is a term that is often overlooked in schools, because it’s very basic definition is the “cognitive process of reading and writing,” (Alan B.I. Bernardo, 457). As most students are able to read, at least on some level, literacy ‘exists’ and does not have to be examined further. This leaves many students without the literate skills of their peers, without classifying them as illiterate. The definition of literacy has evolved over time, and now “involves extracting and processing complex meanings from texts and other printed forms of language,” (Alan B.I. Bernardo,457). With this new definition, those students who had been deemed literate before can be properly evaluated and educated to ensure that they achieve the literacy of their peers.
According to Gee, Friere believed that “literacy only empowers people when it renders them active questions of the social reality around them,” (Gee, 42). People do not feel empowered to become literate in an area that they are not involved in. For example, a student who lives in the inner city likely has no desire to learn to be literate in the language of farming, as they will most likely never need the information. Therefore, if the inner city student encounters a farmer, the farmer will likely see him or her as illiterate in farming terminology. That does not mean, however, that the inner city student is illiterate, it simply means that he or she does not understand farming terminology. Similarly, individuals who are empowered to become involved in certain areas will find that they are more literate than others in that field. Continuing with the farmer/inner city example, the farmer would most likely consider him/herself as far more literate than the inner city student, as he or she has most likely spent a significant amount of their life on the farm.
This leads way into the argument that literacy is a social practice. It “draws on situated theories of learning which see learning as taking place in day-to-day relationships between people in their environment,” (Hamilton, 8). In the above example, the farmer was literate in farming terminology because he or she grew up in a farming environment. The inner city student was not literate in farming technology, because his or her environment never included any aspect of farming.
If literacy is a social practice, illiteracy is as well. Different cultures have different cultural norms, and unless a student is familiar with a culture different from his or her own, it is possible that he or she will misunderstand a cultural practice for being illiterate. As Lee exemplifies in his article, “illiterate” students in a town called Trackton. The students “could not [even] respond appropriately to even the simplest questions or instructions.” Those children were believed to be illiterate, however their cultural norms dictated that they not speak about their families while at school — the topic that most of their questions had centered around (Lee, 258).
Gee defines cultural misunderstandings as the “misrecognition [or] missed opportunities for recognition,” (Gee, 9–11). In schools, this can be seen in the abilities of schools both private and public. Private schools usually have more money and resources for their students than public schools do. This means that public school students are more likely to miss opportunities than private school students. This does not necessarily mean that the public school students are less intellectual than private school students, it simply means that they have a different set of experiences and literacies than the private school students.
In conclusion, literacy is highly dependent on the social and cultural experiences individuals have had, as those experiences are the guiding force in an individual’s ability to process the information given to them. If he or she has never experienced an event, he or she will have no reason to gain a new literacy. No one is completely illiterate — everyone has their own literacies, they just might be different literacies from others.
Bernardo, A. B. (2000). On Defining and Developing Literacy Across Communities. International Review of Education,46(5), 455–465. Retrieved September 6, 2017, from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.uscupstate.edu:2048/stable/pdf/3445261.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A5e984d47f1dceb3aed5863cc2100f5c4.
Gee, J. P. (2015). Literacy and Education. New York: Routledge.
Hamilton, M. (2010). The social context of literacy. In N. Hughes, &I.Schwab (Eds.), Teaching adult literacy: Principles and practice (pp.7–27). Berkshire: Open University Press.
Lee, C. (2011). What Do We Mean by Literacy? Implications for Literacy Education. The Journal of Educational Thought,45(3), 255–266. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23767207?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
