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Literacy practices are crucial resources for learning across the full range of the curriculum and throughout the life-course.
There is growing evidence that the learning outcomes of students in Further Education are undermined by difficulties imposed by the literacy demands of their courses. Yet recent theory and research in literacy studies suggests that students who appear to have low levels of literacy in educational settings are highly literate in other domains of life: in their domestic, community and leisure activities.
This research focuses on the use, refinement and diversification
of literacy practices as students participate in Further Education
(F.E.) courses. It will
- investigate ‘border literacies’ that enable people to negotiate
successfully between 'informal' vernacular literacy practices
and more 'formal' literacies within the F.E. context;
- design, implement and evaluate intervention programmes aimed
at mobilising and developing students’ literacy capabilities for success on their F.E. courses, for learning through life, and for adaptation to the emergent literacy demands of the wider society;
- develop research partnerships between H.E. and F.E. in order
to enhance research capacity and evidence-based practice in F.E.
The research is based upon a partnership between two universities
and four further education (FE) colleges: two in England and
two in Scotland, making comparisons across policy contexts,
curricula, different student populations, and a wide range of literacies
in both informal and formal settings. 16 F.E. staff – four
from each college - will work as part of the research team throughout the
study. .
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