Literacy and Learning: Reflections on Writing, Reading, and Society

Deborah Brandt, a recipient of the Grawemeyer Award, is one of the most influential figures in literacy and education. Brandt has dedicated her career to the status of reading and writing in the United States. Her literacy research is renowned and widely studied. Literacy and Learning is an important collection of Brandt’s work that includes a combination of previously published essays, previously unpublished talks, and new work.

Introduction: Writing at the Speed of Change ix

The Grawemeyer Award in Education: A Conversation with Deborah Brandt 1

1 Sponsors of Literacy 23

2 Literacy in American Lives: Living and Learning in a Sea of Change 47

3 Accumulating Literacy: Writing and Learning to Write in the Twentieth Century 67

4 Remembering Writing, Remembering Reading 91

5 Writing for a Living: Literacy and the Knowledge Economy 117

6 The Status of Writing 141

7 How Writing Is Remaking Reading 161

Conclusion: An Excerpt from Literacy in American Lives 177

Appendix: Interview Script 193

Questions for Reflection 197

Index 199

Credit Lines 205

The Author 207

THE AUTHOR

DEBORAH BRANDT is professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former visiting scholar at the U.S. Department of Education. Her first book, Literacy as Involvement, won the National Council of Teachers of English David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English. Her most recent book, Literacy in American Lives, won the 2002 Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize from the Modern Language Association and the Outstanding Book Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. She was the recipient of the Grawemeyer Award in 2003.

LITERACY AND LEARNING

Deborah Brandt is one of the most influential figures in literacy and education. Brandt has dedicated her career to the status of reading and writing in the United States. Her literacy research is renowned and widely studied. Literacy and Learning is an important collection of Brandt's work that includes a combination of previously published essays, previously unpublished talks, and new work.

All the selected essays focus on changes in perspectives and perceptions about reading and writing. Throughout the book, Brandt describes how literacy skills have become intertwined with economic competition and technological change, how basic skills in one generation often prove inadequate for the next—and the tremendous pressure this puts on teachers, families, communities and, most of all, learners. In addition, Brandt introduces the concept of sponsors of literacy—agents, forces, and institutions that stimulate or support people's literacy strivings for their own economic or political or cultural advantage.

Literacy and Learning is a compelling and thought-provoking reflection on the changing definitions and expectations for literacy in recent years. It elevates key debates in education to include a broader social awareness.

Literacy and Learning is a volume in the series Outstanding Ideas in Education.