This book is an analysis of student literacy in an academic setting and howthis has changed due to political economic and social factors. Thecontributors who ar... » 

This book is an analysis of student literacy in an academic setting and howthis has changed due to political economic and social factors. Thecontributors who are all engaged in academic literacy work at a South Africanuniversity use the theoretical tradition of New Literacy Studies as developedby theorists such as James Gee Brian Street and Gunther Kress and apply thisto a case study of one university in the changing context of South Africa. Thecontext demands an extension of this theory in new directions as thetheoretical assumptions governing Anglophone mainstream traditions may limitinsights into academic literacy settings on the margins of these traditions.The book probes some of these limitations by looking at the complexinteractions taking place between students diverse language and educationalhistories their literacy practices institutional discourses and the manymodes involved in engaging with texts. Language is central to all theseinteractions and the book considers how they reflect or potentially change theinstitution. «