The University of Sheffield
The School of Education

Dr Kate Pahl B.A., M.A., Cert Ed., Ph.D.

Photograph of Kate Pahl


Reader in Literacies in Education

Tel: (+44) (0)114 222 8112
Fax: (+44) (0)114 279 6236
Email: k.pahl@Sheffield.ac.uk
Room: 7.05

Research Projects

Imagine: Connecting Communities Through Research. Kate is the lead Co-Investigator for a consortium research project with Sheffield University leading on the Cultural Making of Civic Engagement. The focus is on imagining better communities through the arts and humanities. This brings together arts organizations from the City Region (Museums Sheffield, Site Gallery, Hepworth Wakefield) with academics across two Faculties (Arts and Humanities and Social Science) together with community partners from the Youth Service and British Asian communities in Rotherham to create visions of better imagined futures. The bid was co-produced with young people and community partners and represents the Civic University in action with a broad public engagement sweep and vision representing the future of engaged research. This project is funded through the AHRC /ESRC Connected Communities research programme. Follow us on Twitter on@imagine_connect

Communication wisdom: a study of the uses of fishing in youth work. This is a joint project with the School of English at Sheffield and Johan Siebers from the University of Central Lancashire. The aim is to better understand how the reflective space of fishing provides a place for the intergenerational communication of a specific type of know-how that is still important today: wisdom. Working with the youth service in Rotherham, this project will re-engage young people in intergenerational learning and wisdom and enable them to reflect on the complex meanings that lie dormant beneath the surface of a familiar activity. Outcomes include a new version of The Compleat Angler, a cultural history of fishing and a poetic exploration of fishing. The project is funded through the AHRC Connected Communities programme.

Community Arts Zone – a project funded by SSHRC Canada

Kate is a co-applicant with Dr Jennifer Rowsell, Brock University and Kris Gutierrez, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA in a project called Community Arts Zone. The proposed research will be conducted across four contexts in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Set within economically struggling and disadvantaged communities (Boulder, CO; Rochester, USA; Rotherham, UK, and St. Catharines, ON), the research teams in each context will complete arts projects and multimodal units of study across age and grade levels through community partnerships. Built on the concept of modal learning (Rowsell, 2013), researchers in each context will participate in arts initiatives that ask children and youth to develop expertise in different modes of expression and representation. The project will run from July 2013 to end June 2015.

Making meaning differently: Policy Briefing: Community Governance in an Age of Decentralisation.

Kate was asked to prepare a policy briefing and a film for the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on representation in community governance. People from community groups with different perspectives and experiences shaped the research. Her project involved working with a group of young people from Rawmarsh to make films about representation. The project ran from November 2012 – end April 2013 and was funded through the AHRC’s Connected Communities Programme. The final report can be found here.

Transmitting Musical Heritage. Kate is the PI on a project with Fay Hield, Music and Richard Steadman-Jones, School of English which is exploring the process of transmitting musical heritage. The research will be delivered through a process of collaborative ethnography, involving three researchers from the Music department (Dr Fay Hield, John Ball and David Judge) working alongside three community music organisations in Sheffield (Soundpost Community Network, Sheffield Babelsongs and Art on the Run. The research is funded by the AHRC’s Connected Communities research programme.

To find out more about this project see the Transmitting Musical heritage website. The film can be watched http://vimeo.com/69476165 which was shown at the AHRC Connected Communities Summit in July 2013.

Ways of Knowing. Kate is involved in the ‘Ways of Knowing’ project which is funded by the AHRC Connected Communities programme from February 2013 for one year. This project will be exploring the different ‘ways of knowing’ which emerge from collaborative, participatory or action research. For more information about this project visit our blog: http://waysofknowingresearch.wordpress.com/

Language as Talisman. Kate was awarded a Development Grant from February - November 2012 from the AHRC's Connected Communities programme to do a study called Language as Talisman in partnership with the Youth Service in Rotherham together with Jane Hodson, Richard Steadman-Jones and Hugh Escott, from the English Department at the University of Sheffield, as well as David Hyatt, School of Education. The project focused on language in community contexts and included a research review of the literature on language and dialect in Rawmarsh, Rotherham as well as a community project to engage families and young people in creating stories, poems, films and other linguistic forms on the theme of language in the community.

Teaching

The experience of being on Kate’s courses is to become immersed in visual, ethnographic, participatory and innovative approaches to research. Students understand the field of literacy and language in relation to communities, identities and creativities. All courses taught by Kate encourage a wide ranging, interdisciplinary approach to the subject of literacy and language in home and community contexts.

Kate directs the EdD in Literacy and Language. This is an exciting doctoral programme that gives students a research-led approach to studying literacy and language using theory from a wide variety of sources. Literacy is understood as a situated social practice, linked to space, place and identity. She also teaches on the MA in Working with Communities. This is a multi-disciplinary course that looks at working with communities. Kate’s contribution is to develop research skills that are visual, participatory and creative, so that students can develop their own research projects in community settings. Her research students work in the areas of visual methodologies, the New Literacy Studies, ethnography, multilingualism, multimodality, creativity, museums and art education. Kate also teaches on the BA in Education, Culture and Childhood, offering a new module called Participatory Research with Children and Young People.

Activities

Publications

Books

Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J. (2012) Literacy and Education: Understanding the New Literacy Studies in the Classroom 2nd Edition. London: Sage

Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J. (2012) Early Childhood Literacy. (Four volumes) Sage Library of Educational Thought and Practice. London: Sage

Grenfell, M, Bloome, D, Hardy, C. Pahl, K, Rowsell, J and Street B (2012) Language, Ethnography and Education: Bridging New Literacy Studies and Bourdieu. New York: Routledge

Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J (2010) Artifactual Literacies: Every object tells a story. New York: Teachers College Press.

Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J. (eds) (2006) Travel Notes from the New Literacy Studies: Instances of Practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J. (2005) Literacy and Education: The New Literacy Studies in the Classroom. London: Paul Chapman

Pahl, K. (1999) Transformations: Children´s Meaning Making in a Nursery. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books.

Chapters and articles

Pahl, K. and Burnett C. (2013) Literacies in Homes and Communities. In: K. Hall, T. Cremin, B. Comber and L. Moll Eds. International Handbook of Research on Children’s Literacy, Learning and Culture. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell pp. 3 – 14.

Pahl, K. Steadman-Jones, R. and Pool, S. (2013) Dividing the Drawers. Creative Approaches to Research 6 (1) 71 – 88

Rowsell, J. Kress, G., Pahl, K. and Street B. (2013) The Social Practice of Multimodal Reading: A New Literacy Studies - Multimodal Perspective on reading. In: Alvermann, D.E., Unrau, N.J., & Ruddell, R.B. (Eds.). (2013). Theoretical models and processes of reading (6th ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.pp 1182-1207

Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J. (2013) Artifactual Literacies. In J. Larson and J. Marsh (Eds) The Sage Handbook of Early Childhood Literacy. Second Edition London: Sage pp. 263-278

Pahl, K. (2012) Time and Space as a Resource for Meaning-Making by Children and Young People in Home and Community Settings. Global Studies of Childhood 2 (3) pp. 201-216

Pahl, K. (2012) Every object tells a story: Intergenerational Stories and Objects in the Homes of Pakistani Heritage Families in South Yorkshire, UK. Home Cultures 9 (3) pp. 303 -328

Pahl, K. (2012) “A Reason to Write” Exploring writing epistemologies in two contexts. Pedagogies: An International Journal 7 (3) pp 209-228

Pahl, K. and Pool, S. (2011) Living your life because its the only life you’ve got: Participatory research as a site for discovery in a creative project in a primary school in Thurnscoe, UK. Qualitative Research Journal, Vol 11 (2) 17-37.

Pahl, K., & Rowsell, J. (2011). Artifactual critical literacy: A new perspective for literacy education. Berkeley Review of Education, 2(2), 129-152.

Pahl, K. and Allan C. (2011) I don’t know what literacy is: Uncovering hidden literacies in a community library using ecological and participatory methodologies with children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. Vol 11 No 2 190-213

Pahl, K. (2011) Improvisations and transformations across modes: the case of a classroom multimodal box project. In J. Swann, R. Pope and R. Carter (Eds) Creativity in Language and Literature:The State of the Art. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan pp 156-171.

Pahl, K. (2011). My Family, My Story: Representing Identities in Time and Space Through Digital Storytelling. In S. Schamroth- Abrams & J.Rowsell's Rethinking Identity and Literacy Education in the 21st Century. National Society for the Study of Education Yearbook. Volume 110, Issue 1. Pp17-40

Pahl, K and Rowsell, J. (2011) The Material and the Situated: What Multimodality and New Literacy Studies Do for Literacy Research (Third Edition). In: D. Lapp and D. Fisher Eds. Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts. Oxon and New York: Routledge

Pahl, K. Comerford-Boyes, L., Genever, K., and Pool, S. (2010) Artists, Art and Artefacts: boundary crossings, art and anthropology Creative Approaches to Research Vol 3 (1) pp 82 -101

Pahl, K. and Pollard, A. (2010) The Case of the Disappearing Object: Narratives and artefacts in homes and a museum exhibition from Pakistani heritage families in South Yorkshire Museum and Society 8 (1) 1 – 17

Pahl, K. (2010) `Changing Literacies: Schools, communities and homes´ In J. Lavia and M Moore (eds) Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Policy and Practice. Decolonizing Community Contexts. London: Routledge pp 58-71

Pahl, K, with Pollard, A and Rafiq, Z (2009) Changing Identities, Changing Spaces: The Ferham Families Exhibition in Rotherham. Moving Worlds Vol 9 No 2 80 – 103

Pahl, K. (2009) Interactions, intersections and improvisations: Studying the multimodal texts and classroom talk of six to seven year olds Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 9 (2) 188-210

Pahl, K. (2008) Looking with a different eye: creativity and literacy in the early years. In: J. Marsh and E. Hallet (eds) Desirable Literacies: Approaches to language and Literacy in the Early Years pp 140 – 161

Pahl, K. (2007) Timescales and Ethnography: Understanding a child´s meaning-making across three sites, a home, a classroom and a family literacy class. Ethnography and Education. Vol 2 no 2 pp 175-190

Pahl K (2007) Creativity in events and practices: a lens for understanding children´s multimodal texts Literacy Vol 41 Number 2 pp 86-92

Rowsell, J. and Pahl, K. (2007) Sedimented identities in texts: Instances of practice. Reading Research Quarterly. Vol. 42, Issue 3 pp 388-401

Reports

Connelly, S. Dabinett, G. Muirhead, S. Pahl, K and Vanderhoven, D. (2013) Making meaning differently. Policy Briefing: Community Governance in an Age of Decentralisation. Unpublished report for the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), funded by AHRC Connected Communities programme.

Pahl, K (2007) Looking with a different eye. Report on a partnership between artists and teachers in an Infants´ School in Barnsley.

View a full list of Kate Pahl’s publications

Recent Funded Projects

Evaluation, Inspire Rotherham: Grant from Yorkshire Forward from May 2009 - April 2010 to study the impact of the Inspire Rotherham project on families, schools and communities in Rotherham.

A Reason to Write: Grant from Cape UK to study the impact of three artists on a school in the Dearne valley, and to focus on artists and teachers practices January 2009 for 2 years.

My Family, My Story: grant from MLA Yorkshire from June 2008 – February 2009 to research digital storytelling project with Thirsk community school and The World of James Herriot

Every Object Tells a Story: Family Literacy project funded by the Knowledge Opportunities Transfer Fund, University of Sheffield, to develop an archive of narratives and images into a family learning project. Jan - March 2008

Artefacts and narratives of migration: Rotherham museum collections and the Pakistani/Kashmiri community of Rotherham AHRC small grant from the Diasporas Migration Identities programme 2006-7

Creativity in schools and community contexts: A Creative Partnerships Project, funded by Barnsley Doncaster and Rotherham Creative Partnerships 2005-6

Research Students

Abdul Assim

Parven Akhter
An exploration of `funds of knowledge´ and `new literacies´ in diverse family cultures

Sallyann Bentham

Jared Bryson

Eleri Davies

Sarah Freeman

Abi Hackett

Zoyah Kinkead-Clark

Christine Lofaro

Ninette Pace-Balzan

Kath Swinney