About

Network 15: Literacy Research Network
The Literacy Research Network is a NERA/NFPF network open to all members of NERA/NFPF who are interested in literacy research.

Literacy is understood broadly as the uses of different semiotic systems for meaning making with a focus on written language. Accordingly, literacy research endeavours to analyse the different uses, practices and processes of multiple kinds of literacy in relation to socialisation, identities, learning, teaching, education and society.

The research within the Literacy Research Network draws theoretically on different socio-cultural oriented approaches to literacy research. The researchers within the network share an interest in understanding literacies as historical, situated and negotiated. Ethnographic oriented research approaches with close empirical and historical analysis are central in relation to this research endeavour.

The Literacy Research Network was established in 2004 and reflects both the growing societal and educational interest in literacy in the Nordic countries and a need among Nordic literacy researchers for sharing and developing research within a socio-cultural oriented approach to literacy.

The research within the Literacy Research Network might focus on literacies in the Nordic countries or in other countries, and are thus not restricted to a specific geographic location. The research might be located in or out of homes, institutions, workplaces and communities, or it might be focussing on the relations between literacy practices in institutionalised and not-institutionalised contexts, or on multimodal and multilingual literacies. For the time being the research presented and discussed within the network is primarily related to different educational contexts and different parts of the educational system.

The relation of literacy research to socialisation, identities, learning, teaching, education and society gives a wide range of research perspectives and creates ample opportunities within the network for fruitful discussion of different analytical approaches to literacy research.

The annual network meeting in the Literacy Research Network is at the annual NERA/NFPF Congress. English and the Nordic languages are the languages of communication within the network.

Aims:

• To stimulate dialogue between researchers who work with literacy research in the Nordic countries
• To stimulate research cooperation at Nordic level
• To contribute to the development of literacy research in the Nordic countries and the proliferation of Nordic literacy research at an international level by being a central place for the discussion of research results and theoretical and methodological issues in relation to literacy research