Literacy Theories for the Digital Age: Social, Critical, Multimodal, Spatial, Material and Sensory Lenses

by Kathy A. Mills

Overview

Winner of the 2017 Edward Fry Book Award from the Literacy Research Association.

Literacy Theories for the Digital Age insightfully brings together six essential approaches to literacy research and educational practice. The book provides powerful and accessible theories for readers, including Socio-cultural, Critical, Multimodal, Socio-spatial, Socio-material and Sensory Literacies. The brand new Sensory Literacies approach is an original and visionary contribution to the field, coupled with a provocative foreword from leading sensory anthropologist David Howes. This dynamic collection explores a legacy of literacy research while showing the relationships between each paradigm, highlighting their complementarity and distinctions. This highly relevant compendium will inspire researchers and teachers to explore new frontiers of thought and practice in times of diversity and technological change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783094615
Publisher:	Channel View Publications
Publication date:	12/03/2015
Series:	New Perspectives on Language and Education , #45
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.85(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Kathy A. Mills is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Kathy's research interests include literacy, digital media, education research paradigms, critical sociology, ethnography, classroom observation, discourse analysis, and multimodal analysis. She is Associate Editor of the Australian Educational Researcher and her previous works include The Multiliteracies Classroom (Multilingual Matters, 2011).

Table of Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Preface

Rhizomatic Literacy Theories

Chapter 1: Globalisation, Mobile Lives and Schooling in the Digital Turn

Chapter 2: Socio-Cultural Literacies

Chapter 3: Critical Literacies

Chapter 4: Multimodal Literacies

Chapter 5: Socio-Spatial Literacies           

Chapter 6: Socio-Material Literacies        

Chapter 7: Sensory Literacies     

References

What People are Saying About This

James Paul Gee

Digital and social media, multimedia, multimodality, and massive social and cultural changes in our global world are transforming what literacy is and how we ought to study it. Kathy Mills’ book is, by far and away, the best guide yet to this new world. It is the New 'New Literacy Studies'.

Brian V. Street

Literacy studies is moving on and Kathy Mills is helping us move forward, through new approaches, such as socio-spatial literacies, socio-material literacies, and sensory literacies. Many may be wary of all that technical language, but Mills signals her ability to make it comprehensible and leaves the reader with some control to, as the author says, take their own lines of flight. Enjoy the flight!

Editorial Reviews

Literacy studies is moving on and Kathy Mills is helping us move forward, through new approaches, such as socio-spatial literacies, socio-material literacies, and sensory literacies. Many may be wary of all that technical language, but Mills signals her ability to make it comprehensible and leaves the reader with some control to, as the author says, take their own lines of flight. Enjoy the flight!

Brian V. Street

Digital and social media, multimedia, multimodality, and massive social and cultural changes in our global world are transforming what literacy is and how we ought to study it.  Kathy Mills’ book is, by far and away, the best guide yet to this new world.  It is the New 'New Literacy Studies'.

James Paul Gee

As literacy practices mutate in the digital era, research must evolve, and yet curricula still appear
to lag behind. Mills addresses her book to graduate students of education, so that they may gain a
vital introduction to some of the key theories that shape literacy education in the digital turn.

Journal Of Multilingual And Multicultural Development, 2016 - Sarah McMonagle

Kathy A. Mills' work is truly impressive. The wealth of references contained within the volume makes certainly for a useful reading. But that is not the main asset of the book. What comes through as the strong point of Mills' work is that she has attempted to depict as large, comprehensive and complex a picture as possible of the multiple meanings that “literacy” may have in such a diverse global context as that of our planet in the 21st century.

LINGUIST List 27.3431 - Jose Ignacio Aguilar Río

As literacy practices mutate in the digital era, research must evolve, and yet curricula still appear
to lag behind. Mills addresses her book to graduate students of education, so that they may gain a
vital introduction to some of the key theories that shape literacy education in the digital turn.

As literacy practices mutate in the digital era, research must evolve, and yet curricula still appear
to lag behind. Mills addresses her book to graduate students of education, so that they may gain a
vital introduction to some of the key theories that shape literacy education in the digital turn.

--Sarah McMonagle, University of Hamburg, Germany "Journal Of Multilingual And Multicultural Development, 2016"

Digital and social media, multimedia, multimodality, and massive social and cultural changes in our global world are transforming what literacy is and how we ought to study it. Kathy Mills' book is, by far and away, the best guide yet to this new world. It is the New 'New Literacy Studies'.

Digital and social media, multimedia, multimodality, and massive social and cultural changes in our global world are transforming what literacy is and how we ought to study it. Kathy Mills' book is, by far and away, the best guide yet to this new world. It is the New 'New Literacy Studies'.

--James Paul Gee, Arizona State University, USA

Kathy A. Mills' work is truly impressive. The wealth of references contained within the volume makes certainly for a useful reading. But that is not the main asset of the book. What comes through as the strong point of Mills' work is that she has attempted to depict as large, comprehensive and complex a picture as possible of the multiple meanings that "literacy" may have in such a diverse global context as that of our planet in the 21st century.

Kathy A. Mills' work is truly impressive. The wealth of references contained within the volume makes certainly for a useful reading. But that is not the main asset of the book. What comes through as the strong point of Mills' work is that she has attempted to depict as large, comprehensive and complex a picture as possible of the multiple meanings that "literacy" may have in such a diverse global context as that of our planet in the 21st century.

--Jose Ignacio Aguilar Río, Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University, France "LINGUIST List 27.3431"

Literacy studies is moving on and Kathy Mills is helping us move forward, through new approaches, such as socio-spatial literacies, socio-material literacies, and sensory literacies. Many may be wary of all that technical language, but Mills signals her ability to make it comprehensible and leaves the reader with some control to, as the author says, take their own lines of flight. Enjoy the flight!

Literacy studies is moving on and Kathy Mills is helping us move forward, through new approaches, such as socio-spatial literacies, socio-material literacies, and sensory literacies. Many may be wary of all that technical language, but Mills signals her ability to make it comprehensible and leaves the reader with some control to, as the author says, take their own lines of flight. Enjoy the flight!

--Brian V. Street, King's College London, UK

From the Publisher