(the only title!) ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES TO

LITERACY IN DEVELOPMENT

CONTEXTS

Reminiscence

Working internationally What have I learned

– From my work?– From work of others?

THE CONTEXT

Large percentage of people have had no schooling or very inadequate schooling

‘Literacy’ is set as goal of development by international agencies

What does ‘[il]literacy’ mean in this context?

size of task machinery to deliver/ teaching personnel perceptions of literacy – ‘shame’

Adult Educator

Basic principle – ‘start where they are, with what they bring’

What do learners bring with them in literacy?

Looking at the field as it is, not as I assumed it to be

LESSONS AND IMPLICATIONS

a) multiple literacies b) embedded/hidden literacies c) ‘Literates’ and ‘Illiterates’

a) which literacy do we teach? b) how do we train facilitators?

MULTIPLE LITERACIES

e.g. religious literacies shopkeepers carpenter/tailor bureaucratic

MULTIPLE LITERACIES

1. very different from classroom literacy (hotel literacies) 2. hierarchy of literacies Informal literacies not valued as ‘literacy’ (e.g. laundry book) - local(-global)/vernacular/etc

EMBEDDED LITERACIES no such thing as ‘reading’ or ‘writing’ – transitive verb always embedded in other activities (workplace, SMEs,

community, family etc)

HIDDEN LITERACIES

Many informal literacies are invisible (domestic servant) Mobile phone

Informal learning teaches us about unconscious or task-conscious learning, tacit funds of knowledge

HIDDEN LITERACIES

ILLITERATE-LITERATE

Great division of world into literate or illiterate doesn’t work in reality (despite statistics)

e.g. religious not secular Plumber and receipts

Power of discourse; and internalisation– e.g. illiterates– e.g. drop-outs– etc

SOME LESSONS

Everybody engages with literacy Mediation /proximal literacy We all position ourselves in relation to literacy in creating identities Perceptions of what ‘literacy’ means Internalisation of norms and needs Who decides? – the power to name

IDENTITIES

IMPLICATIONS Three key issues

teaching-learning programmes training of facilitators measures of success

TEACHING-LEARNING PROGRAMMES

Which literacy do you teach? formal school/local/embedded? Functional Literacy (Kenya goat!) Literacy comes second assumptions about transfer of skills value attached to schooled literacy (“literacy is the basis of all learning” UNESCO)

TRAINING OF TRAINERS

How do you train facilitators a) to find out what adult literacy learners bring with them?

including perceptions of ‘literacy’? b) to use what they find in their teaching programmes?

Ethnographic approaches The difficulties of only ‘asking’ (tacit FOK; invisible literacies – do

we just ignore these and go ahead with formal schooled literacy? what do they want and why? )

Observation/ engagement – i.e. ethnographic Avoiding ethno-centric approach Looking for everyday literacies, not special literacies

LETTER

Learning for Empowerment Through Training in Ethnographic Research

India: Ethiopia Uganda and beyond

a) ethnographic surveys by/with learners b) building teaching approaches

(e.g. calendars) proverbs; recipes; instruction booklets (water pumps)film notices; forms etc

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

Uses, not capabilities “Literacy for ...” [?] Comparability?

Ethnographic approaches to literacy

?Relevance to UK situations?[already being used?]