EDITORS: Street, Brian V.; Hornberger, Nancy H.
TITLE: Literacy
SERIES TITLE: Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Volume 2
PUBLISHER: Springer
YEAR: 2010
Amy R. Frederick, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Minnesota
SUMMARY
“Literacy” is the second in the ten-volume series, ‘Encyclopedia of Language and
Education,’ edited by Nancy H. Hornberger. The second edition of this series
aims to chart the deepening and broadening of the field of language and
education since the first edition was published in 1997. In Volume 2,
Hornberger and Brian Street collect 26 articles representing an account of
current knowledge in the literacy field. It covers a wide range of subjects from
numerous geographical regions, provides considerations of the nature of the
field, and discusses how new ideas are being applied in varied contexts.
Contributors from a variety of fields (e.g. history, anthropology, linguistics,
and education) review what is known and unknown about the convergence of
literacy, language, and education. The disparate perspectives create an
expansive landscape on the topic that, according to Street, results not in
simple answers but in further complexity. Some of the key themes include reading
acquisition across contexts, attention to social categories, language varieties,
new technologies, and the policy and practice issues related to these issues in
combination.