The Social Construction of Literacy in the Primary School

This chapter presents an introduction to literacy as a social construction. The teaching of literacy requires social and cultural analyses of literacy in contemporary society and, crucially, of how it is part of the lived experience and futures of children and their communities. The chapter explains the various community and cultural resources that shape what children bring to the classroom, and that shape how children conceive of the possibilities and potentials of literacy. These knowledges and competences may or may not assist children when they encounter school-based versions of literacy. The chapter focuses on to classroom instances of the social construction of literacy, where teachers select and frame texts, genres and events. It discusses the possibilities for teaching children a critical social literacy, framing key questions about the literate traditions forged in classroom lessons and texts. The chapter reviews the role of mass schooling in the reproduction of unequal levels of social access and cultural capital.