| Analytic tools | |
| Inter-textuality | Inter-textuality refers to the relationships among texts. No text, including literacy advice texts, is unique. It is a product of, and refers to (intentionally or not), texts that it follows, precedes, and lies alongside of. The inter-textual relationships between research, policy and advice provide insights into strategies of exclusion and normalization in literacy advice. |
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| Multivocality | A multi-vocal strategy asks of texts, who are the different voices in the text? What characterizes these voices? What meanings do these voices bring to the text? How do these voices and silences shape the discourse? Attending to these questions helps to provide insights into how discourses change, and to how advice is resisted. |
| Comparison | Comparisons in advice were made across and within texts created in a similar time period, as well as over the decades covered in the study. Questions guiding comparison were: What are the differences and similarities across these texts? What are the consequences of this? Which understanding of the world is taken for granted and which are not recognized? (Phillip & Jorgensen, 2002, p. 149). |
| Substitution | Emerging from a feminist perspective, the term mother was substituted for parent or father and vice versa, where these terms appear in advice texts. This strategy provided insights into silences about who does literacy work in the home, and changing gender roles over time. |