6.1 Literacy and Disciplinary Learning

It is now well recognized that literacy is fundamental to both the conception of modern disciplines and the social practices of disciplinary experts (Fang & Chapman, 2020; Nokes, 2013; Norris & Phillips, 2003; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Reading and writing are not just tools for storing and transmitting disciplinary content; they are constitutive parts of disciplines. Without reading and writing, the disciplines as we know them would not have been where they are now. To borrow science education scholar Jonathan Osborne's (2002) metaphor, disciplines without reading and writing are akin to ships without sails, houses without bricks, and cars without engines. Because of this, knowing a discipline is widely considered synonymous with being able to read and write the discourses of that discipline (Hasan, 1996).

This privileging of literacy in academic disciplines means that reading/writing should be given prominence in disciplinary teaching and learning. Engagement with disciplinary texts calls for more than just comprehension and recall, however, as these texts, like any other texts, are designed to "convey particular meanings in particular ways and to have particular effects" (Janks, 2010, p. 153). It requires critical examination of the language choices experts make to present their intentions, positions, ideologies, and worldviews. This chapter describes how teachers can promote such a critical literacy ability in disciplinary contexts, using science as an illustrative case.(https://www.daowen.com)