My teaching experiences raised questions about the nature of literacy, especially about its relationship with education and schooling. Common sense, straightforward definitions of literacy failed to address those questions adequately, and that inadequacy led to the study which culminates in this thesis. In Pursuit of Literacy focuses on literacy in order to explore answers to those questions. It does so first by establishing a problematized understanding of literacy, then by examining research into the implications of such an understanding, and finally by analyzing the historical link between literacy and schooling in the United States with that understanding as a basis. This thesis arrives at its initial problematized understanding by considering historical and contemporary definitions of literacy and standards for measuring it, revealing that context plays a central role in these definitions and standards. This work then posits a literacy uncertainty principle, analogous to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in physics, emphasizing the definer's role and purpose as necessary elements in any understanding of literacy itself. A view of literacy as a contextualized human activity rather than an abstract and narrowly defined concept emerges from this problematization. This study then examines some implications of this view. Three metaphors commonly identified with literacy provide a basis for analyzing these implications. Finally, literacy as schooling, a fourth metaphor is considered in an historical context, tracing possible sources of confusion between the demands of schooling and those of literacy. The conclusions drawn here help clarify the relationship between schools and literacy. / Graduation date: 1995

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This ethnographic study explores how assessments of literate learning are produced in cultural and institutional settings. Focusing on one student, Tony Mitchell, I situate assessments of his literate learning in the sociocultural contexts in which the assessments were embedded. I examine: 1) the assessments of Tony as "unable to read or write" produced in his fourth grade class; 2) the special education evaluation process in which Tony’s abilities were assessed as borderline; 3) the profile of Tony as an able, literate learner I constructed as I worked with him in and out of school between December 1992 and December 1993; and, 4) the assessment of Tony as a reader and writer produced in his fifth grade class. Data included documents, interviews, and fieldnotes accumulated over an extended period of time and from a wide range of perspectives. Analysis of the data was an ongoing process beginning with the formulation and clarification of my focus and continuing into the writing phase of the study. Different cultural and institutional contexts produced discrepant assessments of Tony’s literate learning. In instructional and testing environments emphasizing the accumulation of discrete facts, a linear progression of skills, and the transmission of knowledge, Tony was assessed aS a non-reader and non-writer with borderline ability. In settings that recognized literate learning as constructed by students as they work with others in supportive environments, Tony was assessed as an able, literate learner. Tony’s story makes visible the often invisible social processes of classroom life and the education policies in which assessments of students’ literate learning are embedded. It establishes that assessments of students’ literate learning are constructed. It illustrates the relationship between instructional, curricular, and testing practices and assessments of students’ learning. Through Tony’s story it is clear that to be adequately understood assessments of students’ literate learning must be examined in the sociocultural contexts in which they are produced. / Ph. D.

It was estimated that 35 million people age 65 or older lived in the United States in 2000. Of that number 2.8 million were Black/African American. The U.S. Census Bureau's (2000) population projections show that there will be 70 million older adults age 65 or older by 2030 and African Americans are expected to comprise over 12% of that population. In 1993 older adults had made less elective use of computers than younger adults, accounting for 24.2% of those age 55 to 64 and 4.9% of adults over age 65. By 2003 adults over age 65 recorded a 20.1% increase in computer usage becoming the fastest growing segment of computer users who are engaging in learning computer skills as a way of coping with the technological changes. Studies have found that greater experience with computers is associated with more positive attitudes; however, it has never been determined whether this is true of the older African American population since there is a paucity of research documenting their computer attitudes. This study utilized a mixed methods research design that included an experimental design and an inductive approach with interviews. The following findings emerged: (a) attitudes differed for older African Americans who received computer training and those who did not; (b) there was no distinction in computer attitudes between older adult male and older adult females in the African American population; (c) there was no interaction effect on computer attitudes as moderated by training and gender; (d) older African Americans exhibited a positive disposition towards computers which elicited positive attitudes towards the technology; (e) older African Americans had a nascent need for computer self-efficacy; and (f) older African Americans constructed new meaning regarding computers as a result of their reflection on their computer interaction experience. / The findings have established that older African Americans' attitudes can be influenced by direct computer experience and the study extends prior research by identifying the process by which attitude change takes place. / by Nigel Leon Lovell-Martin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This study examined the home-based family literacy practices of one Hispanic family, especially focusing on the parents' memories of home-based and school-based literacy activities, current home-based literacy activities and functions, and the interface of home-based family literacy practices and school-based literacy expectations. Ethnographic data offered insight into the understanding that literacy acquisition begins in the home and is dependent and reflective of literacy experiences that are sociocultural based. These home-based family literacy activities and functions are broad in scope and are valuable forms of literacy. However, these activities of marginalized families are often regarded as unimportant and/or unrelated to school-based literacy expectations, and therefore inferior. In response to this perceived mismatch between home-based family literacy activities and school-based literacy expectations, educators approached families from a deficit perspective. This deficit assumption created a sense of devalue on the part of the parents, who assisted their children by culturally and socially relevant means. To meet the school-based literacy expectations familial relationships were jeopardized as the pressure, frustration, and guilt from educators can result in emotional and physical abuse from mother to her children.

The purpose of this study was to describe the home literacy environments and literacy experiences of a select group of Asian American children, and to recommend an intervention program based on the findings. The target population was the families which sent their children to a Saturday Asian language and culture school while sending them to public schools during the week, because of their expressed interest in literacy and the probability of their being the group to most likely benefit from intervention. The Home Literacy Environment and Literacy Experiences survey was initially sent out and results tallied and quantified. Upon placing the returned surveys into groups of "high," "middle," and "low" home literacy environment and literacy experiences, a sample of five "high" and five "low" families was selected for further study. Home visits, interviews, field notes, collection of artifacts and other methods of data collection provided a clearer picture of the state of the home literacy environment and literacy experiences of the families studied. Families rated as having "high" home literacy environment and experiences were found to have a larger number of literacy-related materials and higher frequency of literacy-related activities. Bilingualism and education were perceived as being important. The families also exhibited a strong interest in music and music lessons. Parents expressed a desire for two two-hour training sessions which would be held at the Saturday school location while their child attended classes there. It would be ideally held in the native language of the parents by a speaker from the native country. The parents preferred workshops with actual practice and examples which could be seen, accompanied by reading materials. Topics in which parents expressed interest include, in descending order: (a) 'selection of books for and with their child, (b) how to encourage their child to read, (c) how to discuss stories with their child, and (d) how to read aloud to their child.

The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of technological literacy for high school graduates. A panel of experts in technological literacy was used to formulate the list of characteristics and make judgments on each. The design of the study was the Delphi Method, using the Q-Sort Technique, with the Thurstone and Chave Method of Equal Appearing Intervals. Using the Method of Equal Appearing Intervals, median scores and Q-Values were calculated for each characteristic. The 80th percentile was used to determine when a characteristic reached consensus. A panel of experts was chosen from among seven groups: (a) philosophers of education, (b) technology educators, (c) engineering educators, (d) scientists, (e) science educators, (f) classroom teachers, and (g) business and education support. The results of the study provide a clearer focus on what is meant by technological literacy. This study identified a list of 24 consensus items to be used as minimum characteristics of technological literacy for high school graduates. / Ed. D.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this study, Janis Edwards and Carol Winkler’s method, based on Michael McGee’s ideograph, is applied to non-discursive forms in order to understand the extent to which these images can be understood as a representative form functioning ideographically. Artifacts for analysis include the 2008 Shepard Fairey Obama “PROGRESS” and “HOPE” images, related campaign graphics, and parodies, political and non-political, humorous and serious. Literature on visual rhetoric, the ideograph, and extensions of McGee’s ideograph to visual forms was reviewed. When the method was applied to the artifacts, the Obama “HOPE” image was found to be an example of a representative form. Additionally, the representative form was demonstrated to function ideographically in the parodied examples analyzed in this thesis. Opportunities for further study on the visual ideograph and additional artifacts were proposed.