The Education Leadership and Policy (ELP) Research and Teaching Group (RTG) is happy to announce the launch of the 21-22 seminar series with Dr Mia Perry on Wednesday 27th October 2021, 16:00 – 17:00 (Pre-COP26 event). Full details below.  Everyone is welcome to attend.  Please register via Zoom.

Pluriversal literacies: Towards a literacy education that can sustain the world - Dr Mia Perry, University of Glasgow

Literacies refer to the meaning-making practices we use to access and interact with the world, through texts, materials, and sign systems. Much more than reading and writing words, literacies are the practices with which we navigate all information and thus, they inform all our actions. Everything in the world is communicative after all; and all things draw upon signs.  The concept of pluriversal foregrounds diversity and the multiplicity of ways of knowing and being, in contrast to notions of universality.

‘Schooled’ literacy education assumes one way of being literate: via the printed word. Although outdated in educational research terms, this notion of literacy predominates most contemporary educational practice and policy contexts worldwide, where reading and writing remain the universal mode. This presentation presents a critique of current literacy norms, by exploring the extent to which this educational model determines and erases ways of being and relating to the world.

From here, the presentation will introduce alternative perspectives and possible approaches to literacy that shift what it means to be literate in the many places and practices of our vulnerable world. As a mainstay of education and tool of social change, literacy is inseparable from policy and practices of sustainability and equity – at local and international levels. This session asks is grounded in the question, what literacies do our learners need today?

About the speaker

Dr Mia Perry is Senior Lecturer in Literacies and Arts Education for Sustainability within the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, and a core member of CR&DALL. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and co-Director of the Sustainable Futures Global Research Network. She specialises in literacies and learning, arts and cultural production, and postcritical methodologies of research and teaching across disciplinary, sectoral, and geographical boundaries. Mia’s work in education spans school, community, public, and digital contexts. She is particularly interested in the interplay of humans and environments, the role of creativity and play in learning, and perspectives in research that account for decolonial and plural views and ways of inquiry and meaning making.

Guidance for attendees

• Please mute your microphone at the beginning of the seminar and thereafter if not contributing.  
• The host may ask attendees to switch off their videos in order to reduce bandwidth and avoid visual distractions.   
• Use the chat function on Zoom for questions that you would like to pose to the speaker. Questions will be addressed at the end of the speaker’s presentation.  
• We encourage you to live tweet during the seminar and connect with others interested in this research topic. Please tag us @UofGEducation and use the hashtag #UofGEducation_research   

We look forward to you joining us.