http://hdl.handle.net/2436/21653 Sat, 18 May 2013 08:24:14 GMT 2013-05-18T08:24:14Z http://hdl.handle.net/2436/47829 Title: Reading Reader Identities: Stories about Young Adults Reading. Authors: Kendall, Alex Abstract: Alex Kendall is Associate Dean for Education at the University of Wolverhampton. Whilst this role involves her in a broad range of educational work, her focus as a teacher educator and research lies in the areas of initial teacher education and continuing professional development programmes for adult literacy specialists. Background In 2002 The Times Higher Education supplement ran a report which challenged and reoriented my thinking about reading and readers and had a profound impact on the theorising I then was immersed in as part of the PhD research process. The report sought to re-present a selection of the findings from a reading habits survey I had (tentatively) presented to the British Educational Research conference a few weeks previously. The report entitled 'Books lose out to tabloids' read, "Half of the FE students taking English courses in a deprived part of the Midlands rarely or never read for pleasure, according to a survey of students aged sixteen to nineteen at seven colleges in the Black Country. Their most popular reading matter is tabloid newspapers and magazines. Four out of five of the 340 students surveyed were studying for A-levels and three-quarters were female, yet 15 per cent said they never read for pleasure and 34 per cent did not do so regularly. The rest read for pleasure at least once or twice a week but only 3 per cent did so every day. Most preferred to socialise and watch TV. The findings were presented to last week's British Educational Research Association conference by Alex Kendall of the University of Wolverhampton. They supported views of college teachers who told her many A-level students had "poor reading skills and weak vocabulary" and few read beyond their coursework." (Passmore, 2002: 32) Some months later the press office at my University was contacted by a BBC Radio researcher who had come across the BERA abstract via the TES article and wanted to invite me to contribute to a late night BBC radio discussion programme addressed to the BBC' Big Read' campaign. The "students don't read novels" quote in the TES article had caught the researcher's eye and I was invited to share my knowledge about the 'illiteracy’ of young people and also to identify a high consuming or idiosyncratic reader who might also join the discussion. The research seemed 'instinctively’ to be making a connection between students choices about not to read novels and the degree to which they were or weren't 'literate'. And indeed it was not implied that the 'interesting' reader might be found amongst the student participants. Description: A scanned copy of this article is attached to this record, with the kind permission of the copyright holders, RaPAL (Research and Practice in Adult Literacy). Back issues of RaPAL Journal are available from Avantibooks. Membership of Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) includes a subscription to the RaPAL journal. Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2436/47829 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2436/47828 Title: Giving up reading: re-imagining reading with young adult readers. Authors: Kendall, Alex Abstract: Alex is associate dean at the University of Wolverhampton with responsibility for undergraduate awards, post-compulsory teacher education and the Black Country Skills for Life professional development centre, BLEND. Alex also teaches [less than she would like] on the literacy & language CPD programmes at Wolverhampton. Background: In this article I explore the thoughts and reflections of young adults from the Black Country in the West Midlands about what it means to read and to be a reader. Beginning with discussions of newspaper reading I suggest that whilst the participants in this study were likely to feel comfortable with their 'technical skills' as readers they were not always so confident in their abilities to 'grasp', as they saw it, the 'correct' meanings of the texts they read, most Especially those they encountered in the course of their studies at college. Drawing on data collected in relation to 'reading for pleasure' begin to consider the ways in which new media textualities, in this case gaming, may offer young adults new ways of being as readers that although both pleasurable and motivating find little legitimate expression within educational spaces. I make use of Gee's notions of active and critical learning to suggest that if the reading subject identities constructed through schooled literacy are to be meaningful (valued) and useful (permit learners to exercise power as readers perhaps even in ways that are not predictable, or we I dare to say, desirable) to young adult readers then a broader range of theoretical understandings must be brought to bear on practice. These seem pertinent in the environment of Web 2.0 (O'Reilly, 2007) and Media 2 .0 (McDougall, 2007; Gauntlett 2008) which seems at once to offer both exciting new possibilities for young people to enact reading (and writing) and to further trouble the possibility of a proximal relationship between educational and cultural life world literacy identities. I go on to consider what might usefully be learnt about reading by beginning to theorise the enjoyment young adults find in out of college textual experience. The findings of this article may be of interest to those involved in the teaching of reading as they illustrate compellingly the need for pedagogical approaches to reading and literacy that not only take serious account of the social practices through which readers experience text but which rigorously theorise the making and taking of meaning and in so doing teach learners to "really read" ( Gee, 2003: 16). Description: A scanned copy of this article is attached to this record, with the kind permission of the copyright holders, RaPAL (Research and Practice in Adult Literacy). Back issues of RaPAL Journal are available from Avantibooks. Membership of Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) includes a subscription to the RaPAL journal. Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2436/47828 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2436/47556 Title: CPD for Teachers in Post-compulsory Education. Authors: Hafiz, Rania; Jones, liff; Kendall, Alex; Lea, John; Rogers, James Abstract: The last few years have seen an unprecedented level of activity in regards the education, training and development of teachers in the post-compulsory sector. These stem, to an extent, from the Government's reform programme outlined in the 2004 "Equipping our Teachers for the Future" white paper. But it also comes from the professionalism that exists within the teaching force, its professional associations and in the organisations and institutions that oversee and deliver training programmes for prospective and serving teachers. The purpose of this position paper is fourfold: Firstly, it seeks to provide a summary and critical analysis of the complex and inter-related changes that have taken place in recent years. Secondly, it identifies some examples of good practice in regards CPD and how the "impact" of such practice might be assessed. Thirdly, it proposes the adoption of an entitlement statement that sets out the support teachers in the sector should expect to receive in respect of their continuing professional development. And, finally, it lists some firm recommendations that we would like government agencies, professional associations, universities and others to take on board. Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2436/47556 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2436/47574 Title: Space, Resistance and Identities: University-based Teacher Educators Developing a Community of Practice. Authors: Herrington, Margaret; Kendall, Alex; Hughes, Julie; Lacey, Cathie; Smith, Rob; Dye, Vanessa; Baig, Rachel; O’Leary, Matt Abstract: This series: The aim of this set of books is to combine the best of current academic research into the use of Communities of Practice in education with "hands on" practitioner experience in order to provide teachers and academics with a convenient source of guidance and an incentive to work with and develop in their own Communities of Practice. Volume 1 deals principally with the issues found in co-located Communities of Practice, while Volume 2 deal principally with distributed Communities of Practice. Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2436/47574 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z