Editorial introduction.

Unsworth, Len ; Baxter, David ; Buckland, Corinne 等

This issue introduces your new editorial team of Len Unsworth, David Baxter, Corinne Buckland and Beverly Croker from the University of New England. We would like to thank the retiring editors from Edith Cowan University, Susan Statkus, Judith Rivalland and Mary Rohl, for their very supportive transfer of the editorial role and particularly for their generous contribution to the preparation of this issue. My editorial colleagues and I look forward to consolidating the role of the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy as a significant national and international journal for all involved in literacy education.

In this issue the contributions span three main areas. The first is that of 'new literacies', and particularly the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the English curriculum. This area is introduced by a paper presented earlier this year in Sydney by Linda Labbo, from the University of Georgia, at the Future Directions in Literacy Conference sponsored by the Primary English Teachers Association (PETA) and the Australian Literacy Educators Association (ALEA). Labbo addresses the relationships among traditional and new literacies and the 'bridging role' of ICT. While exploring what theoretical perspectives undergird both traditional and new literacies and the ways in which computer technologies support students' traditional literacy development, she also explores reasons for proposing that new literacies require 'instructional transformations'.

Following on from the latter issue addressed by Labbo, the paper by Kristina Love and Merle Isles reports on research concerning the use of asynchronous online discussion forums in working with literature in the English curriculum. The data set of online discussion records is drawn from sites hosted by state education authorities and individual schools, focusing on those targeted towards students from upper primary and onwards, which deal with enduring literary and popular fiction texts that students read as part of their studies in subject English. The paper seeks to offer a contribution towards the development of a framework that may help English teachers identify the pedagogical issues involved in establishing and managing text response online discussion through making more visible some of the parameters for reflecting on text response interaction in an asynchronous mode.

The literacy practices of young girls in fan fiction online communities are the focus of the following paper by Angela Thomas. The paper demonstrates the range of writing practices (and other media practices) that fans negotiate together to role-play scenes of engagement with the canonical texts. The ways in which the young girls responded to both their texts and their role-playing experience offered them the opportunity to also engage in self-reflexive critical practice about their reading, their choices, and their identities in their different forums. The paper concludes by discussing implications for literacy education of the committed engagement to learning and literacy development among young participants in online fan fiction sites.

The second area dealt with by the contributors to this issue is that of curriculum area literacy and learning. Anne Sire reports on a study that involved an audit of the literacy requirements across all curriculum areas for Year 8 students in a Victorian secondary college. The aim was to examine current practice in the school to establish what is actually being asked of students, which literacy tasks are common across curriculum areas and which are subject-specific, and what can be done to improve literacy practices in the school. The paper confirms the need for all teachers to assume responsibility for literacy development in their curriculum areas and gives concrete expression to what is entailed in addressing literacy in curriculum area learning.

The third focus area for this issue is on the development of assessment instrumentation that facilitates a detailed understanding of literacy development in the early years of schooling. Marion Meiers and Siek Toon Khoo report on the results for the first three years of a seven-year longitudinal study designed to follow the growth in literacy and numeracy of a single cohort of students across the years of primary school. The results indicate that the wide distribution of literacy achievement at school entry is continued through the first three years at school. There were also significant individual differences in the literacy growth trajectories. Children started at different points and developed at different rates. This indicates the complexity of the task of providing appropriate learning opportunities for all students. But the study showed that a large proportion of the variation in literacy development lies across schools, emphasising the key role of schools in determining the nature and quality of educational outcomes for students.

Following the framing paper by Labbo dealing with new literacies and ICT in the English curriculum, all of the papers in this volume are based on research that directly addresses literacy development practices. The researchers include teachers, teacher educators and educational research officers. We encourage all readers of this journal to engage with us in this theory-research-practice interface by contributing in response to these papers and/or in relation to their own professional agendas.