What's Wrong with the Literacy Debate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12286294 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jim Miller (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 34 (First Serie |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 15-33 |
| Publication date | 2001-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Scottish Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0966-0356 • E-ISSN: 2053-888X |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3366/scot.2001.0004 |
| OpenAlex | W1978096424 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
To be literate is to control written language. Many people see literacy not just as the key to education and a career but as enabling members of a society to have access to information and the opportunity of playing a part in social institutions. Others see literacy as essential for the economic success of the country. The author shares the view that it is eminently desirable to have every member of our society literate, but an unpleasant possibility is that this goal is unattainable, for reasons described below. Moreover it has never been attained in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK nor in any other country. The paper makes a second crucial point: literacy is a very complex social and linguistic phenomenon which cannot be reduced to techniques for teaching reading and writing in the early years of primary school nor to lists of 'good' books. The third major point is that the discussion of literacy standards by politicians, employers and journalists has been flawed by a misunderstanding of the following facts
Literacy · Political science · Sociology · Education and Technology Integration · Law · Literacy, Media, and Education · Media, Communication, and Education
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,07 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2011 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |