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LRC 796A - Theoretical Foundations of LRC

Dr. Norma Gonzalez

Course Description​ - This course has been designed to give you an introduction to the theoretical foundations of

Language, Reading and Culture and to the various disciplines that undergird these foundations.  You will be exposed to a wide

range of theories and perspectives that will help you cultivate stances that can contribute to your future scholarly and professional work.

We will also promote practices that will help you to analyze, synthesize, argue and write as you interact with texts and with your colleagues.

 

Learning Objectives - This course will investigate three sets of core questions:

  1. How can social theory inform work and practice in education?

  2. What relationships exist between social structures and how schools, teachers, and learners work?

  3. How can we go beyond social theory in order to understand differences in educational experiences and outcomes?

 

 

Syllabus: LRC 796A

Preparing for Qualifying Exams with Two Scholarly Papers

My Learning Objects:

 

New Literacy Studies

When asks to define literacy it is important to understand the context.  Literacy can have many definitions depending upon the environment.  The most broadly assumed context is in a formal educational setting and the form of literacy would be reading a book.  Yet as we look to the future, how will this formal educational setting change and more importantly, what will the new forms of literacy look like in the future? This is the question that the New Literacy Studies Theory tries to address. 

 

This paper is going to discuss the New Literacy Studies Theory and ponder some of these questions:

  • What is the New Literacy Studies and what issues does it address?

  • How does the New Literacy Studies relate to other theories?

  • What is needed to use the New Literacy Studies productively?

  • How does the New Literacy Studies intersect with schooling, teaching and learning?

 

Globalization

The term globalization is applied to many different situations.  It has become the “buzzword” for the media to use when covering a wide range of topics from politics to economics to cultural trends.  The globalization discourse includes topics on the “free market” policies of world economy, the dominance of western forms of politics, economics and culture, the explosion of the “Internet Revolution” and the idea that humanity is entering an era where there will be a unified community, referred to as “global integration”.  From a social theory viewpoint, globalization is considered a fundamental shift in the effects that space and time have on social existence. Basically, our world is becoming smaller as humanity is able to communicate, travel and trade with each other and this has an effect upon the various forms of human activity.  Social theorists are currently engaged in a discussion about the specific sources that contribute to the recent shift of space and time in relationship to the human life experience.  However, most agree that this shift is undermining the fabric of local and national boundaries as humans endeavor to function in the world.

 

 As this paper attempts to focus on globalization as a social theory, the following questions will be discussed:

  • What issues does globalization address?

  • What is the assumed implication of globalization?

  • How does globalization intersect with other theories?

  • How does globalization intersect with schooling or teaching and learning?

  • Are there alternatives to globalization?

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