Towards a literacy of fusion: new times, new teaching and learning?

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to widen discussion about which forms of literacy are most appropriate for the education of children in the twenty-first century. It outlines the current debate about the changes to children's literacy practices, which are described as being prompted on the one hand by the pervasive influence in society of new technologies, and on the other by the extent of pupils' engagement with popular culture. Using a single example, representative of a number of classroom action research studies devised by the author in which children's own interests were used to motivate writing, she argues that what is required from teachers is a transformative pedagogy. This would allow children's cultural interest to be merged with the school requirements into what is described as a literacy of fusion. The paper ends with an outline of the aspects of learning to which a teacher working to create such forms of literacy would need to attend.