Liberty and Literacy Perspectives of Literacy Conventional Functional Cultural Critical Hegemony

Literacy Literacy rates are affected by differences in social class, race, gender, region and social need To be illiterate is to be significantly handicapped in today’s society Literacy depends on the social setting and workplace needs. –What counts as adequate literacy for management might not be adequate from the worker’s perspective. –What is adequate literacy in once social setting may not be adequate in another Literacy can depend on the function we wish it to serve in a given context

Conventional Literacy Ability to read, write and comprehend 1980 Census found that 99.5% of U.S. adults were literate by this definition –Determined by self-reporting of grade levels completed and if they could read and write –What about all of those that did not answer the Census questionnaire? –Can the respondents read and write in English?

Functional Literacy Using printed and written information to function in society to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential US Army during World War II defined it as –“the capability to understand written instructions necessary for conducting basic militant functions and tasks…a fifth grade reading level” In the mid 70’s the University of Texas used an index called the Adult Performance Level (APL). Tested how well adults could function in sixty-five tasks requiring literacy skills in everyday life. –20-60% of those tested failed to perform successfully at tasks such as writing a check that a bank could process, addressing an envelope adequately, figuring the difference in price between a new and used appliance, etc.

APL cont… 16% of whites, 44% of blacks and 56% of Latinos were functionally illiterate Many objected to the functional literacy perspective because it has as its goal “the competence to function at the lowest levels of mechanical performance,” instead of indicating a more ambitious conception of literacy.

Cultural Literacy Not just to read in the technical sense of the word, but to be culturally literate, knowing historical names, geographical places, authors; a basic foundation of knowledge to give meaning to words E.D. Hirsch introduced the idea of cultural literacy in Believes that understanding words depends on a great deal of background knowledge of cultural institutions and values. –See illustration on page 253 Cultural Literacy has been criticized as the “trivial pursuit” approach to education

Critical Literacy  Literacy is associated with power--Those with power are able to define knowledge  Goal for literacy should be to empower people to criticize and change political and economic oppression.  How knowledge and power are interrelated  It is the ability to understand and act against the social relations of oppression. economic, political, racial, ethnic, gender and social class  Sometimes known as the emancipatory literacy

HEGEMONY Unequal power relationships between two or more cultures, ideologies, socioeconomic groups A small minority of U.S. citizens control the political and economic institutions that shape the beliefs, values, and behavior of most of the population Ideological hegemony argues that the social, political, and economic institutions of this society serve a relatively small group at the expense of the majority of citizens

Hegemony theory summarized Institutional elites who share common economic and political interests control the dominant political and economic institutions of the U.S. Though they may disagree on particular policies or strategies, these institutional elites share a common world view, or ideology, which reflects and justifies the organization of dominant institutions. Through such institutions as the government, workplace, school, and mass media, the general populance is socialized into accepting these rules

Hegemony theory summarized cont… Although ruling ideas do not reflect the experience of all social classes, they serve to limit discussion and debate, to prevent the formation of alternative social explanations, and to promote a general acceptance of the status quo.

Mass Media and Cultural Hegemony Polls show that print and broadcast journalists receive the bulk of their information on domestic and foreign policy from other journalists in mainstream news media that represent the dominant corporate- government ideology Example: Americans are told of a developing country turning to communists and that this is a threat to our national interest. What the public does not hear is what constitutes our national interest in these developing nations. History shows that we can tolerate deep differences in ideology with our business partners in the third world.

Schooling and Cultural Hegemony Ideological hegemony theory suggests that it is not consent, but compliance, that is fostered in the schools, and that both the organization and the curriculum of schools are responsible for this compliance. While schools contribute to functional and cultural literacy of the citizenry, they also obstruct democratic tendencies by socializing students to be uncritical followers in a social order where major decisions are made by an elite few.

Hegemonic Processes in Schooling Hierarchical distribution of power –Unequal power relationships –Students must obey not only the authority of the teacher’s knowledge but institutionalized authority in the form of school rules as well –Teachers have authority over students, principals have authority over teachers, etc… –Teachers often tell students that they themselves do not agree with a rule (I.e. grading) but must do so because of rules

The nature of student work –Work and only work is compulsory—work because it is assigned, not because it is interesting –Nature of schooling is to compete for the scarce rewards for good work –Successes and failures are due to our individual talents and achievements, not to faults in the school –This personalization of school failure eventually helps legitimize the unequal distribution of goods in contemporary society

Social stratification within the school structure –Students are grouped by skill level, by IQ score, age, classroom behavior –Grouping results in different kinds of education and opportunities for success –Different income groups and different races occupy different tracks both in and out of school –That black, Hispanic and poor white females should occupy the bottom of the social order does not seem surprising to people who long ago came to accept this in their school experience

Justification for such a state of affairs rests in the view that people deserve what they get because of their performance levels in the competitive school system Curriculum material also reinforces dominant ideology by rarely criticizing our economic and political system and routinely criticizes other systems