Network staff
Professor Guy Merchant
Principal Lecturer, Cert Ed, BEd Hons, MA
Phone 0114 225 2333
E-mail g.h.merchant@shu.ac.uk
Guy is a professor of literacy in education and co-ordinator of the Language and Literacy Research Group. He specialises in research into digital literacy in formal and informal educational settings.
He is research convenor for the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) and a member of the association's Executive Committee and National Council. He was a core-group member of the ESRC funded seminar series Children's Literacy and Popular Culture (2002-2004) and a core-group member of the ESRC funded seminar series Play, Creativity and Digital Culture (2005-2007). Guy contributed to QCA's working group on multimodality and is a critical friend to UKLA's international project Critical Literacy.
He is a founding editor of the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Literacy. He reviews extensively for a range of other research publications including English in Education and the Canadian Journal of Education and has also reviewed for ESRC research grants. He is also active in literacy education and professional work, including writing curriculum materials and for professional publications.
Recent research publications
Merchant, G. (2007) 'Digital writing in the early years.' In Leu, D., Coiro, J., Knobel, M., and Lankshear, C. The Handbook of Research on New Literacies. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Merchant, G. (2006) 'Identity, social networks and online communication' Journal of E-Learning 3:2 (pp.235-244).
Merchant, G. (2006) 'A sign of the times: looking critically at digital writing.' In J.Marsh and E. Millard (eds.) Popular Literacies, Childhood and Schooling London: Routledge Falmer (pp.93 -108)
Burnett, C., Dickinson, P., Merchant, G., and Myers, J. (2006) 'Digital connections: transforming primary literacy' Cambridge Journal of Education 36:1 (pp 11-29).
Davies, J., and Merchant, G. (2006) 'Looking from the inside out - academic blogging as new literacy.' In Knobel, M. (ed.) The New Literacies Sampler. New York: Peter Lang.
Merchant, G., Dickinson, P., Burnett, C., and Myers, J. (2006) 'Do u like dogs or writing - digital message exchange in the primary classroom.' English in Education
Merchant, G. (2005) 'Digikids, cool dudes and the new writing' Journal of E-Learning 2:1 (pp. 50-60).
Merchant, G. (2005) 'The Electric Connection: Identity performance in children's informal digital writing' Discourse 26:3 (pp.301-314).
Merchant, G. (2005) 'The Dagger of Doom and the Magic Handbag: writing on-screen' in J.Evans (ed) Literacy moves On: using popular culture, new technologies and critical literacy in the primary classroom. London: David Fulton (pp. 59-75).
Merchant, G. (2004) 'Barbie meets Bob the Builder at the Workstation: young children and digital writing' in J.Marsh (ed) Popular Culture and Digital Literacies in the Early Years. London: Routledge Falmer. (pp.183-200).
Merchant, G. (2004) 'What's you're a/s/l? Electronic communication and synchronous chat.' in M.Monteith (ed) Teaching Secondary School Literacies with ICT Buckingham: Open University Press. (pp 133-149).
