Introduction


‘A nurturing and caring environment for the global leaders of tomorrow’

Young Hoon Elementary School's (YHES) motto suggests that learners are required to explore the topic of leadership. Additionally, it suggests the need for learners to develop literacy skills to operate and communicate as leaders in the global community.

Literacy Defined

The notion of ‘literacy’ no longer refers to learners learning to read and write using simply paper, pen and books. Literacy is changing along with the rapid technological, social and economic changes taking place in the world. The Leadership Alive! unit recognises that modern views of literacy encompass;

  • a vast array of new communications practices and technologies,
  • information and meaning conveyed through multimodal texts,
  • notions of active citizenship,
  • critical thinking and linguistic and cultural diversity.

(Luke, Freebody & Land, 2000; New London Group, 1996; Semali, 2001; Unsworth, 2001)

The Leadership Alive! project is aimed at providing faculty at YHES with a model unit that they can implement to develop their learners' essential literacy skills. It is envisioned that the unit will evolve to become more streamlined and effective as:

  • teachers’ pedagogies and understandings of literacy evolve.
  • teachers discuss, reflect, review and maintain the implementation of the unit.
  • the literacy resources (such as ICT) within the school evolve.

The School Context

YHES learners are enrolled in a unique semi-immersion English program where they spend 50% of their time learning English and the other 50% learning in Korean (their first language). The learners’ English and Korean classes have no cohesion in curriculum content or pedagogy. In the Korean classes, textbooks play a predominant role in learning due to the objectivist pedagogies in place. The English curriculum is flooded with textbooks, but individual teachers are at liberty to integrate them how they like.

Information Technology Communications (ICT) is limited in the school context. The school struggles to maintain a 1:24 computer:student ratio. The school has one dated computer lab between 24 English classes. All learners have computers at home. The idea that literacy could encompass an array of technology skills is a foreign concept to the Korean school administration.

With these points in mind, the Leadership Alive! unit purposefully avoids putting strong emphasis on ICT literacy skills, but instead, incorporates available resources into a balanced literacy learning framework.