History of Reading News. Vol.XX No.2 (1997:Spring)
by Susan Needham

In the April 1988 Educational Researcher Judith Langer reviewed the state of research on literacy. Her major concern was given the variety of disciplines with divergent research problems currently studying literacy, does it constitute a field? (p. 42). While Langer applauded the new directions for study, in which literacy is placed in its social context, she warned that as a field of study, literacy would not move forward without some interdisciplinary discussion: "using what is known to move forward not merely in parallel, but to engage in dialogue in a way that makes it possible to relate findings across fields" (p. 46).

Cross-disciplinary discourse on literacy is precisely the goal of Literacy: Interdisciplinary Conversations, edited by Deborah Keller-Cohen. The essays in this book were originally presented at an interdisciplinary conference entitled Literacy, Identity and Mind held at the University of Michigan in October of 1991. Perspectives from anthropology, education, history, linguistics, comparative literature, English, and sociology are among those represented here. The fact that this book is a collection of nineteen essays representing fourteen disciplines on the topic of literacy is itself a unique contribution. But Keller-Cohen, professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has accomplished something more. She succeeds in her goal "to provide an interdisciplinary conversation about literacy" (p. 1) and does so in a way that invites the reader to become a part of this ongoing dialogue.

Keller-Cohen's introductory chapter provides a helpful guide to the book's overall organization as well as an interesting and important discussion of the major themes in the study of literacy. Three themes appearing across fields of study are how to define literacy, how to approach technologies associated with literacy (e.g.. writing systems and materials), and the cognitive and social consequences of literacy. Often cross-disciplinary dialogue is hindered for lack of common vocabulary and divergent research problems. However, as Keller-Cohen points out, the articles in this book demonstrate that some important concepts such as "literacy practices," and research methods, such as discourse analysis and ethnography, are shared across disciplines and provide starting points for rich discussion and comparison.

Keller-Cohen has developed a very different style for this book. To make the reading experience more conversational, Keller-Cohen edited comments, questions, and dialogue between participants during the conference and appended these antiphonies to the beginning and end of each article. The antiphonies frame each article, linking concepts from other chapters, or pointing in other directions for further thought. Because chapters touch on more than one issue associated with literacy, Keller-Cohen provides a "guide to the reader" which organizes chapters under several subject headings.

In crossing disciplinary boundaries, the book also crosses time and place, giving an overall image of literacy as a dynamic, multidimensional aspect of social life. As an example of the fullness of treatment, Piotr Michalowski discusses the development of writing in 600 B.C. Mesopotamia while Deborah Keller-Cohen reconstructs literacy practices of 17th- and 18th-Century America. Courtney Cazden writes of the ideologies informing current pedagogies and writing style in American education while Fatma Muge Gocek looks at how Western European educational forms, languages, and literacy practices were introduced to and subsequently incorporated into the society of the Ottoman Empire.

Keller-Cohen does not profess to provide answers to the ongoing debates and questions raised in this book, which can be disappointing if one expects to find them here. This book is intended to be a point of reference from which a more comprehensive view of literacy can be developed. Additionally, there are limits to how interdisciplinary this book is. Keller-Cohen notes that with the exception of chapters by John Ogbu and Luis Moll, authors write from the viewpoint of their field. But, as Langer suggested eight years ago, when scholars come together to share perspectives on literacy issues this can "lead to identification of shared issues and problems" (p. 46). If nothing else, this book speaks to the importance of an interdisciplinary approach and is a significant first step in that direction.

Reviewed by Susan Needham. Needham is a visiting assistant professor in Anthropology at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts. She is working with Leila Monaghan on an edited collection of articles on Language Ideologies and Literacy.