Literacies for Learning
in Further Education
‘Yes, I do get people
to read bits out in
class which some
like to do and others
don’t, but I do like
them to do it.’
‘I don’t know really,
‘If you present a student with an
A4 piece of paper with a nice
big heading and a page full of
writing, I can almost guarantee
it will get left behind, shoved in
the bottom of a bag or
something like that.
I’ve never read it.
There’s too much
information in it.’
“We are actually
reducing the amount
of literacy – sorry, the
amount of writing –
that is required.”
‘Where I would struggle is to get
the terminology in.’
‘I have students who
write in text language
because they are so
used to the mobile
phone thing, they are
so used to abbreviating
it and breaking it down
in that way, that it’s
almost natural for them
to do it.’
The Literacies for Learning in Further Education
project, funded by the ESRC as part of its
Teaching and Learning Research Programme,
involves researchers from Lancaster and
Stirling Universities and four FE colleges.
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 work,
domestic, community and leisure
activities. Focusing on students ranging
in age from 16-65, the project is
researching a variety of different
curriculum areas and levels of course
across four FE colleges.
By co-research with students, the project
is finding about the range of literacies in
their everyday lives, and how these
interface with their course demands and
with their future work and study. The
purpose is to understand how students’
everyday literacy practices can support
them on their college courses.
The research is in three phases: Phase
One concentrated on mapping the
literacy demands of studying at the
colleges, from the perspectives of
subject staff, support staff and students.
Phase Two has explored and analysed in
more detail the kinds of literacy
practices that 128 students are involved
in through their learning, and across
their lives outside of college. Teaching
staff have been involved in analysing
their own practice and the literacy
demands of their courses. In Phase
Three college staff are experimenting
with innovations in the teaching of these
units, based on the research in Phase
Two.
This project takes a social practices
approach to literacy: seeing literacy as
something which is intrinsic to all of our
lives, not as a “basic” skill.