The demands made on literacy teachers are ever-changing, and the range of those demands is expanding in crucial ways as we approach the millennium. This introduction to the major themes of literacy education aims to inform discussions while encouraging literacy teachers to reflect on their work. This comprehensive book studies work with students through all years of formal education, and in a number of different subject areas. Predominant concerns include the nature and use of texts, the ideological implications of point-of-view for the production of educational texts, the way texts change as the students mature, and the implications of new information technologies for the development of literacy. Its study of the answers that practitioners of literacy education have found in their work contributes significantly to our understanding of the future and meaning of literacy education.