Critical literacy investigates how forms of knowledge, and the power they bring, are created in language and taken up by those who use texts. It asks how language might be put to different, more equitable uses, and how texts might be recreated in a way that would tell a different story. This book is a carefully documented and critically analysed example of the growing emphasis on critical literacy in syllabuses, government reports and the like. It: * bridges the gap between academics' theorizing and teachers' work * describes how secondary teachers have planned and implemented critical literacy curricula on a range of topics, from Shakespeare to the workplace * listens to teachers reflecting on their teaching and analyses classroom talk * extrapolates from present practice to a future critical literacy in a digitised, hypermedia world. Teachers and students of education, critical literacy advocates and theorists of literacy and schooling can learn much more from this book, which shows how critical literacy teachers, and their students are contributing to the ongoing reinvention of English education as critical literacy.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface. Affect and Creativity. Primary Process, Affect, and Creativity. Children's Fantasy, Play, Affective Expression, and Creativity. The Affect in Play Scale. Personality Trait Approach to Creativity. Mood-Induction and Motivational Systems Approaches to Creativity. Neurological Processes, Artificial Intelligence, and Creativity. Implications for Home, Educational, and Therapeutic Environments. Affective Components of the Creative Process: Conclusions and Future Research Directions. Appendix: The Affect in Play Scale.
Review :
"...a welcome piece of work in an otherwise ignored field....One of the real strengths of the book lies in its interdisciplinary synthesis of relevant empirical findings....offers the field one of its first synthetic models of personality, affect, and cognition....provides a thorough and competent review of the literature in social, personality, developmental, clinical, neurological, and educational psychology areas as they relate to creativity and affect....should be read by any investigator interested in creativity, affect, play, or children's fantasy."
—Creativity Research Journal
"...a useful, well-written book..."
—Cognition and Emotion
"Painstakingly researched, selectively encoded, creatively synthesized and the result is a truly important book. Sandra Russ' own research with play and fantasy in young children is original, heartwarming, and a welcome contribution to a long neglected area. How rewarding to find information long laid away in dusty corners of one's mind fall into affective relevance and begin to spin in creative resonance with this tightly packed, carefully reasoned text."
—Stephanie Z. Dudek
University of Montreal
"In Affect and Creativity, Professor Russ explores the most difficult side of creativity -- the subjective, affective side -- in an objective and convincing manner. [The book] covers all of the critical bases, including primary process, mood, children's play, and neurology, and does so with a careful treatment of the empirical research and a concern for educational and clinical implications. Individuals already studying creativity will no doubt appreciate Russ' efforts, and it would surprise me if Affect and Creativity doesn't attract serious new students to the field."
—Mark Runco
California State University, Fullerton
