ABSTRACT
One of the best ways for students and others to increase their understanding of literacy is for them to reflect upon their own practices and the everyday practices around them. They can do this by carrying out research on literacy. With colleagues I have been developing ways of encouraging this on university courses and in-service training. I have become very aware of the parallels between these activities and the research I do which studies literacy in people’s everyday lives. In this chapter I give examples of how students and others can be encouraged to research their own practices, and I explore the links between teaching and research, and between education and everyday life, examining how the research process can be a pedagogical tool, and the ways in which detailed studies from many areas of life provide evidence of the situated nature of literacy.
