Introduction:
What is Literacy?
 When
Paulo Freire published Pedagogy of the
Oppressed in the
mid-'70s, he transformed the landscape of adult education by
stating what
great teachers have always known, but few had articulated so
forcefully: that genuine learning can only occur within a context
that is meaningful and relevant to the learner. Literacy, he
insisted, is an active phenomenon, deeply linked to personal
and cultural identity. Its power lies not in a received ability
to read and write, but rather in an individual's capacity to
put those skills to work in shaping the course of his or her
own life.
With his central
insight, that genuine literacy involves "reading the word
and the world," Freire helped open the door to a broader
understanding of the term, one that moves from a strict decoding
and reproducing of language into issues of economics, health,
and sustainable development. Freire's view of literacy is at
once practical and all-encompassing. It refers to the ability
to manipulate any set of codes and conventions-whether it is
the words of a language, the symbols in a mathematical system,
or images posted to the Internet—to live healthy and productive
lives.
This notion
of literacy as an inherently active phenomenon informs each of
the EDC projects profiled in this issue. We see it when Micael
Olsson uses language instruction as a vehicle for cultural survival
and economic self-sufficiency; when David Dickinson describes
how children acquire language best when it is used in meaningful
contexts; and when Bill Tally emphasizes the importance of having
students gain mastery with new technology tools by using them
to do scientific and historical research. Each of these diverse
projects, as well as a good many others at EDC, exemplifies literacy
as a meaning-making activity.
And yet, in
making these connections among such diverse work, we confront
our own issues of language and meaning, namely: Have we stretched
the definition of "literacy" too far? Do we dilute
the power of the concept when we apply it to a sustainable development
project in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea and an after-school
mathematics program in the United States? In the introductory
essay of Literacy: An International Handbook¹,
the editors comment on "the increased use of the term literacy
to stand in for expertise in such areas as computer literacy,
geographical
literacy, statistical literacy—a veritable host of literacies." They
note that the plural form of the term is used to describe not
only these multiple areas of expertise, but also to point out
that all definitions of literacy are, to some extent, a function
of culture:
the new
term literacies was coined as a way to break—both conceptually
and practically—with what was thought to be a much more skill-driven
and restrictive notion of literacy…literacy is not a
single, essential thing, with predictable consequences for
individual and social development—rather, literacies 'vary
with time and place and are embedded in specific cultural
practices.'
"Breaking
the restrictive notion of literacy" is a good way to describe
the idea at the center of this issue of Mosaic. We hope
you expand your own understanding of literacy through these pages.
For questions or comments, contact mosaic@edc.org.
Copyright 2000-2003
Education Development Center, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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