Literacy and Power

LITERACY: The ability to read and write (personal location)...but literacy is situated not in the individual, but in society (social location). Therefore, literacy interrelates with the workings of power. (Gee)

• reading and writing are socially embedded in all cultures.
• written texts can influence orality (conversations) and visa versa.

"Literacy not only involves competency in reading and writing, but goes beyond this to include the critical and effective use of these in peoples' lives, and the use of language (oral and written) for all purposes."  (Gee)

• This definition involves critical thinking about what one reads, as well as expanding the term to encompass oral forms of literacy.

According to the National Institute for Literacy (http://novel.nifl.gov/nifl/faqs.html):

"The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 defines literacy as 'an individual's ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual and in society.' This is a broader view of literacy than just an individual's ability to read, the more traditional concept of literacy. As information and technology have become increasingly shaped our society [sic], the skills we need to function successfully have gone beyond reading, and literacy has come to include the skills listed in the current definition."

• This definition is important as it looks at literacy, at least to some extent, from a more contextualized perspective. 
• The definition of 'literate', then, depends on the skills needed within a particular culture and environment. 

In academia, the definition of literacy has also evolved from an exclusive focus on reading and writing to encompass a more inclusive and expansive perspective. Some of that work has come from researchers involved in exploring literacy among diverse populations and across cultural/political/socioeconomic boundaries. In the introduction to their edited volume, Dubin and Kuhlman (1992) discuss the changing definition of literacy:

On the way to becoming a book, the 'literacy' part of our title has taken on meanings that go beyond the simple definition of 'reading and writing' as we had conceived of it in 1984....we acknowledge that the word literacy itself has come to mean competence, knowledge and skills (Dubin). Take, for example, common expressions such as 'computer literacy,' "civic literacy,' 'health literacy,' and a score of other usages in which literacy stands for know-how and awareness of the first word in the expression. (p. vi)

The authors go on to state that:

The past decade has been marked by significant new directions in literacy research brought about by questions which seek to discover how literacy functions in families...in communities...and in workplaces... What does it mean to be 'literate' as a member of a particular culture? What are the patterns of literacy use within fields of work, within professions, within age-groups? (p. vii)

Hiebert (1991) takes an explicitly constructivist perspective to the definition of literacy:

For some time now, a new perspective on literacy, and the learning processes through which literacy is acquired, has been emerging. This new perspective does not consist of old ideas with a new name, but rather it represents a profound shift from a text-driven definition of literacy to a view of literacy as active transformation of texts. In the old view, meaning was assumed to reside primarily within text, whereas, in the new view, meaning is created through an interaction of reader and text. (p. 1)

Langer (1991) takes this notion of interaction of reader with text a step further, contrasting "literacy as the act of reading and writing and literacy as ways of thinking" (p. 13). This author brings up the notion that the standards for literacy depend on the context within which one functions: "...literacy can be viewed in a broader and educationally more productive way, as the ability to think and reason like a literate person, within a particular society" (p. 11). The author argues that:

It is the culturally appropriate way of thinking, not the act of reading or writing, that is most important in the development of literacy. Literacy thinking manifests itself in different ways in oral and written language in different societies, and educators need to understand these ways of thinking if they are to build bridges and facilitate transitions among ways of thinking. (p. 13)

 Most authors also typically maintain the notion that comprehension and use of written text is central to literacy. 

• Steelman, Pierce and Koppenhaver's definition is a good example: "To be literate is to be able to gather and to construct meaning using written language" (p 201).

Others emphasize the importance of oral language development to written language by highlighting both in their definition of literacy.  

• Foley (1994): "[f]or the purposes of this discussion, the term 'literacy' will be used broadly to refer to the mastery of language, in both its spoken (or augmented) and written forms, which enables an individual to use language fluently for a variety of purposes" (p. 184). Yet this author also cautions that while "[t]here is general agreement today that spoken language abilities are closely related to the development of literacy skills in the normal population" (p. 185), "[l]inguistic ability, as opposed to speech production ability, appears to be the more critical factor" (p. 186).

LITERACY EVENTS vs. LITERACY PRACTICES

• Literacy Events: occasions in which written language is integral to the nature of participants interactions and their interpretive processes and strategies (Heath)
• stresses the situated nature of literacy - literacy events always take place in social contexts.
• have social interaction rules which regulate the type and amount of talk about what is written and define ways in which oral language reinforces, denies, extends, or sets aside the written material

• Literacy Practice: the general cultural ways of utilizing written language (Hamilton and Barton)
• literacy events are activities, and observable episodes, literacy practices are NOT specific, observable occurrences, but  general NORMS regarding how written texts tend to be interpreted, produced and discussed

AUTONOMOUS VS. IDEOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING LITERACY

• Autonomous model suggest literacy and its development will have the same effect regardless of the culture in which it arises - independent of its social context
• orality is destined to produce writing which is a mark of advanced thinking
• GREAT DIVIDE between oral and literate societies (primitive/civilized)

• Ideological models oppose this view and believe that, there is NO ove-racrching and context free characterization of the cognitive and social consequences of literacy. So, this model focuses on the ACTIVITIES, EVENTS, IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTS, associated with particular occurrences of literacies.
• there are no universal attributes of literate sociaties
• literacy skills are never acquired neutrally
• reveals situated approaches to literacy

SITUATED APPROACHES

• Preschool literacy in the USA
• Shirley Brice Heath
• how did preschoolers and adult act around and interact with written texts ?
• How did the different ways of being socialized into reading and writing have an influence on children's subsequent performance in school? (Bernstein also)
• three communities studied
• Maintown (wmc)
• children encouraged to give attention to books almost from birth
• children's bedrooms had bookcases and parents read to them regularly
• talked about books during their reading and outside of school contexts
• encouraged "fictional" storytelling
• learn the authority of books-how to be quite and patient when they are read
• ready for school
• Roadville (wwc)
• baby rooms decorated with literacy based stimuli (alphabet, etc)
• books used to instruct children, teaching labels with them and testing children on these labels, given workbooks to practice
• literacy habits were NOT extended beyond reading or make connections to the real world
• fictionalized accounts of real events are viewed as lies-reality is better than fiction
• did well in school to start, but failed to be able to give their own opinion in response to reading (fell behind)
• Tracktown (bwc)
• immersed from birth in constant human communication, verbal and nonverbal
• did not read to their children and homes did not have any reading material
• children rewarded for listening to and imitating verbal and nonverbal behaviors of others. 
• develop complex and creative abilities to play with language-develop rich verbal repertoires on their own
• face totally unfamiliar types of questions and interactions with literacy. majority fail at learning these.

in sum, children in these three communities are socialized into orality and literacy, and this had profound influence on their subsequent school performance.

• love-letter writing in Nepal
• Men were all practically literate but most women were initially not. What would happen as women gained literacy skills was Ahearn's question.
• women used skill in love letter writing in a surprising way increased elopements in what was traditionally a culture characterized by arranged marriage
• love letters were acceptable where dating was NOT
• letter writing characterized the person as educated (developed) rather than backward
• created new ways in which villagers thought about themselves
• Instant messaging (and now TEXTING!): more like speech writing
• have blurred the line between speech and writing to the point that hybrid forms are emerging.
• people refer to real time instant messaging as "talking"
• this frame of "talk" helped to shape the STYLISTIC INNOVATIONS and reinforce the ideological association of IM with INFORMAL SPEECH rather than writing.---want to reposition IM and in many cases text messaging as "speaking" (in written form)
• also indicative of a SPEECH COMMUNITY attempting to set itself apart from other speech communities
• "be" & "like" use increases from 6% to 50% from 2003-2006

"Facebook" emoticons