Crafting a pathway towards situated, relational and reparative literacies practices.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Education
Abstract
This network will bring together a group of international and interdisciplinary researchers, practitioners, and artists to contextualise and make tangible an existing theoretical perspective on literacies - practices which allow us to make sense of and meaning in the world. Literacies are the ways we decode, read, make sense and communicate with the world through sign-systems. But sign-systems are more than language like. The whole world is communicating, from root systems to water patterns, from animal calls to air temperatures. Human literacies determine our capacity to relate with both human and non-human spheres of life. In response, pluriversal literacies (PL) promises a theoretical perspective for reading and writing the world differently but has been forged, to date, within educational arenas. This network moves this vital conversation beyond disciplinary ambitions, to make it relevant and tangible for researchers and practitioners working in and across different fields and possibilities.
Framed by researchers working from craft and design-led perspectives, this network will co-surface and tether the theory of Pluriversal Literacies (Perry, 2021; 2023) to diverse contexts of people and place; and co-design a pathway for putting Pluriversal Literacies practices into action via responsive tools and methods. This work, we believe, offers urgently needed routes towards relational and reparative ways of living together - through education, public engagement, and partnerships - in and with an increasingly fractured and fragile world.
The world is transdicsiplinary, and to this end, this network will convene academics, artists, practitioners and policy makers from multiple disciplines (journalism, disability studies, arts education, literacies education, curatorial practice, theatre, museums and human geography) and geographical contexts (UK, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Colombia and Malawi) to build on the established theoretical framework of Pluriversal Literacies. The development of the network is anchored in a commitment to social and ecological impact. Pluriversal literacies is a response to a world in constant transformation, a world that calls for a radical reframing of the literacies needed to sensitively read emerging patterns. Toward the goal of asking better questions and making more informed decisions, pluriversal literacies shows us how we learn to interact with a complex world defined by interdependencies and flux. However, there are no easy solutions to these wicked problems, what is needed is consultative, creative steps toward new ways of being in mutual learning across disciplines, geographies and practices. Mia Perry's PL research frames the what and why. Lisa Bradley's anti-colonial craft practice and Lisa Grocott's Transformative Learning praxis frames the how.
Framed by researchers working from craft and design-led perspectives, this network will co-surface and tether the theory of Pluriversal Literacies (Perry, 2021; 2023) to diverse contexts of people and place; and co-design a pathway for putting Pluriversal Literacies practices into action via responsive tools and methods. This work, we believe, offers urgently needed routes towards relational and reparative ways of living together - through education, public engagement, and partnerships - in and with an increasingly fractured and fragile world.
The world is transdicsiplinary, and to this end, this network will convene academics, artists, practitioners and policy makers from multiple disciplines (journalism, disability studies, arts education, literacies education, curatorial practice, theatre, museums and human geography) and geographical contexts (UK, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Colombia and Malawi) to build on the established theoretical framework of Pluriversal Literacies. The development of the network is anchored in a commitment to social and ecological impact. Pluriversal literacies is a response to a world in constant transformation, a world that calls for a radical reframing of the literacies needed to sensitively read emerging patterns. Toward the goal of asking better questions and making more informed decisions, pluriversal literacies shows us how we learn to interact with a complex world defined by interdependencies and flux. However, there are no easy solutions to these wicked problems, what is needed is consultative, creative steps toward new ways of being in mutual learning across disciplines, geographies and practices. Mia Perry's PL research frames the what and why. Lisa Bradley's anti-colonial craft practice and Lisa Grocott's Transformative Learning praxis frames the how.
