Representing science literacies: an introduction

Clarifying the relationship between science education and broader literacy learning has received increasing attention in recent years, with researchers claiming the need for closer mutually beneficial links between these two areas (Australian Academy of Science 2008; Saul 2004; Shanahan and Shanahan 2008; Yore et al. 2003). There is now growing recognition that learning science means learning a particular “disciplinary literacy” (Moje 2008, p. 1), and therefore learning how to integrate the multi-modal literacies of this subject. Rather than these literacies being viewed as peripheral to learning, or surface features of content acquisition, they are now understood by researchers in this area as crucial tools for meaning-making and knowledge production. Developing this understanding, especially with secondary science teachers, perhaps needs further work, where subject-specific literacy is often perceived as a matter of technical correctness, or addressing an expression deficit, rather t