Literacy practices: using the literacies for learning in further education framework to analyse literacy practices on a post-compulsory education and training teacher education programme

Abstract

The literacies for learning in further education framework describes nine aspects of a literacy practice that elaborate the basic questions of what?, why?, who?, and how? that are needed to understand and describe literacy practices. The framework was used to analyse two literacy practices encountered on initial teacher education courses in the post-compulsory education and training (PCET) phase of the Teacher Education Department in order to understand those literacy practices and improve them. The framework was found to be a useful tool in articulating competing and contradictory purposes in literacy practices in order to clarify them particularly in the context of the complex partnership and stakeholder relationships within teacher education. It was also useful as a planning tool to support collaborative work between the PCET phase of the Teacher Education Department and faculty-based and central support services in supporting the academic literacy of trainees. The use of the framework by other University departments should be considered in supporting academic literacy.