Mary Hamilton
See my research profile at:
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/edres/profiles/Mary-Hamilton/
Professor of Adult Learning and Literacy,
Dept Educational Research,
County South College,
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YD
UK
e-mail: m.hamilton@lancaster.ac.uk
Phone: 01524 592679/592861
Literacy Research Group: http://www.literacy.lancaster.ac.uk/
Director, Laboratory of International Assessment Studies http://international-assessments.org
Recent book: Literacy as Numbers http://bit.ly/1LepwLt
follow me on twitter @mryhmltn
Research and Practice in Adult Literacy: RaPAL https://rapal.org.uk/
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/edres/profiles/Mary-Hamilton/
Professor of Adult Learning and Literacy,
Dept Educational Research,
County South College,
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YD
UK
e-mail: m.hamilton@lancaster.ac.uk
Phone: 01524 592679/592861
Literacy Research Group: http://www.literacy.lancaster.ac.uk/
Director, Laboratory of International Assessment Studies http://international-assessments.org
Recent book: Literacy as Numbers http://bit.ly/1LepwLt
follow me on twitter @mryhmltn
Research and Practice in Adult Literacy: RaPAL https://rapal.org.uk/
less
InterestsView All (9)
Uploads
Papers by Mary Hamilton
This book explores the social practice of literacy, numeracy and language and its implications for teaching and learning adult basic skills. Leading international experts argue that literacy, numeracy and language are more than just a set of skills or techniques, but are shaped by the social and cultural context within which they are taking place; the meanings they have for users; and the purposes they serve. This shifts the focus from a narrow, functional and externally imposed definition of literacy, numeracy and language learning, to more open and numerous definitions that focus on what people do with their knowledge, understanding and skills in a range of contexts.
Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Language shows how the social practice approach to learning and teaching can be used to develop more inclusive views of adult literacy, numeracy and language. Bringing together the views of researchers, policy makers and practitioners, it helps readers to develop an understanding of contemporary policy developments and encourages them to examine their own practice as adult basic education teachers, in order to respond more effectively to the needs of their students.
The growth of a knowledge-based economy and an information society has meant that literacy increasingly mediates our lives and activities. Literacy has also been a way of critically comprehending the world in order to make it different and better. It is an important tool for increasing the autonomy of powerless individuals and groups by reducing the gap between those with access to information and those denied it.
Building on the original Powerful Literacies first published in 2001, this volume considers the new developments in theory, technology and policy that are having an impact on learning and teaching literacies. It also addresses the current policy context of lifelong learning, active citizenship and social inclusion by showing how learners can be positioned in ways that seek to enhance their control and autonomy.
Using examples from the UK and elsewhere, this book makes a powerful contribution to the analysis of the different, and sometimes ‘ hidden’, ways in which literacies are conceptualised and politicised; and on the generation of ‘liberating‘ educational practice in the light of such work.
Bringing together an international team of scholars to examine the tensions and struggles that result from the current educational climate, the book provides a much-needed discussion of the intersection of technologies of literacies, education and self. It does so through diverse approaches, including philosophical, theoretical and methodological treatments of multimodality and governmentality, and a range of literacies - early years, primary school, workplace, digital, middle school, secondary school, indigenous, adult and place. With examples taken from all stages of education and in several countries, the book allows readers to explore a range of multimodal practices and the ways in which governmentality plays out across them.
Hamilton, M. Heydon, R., Hibbert, K. and Stooke, R. (2015) Negotiating Spaces for Literacy Learning: Multimodality and
Governmentality. Bloomsbury Books.
Part 1 - Definitions and Conceptualisations: Editor's Introduction; 1. Assembling a Sociology of Numbers; 2. New Literacisation, Curricular Isomorphism and the OECD's PISA; 3. Transnational Education Policy-Making: International Assessments and the Formation of a new Institutional Order; 4. Interpreting International Surveys of Adult Skills: Methodological and Policy-related issues.
Part 2 - Processes, Effects and Practices: 5. Disentangling Policy Intentions, Education Practice and the Discourse of Quantification: Accounting for the Policy of 'Payment by Results' in 19th Century England; 6. Adding New Numbers to the Literacy Narrative: Using PIAAC Data to Focus on Literacy Practices. 7. How Feasible is it to Develop a Culturally-Sensitive Large-Scale, Standardised Assessment of Literacy Skills?; 8. Inside the Assessment Machine - The Life and Times of a Test Item; 9. Participating in International Literacy Assessments in Lao PDR and Mongolia: A Global Ritual of Belonging; 10. Towards a Global Model in Education? International Student Literacy Assessments and their Impact on Policies and Institutions; 11. From an International Adult Literacy Assessment to the Classroom: How Test Development Methods are Transposed into Curriculum; 12. Counting 'What you Want Them to Want': Psychometrics and Social Policy in Ontario.
See sample chapters at: http://bit.ly/1SNA6JZ
Hamilton, M. Maddox, B. and Addey, C. (2015) Literacy as Numbers: Researching the Politics and Practices of International Literacy Assessment Cambridge University Press
The chapter describes the reasons for and history of this commitment to self-governance, the challenges the project has faced during its 20 year history and its achievements, including the most recent “post-project” phase designed to maintain the visibility of this work for future education and learners through the creation of an oral history and archive.
It explains why and how multimodal forms of expression have been central to the process of self-governance and inclusion as part of recognising individual differences. It describes how they have been used as a means of challenging disabling forms of communication and exclusive forms of literacy. Multimodality in this context includes careful attention to oral practices in relation to literacy, encouragement of forms of visual expression and records of events that include writing, alongside images, material artefacts and audio. Embodied forms of learning such as journey sticks and celebratory performances were central to “The Pecket Way”. The material environment and artefacts collaboratively created by the project took on great symbolic significance as a focus for shared meanings and experience as well as day to day remembering and reassurance of the reality and stability of the project as a special, welcoming and celebratory space for learning. These material artefacts include the college building itself, decorative banners and posters, training and course materials, photos, food, logos and finally, the website as a virtual surviving surrogate for the college that now no longer exists as either a physical or a legal entity.
Data for this chapter are drawn from participant experiences across two years in the steering group for the Pecket Well archive project along with materials deposited on the website and in the archive. Oral history interviews and documentary evidence from the Changing Faces project (Hamilton and Hillier, 2006) are also referred to.
in Adult Literacy group in the UK (RaPAL) plays in facilitating the promotion of research and practice in adult literacy. While faced with the challenges that many volunteer organisations of its kind face in sustaining itself and maintaining an independent voice, the history of RaPAL illustrates that practitioners can continue to find sustenance and strength to maintain their professional agency and voice through their research and advocacy work in partnership with their learners.
representations of literacy in policy, practice and media.