18 | January | 2014 | Literacy Teaching and Teacher Education

Congratulations to Dr. Tim Fletcher for being awarded the 2014 AIESEP (International Association for Physical Education in Higher Education) Young Scholar Award. Tim is the first Canadian to receive this award. Tim is doing cutting-edge research on health and physical education (including self-studies of his own practices as a teacher educator). Tim is an Assistant Professor at Brock University. Check out his faculty page for a partial list of his publications. http://www.brocku.ca/applied-health-sciences/faculty-directory/kinesiology/tim-fletcher
Tim has been part of both of our research projects (Clive’s longitudinal study of teachers and Clare’s study of literacy/English teacher educators). He is an outstanding young scholar who is so worthy of this award.
This attached picture is of Tim and Shawn Bullock, another outstanding young Canadian scholar with whom Tim has collaborated. Check out Shawn’s website for a list of some of his publications. Shawn’s work is making a real difference in how we understand teacher education. http://shawnbullock.ca/wp/
Send us pictures from the award ceremony at the AIESEP World Congress being held in Auckland next month.
Clare

Critical literacy and Language acquisition. I (Yiola) have pondered these two concepts — what they mean, what they entail, and why they are important. In much of the literature I have read, there appears to be distinct 2 camps: those who study language acquisition that is, how we learn to read and write: how we develop phonemic awareness, and learn to decode, and develop syntax and those who study critical literacy: a newer approach to learning how to analyze and understand texts in a socially conscious way. I have asked myself, are they in two distinct domains of Language discourse? They appear to be. Do you agree? Yet, when I think about teaching literacy to children in the context of schooling and what readers and communicators need to know, then critical literacy is a form of language acquisition. Children must know how to read and analyze texts, and they must know how to read and analyze the world. Children acquire language through critical literacy. Critical literacy is then a significant part of language acquisition. In teacher education literacy courses, is the concept of critical literacy taught with the same importance and priority as the more traditional methods and means for language acquisition? Ultimately I’m wondering, what are the essential components of literacy curriculum for 21st century teacher education programs?