-granted values, norms, cultural models and
narratives’ and these in turn have given new meaning to ‘what it means to be a member of the
community of practice’ (Gee, ibid:186-187). Continual emphasis on flexible transformation deconstructs
identities to create a new, super social knowledge (ibid). It reduces orality conservative, oral community
practices where nonconformity is nonbelonging and social rites of passage bind members through
unquestioning oral and social transmission of values and beliefs. Today, this new social order creates

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corporate identities and narratives aided by technology and sustained by the value our modern societies
give to work as a means to financial gain and sense of belonging to a global community (ibid).

NLS research reacts against these policies of homogenization (Street, 1997, MacCabe, 1998). Education
authorities are paying more attention to the implications of the social practices view. ‘Links with policy
have been established and practitioners have started to develop ways of working with adult learners
that take up ideas of the NLS’ (Papen, 2005:34). Given the close ties sustained between
the business community, vocational colleges, and education systems in general, it is necessary that in
light of NLS research, teachers and students understand how literacy is constructed and used in and out
of school in order to ‘disrupt the deficit model hegemony that remains dominant in contemporary
schooling and contributes to inequality’ (Larson and Marsh, 2009:127).

Consequently, it is necessary to carry out research in literacy practices that: identifies domain/s;
observes the visual environment; identifies particular literacy events and documents them; identifies
texts and analyses practices around texts; and, interviews people about practices and sense making
(Barton, 2000, in Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic, 2000:170). As Larson and Marsh (2009:22) state, an
unquestioned organisation vision of what literacy ought to be in this day and age ‘can lead to simple
consumption and implementation of packaged literacy programmes’, a belief that texts are infallible
means of teaching literacy and that the student who cannot grasp the content is somewhat deficient;
the perpetuation of the traditional literacy myth. One of the best ways of avoiding this is for the
teachers and students alike ‘to reflect upon their own practices and the everyday practices around
them’ (Barton, 2000, in Barton, Hamilton and Ivanic, 2000:167). This kind of research can be undertaken
on any scale, even in classrooms by teachers and students. It is an empowering act that gives insights
upon particular societies in a global context and how the individuals making up these groupings think
and use various literacy practices to make sense of and function in their daily lives (ibid).

Such research would increase practitioner awareness of the diverse literacies of students through
discovering their actual rather than perceived literacy needs. Adjustments to personal practice would
follow through critical planning of programmes and syllabi. Realistically, working within the persistent
traditional literacy system may be slow to bring about organisational change but there could be ways of
working around it to achieve the maximum possible benefit. Small-scale ethnographic studies could
facilitate ‘an ethnographic understanding of literacies in use across contexts (Larson and Marsh,
2009:127). Such a study would shift personal preconceptions about my students, young or mature. At
present, I am aware that I may be open to their backgrounds and literacies but I think there is more

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work to be done to enable students’ voices to come through rather than work on assumptions,
sentiments of social justice or even scientific assessment results. More could be done to empower my
students rather than simply preparing them for employment and trying to make them critically aware of
issues of bilingualism and multimodalities through my voice and viewpoint.

Consulting theoretical models of literacy (Larson and Marsh, 2009:131) aids reflection on personal
current practice. My educational background and experience in bilingual teaching has exposed me to
most features of techno-literacy, critical literacy and sociocultural-historical theories which I often
informally use during sessions to further support my students in reaching set employment goals. An
increased awareness of NLS can expand this practice. Conducting a small-scale ethnographic study of
my students would benefit planning structured literacy events and lead to better adaptation of
vocational material students are faced with during their course. Most probably, I already do this more
with mature students with some work experience since the teacher-student power relations are not
that intense as with teenagers. Or perhaps this is in itself a preconception of mine that would benefit
from further exploration.

Further research and adopting NLS principles (Larson and Marsh, 2009:23-25) could aid the planning and
development of the embedded learning programme imminent within my college. It could contribute to
a review of my personal definition of literacy through further exploration of the issues of bilingualism,
orality, digital technology and multimodal literacies, consequently empowering my students.
Although home visits are not part of the programme, I could ask students and perhaps relatives
to formally contribute to the profile and portfolio documents I already compile for each of my students.
Allowing them to express their literacy practices and the practices of the local community instead of just
assuming these facts based on previous experiences with ‘similar’ students and maybe any reports or
assessment documents that might be forwarded for my perusal would
certainly further benefit team building.

Although equal access to participation in literacy events and practices is already present, I can allow
students more freedom to be part of constructing the purposes of the activities they are asked to do.
Since the embedded programme will be in constant development, I together with other colleagues
could also plan to include more opportunities for experiences participating in communities beyond the
classroom as well as see that texts used, whether print-based or digital, have real audiences and real

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purposes and are not just hypothetical literacy exercises. Collaboration with colleagues would also
allow for increased, awareness of new research and/or emerging practices that may help avoid reduce
literacy practices to school lessons. It could also lead to more teacher reflection through example –
empowerment in the place of employment in real practice and ultimately a confirmed commitment to
giving power to students, echoing the ethos of ‘we continue to be committed to the voice of the learner’
(Pahl and Rowsell, 2006:13).

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