Metaliteracy in beta: A personal view from
the SouthBy Dr Paul Prinsloo
Directorate: Curriculum and Learning DevelopmentUniversity of South Africa (Unisa)
Twitter profile: @14prinsp
Metaliteracy in beta – the storyline…
Clarifying my own position
Quick recap of metaliteracy
In order to read the word, I need to read the world
Making sense of some of the discourses of the 21st century world
In order to be literate in a networked and (un)flat world I need to know…
Metaliteracy in beta – a proposal
(In)conclusions
Disclaimer• I don’t claim to present a global view, not even a “view from
the South, ” or an “African” perspective
• My views have been shaped by my location – not only as part of the developing world, but from a continent that is (often) portrayed as a dark, and “failed” continent
• Africa, as part of the “global south,” increasingly contests
historical descriptions and definitions and exclusions from decisions that (in)directly affect us
• My views have been shaped and continue to be shaped by a number of authors and works, such as …
Metaliteracy in beta: discourses not information
Information is never neutral and always in service of or used to contest dominant discourses.
We therefore need to understand information as field with different players, and different agendas, rules,
power-relations, inclusion and exclusion
Metaliteracy (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011)
Image retrieved from retrieved from http://metaliteracy.cdlprojects.com/what.htm
Understand format type and delivery
mode
Evaluate user feedback as active
researcher
Create a context for user-generated
information
Evaluate dynamic content critically
Produce original content in multiple
media formats
Understand personal privacy,
information ethics and intellectual property issues
Share information in participatory environmentsMackey, T.P., & Jacobson, T.E. (2011). Reframing
information literacy as metaliteracy. College & Research Libraries, 72(1), 62-78.
Web 2.0 is a huge information warehouse
THE UNIVERSAL LIBRARY
Web 2.0 is a jigsaw puzzle of fragmented interconnected
piecesTHE HYPERTEXTUAL
CONNECTION
Web 2.0 is a vast souk or market of digital services and
productsTHE GLOBAL MARKET
Web 2.0 is a stage for multimodal expression
MULTIMEDIA & AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATION
Web 2.0 is a public space or assembly of human interaction
SOCIAL NETWORKS
Web 2.0 is an artificial ecosystem for human experience
VIRTUAL INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTS
WEB 2.0
Area, M., & Pessoa, T. (2012). From the solid to the liquid: New literacies for the cultural changes of Web 2.0. Communicar. Scientific Journal of Media Communication. DOI: 10.3916/C38-2011-02-01. http://www.revistacomunicar.com/pdf/preprint/38/En-01-PRE-12378.pdf
From the solid to the liquid: New literacies for the cultural changes of Web 2.0
Liquid metaliteracy (Area & Pessoa, 2012; Mackey & Jacobson, 2011)
Mackey & Jacobson (2011) Area & Pessoa (2012)
Understand format type and delivery mode Instrumental competence: “technical control over each technology and its logical use procedures”
Evaluate user feedback as active researcher Cognitive-intellectual competence: “the acquisition of specific cognitive knowledge and skills that enable the subject to search for, select, analyze, interpret and recreate the vast amount of information to which he (sic) has access [to]…”
Create a context for user-generated information
Evaluate dynamic content critically Socio-communicative competence: “the development of a set of skills related to the creation of various text types… and their dissemination in different languages”
Produce original content in multiple media formats
Understand personal privacy, information ethics and intellectual property issues
Axiological competence: “referring to the awareness that ICT are not aseptic or neutral from the social viewpoint but exert a significant influence on the cultural and political environment of our society…”
Share information in participatory environments
Critical consciousness as the foundation for metaliteracy as agency
Understand format type and delivery mode
Evaluate user feedback as active researcher
Create a context for user-generated information
Evaluate dynamic content critically
Produce original content in multiple media formats
Understand personal privacy, information ethics and intellectual property
issues
Share information in participatory environments
METALITERACYM
ETAL
ITER
ACY
“The act of learning to read and write start from a very comprehensive understanding of the act of reading the world, something which humans do before reading the words” (Freire, 1989, p. xvii; emphasis added)
“To be illiterate, for Freire, was not only the lack of skills of reading or writing; it was to feel powerless and dependent in a much more general way …” (Burbules & Berk, 1999, p. 52)
In order to read the world, I therefore need to be able to map who shapes/shaped my world, the reasons for it, how the shape influences where I am and the choices I have, what the rules of my world are and who benefits from those rules (and my adherence) and how to disrupt and formulate alternative narratives, for myself and for others.
Critical consciousness as the foundation for metaliteracy
Making sense of the 21st century
Our understanding of the scope and function of literacies is influenced by our understanding of the
major discourses of the current (and future) age
“A global cocktail of intolerable poverty and outrageous wealth, starvation, mass terrorism with nuclear/biological weapons, world war, deliberate pandemics and religious insanity, might plunge humanity into a worldwide pattern of unending hatred and violence – a new Dark Age” (Martin, 2007, p. 32)
A new dark age?
How does such a view of the world shape my view of the scope, definition and function of literacy?
Met
a/ d
isco
urse
lite
racy
Rampant consumerism and rapacious capitalism
“From cradle to coffin we are trained and drilled to treat shops as pharmacies filled with drugs to cure or at least mitigate all the illnesses and afflictions in our lives…” (Bauman, 2012, p. 89)• The myth of economic growth• Downward mobility
Local and global (dis)connections and contestations
Finding local answers to globally produced problems? (Bauman, 1998; Bauman, 2012; Castells, 2009)
A networked age
Not everyone is included, but everyone is affected… “Networks are created not just to communicate, but also to gain position, to outcommunicate”
(Geoff Mulgan in Castells, 2009, p. 26)
Personal privacy and state security
• Collection and use of personal data
• Crusades, jihads and the clash of fundamentalisms
• “Ubiquitous mixophobia” (Bauman, 2012, p. 63) – Growth of interdictory spaces & gated communities (Bauman, 2012, p. 68)….
Meta/ discourse literacy
Image retrieved from http://www.allstaractivities.com/images/soccer-positions.gif
In order to be literate/ a player in the 21st century I need to understand the field, the game, and my position, and
my skills
• Boundaried site• Players have set/
predetermined positions
• Rules are predetermined
• Players have different skills
• What players can do is determined by their position on the field
• The physical condition of the field impacts play
Image retrieved from http://envirolaw.com/wp-content/uploads/black-student.jpg
CAPITAL: What type of “capital” I
have or don’t have • Economic• Cultural• Social• Symbolic
HABITUS: Who and how my past shaped/shapes me:• Genetic makeup• Gender• Race• Socio-economic circumstances• Parental background• Geopolitical location• Educational experiences• Health• The choices I made in the
past…• My dispositions• Etc.
These are durable and transposable (Maton, 2012)
In order to be literate in a networked and (un)flat world I need to know…
THE FIELD:How does the field in which I find myself in, shape me?
What/who shapes the field?
Who are the (other) players in the field:• Who are they?• How come they are
shapers?• What are the rules?• Who are the referees?
Looking at metaliteracy from a field theory (Bourdieu) perspective
The “field” is not a benign, pastoral space, but rather le champ – a battle field, where players have set positions, predetermined paces, specific rules which novice players must learn together with basic skills.
“What players can do, and where they can go during the game, depends on their field position. The actual physical condition of the field (whether it is wet, dry, well grassed or full of potholes), also has an effect on what players can do and this how the game is played” (Thompson, 2012, p. 66).
[(habitus)(capital)] + field = practice/agency(Maton, 2012, p. 50)
A field theory perspective on agency
My dispositions - how my past and present (and my understanding thereof) shaped and still shape me
The capital that I have acquired in the process (or not)
The field – the context in which I find myself in. This is not a neutral space, but is, itself, shaped by various structures, and agencies of individuals and collectives
My practice/agency and my understanding thereof…
We are not “pre-programmed automatons acting out the implications of our upbringings” (Maton, 2012, p. 50).
“…where we are in life in any one moment [is]… the result of numberless events in the past that shaped our path” (Maton, 2012, p. 51).
Literacy and agency is understanding that the choices we have in any particular moment and time in a specific context, are shaped by the positions we have in that particular social field at that moment in time.
Complicating matters is the fact that the context we find ourselves in (at that particular moment in time), has itself been shaped by and is shaped by other contexts, individuals in an evolving power play.
Being literate in a networked and (un)flat world it is important to know…
HAB
ITU
S
FIELD
CAPITAL
Image retrieved from http://metaliteracy.cdlprojects.com/what.htm
(In)conclusions1. We need to understand the emergence of social media in the broader
context of political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental discourses and contestations.
2. It is crucial to understand who produces (and consumes) information, for what purpose, what claims are made, and who/what supports/excludes the producers and claims
3. The production, reproduction, sharing, remixing of information is not a neutral act but flows from and often perpetuates existing discourses
4. The need for critical and self-reflective agency has never been greater, formulating alternative narratives, disrupting normative discourses and asking new questions
Thank you. Ke a leboga. Baie dankie
Dr Paul PrinslooDirectorate for Curriculum and Learning Development (DCLD)
TVW 10-156P O Box 392
Unisa, 0003, Republic of South AfricaPersonal blog: http://opendistanceteachingandlearning.wordpress.com
Twitter profile: @14prinsp+27 (0) 12 429 3683 (office)
+27 (0) 12 429 3551 (fax)+27 (0) 82 3954 113 (mobile)
ReferencesArea, M., & Pessoa, T. (2012). From the solid to the liquid: New literacies for the cultural changes of Web 2.0.
Communicar. Scientific Journal of Media Communication. DOI: 10.3916/C38-2011-02-01. http://www.revistacomunicar.com/pdf/preprint/38/En-01-PRE-12378.pdf
Bauman, Z. (1998). Globalization. The human consequences. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Bauman, Z. (2012a). On education. Conversations with Riccardo Mazzeo. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Bauman, Z. (2012b). Collateral damage. Social inequalities in a global age. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Burbules, N.C. & Berk, R. (1999). Critical thinking and critical pedagogy: relations, differences and limits, in Critical
theories in education: changing the terrains of knowledge and politics, edited by T.S. Popkewitz & L. Fendler. New York: Routledge, pp. 45—66.
Castells, M (2009). Communication power. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Freire, P. (1973). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Freire, P. (1989). Learning to question: a pedagogy of liberation. New York: Continuum.Ghemawat, P. (2011). World 3.0. Global prosperity and how to achieve it. Boston: Harvard Business School
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72(1), 62-78. Martin, J. (2007). The meaning of the 21st century. A vital blueprint for ensuring our future. London, UK: Transworld
Publishers. Maton, K. (2012). Habitus. In Michael Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu. Key concepts. Durham, UK : Acumen
Publishing, pp. 48—64. Mayer-Schönberger, V. (2009). Delete. The virtue of forgetting in the digital age. Princeton: Princeton University
Press. Thompson, P. (2012). Field. In Michael Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu. Key concepts. Durham, UK : Acumen
Publishing, pp. 65—82.