Part 1: Literacy

What is literacy?

What comes to mind when you hear the term "literacy"? Who do you hear using this word the most, and in what contexts? While you may have been taught that literacy simply means how a person learns to read and write in school, the study of literacy encompasses so much more. Literacy practices begin at birth and are constantly shaped and influenced by a constellation of factors like our socioeconomic status, race, community, education, and gender identity--just to name a few. Literacy isn't just what we learn in school, either. While some types of literacy are more culturally valuable than others, all are equally complex. 

You may not have been asked to examine how you (or others) have acquired literacy (who helped or hindered you, what resources you had/didn't have, etc.) or why you acquired literacy (to get a job, to succeed in school, to participate in a community, etc.). The readings in this section will encourage you to think more critically about literacy. As the texts will show you, there are multiple types of literacy, multiple sites for literacy acquisition, and multiple reasons why people acquire (or don't) literacy. You will not leave this class with a neat, clean definition of "literacy." In fact, you should leave with more questions than answers (FYI: literacy is its own discipline and lots of people spend their entire lives studying it!). However, beginning to appreciate that literacy is an evolving practice deeply tied to identity, community, and lived experience is crucial. Acknowledging that there are no two identical literacy histories is a critical step in becoming a more compassionate, empathetic, and educated human in today's world.