The British Association for Literacy in Development – BLOG
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Honouring BALID founding member, Dr Juliet McCaffery
Dr Juliet McCaffery, a founding member of BALID and respected specialist in literacy, gender and development, died in June 2024. Juliet was an active member of the BALID committee. Along with Brian Street, Alan Rogers and others in BALID, Juliet saw literacy as social practice, intimately linked with people’s lives and livelihoods. She was…
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Why do the New Literacy Studies struggle to influence policy? Considering Phonics
Uta Papen (University of Lancaster), Ahmmardouh Mjaya (University of Malawi), Vicky Christoforatou, Mohammad Naeim Maleki, Catherine Jere and Anna Robinson-Pant (University of East Anglia) The New Literacy Studies (NLS) emerged in the 1980s (Street, 1984) as a response to the growing recognition that literacy is used and learned, not only within classrooms, but within everyday…
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Unplugged vs. Connected: A Comparative Observation of Urban and Indigenous Students’ Learning of Their Self-Identity
Shaida Salwi Victoria International School, Malaysia Over the next few months, BALID will host a series of blogs exploring the role of informal learning and literacies in young people’s everyday lives. The series hopes to feature young people’s work and ideas, inspire intergenerational conversation and become the basis for future action / research in these…
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Rwandan Youth Peacebuilding by Learning
Yeonhee Sun The Prince’s Trust (UK) Over the next few months, BALID will host a series of blogs exploring the role of informal learning and literacies in young people’s everyday lives. The series hopes to feature young people’s work and ideas, inspire intergenerational conversation and become the basis for future action / research in these…
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Step up, Speak out: A participatory research project involving young people from North East England in addressing sexual violence
Janelle Rabe Durham University Over the next few months, BALID will host a series of blogs exploring the role of informal learning and literacies in young people’s everyday lives. The series hopes to feature young people’s work and ideas, inspire intergenerational conversation and become the basis for future action / research in these areas. Learn…
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Call for Contributions: Blog Series on ‘Learning and literacies in young people’s everyday lives’
Learning and literacies in young people’s everyday lives: A blog series Young people are navigating an increasingly complex world. They face intersecting crises such as the climate crisis, rising unemployment, deepening inequalities and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, young people are often also at the forefront in responding to these issues in many communities – learning various repertoires…
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The Torwali Literacies
Zubair Torwali Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi, Pakistan Twenty years ago, in November 2002, a symposium was held in Kyoto, Japan, under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) where a group of experts named as UNESCO’s Ad Hoc Group on Endangered Languages worked on a document entitled ‘Language Vitality…
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[Visual and Sensory Literacies Series] A reflection on building community, belonging and identity through music practices
Arianna Berardi Musician and music therapist working for Nordoff Robbins Over the next few months, BALID will bring you a series of blog conversations following BALID’s last interactive Informal Literacy Discussion (ILD) on the theme of ‘applying visual and sensory literacies in refugee research and practice’. Taking some definitions of visual and sensory literacies as…
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[Visual and Sensory Literacies Series] The Linguistic Landscape of Sanctuary and Solidarity
Katie Blair University of Birmingham Over the next few months, BALID will bring you a series of blog conversations following BALID’s last interactive Informal Literacy Discussion (ILD) on the theme of ‘applying visual and sensory literacies in refugee research and practice’. Taking some definitions of visual and sensory literacies as a starting point, the blog…
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Tributes to Alan Rogers from BALID
Professor Alan Rogers served BALID as President from 2020 but before that he had been an outstanding supporter and ‘critical friend’ for many, many years! We will miss Alan’s enthusiasm and energy not only on literacy and development but adult learning in general. In this blog post, BALID committee members share their memories and…