Author Description

Product Description <br/>This handbook marks the transformation of the topic of literacy from the narrower concerns with learning to read and write to an interdisciplinary enquiry into the various roles of writing and reading in the full range of social and psychological functions in both modern and developing societies. It does so by exploring the nature and development of writing systems, the relations between speech and writing, the history of the social uses of writing, the evolution of conventions of reading, the social and developmental dimensions of acquiring literate competencies, and, more generally, the conceptual and cognitive dimensions of literacy as a set of social practices. Contributors to the volume are leading scholars drawn from such disciplines as linguistics, literature, history, anthropology, psychology, the neurosciences, cultural psychology, and education.<br/> Review <br/>"The Cambridge Handbook of Literacy offers a broad descriptive perspective not driven by an immediate educational agenda. When schooling's relation to literacy is approached within this cross-cultural, non-curricular frame, we come to see the dilemmas and processes of schooling in new ways. The fresh approach of this volume introduces many topics not covered in other reference volumes and expands our view of the multidimensional complexity of literacy. Many chapters also develop a fully participatory view of literacy that puts writing on an even and interactive footing with reading. The international, interdisciplinary authors cover wide-ranging topics from the cognitive skills necessary to read Chinese mathematics to the tensions between classical and vernacular Arabic, from neuroscience to cultural authority, from grammatology to international development. This volume is a welcome addition to our growing knowledge of reading, writing, and texts within human life."<br/><br/>-Charles Bazerman, University of California, Santa Barbara<br/><br/><br/>"A new compe