Reading and Writing colleagues,
Books have been written about what literacy is. I have just published a brief blog article that has a limited, but complicated, answer to the question "What is literacy?" Because the meaning of literacy now has so many variations, when we use the word it's a good idea to define the meaning and explain the context. You may have noticed over the past several years that "literacy" is used in some surprising ways, often as a metaphor for "beginning level" or "introduction to" something. I have been tracking the range of these uses of the word. Not including traditional definitions that mean reading, or reading and writing of hard copy text, or that refer to highly-literate contexts ("literati literacy"), I have seen 43 different uses of "literacy". Most are metaphors or types of literacy. You can see them here.
How are you using "literacy" these days?
Are you using the new term for our field "adult foundational education" instead?
Are you concerned, as are some of the authors of the articles I cite in my blog article, that traditional literacy is on the decline, or is being replaced by visual or multimedia literacy, or perhaps that it will be replaced by generative AI?
David J. Rosen
Comments
David, it is wonderful to see you posting in the community!
I use literacy to denote foundational competence in an area. I love adding growth mindset to the mix while learning foundational competence: “I haven't mastered _________ literacy yet, but I will figure it out.”
I use 'adult education' far more than 'adult basic education' or 'adult foundational education' though I prefer foundational over basic.
We need to take the long view about traditional literacy being on the decline. When Gutenberg ushered in the print revolution, some feared the death of oral tradition. Scholars today call it the Gutenberg parenthesis as orality has made a comeback with digital culture. Generative AI will have far-reaching effects, but it's too early to tell what the future will hold. My crystal ball has been broken for some time!
Questions, comments, thoughts?
Thanks for being part of our community,
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group