Literacy practices
In simple terms, it involves not just what people say or write, but also how they use language to convey meaning. As meaning is derived from the society and culture in which we live, language is therefore part of transmitting that cultural and social knowledge that creates and separates one context from another.
Therefore literacy practices involve two elements:
1. the conventions of language – the characteristics of genres, the grammatical variations, the textual features of text types, correct spelling, choice of certain words, tenses to maintain the structure of a piece of writing or speech, etc.
and
2. the physical, mental and interpersonal practices that constitute and surround the act of creating a context (written or spoken). This includes the social, cultural and personal aspects that are brought into a context. Clark, R. and Ivanic, R. (1997) The Politics of Writing. London: Routledge.
The best way to explain the two concepts is to model a literacy event. The example given in Street (1995: 133) may shed some light. He writes: ‘The concept of literacy events has stressed the importance of a mix of oral and literate features in everyday communication. Lectures, for instance, represent a classic literacy event: the lecturer reads from notes, perhaps; an overhead slide projects different types of notes; occasionally people might look up at the overhead, and look down and write a note; read their notes and listen again to the speaker; some might file their notes away somewhere in a bureaucracy; some might throw them in the waste-paper basket. The whole is, in a sense, greater than the sum of its parts and is underpinned by systems of ideas and organization that are not necessarily made explicit in the immediate discourse. This is where I have felt it important to draw attention to the ideological aspect: these are any kinds of conventions which people internalize – we all know how tightly controlled the conventions are in everyday literacy events such as encounters with bureaucracy, or in seminars or meetings. They become more apparent at times of political resistance – feminist and other movements, for instance, in resisting dominant speech/writing conventions, work to make them explicit as a step towards changing them. Thus we have culturally constructed models of the literacy events in our minds. I want to use the concept of literacy practices to indicate this level of the cultural uses and meanings of reading and writing. Literacy practices I would take as referring not only to the event itself but the conceptions of the reading and writing process that people hold when they are engaged in the event.’ Street, B. (1995) Social Literacies. Critical Approaches to Literacy in Development, Ethnography and Education. London: Longman. p. 133. Therefore literacy practices are dependent on:
● the text
● its context, purpose and audience
● its register
● its genre
● how the literacy practice is shaped by socio-economic status and ethnicity.
Literacy events and literacy practices are key to understanding literacy as a social phenomenon. Literacy events serve as concrete evidence of literacy practices. Heath (1982) developed the notion of literacy events as a tool for examining the forms and functions of oral and written language. She describes a literacy event as “any occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes” (p. 93). Any activity in which literacy has a role is a literacy event. As Barton and Hamilton (2000) describe, “Events are observable episodes which arise from practices and are shaped by them. The notion of events stresses the situated nature of literacy, that it always exists in a social context” (p. 8). Writing in a shelter register, talking to someone about such writing, reading a map, telling a story, and reading weather patterns are examples of literacy events.
Barton and Hamilton (2000) describe literacy practices as “the general cultural ways of utilizing written language which people draw upon in their lives. In the simplest sense literacy practices are what people do with literacy” (p. 8). Literacy practices involve values, attitudes, feelings, and social relationships. They have to do with how people in a particular culture construct literacy, how they talk about literacy and make sense of it. These processes are at the same time individual and social. They are abstract values and rules about literacy that are shaped by and help shape the ways that people within cultures use literacy. Street (1993) described literacy practices, which are inclusive of literacy events, as “‘folk models’ of those events and the ideological preconceptions that underpin them” (pp. 12-13).
In simple terms, it involves not just what people say or write, but also how they use language to convey meaning. As meaning is derived from the society and culture in which we live, language is therefore part of transmitting that cultural and social knowledge that creates and separates one context from another.
Therefore literacy practices involve two elements:
1. the conventions of language – the characteristics of genres, the grammatical variations, the textual features of text types, correct spelling, choice of certain words, tenses to maintain the structure of a piece of writing or speech, etc.
and
2. the physical, mental and interpersonal practices that constitute and surround the act of creating a context (written or spoken). This includes the social, cultural and personal aspects that are brought into a context. Clark, R. and Ivanic, R. (1997) The Politics of Writing. London: Routledge.
The best way to explain the two concepts is to model a literacy event. The example given in Street (1995: 133) may shed some light. He writes: ‘The concept of literacy events has stressed the importance of a mix of oral and literate features in everyday communication. Lectures, for instance, represent a classic literacy event: the lecturer reads from notes, perhaps; an overhead slide projects different types of notes; occasionally people might look up at the overhead, and look down and write a note; read their notes and listen again to the speaker; some might file their notes away somewhere in a bureaucracy; some might throw them in the waste-paper basket. The whole is, in a sense, greater than the sum of its parts and is underpinned by systems of ideas and organization that are not necessarily made explicit in the immediate discourse. This is where I have felt it important to draw attention to the ideological aspect: these are any kinds of conventions which people internalize – we all know how tightly controlled the conventions are in everyday literacy events such as encounters with bureaucracy, or in seminars or meetings. They become more apparent at times of political resistance – feminist and other movements, for instance, in resisting dominant speech/writing conventions, work to make them explicit as a step towards changing them. Thus we have culturally constructed models of the literacy events in our minds. I want to use the concept of literacy practices to indicate this level of the cultural uses and meanings of reading and writing. Literacy practices I would take as referring not only to the event itself but the conceptions of the reading and writing process that people hold when they are engaged in the event.’ Street, B. (1995) Social Literacies. Critical Approaches to Literacy in Development, Ethnography and Education. London: Longman. p. 133. Therefore literacy practices are dependent on:
● the text
● its context, purpose and audience
● its register
● its genre
● how the literacy practice is shaped by socio-economic status and ethnicity.
Literacy events and literacy practices are key to understanding literacy as a social phenomenon. Literacy events serve as concrete evidence of literacy practices. Heath (1982) developed the notion of literacy events as a tool for examining the forms and functions of oral and written language. She describes a literacy event as “any occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes” (p. 93). Any activity in which literacy has a role is a literacy event. As Barton and Hamilton (2000) describe, “Events are observable episodes which arise from practices and are shaped by them. The notion of events stresses the situated nature of literacy, that it always exists in a social context” (p. 8). Writing in a shelter register, talking to someone about such writing, reading a map, telling a story, and reading weather patterns are examples of literacy events.
Barton and Hamilton (2000) describe literacy practices as “the general cultural ways of utilizing written language which people draw upon in their lives. In the simplest sense literacy practices are what people do with literacy” (p. 8). Literacy practices involve values, attitudes, feelings, and social relationships. They have to do with how people in a particular culture construct literacy, how they talk about literacy and make sense of it. These processes are at the same time individual and social. They are abstract values and rules about literacy that are shaped by and help shape the ways that people within cultures use literacy. Street (1993) described literacy practices, which are inclusive of literacy events, as “‘folk models’ of those events and the ideological preconceptions that underpin them” (pp. 12-13).
Ethnographic Fieldtrip:Using the materials provided at the workshop entitled Exploring Literacy as a Social Practice: an ethnographic perspective, undertake a small piece of independent ethnography/anthropology. Read carefully the notes #1 and the illustration to get a feel for what to look out for and head into town. You might want to have a dry run in Costas or Starbucks for example,to try out your observation skills as you can easily sit and be a casual observer without fear of prying... Then try something a bit more challenging! I look forward to hearing all about it in the forum.