Literacy and development: what works for whom? or, how relevant is the social practices view of literacy for literacy education in developing countries?

Place, Space and Time: Adult Education Experiences of Learners and Librarians in South African Public Libraries

“…Related debates suggest that a curriculum view of literacy driven by examination requirements is not an adequate approach; rather the programme should reflect how literacy as a social practice is connected to the learners' lives (Papen 2005, 8). However, given the attraction of the certificate to the adult learners in this investigation, which mirrors the findings of two programmes analysed by Papen (2005), it would be a good idea to combine the two approaches, as she was able to do in her programme in Namibia. Programmes should be demand-driven rather than supply-driven and the approach should be holistic and ideally be based on the more inclusive definition of literacy as a social practice, being "the ability to read and write for purposes and the degree to which individuals feel the need given their individual life contexts and aspirations" (Purcell-Gates and Waterman 2000, 238).…”

Scientific Studies on Literacy and Digital Literacy Indexed in Scopus: A Literature Review (2000-2013)

“…• Three studies on African communities are highlighted: Papen (2005) explores the policy and practice of adult literacy from the National Literacy Program in Namibia; Tella and Mutula (2008) study digital literacy processes amongst undergraduate students at the University of Botswana, and Smith (2007) draws the reasons why students from SubSaharan Africa choose the United States as their destination for higher education because of the American literacy policies.…”

Introduction to the Special Issue: Analyzing Voice in Educational Discourses

“…Street critiqued this notion and showed how literacy is always ideological and not an abstract technology with intrinsic consequences for society and cognition. With Street, its associates hold (1) that literacy is a situated practice that derives its social significance from the locality in which it is practiced and that reading and writing occupy rather diverse functions in various communities as it is integrally linked to cultural and power structures; and (2) that in any society literacy is an unequally distributed resource, which reproduces old and produces new inequalities (see also Papen 2005 and Bartlett 2008 for recent discussions in relation to educational development). Mastin Prinsloo and Mike Baynham (2008) have called for "renewing literacy studies" by expanding "the earlier focus on literacy as text" to a thoroughly multimodal understanding of literacy, including visuals and other semiotics (compare with Kress 2003;Kress and van Leeuwen 1996;Kress and van Leeuwen 2001).…”