Abstract:
Contemporary policy shifts in education increasingly constitute 'literacy' as the object of government, media and teacher attention, whilst simultaneously backgrounding other educational and social matters concerning young people. Drawing on analyses of policy, media and classroom texts from several research projects, this paper examines the contingent nature of 'literacy' as it is constructed in these sites. In particular, it focuses on classroom practices and the ways in which macro discourses are taken up, altered or contested in local sites and projects. In particular, how macro discourses affect teachers' practices and the constitution of the ideal literate student subject will be discussed. How research on 'literacy' might contribute to the construction of 'spaces of freedom', in Foucault's sense, or sustain normative agendas is considered, whilst recognising that research may have multiple and often times contradictory effects.