We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together.
Blog 2- Synthesis work already?!
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We were first introduced to Andrea Lunsford’s essay, which documented the debate of whether or not our literacy practices were declining based on modern technologies, throughout history. Lunsford, through her research at Harvard and subsequent studies of writing, proved that this debate in modern-times has been going on throughout history and will continue without merit well into the future. There are plenty of misconceptions about young readers and writers, which Lunsford thoroughly documents, but some of the most notorious are that young people are reading and writing less than they have in the past and that because of the invention of new technologies young people are unable to tell the difference between the reading and writing they are engaged in through these new platforms and the age-old institutionally mandated texts of school. Lunsford, however, has found and reported on the exact opposite of these commonly held beliefs. Young people or students today are reading and writing more than they have in the past, through online mediums as well as for school. Students are also increasingly aware of the audience that they are writing for, whether it’s their friends, parents, or professors at school. Lunsford argues that in order to get at the real literacy practices of the modern age, we must get passed these arguments and perhaps even see the value in them as expanding our current literacies.
Szwed shows us that in order to figure out the literacy practices of individuals it is not enough to gather all the resources that reveal what people are reading and writing, instead we must research these practices ethnographically. According to Szwed, “The definitions of reading and writing, […] must include social context and functional use, as well as the reader and the text of what is being read and written” (423). In order to get at the literacy practices of individuals (or even whole societies), our methods for investigation must incorporate the social if we are to get anywhere near a definition or definitions of literacy. There are also many factors relating to literacy that must be considered in order to conduct a proper investigation. First of all, literacy varies even within groups of people (423). In other words, everyone has their own unique literacy practices which have been influenced by a multitude of external and internal factors. Furthermore, it is these unique literacy practices that shape the definition of literacy in society (423). It is also important to note that literacy practices, in this sense, are not just the particular instances of reading and writing but what the production and consumption of these texts is used for and what purposes does it serve (423). There is no single, absolute definition of literacy, however there are sets of literacy practices that are necessary for survival in particular communities, Szwed notes. These functional literacies are what the education system should keep in mind when determining the proper levels of literacy teaching and learning in school. Ironically, schools focus more on defining literacy than figuring out how they can meet the needs of their communities.
Scribner also addresses the commonly held belief that literacy can be defined in a simplistic manner, by offering various ways for us to view and measure literacy in society. “Literacy”, according to Scribner, is a “social achievement” (2). However, in regards to the “functional literacy” debate Scribner notes that it is much more complicated than gathering information on literacy practices within a particular group, since there is no way to document ‘minimal functional competencies’ without making a value judgment on that particular group (16). She also argues that definitions of literacy are not generalizable, so any attempts at creating widespread standards of literacy for teaching and learning are unjust (17). However, there are several cultural-historical characteristics of literacy that can be considered when researching and/or defining the literacy practices of a particular group. First, it is that literacy is a “social achievement”, which is held by Szwed and many other researchers and theorists. Also, literacy practices are directly related to power relations in society (18). One of the commonly held beliefs, cited by many researchers, is that literacy skills are a means for the poor and powerless to gain some standing in the world, however, according to Scribner, this is not usually the case. Also, many societies have a tendency to “endow the literate person with special virtues” (20). This is what Scribner calls literacy as a ‘state of grace’ and must be taken into account when researching literacy practices.
Brandt also brings up the fact that literacy is always “sponsored”, either negatively or positively, by someone or something. This view, like the other views of researchers in this field, indicates literacy practices as defined by a community and not just a single individual’s practices. Also, like Scribner, Brandt’s view of literacy is intricately linked to power relations in society. “This analysis of sponsorship”, according to Brandt, “forces us to consider not merely how one social group’s literacy practices may differ from another’s, but how every-body’s literacy practices are operating in differential economies, which supply different access routes, different degrees of sponsoring power, and different scales of monetary worth to the practices in use” (172). According to all of the author’s we have read so far, literacy is social because it is learned and developed socially. Furthermore, just like everyone’s experiences in life are different so are our literacy practices. Our literacy practices have developed, for better or for worse, in different ways, which is why there can be no single definition of literacy and standards of literacy can only go so far. The major argument that is developed by this research is that the communities themselves, are the only overseers situated in a position to gather information about literacy practices and set standards to meet the needs of the students in their particular communities. Otherwise, applied standards, enforced by governing institutions, will do more harm than good.
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