Abstract

Literacy Practices in Transition explores the connections between local, situated literacy practices and global processes of mobility in the geographical space of the Nordic countries, an example of contemporary mobile societies. The detailed empirical analyses show how these connections affect individuals, practices and policies; how the global and local meet in discourses and practices and how people need to (re)negotiate their way in the complex and messy spaces in which they move. The volume challenges current trends in the global standardization of language and literacy education. Instead, it promotes the idea of literacy as a multiple, multilingual, multimodal and constantly contestable and negotiable phenomenon, which calls for the development of language and literacy education that is sensitive to the needs and experiences of the individual actors.

Anne Pitkänen-Huhta received her academic training at the universities of Jyväskylä and Lancaster. She is currently a professor of English, language learning and teaching at the Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä. Her research focuses on multilingual literacy and discourse practices, especially of young people, and foreign language learning in formal and informal contexts. Her research employs ethnographic and discourse analytic methods.

Lars Holm holds a PhD in literacy and globalization and is currently associate professor at the Department of Education, Aarhus University. His research focuses on literacy and language practices in complex multilingual and postcolonial settings and on concepts and practices in literacy and language testing in education.

This book offers a new and much needed road map for understanding how literacies shape our lives today. Not only do the individual research studies from the Nordic countries make interesting reading, but they also show in fine detail how multilingual diversity has diversified recently. It is an essential read. What an innovative book!