Reflections on Alternative Literacy

1
Reflections on Alternative Literacy

• Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.
• University of Miami
• Literacy in Teaching Conference
• Florida Atlantic University January 29, 2004

2
Literacy in Teaching/Alternative Literacies

• All of us attending this conference are
  concerned with questions of literacy. I suspect
  that all of us want to help students to read
  better and be more knowledgeable about the world
  in which they live.

Literacy in Teaching Website http//www.coe.fau.ed
u/alumni/lit.htm
3
Literacy in Teaching/Alternative Literacies

• WHAT IS OUR PURPOSE?
• The goal of the conference is to help identify
  the role of universities and colleges in
  preparing all teachers to be reading teachers. Of
  particular importance is to determine what school
  districts need from higher education to encourage
  collaborative professional development for
  teachers, especially in regard to research in
  literacy practices that target strategies and
  needs of middle school learners.

Literacy in Teaching Website http//www.coe.fau.ed
u/alumni/lit.htm
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Alternative Literacies

I am pleased to have been invited to participate
in this conferenceto have the chance to address
all its attendees. My presentation is intended to
extend the discussion of literacy and its
meaningto expand our understanding of literacy
without diminishing our basic efforts to improve
traditional text literacy.
Literacy in Teaching Website http//www.coe.fau.ed
u/alumni/lit.htm
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Alternative Literacies

• My presentation this afternoon is based on a new
  book that I am working on that deals with
  alternative literacy.
• I believe that the idea of alternative literacy
  is important for contemporary educational reform
  for a number of reasons.

19th Century Phrenology Book
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Significance

• As a highly complex postmodern culture, we are
  moving towards a type of literacy that is
  different than that of traditional text-based
  literacy. It is a type of literacy that does not
  necessarily supersede traditional text literacy.
  Instead, it interacts with it in various and
  multiform wayssometimes superseding it,
  sometimes functioning in close parallel
  formation, and often merging with it in a
  synchronous fashion.

7
Defining Literacy

• Literacy is a concept that is subject to many
  different definitions. The Oxford English
  dictionary talks about it as The quality or
  state of being literate knowledge of letters
  condition in respect to education, esp. ability
  to read and write. (1989). Such a definition is
  rooted in the idea of equating the ability to
  decode text with being literate.

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Types of Literacy
Literacy is also often broken down in terms of
subtopics. One often hears the term used in the
context of economic literacy, scientific
literacy, and cultural literacy, to name just
a few.
economic literacy
scientific literacy
cultural literacy
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E. D. Hirsch, Jr. versus Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.

• E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
• Abbreviation
• Abstract Art
• Academic Freedom
• Acropolis
• Columbus
• Mozart
• NATO
• Treaty of Versailles
• Versailles
• Wagner

• Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.
• Buchenwald
• Buckyballs
• Bug
• Bungee Jumping
• Byte
• Mother Jones
• Hypertext
• Non Sexist
• SETI
• Salsa
• Nascar Dads

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Linking to this Conference and Its Themes

• Ignoring the reality of alternative literacies
  can be a significant political and cultural act.
  Narrowly defined models of literacyand the
  disregard of alternative literacieshave provided
  means of exclusion and cultural dominationan
  issue which should be of critical importance to
  the concerns of this conference.

Literacy in Teaching
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Need to Recognize the Existence of Alternative
and Multiple Literacies

• I wish to argue for a broader recognition of the
  importance of alternative and multiple literacies
  in our culture. I wish to argue that no
  individual or group functions without alternative
  literacies. They are an essential part of how we
  define ourselves as cultural beings.

Kabuki-cho District Tokyo
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New Alternative Literacies

• I wish to argue that many of these literacies
  are distinctively postmodern and something very
  new.

Times Square in New York City
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Old Literacies Bound to Traditional Cultures

• Many of these literacies are also very old and
  an integral part of many traditional cultures and
  societies.

Kiowa Drawing circa 1890
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Alternative Literacies do not stand by themselves

• Alternative literacies do not stand by
  themselves. Instead, they typically combine with
  other literacies, including text literacy, to
  define our meaning as cultural beings. In doing
  so they enrich our capacity to understand and
  communicate and to function across a range of
  social and cultural settings.

Three Interfaces With Literacy Computer Text Telev
ision
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The 23rd Psalm
Life
The LORD is my shepherd I shall not want.He
maketh me to lie down in green pastureshe
leadeth me beside the still waters.He restoreth
my soulhe leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake.Yea, though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I
will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod
and thy staff they comfort me.Thou preparest a
table before me in the presence of mine
enemiesthou anointest my head with oil my cup
runneth over.Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my lifeand I will
dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

• I saw a remarkable example of this last year in
  class last year. A student of minea deeply
  religious football player had a tattoo down the
  entire length of his arm of the 23rd Psalm. On
  either side of the tattoo were the worlds LIFE
  and DEATH.
• Meaning Student adaptation of traditional and
  postmodern use of tattoos as part of a profession
  of faithhis personal testimony.

Death
16
Silver Horn Target Record Book
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Silver Horn Target Record Book
18
Mercator Projection
The Mercator Projection is named after its
inventor Gerhard Kremer, a Flemish cartographer
who lived from 1512 to 1594. (Gerhardus Mercator
was the latinized form of his name). He published
the first map using this projection in 1569.
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Mercator Projection
Each rectangular unit is the same size in terms
of square miles
Implications?
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Mercator Projection
Ideological implications of each of the following
examples or Mercator Projections?
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Phrenology
Phrenology19th century pseudo psychology
visually and physically creates a text/literacy
of racial characteristics and with them a series
of biases and cultural constructions. Representati
on of power implicit in the racial and
psychological constructs.
22
Signs of Andrew
Signs created by homeowners after Hurricane
Andrew in the Country Walk housing development.
http//digital.library.miami.edu/andrew/html/signs
_of_andrew.html
23
Story Quilts
Slave quilt patterns like the wagon wheel, log
cabin, and shoofly signaled slaves how and when
to prepare for their journey. Stitching and knots
created maps and distance in a "secret code".
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Blade Runner
Blade Runner, New York and the realization of the
Bauhaus conception of a morphing urban literacy
in the cityscape.
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Rebuses
Mother Goose Hieroglyphicks (1860)
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Rebuses
A New Hieroglyphical Bible (1836)
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Rebus Writer
The computer can take this form and transform it
into an new type of writing. I have, for example,
developed a word processor which substitutes
rebuses for words.
U
.
I saw you in Arkansas.
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Rebus Writer
The computer can animate a rebus and also add
sound. A new and a very old type of writing are
combined, created and refined.
.
The
the
2
The precision of language changes. Is this
sentence saying the horse gallops, rushes, goes
or runs to the barn.
29
Ethnomathematics

• Term introduced by Ubiratan D'Ambrosio to
  describe the mathematical practices of
  identifiable cultural groups. It is sometimes
  used specifically for small-scale indigenous
  societies, but in its broadest sense the "ethno"
  prefix can refer to any group -- national
  societies, labor communities, religious
  traditions, professional classes, and so on.
  Mathematical practices include symbolic systems,
  spatial designs, practical construction
  techniques, calculation methods, measurement in
  time and space, specific ways of reasoning and
  inferring, and other cognitive and material
  activities which can be translated to formal
  mathematical representation.

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Ethnomathematics
31
Quipa

• A quipu is an assemblage of colored knotted
  cotton cords... The colors of the cords, the way
  the cords are connected together, the relative
  placement of the cords, the spaces between the
  cords, the types of knots on the individual
  cords, and the relative placement of the knots
  are all part of the logical-numerical recording.

32
Abacus

• Another model of computation and literacy with
  which many of us are more familiar.

33
Blogs emerging example of alternative literacy

• Blogs and the youth population as an emerging
  alternative literacy.
• blog
• A frequent, chronological publication of personal
  thoughts and Web links.
• A blog is often a mixture of what is happening
  in a person's life and what is happening on the
  Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although
  there are as many unique types of blogs as there
  are people. People maintained blogs long before
  the term was coined, but the trend gained
  momentum with the introduction of automated
  published systems, most notably Blogger at
  blogger.com. Thousands of people use services
  such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the
  publishing process. Blogs are alternatively
  called web logs or weblogs. However, "blog" seems
  less likely to cause confusion, as "web log" can
  also mean a server's log files.

34
Alternative Literacies/literacy and teaching

• Implications of Alternative Literacies for School
  Based Literacy Programs
• THESIS Traditional text literacy is critical to
  pursue with our children, but it cannot be
  realized without a broader understanding of
  literacyone which takes into account the reality
  of alternative literacies.