RESPECT AND THE PURSUIT OF ‘SYMMETRY’ IN RESEARCHING LITERACY AND STUDENT WRITING

In this chapter I contribute a further way of articulating some of the key methodological principles which are fundamental both to New Literacy Studies (NLS) and to related research of work-place literacy and of student writing. My suggestion is that as researchers with an interest in understanding marginalised literacy practices and unsuccessful student and employee writing, we could benefit from explicitly employing and developing a methodological principle known as ‘symmetry’. This has been developed within the field of Science Studies, and powerfully taken up within recent research of the public understanding of science.