Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy

Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy

Gunther Kress

1stPublisher: RoutledgeFormat: Paperback

Gunther Kress' book argues for a radical reappraisal of the phenomenon of literacy, and hence for a profound shift in educational practice. Through close attention to the plethora of objects which children constantly produce: drawings, cuttings-out, 'writings' and collages, Kress suggests a set of principles which give insights into the underlying coherence of children's actions; actions which allow us to connect them with attempts to make meaning before they acquire language and writing. This book provides fundamental challenges to commonly held assumptions about both language and literacy, thought and action. It places these challenges within the context of speculation about the abilities and dispositions which will become essential for children as young adults in the decades ahead, and calls for the radical decentring of language in educational theory and practice.

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