Abstract
This article reports on a study of pre-service teachers’ literacy narratives in a South African institution of higher learning. Literacy self-narratives of 57 students were collected and analysed for categories and themes under narrator and sponsor identities through the use of AtlasTi software. The results of the study show the role of historical, cultural and political contexts in shaping literacy identities of student teachers. The results also show huge disparities of literacy experiences among different racial and gender groupings, which highlight social and educational opportunities. Using New literacies and Multiliteracies frameworks, I consider how these literacy challenges may be transformed to facilitate a just and equitable society. Particular implications of the students’ constructions of literacy identities are considered at the end of the article.
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©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Identity negotiation in a super-diverse community: The fuzzy languaging logic of high school students in Soweto
- Odonymic changes in Central Pretoria: Representation, identity and textual construction of place
- Failure to launch: matching language policy with literacy accomplishment in South African schools
- “Amaphi ama-subjects eniwa-enjoy-ayo esikolweni?”: Code-switching and language practices among bilingual learners in the Eastern Cape
- Investigating literacy narratives among ethno-linguistically diverse South African students
- Translanguaging practices in complex multilingual spaces: A discontinuous continuity in post-independent South Africa
- The social dimension of reading literacy development in South Africa: Bridging inequalities among the various language groups
- Book Review
- Pol Cuvelier, Theodorus Du Plessis, Michael Meeuwis, Reinhild Vandekerckhove and Vic Webb: Multilingualism for empowerment
- Small Languages and Small Language Communities 79
- An ethnography of the standardization reform: A case of policy-making in the context of the Upper Perené Arawak community of Peru
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Identity negotiation in a super-diverse community: The fuzzy languaging logic of high school students in Soweto
- Odonymic changes in Central Pretoria: Representation, identity and textual construction of place
- Failure to launch: matching language policy with literacy accomplishment in South African schools
- “Amaphi ama-subjects eniwa-enjoy-ayo esikolweni?”: Code-switching and language practices among bilingual learners in the Eastern Cape
- Investigating literacy narratives among ethno-linguistically diverse South African students
- Translanguaging practices in complex multilingual spaces: A discontinuous continuity in post-independent South Africa
- The social dimension of reading literacy development in South Africa: Bridging inequalities among the various language groups
- Book Review
- Pol Cuvelier, Theodorus Du Plessis, Michael Meeuwis, Reinhild Vandekerckhove and Vic Webb: Multilingualism for empowerment
- Small Languages and Small Language Communities 79
- An ethnography of the standardization reform: A case of policy-making in the context of the Upper Perené Arawak community of Peru