ABSTRACT
The chapters in this section all relate to the teaching contexts for literacy and language itself. The chapters reflect the broad spectrum of theory and research in this area, considering the teaching of oracy skills in their own right; different approaches to dialogic pedagogy in the teaching of reading and writing; and then a consideration of how teachers orientate themselves within a dialogic pedagogy and the implications for this. Street tells us that literacy is a social practice (1984), and the sociocultural context of learning is reflected across all of these chapters with references to Vygotsky (1962, 1978) and Wertsch (1991) throughout. However, there are broader philosophical considerations at play here too. Not only is the consideration of the actual language that children and teachers use in literacy classrooms discussed but larger questions too. Can we engage dialogically with a text? How might teachers’ different value orientations affect their dialogic practice? What about considering literacy beyond the classroom, looking at its transformative potential for people in prisons, care-homes and other diverse contexts?
