Problems of analyzing the concept of literacy as a social practice.

Abstract

The terms of reference for this article paper start from international debate concerning the meanings of literacy, ‘a subject that informs educational, human rights and development discourse’. For many, use of the term ‘literacy’ evokes the question of how children learn to read and this, then, is what the concept has been taken to mean. As we shall see, a similar metonymy is evident in adult literacy circles, where reference to an interest in ‘literacy’ is taken to be an interest in how to overcome ‘illiteracy’ by teaching adults how to read (even though for many a major motivation in entering literacy programmes is to learn how to write). For purposes of the present paper, it is important to note here that some of these assumptions are considered prominent for the process of establishing the concept of literacy as a social practice. Once we have looked more closely at other questions and other traditions of enquiry it will become evident how this focus on ‘literacy as reading’ marginalizes many other meanings of the term.