The Concept of New Literacies in the Context of the Polish Education System

Guest Author: Jakub Radziszewski
2nd Year Student at the MA in English Philology, University of Białystok, Poland

The term “new literacies” was first introduced in the 90s (Buckingham, 1993). This phenomenon concerned changes that have taken place mostly in education and contrasted the classic literacy. The term also refers to new types of literacy made available by technological advancement. Instant messages, sending GIFs, storytelling, blogging, video gaming, creating memes, building apps and even recording Tiktoks are well-known examples of new literacies. Moreover, new literacies are an alternative or supplementation to traditional texts. How does the concept of new literacies relate to the Polish education system and whether it follows the development of technology and contemporary trends? I will try to analyze this point in this essay.

Firstly, when discussing new literacies, we cannot omit the key element, which is digital literacy. Digital literacy refers to the abilities required to live in a modern society where communication and information is provided through digital platforms such as social media or mobile apps. I believe that digital literacy and new literacies are closely related phenomena and without digital literacy we cannot fully talk about new literacies. In my opinion, the Polish education system is not adapted at all to teaching with the use of new technologies. Obsolete computers, broken projectors or teachers who forbid the use of tablets to take notes during classes indicate a total ignorance and even fear of trying something new during lectures. How young students who were brought up in the online world can find themselves in a system invented hundreds of years ago…

The second, unfortunately negative, issue in the context of the Polish education system is the outdated syllabus. I believe that every good teacher’s task is to involve students and share their experience and knowledge in the best possible way. However, it is not possible to do so with an obsolete syllabus and it is not necessarily the teacher’s fault. The system is problematic and not adapted to young people’s needs. Moreover, the system is adapted to the masses. On the contrary new literacies are all about diversity i.e. it is not necessary for everyone to know or be skilled at the same subject, frequently the outcomes are richer when young people bring varied bits and pieces of knowledge to the table (Gee & Hayes, 2013). Polish schools, however, tend to demand that everyone understands the same thing in the same manner, limiting creativity and freedom.

Finally, the involvement of teachers in introducing new solutions in class must be addressed. I am convinced that the engagement of students will be several times greater when discussing a contemporary book, in terms of their interest, than a book written 500 years ago in an outdated and incomprehensible language for them. However, it takes courage to break the mold.

To conclude, in my opinion, the concept of new literacies in the Polish education system is hard to implement. Many years must pass before trends come to us from the West, teachers will adapt to changes and schools will be prepared in the context of technological adjustments. Lastly, it should be mentioned that classic literacy itself is not a bad concept, however we as humanity are adapted to continuous development and we have been stuck in the old education system for several hundred years, which results in limiting our possibilities and more importantly encouraging young people to learn and showing them that it can be an interesting and creative process.

References

Buckingham, D. 1993. Towards new literacies: Information technology, English and media education . English and Media Magazine , Summer, 20–25.

Gee, J.2013. Good video games + good learning ( 2nd ed. ). New York, NY : Peter Lang.

Gee, J., & Hayes, E. 2013. Nurturing affinity spaces and game- based learning.