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In early years classrooms in Canada, children are often assessed for specific discrete skills in reading and writing, using tools such as running records and word lists. Through research with children, other tools are emerging to more fully help a teacher understand a child’s literacy practices, but the use of these tools requires a shift in ideology regarding literacy and learning. This thesis documents this shift from a more modernist theory of education and autonomous philosophy of literacy to a postmodernist view of education and an ideological view of literacy. Alternative tools for assessment and teaching of children in the form of a pedagogy of listening and pedagogical documentation are presented. Also, pedagogical documentation is used as a methodology for this study. This research suggests a shift in the way educators view children and their literacy practices, and in how they engage in research in the classroom.

This qualitative research is a hermeneutic inquiry into learning about democracy through critical literacy in high school English language arts (ELA) education. The purpose of this study was to address the need for greater understanding of why critical literacy should be examined in high school ELA. The literature review connects historical theoretical and praxial implications for democratic practices. Critical literacy was explored through the hermeneutic method situated in one ELA teacher’s experience connected to a world view. Pivotal stages of critical literacy learning were explored in the classroom for transfer across education and democracy. Findings provide insight into the need for teachers to envision themselves as lifelong critical literacy practitioners and to engage in learning communities that explore the evolving needs of students. Essential philosophical underpinnings of the new philosophy of critical literacy education are explored; and suggestions for further professional development to increase subject knowledge are stressed. English language arts educators who wish to enact a critical literacy curriculum need to work together with students to engage in discourses around issues of power in literacy practices so classroom discourse may connect to the world.

In this thesis, I investigate the nature of change that two adult language learners/users have experienced in learning to become bilingual through the mediation of autobiographical narrative writing. The major purposes of the thesis are to identify the nature of change that adult language learners/users have experienced in learning and using plural languages through the mediation of autobiographical writing in L2, and to examine the usefulness of narrative inquiry as a complementary research approach to understand the complexity of language and literacy learning from the learner‘s perspectives. To this end the following research questions have been posed. 1. What can learners‘ stories tell about the long-term processes of language and literacy learning? 2. What role can written autobiographical narrative play in processes of language learning? 3. What is the potential contribution of narrative inquiry to research in the field of language and literacy learning? In addressing these questions, I have drawn on socio-cultural and narrative theory to undertake a longitudinal study of two language learners/users – Satoko, a young Chinese-Japanese woman, and myself. Thus, the study comprises Satoko‘s biographical study and my own autobiographical study, in which I am simultaneously the subject and the object of inquiry. I have analysed how processes of becoming bilingual for both of us were represented in autobiographical narratives, and, in turn, how the act of writing autobiographical narratives mediated ways in which we learned to become bilingual. By utilising narrative inquiry, I have attempted to broaden the locus of research into language and literacy learning from language development to learner development. A feature of the research design implemented in the thesis is its layered approach to narrative construction and analysis. This approach has enabled me to provide detailed insights into the complex interrelationships between linguistic and non-linguistic dimensions of language learning. In particular it has enabled me to highlight the multifaceted nature of learners‘ change and the significance of affect, social relations, and transformation of identities as learners work between two languages. It has also enabled me to address ways in which learners‘ engagement with written narrative impacted both their linguistic and non-linguistic development. Outcomes from the research suggest that complex processes of language and literacy learning can be profitably examined through the notion of becoming bilingual, which entails continuous translation across languages – hence the use of the term becoming bilingual in the title of this thesis.

In this thesis, I investigate the nature of change that two adult language learners/users have experienced in learning to become bilingual through the mediation of autobiographical narrative writing. The major purposes of the thesis are to identify the nature of change that adult language learners/users have experienced in learning and using plural languages through the mediation of autobiographical writing in L2, and to examine the usefulness of narrative inquiry as a complementary research approach to understand the complexity of language and literacy learning from the learner‘s perspectives. To this end the following research questions have been posed. 1. What can learners‘ stories tell about the long-term processes of language and literacy learning? 2. What role can written autobiographical narrative play in processes of language learning? 3. What is the potential contribution of narrative inquiry to research in the field of language and literacy learning? In addressing these questions, I have drawn on socio-cultural and narrative theory to undertake a longitudinal study of two language learners/users – Satoko, a young Chinese-Japanese woman, and myself. Thus, the study comprises Satoko‘s biographical study and my own autobiographical study, in which I am simultaneously the subject and the object of inquiry. I have analysed how processes of becoming bilingual for both of us were represented in autobiographical narratives, and, in turn, how the act of writing autobiographical narratives mediated ways in which we learned to become bilingual. By utilising narrative inquiry, I have attempted to broaden the locus of research into language and literacy learning from language development to learner development. A feature of the research design implemented in the thesis is its layered approach to narrative construction and analysis. This approach has enabled me to provide detailed insights into the complex interrelationships between linguistic and non-linguistic dimensions of language learning. In particular it has enabled me to highlight the multifaceted nature of learners‘ change and the significance of affect, social relations, and transformation of identities as learners work between two languages. It has also enabled me to address ways in which learners‘ engagement with written narrative impacted both their linguistic and non-linguistic development. Outcomes from the research suggest that complex processes of language and literacy learning can be profitably examined through the notion of becoming bilingual, which entails continuous translation across languages – hence the use of the term becoming bilingual in the title of this thesis.

Thesis (M.I. St.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Nadia Caidi. Completed at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-130).

Thesis (M.I.T.)--The Evergreen State College, 2007. / Title from title screen viewed (4/10/2008). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-114).

Thesis (Ph.D)-- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Soc. Inquiry Centre for Asian Studies, 2000. / Bibliography: 455-480.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-265).

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Lynée Lewis Gaillet, committee chair; Elizabeth Sanders Lopez, Mary Hocks, committee members. Electronic text (69 p. : coll. ill.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 5, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-62).