Texts and Practices: Sociolinguistic and Political Perspectives

Abstract

In this chapter I discuss the role of literacy practices and texts within educational contexts. Recent literature has tended to privilege practices over texts, the performer or doer over the material substance we draw on (see, for instance, Street 2012). Here I wish to bring the text into sharper focus, as a necessary mediating factor in literacy practices, especially in the context of schooling, where skill as readers and writers of linear text continues to offer the best chance of educational success. At the same time I will discuss literacy from two perspectives: first, at the micro level, as a sociolinguistic process and second as a social and political phenomenon. What counts as reading or writing, particularly in school, is linked to wider cultural values and expectations embedded in educational policy and political decree.