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Hayden Mitchell
Nancy Roche
WRTG 1010
December 11, 2014
Argument Summary 2 Revision
Barton and Hamilton on Literacy
In the book Situated Literacies by David Barton, Mary Hamilton, and Roz Ivanic
there is a chapter titled Literacy Practices. Only Barton and Hamilton write this chapter
of the book. In this chapter they talk about literacy practices and literacy events, as well
as, discourse and domains in literacy. We know that literacy is about reading and writing,
but Barton and Hamilton explain that there is much more that goes into literacy. Barton
and Hamilton are attempting to provide a framework of what literacy is. They want to re
conceptualize the way they look at literacy.
David Barton and Mary Hamilton offer that literacy is a social practice. They are
saying literacy is a social practice because they want people to look at literacy in a
different way, and to realize that its not just reading and writing. Barton and Hamilton
are focusing on social practices in which there is a role for literacy (Barton Hamilton, 7).
Peoples understanding of literacy is an important aspect of their learning and peoples
theories of literacy guide their actions (Barton Hamilton, 14).
Barton and Hamilton said their own studies complement other studies about the
analysis of texts. They said when studying literacy practices it drew their attention to
texts in everyday life, as well as, texts in personal life (Barton Hamilton, 9). They said
that those texts were very distinct compared to educational or published texts (Barton

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Hamilton, 9). This led Barton and Hamilton to explore what people do with texts and
what certain activities mean to them. In Barton and Hamiltons work, literacy practices
were the central focus. They wanted to examine how texts fit into the literacy practices of
regular peoples lives (Barton Hamilton, 9).
Barton and Hamilton simply state that literacy practices are what people do with
literacy. They expand upon this idea by offering that literacy practices are the cultural
ways of utilizing written language, which people draw upon in their lives (Barton
Hamilton, 7). They tell us that literacy practices are used to connect people with one
another. We know from Barton and Hamilton that there are already literacy practices
taking place between people, especially within groups or communities (Barton Hamilton,
8). We also learn from Barton and Hamilton that literacy practices change over time. This
simply means that we are always acquiring and learning new literacy practices over the
course of our lives (Barton Hamilto, 8). literacy practices are as fluid, dynamic, and
changing as the lives and societies of which they are a part (Barton Hamilton, 13). They
tell us that literacy practices are not necessarily observable activities or tasks but they are
around us, all the time (Barton Hamilton, 8).
One thing that is observable, according to Barton and Hamilton, is literacy events.
Specifically they say, Literacy events are observable episodes which arise from practices
and are shaped by them (Barton Hamilton, 8). Barton and Hamilton tell us that in a
literacy event there is an activity or discussion based on a written text or multiple texts
(Barton Hamilton, 8). They tell us that in a social context, there are always literacy events
happening. We know from Barton and Hamilton that literacy events are regular, repeated
activities that occur every day in everyones life (Barton Hamilton, 9). Barton and

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Hamilton analyzed literacy events in order to assess the literacy practices they observed
(Barton Hamilton, 9).
Barton and Hamilton said that after looking at different literacy events it was clear
that literacy changed depending on the context it was in. This led them to determine that
there are different types of literacy (Barton Hamilton, 10). Barton and Hamilton said that
literacy is coherent configurations of literacy practices that are associated with particular
aspects of cultural life (Barton Hamilton, 11). Since there are different literacys, Barton
and Hamilton said, There are different literacys associated with different domains of
life (Barton Hamilton, 11).
According to Barton and Hamilton, domains are structures, patterned contexts
within which literacy is used and learned (Barton Hamilton, 11). Domains have their
own distinct literacy practices and events, say Barton and Hamilton. Also, they say that
there are certain activities or particular configurations of literacy practices that only exist
in a particular domain (Barton Hamilton, 11).
Barton and Hamilton want people to look at literacy differently. To do this, they
tell us that we need to accept that there are multiple functions of literacy (Barton
Hamilton, 13). They want people to see that literacy takes on a social meaning; it can act
as evidence, as displays, as threat, and as ritual (Barton Hamilton, 13). They show us
that texts can have multiple meanings in different activities or that literacy is different for
people in different literacy events (Barton Hamilton, 13). Barton and Hamilton want
people to understand that it is not just individuals using literacy but it is also groups or
communities (Barton Hamilton, 13). Literacy is not just a resource for the individual,

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instead it is for different groups or communities, is the main point Barton and Hamilton
want people to know (Barton Hamilton, 13).

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