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BestsellerE-book
Author Trachsel, Mary, 1953-

Title Institutionalizing literacy : the historical role of college entrance examinations in English / Mary Trachsel.

Publication Info. Carbondale, Ill. : Southern Illinois University Press, [1992]
©1992

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (ix, 209 pages)
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 186-201) and index.
Access Use copy Restrictions unspecified MiAaHDL
Summary In this book, Mary Trachsel discusses how college entrance examinations have served as an instrument for the academic institutionalization of literacy. By considering the interaction of educational, political, institutional, technological, regional, and economic forces at work in the academy's definition of literacy, she argues that entrance examinations chart a change of view from literacy as achievement to literacy as aptitude. Trachsel begins her study by outlining current theory on literacy. She identifies two separate approaches to the task of defining literacy: a "formal" approach that explains literacy as an exclusively academic activity and a "functional" approach that lies in basic opposition to mainstream academic values and practices. Trachsel then examines testing as an academic practice that enforces a primarily formal definition of literacy. In presenting a thorough documentation of historical developments in entrance examinations in English, she notes that while these examinations originated in academic departments of English, they have long since been taken over by bureaucratic agencies the values and goal of which are at odds with the concept of literacy upheld by the professional community of English studies scholars and teachers. In her final chapter, Trachsel presents a critique of present-day English studies. She illustrates her critique with a historical consideration of entrance examinations in English, providing samples of actual test questions which indicate the larger ideological struggles that form the history of English studies. In voicing her concern with the ways the standard entrance examination movement traces the development of a professional identity for English studies specialists, Trachsel encourages all professionals in the field to devote their attention to articulating their own definition of literacy and to devising a means for assessing literacy that is in accord with that definition.
Reproduction Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL
System Details Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Processing Action digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve MiAaHDL
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject English philology -- Study and teaching -- United States -- History.
English philology -- Study and teaching.
United States.
History.
Universities and colleges -- United States -- Entrance examinations -- History.
Universities and colleges.
English philology -- Examinations -- History.
English philology -- Examinations.
English philology.
Literacy -- United States -- History.
Literacy.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Trachsel, Mary, 1953- Institutionalizing literacy. Carbondale, Ill. : Southern Illinois University Press, ©1992 080931732X (DLC) 91023981 (OCoLC)24009907
ISBN 0585186642 (electronic book)
9780585186641 (electronic book)
080931732X (alkaline paper)
9780809317325 (alkaline paper)