Allan Luke
Encyclopedia
Allan Luke is an educator, researcher, and theorist studying multiliteracies, linguistics, family literacy, and educational policy. Dr. Luke has written or edited over 14 books and more than 140 articles and book chapters. Luke, with Peter Freebody
, originated the Four Resources Model of literacy
education. He is currently a Research Professor at Queensland University of Technology
in Brisbane, Australia
.
from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972. Luke received his teaching certificate in 1976 and his M.A.
in 1980, from Simon Fraser University
in Canada. He taught primary and secondary school in British Columbia and lectured at Simon Fraser and British Columbia Institute of Technology
before taking a position at James Cook University
, Australia in 1984. He received his Ph. D.
from Simon Fraser University in 1985.
until 1995. From 1996 to 2003, he served as Dean of Education at the University of Queensland
, and Deputy Director General for Education for Queensland
from 1999 to 2000. Until 2003, Luke was the Chief Educational Advisor to the Queensland Minister of Education. From 2003 to 2005, Luke was the Foundation Dean of the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice at the National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University
, in Singapore
. Since 2005, Luke has returned to Australia and currently works as a research professor at Queensland University of Technology
in Brisbane, Australia
.
of Griffith University
introduced the Four Resources Model in literacy education. This model seeks to reconcile the debates between Whole Language
, Phonics
, critical literacy
and others. This model postulates that in order to be a fully literate citizen, a person needs:
Luke and Freebody assert that no one of these resources is sufficient by itself but that each is essential. Further, the resources are not meant to indicate a sequence of instruction. Different resources should be present in instruction in varying amounts, depending upon the needs of the students. Luke has also stated that critical competence, far from being an upper level topic, can begin to be developed in year one of education and before.
. He later married German-born Carmen Luke and they had a daughter. Carmen Luke went on to publish major work on feminism, sociology and media literacy. When his daughter was in primary school, he worked as a substitute teacher in the primary schools of Fraser Valley
. He studied primary education with Kieran Egan. In 1975, Jonathan Kozol
, who had just published The Night is Dark and I am Far From Home, came to SFU as a guest lecturer. He introduced Luke to the works of Paulo Freire
, including Pedagogy of the Oppressed
. Luke describes this as a life-changing event.
Luke initially had difficulty finding a job as a primary teacher, which he believes was due to prejudice against Asian people
still prevalent in Canada
at the time. In Armstrong, British Columbia
, he was hired at a rural secondary school teaching English, drama, and Spanish. When the first wave of Vietnamese immigrants arrived in Canada
in 1976, he was asked to teach ESL
, although he had no training or background in ESL at the time.
Luke worked toward his Ph.D. in Sociology of Literacy, which was a new field. At the time, literacy was thought to be a cognitive
and psycholinguistic
process that had little to do with social factors, including class, race, and identity. He was supervised by Suzanne DeCastell, a Canadian philosopher of education and literacy scholar. As he reached the end of his Ph.D., he received a job offer from James Cook University
in Australia
. He moved there with his wife and daughter in 1984 and became the first non-white professor on faculty. Luke taught reading/language arts methods and was assigned to the Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander teacher education program. Indigenous Australians had only recently acquired rights and many were entering higher education for the first time (see History of Indigenous Australians
). Luke taught the first generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers and Ph.D.s.
Albright, J. & Luke, A. (Eds) (2008) Pierre Bourdieu and Literacy Education. New York: Routledge.
Carrington, V. & Luke, A. (1997). Literacy and Bourdieu's sociological theory: A reframing. Language and Education, 11(2), 96-112.
Freebody, P., & Luke, A. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect: Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(7), 7-16.
Freebody, P. (1992). A socio-cultural approach: Resourcing four roles as a literacy learner. In A. Watson & A. Badenhop (Eds.), Prevention of reading failure (pp. 48–60). Sydney: Ashton-Scholastic.
Luke, Allan (2008) Another ethnic autobiography? Childhood and the cultural economy of looking. In: Hammer, R. & Kellner, D. (Eds.) Critical Cultural Studies Reader. Peter Lang, New York.
Luke, A. (2004). Two takes on the critical. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds.), Critical pedagogy and language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Luke, A. (2003). Literacy and the other: A sociological approach to literacy research and policy in multilingual societies. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(1), 132-141.
Luke, A. (2003). After the marketplace: Evidence, social science and educational research. Australian Educational Researcher, 30(2), 87-107.
Luke, A. (2000). Critical literacy in Australia: A matter of context and standpoint. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 43 (5), 448-461.
Luke, A. (1997). Genres of power: Literacy education and the production of capital. In R. Hasan & G. Williams (Eds.), Literacy in society (pp. 308–338). London: Longman.
Luke, A. (1988) Literacy, Textbooks and Ideology. London: Falmer.
Luke, A. (1992). Reading and Critical Literacy: Redefining the "Great Debate". Paper of the 18th New Zealand Conference on Reading. Wellington. May 10-13, 1992. Full text available from ERIC.
Luke, A., O'Brien, J., & Comber, B. (1994). Making community texts objects of study. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 17(2), 139-149.
Muspratt, S., Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1997). Constructing critical literacies. Sydney: Allen & Unwin; and Cresskills, NJ: Hampton.
Trinity College: 4 Resources Readings
Peter Freebody
Peter Freebody is currently a Professorial Research Fellow with the Faculty of Education and Social Work and a core member of the CoCo Research Centre at The University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. His research and teaching interests include literacy education, classroom interaction and...
, originated the Four Resources Model of literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
education. He is currently a Research Professor at Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology is an Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, it has 40,000 students, including 6,000 international students, over 4,000 staff members, and an annual budget of more than A$750 million.QUT is marketed as "A...
in Brisbane, Australia
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
.
Education
Luke received his Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972. Luke received his teaching certificate in 1976 and his M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in 1980, from Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
in Canada. He taught primary and secondary school in British Columbia and lectured at Simon Fraser and British Columbia Institute of Technology
British Columbia Institute of Technology
The British Columbia Institute of Technology , is a public, coeducational, academic institution of higher education in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The polytechnic has five campuses located in the Metro Vancouver region, with the main campus in Burnaby...
before taking a position at James Cook University
James Cook University
James Cook University is a public university based in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The university has two Australian campuses, located in Townsville and Cairns respectively, and an international campus in Singapore. JCU is the second oldest university in Queensland—proclaimed in 1970—and the...
, Australia in 1984. He received his Ph. D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
from Simon Fraser University in 1985.
Career
Luke continued to teach at James Cook UniversityJames Cook University
James Cook University is a public university based in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The university has two Australian campuses, located in Townsville and Cairns respectively, and an international campus in Singapore. JCU is the second oldest university in Queensland—proclaimed in 1970—and the...
until 1995. From 1996 to 2003, he served as Dean of Education at the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
, and Deputy Director General for Education for Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
from 1999 to 2000. Until 2003, Luke was the Chief Educational Advisor to the Queensland Minister of Education. From 2003 to 2005, Luke was the Foundation Dean of the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice at the National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Technological University is one of the two largest public universities in Singapore with the biggest campus in Singapore and the world's largest engineering college. Its lush 200-hectare Yunnan Garden campus was the Youth Olympic Village of the world's first 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in...
, in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. Since 2005, Luke has returned to Australia and currently works as a research professor at Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology is an Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, it has 40,000 students, including 6,000 international students, over 4,000 staff members, and an annual budget of more than A$750 million.QUT is marketed as "A...
in Brisbane, Australia
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
.
Four Resources Model
In the early 1990s, Luke and Peter FreebodyPeter Freebody
Peter Freebody is currently a Professorial Research Fellow with the Faculty of Education and Social Work and a core member of the CoCo Research Centre at The University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. His research and teaching interests include literacy education, classroom interaction and...
of Griffith University
Griffith University
Griffith University is a public, coeducational, research university located in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five satellite campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current...
introduced the Four Resources Model in literacy education. This model seeks to reconcile the debates between Whole Language
Whole language
Whole language describes a literacy philosophy which emphasizes that children should focus on meaning and strategy instruction. It is often contrasted with phonics-based methods of teaching reading and writing which emphasize instruction for decoding and spelling. However, from whole language...
, Phonics
Phonics
Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations...
, critical literacy
Critical literacy
Critical Literacy is an instructional approach, stemming from Marxist Critical pedagogy, that advocates the adoption of "critical" perspectives toward text. Critical literacy encourages readers to actively analyze texts and offers strategies for what proponents describe as uncovering underlying...
and others. This model postulates that in order to be a fully literate citizen, a person needs:
- coding competence (the ability to decode text, i.e. phonics)
- semantic competence (the ability to make meaning, i.e. comprehension)
- pragmatic competence (every day, functional literacy, i.e. writing a check, reading the newspaper, filling out a job application, etc.)
- critical competence (the ability to critically select and analyze texts, i.e. avoiding scams, determining reliable sources of information, etc.)
Luke and Freebody assert that no one of these resources is sufficient by itself but that each is essential. Further, the resources are not meant to indicate a sequence of instruction. Different resources should be present in instruction in varying amounts, depending upon the needs of the students. Luke has also stated that critical competence, far from being an upper level topic, can begin to be developed in year one of education and before.
Personal History
Allan Luke is a second-generation Chinese-American, nephew of Hollywood actor Keye Luke, who grew up in Echo Park, outside of L.A.'s Chinatown. In 1973, he moved to Canada to attend Simon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
. He later married German-born Carmen Luke and they had a daughter. Carmen Luke went on to publish major work on feminism, sociology and media literacy. When his daughter was in primary school, he worked as a substitute teacher in the primary schools of Fraser Valley
Fraser Valley
The Fraser Valley is the section of the Fraser River basin in southwestern British Columbia downstream of the Fraser Canyon. The term is sometimes used to refer to the Fraser Canyon and stretches upstream from there, but in general British Columbian usage of the term refers to the stretch of the...
. He studied primary education with Kieran Egan. In 1975, Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States. Kozol graduated from Noble and Greenough School in 1954, and Harvard University summa cum laude in 1958 with a degree in English Literature. He was awarded a Rhodes...
, who had just published The Night is Dark and I am Far From Home, came to SFU as a guest lecturer. He introduced Luke to the works of Paulo Freire
Paulo Freire
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy.-Biography:...
, including Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the most widely known of educator Paulo Freire's works. It proposes a pedagogy with a new relationship between teacher, student, and society...
. Luke describes this as a life-changing event.
Luke initially had difficulty finding a job as a primary teacher, which he believes was due to prejudice against Asian people
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
still prevalent in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
at the time. In Armstrong, British Columbia
Armstrong, British Columbia
The City of Armstrong is located in the North Okanagan of the Canadian province of British Columbia, between Vernon and Enderby. It overlooks the Spallumcheen Valley, which forms a broad pass between the Okanagan Valley to the south and the Shuswap Country to the north, and is about from each of...
, he was hired at a rural secondary school teaching English, drama, and Spanish. When the first wave of Vietnamese immigrants arrived in Canada
Vietnamese Canadian
Mainstream Vietnamese communities began arriving in Canada in the mid 1970s and early 1980s as refugees or boat people following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, though a couple thousand were already living in Quebec before then, most of whom were students...
in 1976, he was asked to teach ESL
English language learning and teaching
English as a second language , English for speakers of other languages and English as a foreign language all refer to the use or study of English by speakers with different native languages. The precise usage, including the different use of the terms ESL and ESOL in different countries, is...
, although he had no training or background in ESL at the time.
Luke worked toward his Ph.D. in Sociology of Literacy, which was a new field. At the time, literacy was thought to be a cognitive
Cognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
and psycholinguistic
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
process that had little to do with social factors, including class, race, and identity. He was supervised by Suzanne DeCastell, a Canadian philosopher of education and literacy scholar. As he reached the end of his Ph.D., he received a job offer from James Cook University
James Cook University
James Cook University is a public university based in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The university has two Australian campuses, located in Townsville and Cairns respectively, and an international campus in Singapore. JCU is the second oldest university in Queensland—proclaimed in 1970—and the...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He moved there with his wife and daughter in 1984 and became the first non-white professor on faculty. Luke taught reading/language arts methods and was assigned to the Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
and Torres Strait Islander teacher education program. Indigenous Australians had only recently acquired rights and many were entering higher education for the first time (see History of Indigenous Australians
History of Indigenous Australians
The history of Indigenous Australians is thought to have spanned 40 000 to 45 000 years, although some estimates have put the figure at up to 80 000 years before European settlement...
). Luke taught the first generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers and Ph.D.s.
Awards and honors
- 1989 Educational Press Association of America Merit Award
- 2000 Honorary Doctorate for contributions to Thai education from Rajabhat University
- 2002 Inducted into the International Reading AssociationInternational Reading AssociationThe International Reading Association is an international professional organization that was created in 1956 to improve reading instruction, facilitate dialogue about research on reading, and encourage the habit of reading....
Hall of Fame - 2002 Honorary Professorship from Beijing Normal UniversityBeijing Normal UniversityBeijing Normal University , colloqiually known as 北师大 or Beishida, is a public research university located in Beijing with strong emphasis on basic disciplines of humanities and sciences...
- 2002 Gold Medal of Australian College of Education for lifetime achievement
- 2003 IBM/Bulletin Australian Educator of the Year
- 2005 Honorary Doctorate from Simon Fraser University for contributions to international education
- 2005 American Educational Research Association Curriculum Studies Book Award
Collaborators and Co-Authors
- Carmen Luke
- Peter FreebodyPeter FreebodyPeter Freebody is currently a Professorial Research Fellow with the Faculty of Education and Social Work and a core member of the CoCo Research Centre at The University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. His research and teaching interests include literacy education, classroom interaction and...
- Suzanne DeCastell
- Courtney B. Cazden
- Jacob Mey
- James Gee
- Elizabeth Moje
- Donna Alvermann
- Phil Graham
- Barbara Comber
- James Ladwig
Suggested Further Reading
see: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Luke,_Allan.htmlAlbright, J. & Luke, A. (Eds) (2008) Pierre Bourdieu and Literacy Education. New York: Routledge.
Carrington, V. & Luke, A. (1997). Literacy and Bourdieu's sociological theory: A reframing. Language and Education, 11(2), 96-112.
Freebody, P., & Luke, A. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect: Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(7), 7-16.
Freebody, P. (1992). A socio-cultural approach: Resourcing four roles as a literacy learner. In A. Watson & A. Badenhop (Eds.), Prevention of reading failure (pp. 48–60). Sydney: Ashton-Scholastic.
Luke, Allan (2008) Another ethnic autobiography? Childhood and the cultural economy of looking. In: Hammer, R. & Kellner, D. (Eds.) Critical Cultural Studies Reader. Peter Lang, New York.
Luke, A. (2004). Two takes on the critical. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds.), Critical pedagogy and language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Luke, A. (2003). Literacy and the other: A sociological approach to literacy research and policy in multilingual societies. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(1), 132-141.
Luke, A. (2003). After the marketplace: Evidence, social science and educational research. Australian Educational Researcher, 30(2), 87-107.
Luke, A. (2000). Critical literacy in Australia: A matter of context and standpoint. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 43 (5), 448-461.
Luke, A. (1997). Genres of power: Literacy education and the production of capital. In R. Hasan & G. Williams (Eds.), Literacy in society (pp. 308–338). London: Longman.
Luke, A. (1988) Literacy, Textbooks and Ideology. London: Falmer.
Luke, A. (1992). Reading and Critical Literacy: Redefining the "Great Debate". Paper of the 18th New Zealand Conference on Reading. Wellington. May 10-13, 1992. Full text available from ERIC.
Luke, A., O'Brien, J., & Comber, B. (1994). Making community texts objects of study. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 17(2), 139-149.
Muspratt, S., Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1997). Constructing critical literacies. Sydney: Allen & Unwin; and Cresskills, NJ: Hampton.
Trinity College: 4 Resources Readings