Multiliteracies A New Paradigm for Arts Educaionmultiliteracies艺术教育的新范式.docVIP

Multiliteracies: A new paradigm for arts education Trevor Thwaites - Principal Lecturer in Music Education, Auckland College of Education. Abstract This paper seeks to both redefine literacy in the modern world and to advance the notion of multiple literacies. It presents the view that literacy is no longer purely linguistic. Literacy might be defined as a way of thinking, and in the present century, as a way of structuring, communicating and interpreting ideas within the varying contexts of social, cultural and technological diversity. At the same time cognition, emotion and expression require multimodal means of transmission through various communications channels and media. In acknowledging this paradigm shift, the writers of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum document (Ministry of Education, 2000) embraced the concept of multiliteracies to broaden the understanding of literacy in teaching and learning and to acknowledge a multiplicity of discourses within the school curriculum. Introduction Schooling at the commencement of the twenty-first century remains largely a Balkanised terrain of multiple insecure territories, most with nineteenth century European ideals and twentieth century Fordist organisation and outcomes. ‘New’ curricula, which value product over process, are being written, trialed and implemented. Nation states promote competition over co-operation, consumerism over public good, technological dependency over self-reliance and ask not what the state can do for you, but what you can do for the state! The so-called ‘Knowledge Economy’ further canonises traditional numeracy and literacy in schooling, yet its maintenance and survival depend on valuing creativity and innovation. Meanwhile the relentless drive of globalisation rolls over the world, alienating huge tracts of people and leaving most searching for individual and collective identity. The schooling system increasingly fails to relate to individual pupils or to their life-world. It larg