Blog by Sari Sulkunen

Quite often we perceive blue-collar work as manual and physical work in which literacy has only a limited role. Indeed, adult literacy surveys have shown that the role of literacy is pronounced in expert occupations (e.g., senior officials and managers) and to some extent in white-collar occupations (e.g., clerks and sales professionals) (OECD 2013; 2020). In contrast, literacy has a minor role in blue-collar occupations: workers read and write less frequently and less diverse materials at work and show lower level of average literacy proficiency than experts or white-collar workers (Grotlüschen et al. 2020; Sulkunen et al. 2021). However, these surveys focus on limited set of self-reported print literacy activities, ignoring the work-specific practices and the multimodal meaning making. While qualitative, often ethnographic, studies paint a more nuanced picture, such research on blue-collar workers’ literacies is scarce (cf.… Read the rest

Toddlers, Tech and Talk – Very young children’s language and literacy learning at home in a postdigital age

A Blog by Rosie Flewitt

The cross-disciplinary Toddlers, Tech and Talk project investigated how digital technologies intersect with the home lives of very young children and their families across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Led by Professor Rosie Flewitt at Manchester Metropolitan University, working with Co-Is and research teams at the Universities of Lancaster, Swansea, Strathclyde and QUB, its core objective was to develop a robust body of empirical evidence in the under-researched field of 0-36-month-old children’s digital technology use at home, how families mediate child tech use and how tech use at home may be shaping early talk and literacy. The study also contributes to posthuman theorisation of the contemporary, postdigital Home Literacy Environment.… Read the rest