Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Literacy Research

In this book, leading literacy researchers describe how they apply particular disciplinary perspectives to their research, making explicit how those perspectives shape their research. The first section of the book examines the application of psychological and social science theories of research design related to issues of the validity of descriptive/qualitative versus experimental/quantitative research methods. The second section examines the application of socio-cultural and activity theory perspectives to examine literacy learning in the context of community and institutional settings. The third section draws on current linguistic and discourse analysis perspectives to examine language use and interactions in literacy events and contexts. A final section applies critical literacy and literary perspectives to issues of research on literacy and literature instruction.