Coming of Age in the Era of Acceleration: Rethinking Literacy Narratives as Pedagogies of Lifelong Learning

Authors

  • Douglas Hall Georgia State University
  • Michael Harker Georgia State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21623/1.6.2.10

Keywords:

digital archive of literacy narratives, new literacy studies, pedagogy, age studies, older adults, oral history pedagogy

Abstract

This article calls for the fields of literacy and composition studies to develop more progressive understandings of the aging process as not only biological, but as culturally and socially situated. Drawing from age studies, we investigate a contribution to the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (www.thedaln.org) as an approach that complicates prevailing notions of aging and literacy. We argue that an age studies approach to literacy provides teacher-researchers and students a language to conceptualize aging together. The article concludes with specific recommendations for composition teacher-researchers to conduct oral history collection events with students and older adults.

Author Biographies

Douglas Hall, Georgia State University

Douglas Hall is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Composition at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. His dissertation project examines oral histories from older adults in rural, northern Georgia in order to understand how people build, change, and discuss their communities.

Michael Harker, Georgia State University

Michael Harker is an associate professor of English and teaches courses in composition, rhetoric, and literacy studies at Georgia State University. He is the author of The Lure of Literacy: A Critical Reception of the Compulsory Composition Debate (SUNY Press). He has published or has articles forthcoming in College Composition and Communication, Literacy in Composition Studies, Computers and Composition: An International Journal, Composition Forum, and Computers and Composition Online.

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Published

2018-11-20

How to Cite

Hall, D., & Harker, M. (2018). Coming of Age in the Era of Acceleration: Rethinking Literacy Narratives as Pedagogies of Lifelong Learning. Literacy in Composition Studies, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.21623/1.6.2.10

Issue

Section

Articles