Of the three pieces for this week, Scriber’s uses the most formal, academic tone and conventions. But she addresses a question you’ve already written about this semester: what is literacy? As she points out on the first page (6), how you answer the question of what literacy is leads to different ideas about the problems associated with literacy and the solutions you might pose to those problems.
Important point at bottom of 7: “Most efforst at definitional determination are based on a conception of literacy as an attribute of individuals…..But the single most compelling fact about literacy is that is is a social achivement” (7). Note at the bottom of 8 she explains the plan for the essay: that’s a good place to orient yourself.
Metaphor 1: Literacy as Adaptation (9ff.) You should be able to explain what literacy as adaptation is, and note the problems Scribner identifies as following from this metaphor.
Metaphor 2: Literacy as Power (11 ff.). You should be able to explain what literacy as power is, and note the problems Scribner identifies as following from this metaphor.
Metaphor 3: Literacy as State of Grace (13 ff.). You should be able to explain what literacy as grace is, and note the problems Scribner identifies as following from this metaphor.
Scribner offers a case study of literacy among the Vai (a West African people living in Liberia and Sierra Leone). She ends with thoughts about the importance of recognizing the multifaceted nature of literacy.
Question for the week: what types of literacy, or what metaphors of literacy, are present in the stories in Brandt or Hawisher et al.?
