Literacy in Composition Studies Nov 2018 RSS Open Access

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

Douglas Hall Georgia State University ; Michael Harker Georgia State University

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.

Journal
Literacy in Composition Studies
Published
2018-11-20
DOI
10.21623/1.6.2.10
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
teacher development literacy studies
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Buyserie (2022)
    Reading Yourself Queer Later in Life: Bisexual Literacies, Temporal Fluidity, …
    Literacy in Composition Studies

References (40) · 9 in this index

  1. Alexander, Jonathan. “Editorial Comment: Desiring Literacy.” College Composition and Communication 69.3 (2018…
  2. Andrews, Molly. “The Seductiveness of Agelessness.” Ageing and Society 19.3 (1999): 301-18. Web. 30 Jan. 2018.
     ↗
  3. Barton, David. Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 199…
  4. Bateson, Mary Catherine. Composing a Life. New York: Plume, 1990. Print.
  5. Beauvoir, Simone de. The Coming of Age. Trans. Patrick O’Brian. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972. Print.
Show all 40 →
  1. Bowen (2012)
    Beyond Repair: Literacy, Technology, and a Curriculum of Aging
    College English
  2. Bowen (2011)
    Resisting Age Bias in Digital Literacy Research
    College Composition and Communication
  3. Brandt, Deborah. “Accumulating Literacy: Living and Learning in a Sea of Change.” Literacy and Learning: Refl…
  4. ---. Literacy as Involvement: The Acts of Writers, Readers, and Texts. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1990…
  5. ---. Literacy in American Lives. New York: Cambridge UP, 2001.
  6. Bryson (2012)
    The Literacy Myth in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives
    Computers and Composition
  7. Calasanti, Toni, and Neal King. “Successful Aging, Ageism, and the Maintenance of Age and Gender Relations.” …
     ↗
  8. Caunce, Stephen. Oral History and the Local Historian. London: Longman, 1994. Print.
  9. Chandler et al. (2012)
    New Literacy Narratives: Stories about Reading and Writing in a Digital Age
    Computers and Composition
  10. Comer et al. (2015)
    The Pedagogy of the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives: A Survey
    Computers and Composition
  11. Connidis, Ingrid Arnet. “Intimate Relationships: Learning from Later Life Experience.” Age Matters: Realignin…
  12. DALN. “About.” The DALN Blog. Wordpress, n.d. Web. 23 July 2018.
  13. Dovey, Ceridwen. “What Old Age is Really Like.” The New Yorker. 1 Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2018.
  14. Edmondson, Ricca. “Wisdom: A Humanist Approach to Valuing Older People.” Valuing Older People: A Humanist App…
     ↗
  15. Flower, Linda. Community Literacy and the Rhetoric of Public Engagement. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 20…
  16. Graff, Harvey. Conflicting Paths: Growing up in America. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995. Print.
  17. ---. Labyrinths of Literacy: Reflections on Literacy Past and Present. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1995. Print.
  18. ---. The Literacy Myth: Cultural Integration and Social Structure in the Nineteenth Century. New Brunswick: T…
  19. Harker, Michael. The Lure of Literacy: A Critical Reception of the Compulsory Composition Debate. Albany: SUN…
     ↗
  20. Harrington, E’rich. “My Struggles with Technology.” Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives. Digital Archive o…
  21. Keller, Daniel. Chasing Literacy: Reading and Writing in an Age of Acceleration. Logan: Utah State UP, 2014.
     ↗
  22. Lamb, Sarah. “Preface.” Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession. Ed. Sarah Lamb. New Brunswick: Rutgers …
  23. Mary, Jordan, and Kevin Sullivan. “The New Reality of Old Age in America.” The Washington Post. The Washingto…
  24. McKee et al. (2007)
    Older Adults and Community-based Technological Literacy Programs: Barriers & Be…
    Community Literacy Journal
  25. Riley, Mark, and David Harvey. “Oral Histories, Farm Practice and Uncovering Meaning in the Countryside.” Soc…
     ↗
  26. Rose (2013)
    2012 CCCC Exemplar Award Acceptance Speech
    College Composition and Communication
  27. ---. The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker. New York: Penguin, 2004. Print.
  28. Scott (1997)
    The Literacy Narrative as Production Pedagogy in the Composition Classroom
    Teaching English in the Two-Year College
  29. Segal, Lynne. “The Coming of Age Studies.” Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal 1 (2014): 3…
     ↗
  30. Soliday (1994)
    Translating Self and Difference Through Literacy Narratives
    College English
  31. Street, Brian. Literacy in Theory and Practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1984. Print.
  32. Ulman, H. Lewis, Scott Lloyd DeWitt, and Cynthia L. Selfe, eds. Stories That Speak to Us. Logan: Computers an…
  33. Vieira, Kate. American by Paper: How Documents Matter in Immigrant Literacy. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2…
     ↗
  34. Woodward, Kathleen. “Performing Age, Performing Gender.” National Women’s Study Association Journal 18.1 (200…
     ↗
  35. ---. “Rereading Simone de Beauvoir’s The Coming of Age.” Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journ…
CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Written Communication Feb 2026
    A Content Analysis of Five NCTE Journals ↗
    Jonathan Marine; Jason Grant; Paul Rogers
    teacher development writing program administration multilingual writers literacy studies race and writing gender and writing
  2. College Composition and Communication Feb 2026
    Research Brief: Community-Engaged Writing ↗
    Jessica Pauszek; Veronica House; Paula Mathieu
    service learning teacher development collaborative writing labor and working conditions archival research qualitative research literacy studies race and writing
  3. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Jan 2026
    LinkedIn in Business and Technical Communication: A Textbook Analysis Grounded in Digital Literacy ↗
    Sarah Moore; Kathryn Lookadoo
    modern rhetorical theory teacher development technical communication digital rhetoric social media literacy studies
  4. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Jan 2026
    Business Communication as Cultural Text: The Use of Student-Made Online Advertisements in Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence ↗
    Saheeh Shafi
    writing pedagogy teacher development professional writing online writing instruction literacy studies
  5. Written Communication Jan 2026
    Writing Instruction for Adult L2-Learners: A Case Study From Three Swedish Classrooms ↗
    Clara Palm; Ann-Christin Randahl; Liss Kerstin Sylvén
    genre theory writing pedagogy teacher development qualitative research literacy studies