Literacy and the Practice of Writing in the 19th Century: A Strange Blossoming of Spirit - Brossura

Howard, Ursula

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1862015643 ISBN 13: 9781862015647

Casa editrice: Natl Inst of Adult Continuing, 2012

Riassunto

As a history of learning and literacy in 19th-century England, and based on documentary and qualitative evidence, this book explores people's desire to learn, the ways they learned and practiced writing, and what writing meant for them at a time when there was little or no state education available. Those who learned and used writing skills had practices, purposes, and beliefs in common, including a consciousness of the social nature and purposes of learning, and the sense that writing skill is a powerful asset in enabling the development and exercise of human agency. Literacy and the Practice of Writing in the 19th Century therefore addresses questions which lie at the heart of much literacy scholarship. Are those people who cannot write less able to organize and change their lives? Is the ability to write fundamental to empowerment and self-realization, for individuals and for communities? If so, when and in which circumstances did this become the case? With its unique research, the book contributes original scholarship to the field of literacy studies and to the history of adult learning and education more widely.

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Recensione

Ursula Howard's enquiry into nineteenth-century working-class autobiography is an illuminating read, firmly rooted in questions that still burn strongly for adult educators today. The book makes a significant contribution to literacy studies it is about writing, which is often ignored or subsumed under reading in policy and practice. Most importantly it is about the 'unbidden' literacy practices of working class autobiography in an age where writing was not expected of 'ordinary people'. Howard asks: why did writing matter so much to these authors that they went against the grain to record their thoughts and experiences? How did they do it and at what cost? This is a carefully and engagingly written book to read end to end. It is structured to take us through the broad social and political context of literacy in the nineteenth century, to the more local context of the community and social relationships within which individual working-class autobiographies were produced. --Mary Hamilton, Professor of Adult Learning and Literacy, Lancaster University

L'autore

Ursula Howard is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London. With more than 30 years' experience in teaching, organising and researching adult literacy, she is a former Director of Research at the Learning and Skills Development Agency and a former Director of the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (NRDC).

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Natl Inst of Adult Continuing
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1862015643
• ISBN 13: 9781862015647
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 349
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile