(the only title!) ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES TO LITERACY IN DEVELOPMENT CONTEXTS

1. (the only title!) ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES TO LITERACY IN DEVELOPMENT CONTEXTS

2. Reminiscence • Working internationally • What have I learned • From my work? • From work of others?

3. 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’

4. 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

5. 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?

6. MULTIPLE LITERACIES • e.g. religious literacies • shopkeepers • carpenter/tailor • bureaucratic

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

8. EMBEDDED LITERACIES • no such thing as ‘reading’ or ‘writing’ – transitive verb • always embedded in other activities (workplace, SMEs, community, family etc)

9. 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

10. HIDDEN LITERACIES

11. 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

12. 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

13. IDENTITIES

14. IMPLICATIONS • Three key issues • teaching-learning programmes • training of facilitators • measures of success

15. 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)

16. 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?

17. 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

18. 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

20. MEASURES OF SUCCESS • Uses, not capabilities • “Literacy for ...” [?] • Comparability?

21. Ethnographic approaches to literacy • ?Relevance to UK situations? [already being used?]