- According to Szwed, the five elements of literacy are text, context, function, participants, and motivation. One of the most important elements of literacy is context. Without it, even the most educational pieces of media would be misunderstood. Context provides much needed background info to any situation and is crucial for our understanding of anything from conversations to books to movies.
- Szwed believes ethnography to be the best method of studying literacy because it takes into account ethical and cultural backgrounds of everyone. This allows for a more personal approach because not everyone will learn at the same pace/using the same material.
- “we must come to terms with the lives of people without patronizing them” (427) What Szwed means when he says this is that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with how other people decide to live their lives. We should accept that everyone comes from different backgrounds and just because they do certain things differently doesn’t mean they’re wrong. There’s no set way to live or study properly, everyone lives according to their abilities and needs
- If I followed Szwed’s advice, I would be very considerate of every student’s background and I’d try to find a personal approach for everyone in my class. There would be a lot of reading materials to choose from and students will always have at least a few choices on what assignments they want to do. I would encourage every student to go at their own pace and choose the learning method that’s easiest for them to understand
- According to Elizabeth Baker, the sociocultural perspective of literacy is the idea that as our cultures change overtime, literacy changes with it. The four characteristics she listed are semiotic, public, transitory and product oriented. Baker believes these four characteristics allow more freedom in writing, letting people express themselves more freely without limitations.
- While literacy is the ability to use many mediums of communication, orality is referring only to verbal abilities.
- Our literacy practices depend a lot on how and where we’re raised. Different communities have drastically different literacy levels. There’s a lot of factors that go into it. Cultural, economic, social, etc. For example, reading materials in schools directly depend on the funding in that area. So the amount of money the state has put towards education dictates the quality of said education. Szwed references this in The Ethnography of Literacy. As seen in the text, “Throughout, the focus should be on the school and its relation to the communities needs and wishes, on the school’s knowledge of these needs and wishes, and on the community’s resources.” (429) Szwed emphasizes the importance of communities and how the resources funded by those communities shape the literacy level of children raised there.
- On paper, literacy levels are set by standardized tests that are given to every student around the country. Different countries have different testing methods, so literacy levels among different countries can vary a lot. But in reality, it’s the communities and people who shape how literacy is viewed around the world. Every culture has its own background and traditions which affects how children are raised in those communities. Those children grow up and mostly stick to the same path when raising their kids and the cycle continues. As generations pass, literacy standards change. But the thing affecting it the most will always be connected to cultural and social environments.
Powered by:
top