Week Three  - Lifeworlds

This week’s emphasis was on lifeworlds. I found this week’s topic very interesting because I believe it is a very important aspect of education. It is something I wish to be aware of within my future classroom and therefore was very keen to know more!

As Kalantzis and Cope (2012) articulate, your experiences, culture, beliefs and all other aspects of self contribute to constructing your personal lifeworld. You lifeworld is constructed without your knowledge and is a natural, unconscious process (Kalantzis and Cope, 2012). It is important for teachers to know and understand the lifeworlds of individual students so that they are able to cater their teaching practices appropriately so that all students are privileged and supported (Phillips, 2013).

I also believe it is important to know accurate lifeworlds so that assumptions aren’t made and stereotypes formed.

The discussion of lifeworlds prompted me to think about my own lifeworlds and reflect on how these contribute to my literacy practices.

I believe that my experiences with travel - a variety of cultures, people, practices and traditions – the values, beliefs, attitudes and opinions that I have gained from family and friends, and my overall life experiences, allow me to bring a great deal of knowledge and perspective to my literacy practices. My lifeworlds affect the way in which I view and interact with a variety of texts. I believe that if I had teachers at school that took more time to get to know my lifeworlds I would have gained a lot more from my learning experiences.