LITERACY

The word "literacy," which was first used in the nineteenth century to mean the opposite of the more easily defined term "illiteracy," has come to be a widely accepted term. In most cases, literacy means the ability to read and write, to understand what is written, and to be able to communicate in the written form. Within this framework, however, there are many aspects to its meaning. Scholars and researchers debate the context and intent of the uses of literacy in many disciplines, ranging from psychology to sociology to linguistics. It is the purpose of this entry to consider the history and development of reading and writing, to consider the need for a literate society, and to examine briefly some programs and activities that have been undertaken in an attempt to provide a reasonable literacy standard for all people.

Early History

Human beings first began to record activities in a recognizable way as early as 10,000 B. C. E. Cave paintings were used in many different parts of the world (especially in France and Spain) to record herds of animals that the artists had seen. These rough drawings were probably meant to indicate that a band of animals had passed that way or to record some other event or activity, although there is no actual account to indicate very specific meanings. It is thought that communication between people increased as the level of social development increased. As a community grew, it was necessary to keep a record of transactions between members—who traded so many animals to someone else or how much grain was produced in one harvest. Some of the earliest forms of recordkeeping involved the use of stones or pebbles, notched sticks, or knotted cords to represent a transaction.

From these early efforts, attempts at writing tried to be more systematic by using small separate pictures to tell connected stories. The hieroglyphics of ancient Egyptians, cuneiform, and scripts from Mayan and Aztec cultures are examples of this type of picture-writing. Most historians agree that there was probably one alphabet from which all others followed, but many details about these developments are still a mystery. This early writing was used to record the sophisticated dialogues of Plato and the logic of Aristotle, for example, but the system of writing was primarily used to record oral speech. There was little use of vowels, and letters, words, and sentences were not separated. Most scholars agree that this form of writing and reading was only marginally related to literacy, which required the development of language with rules of grammar and punctuation to make it intelligible in silent or private reading.

Toward the end of the seventh century, monks in Ireland and England introduced word separation and punctuation into Greek and Latin texts in order to isolate units of meaning. This made it possible for a reader to consider a text silently, an innovation that was exclusive to the British Isles until the tenth century. Writing in the vernacular—Middle English, French, Italian, and German, for example—was still largely used for oral reading. Although the clergy in the early Roman Church conducted schools for clerics and some sons of noblemen, the use of books was limited, and those books were primarily copied by hand. Even in university towns, reading was limited, and much of the learning that occurred was the result of "learned discourse." The scholarly reading of Greek and Latin was limited to only certain segments of the population.

In other parts of the world, the use of language was not associated with writing; the oral tradition was the most common method of instruction. In the early Middle Ages (through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries), monastic orders spread throughout Europe and Great Britain, and the production of manuscript books became the occupation of many monks. Texts were produced by hand with elaborate decoration of everyday things as well as fantastic and imaginary beasts—often depicted with gold leaf and in rare colors. These books were highly valued and were kept chained to cabinets and lecterns in monastic libraries because they were so rare. Even with these manuscripts available, oral reading was still a major source for learning, praying, and governing.

Outside of books of prayers and texts for learning, writing continued to be primarily a matter of importance in the legal field—keeping track of births and deaths, property ownership, deeds, agreements, and the like. In reality, literacy was initially important only to the governing class, the Church, and the legal community. In fact, it was of great concern that reading and writing be limited to these groups for fear that the "lower classes" would use such abilities to assert themselves and destabilize the community as a whole. Although the Church hierarchy was opposed to popular literacy as a possible challenge to authority, some clergy, as early as the twelfth century, favored the use of the vernacular for reading the Bible. Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier (1999, p. 34) point to the change in reading patterns from monastic, "which assigned to writing a task of preservation and memory that was in great part disassociated with reading," to "the scholastic model of reading, which made the book both the object and the instrument of intellectual labor" as a major revolution in reading.

In the late Middle Ages, with the rise of universities, libraries became a part of the scholarly process. By the end of the thirteenth century, library architecture and furnishings changed dramatically. Reference libraries were opened at Merton College, Oxford, in 1289, and a similar one was established at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1290. The library of the university was seen as a common good and that the books were there for scholarly use by professor and student alike. The restraints that were placed on the use of these books, however, restricted scholars and set the stage for the remarkable change that was brought about by the invention of printing.

The Printing Press and Its Importance

The invention of moveable type in the sixteenth century coincided with the Reformation that was started by Martin Luther and the posting of his theses. Luther and those who followed him stressed the necessity of reading the Bible to find true salvation. With the printing press, the potential for making such material available to a wide audience could be realized. At first, many of the printed works were more related to manuscripts than to books, but as the craftsmen became more familiar with the new invention, the printed book gained a distinct personality. The role of the individual author became more significant, a title page was included, and print characters were more standardized. One of the more important innovations was the distribution of these works through networks that were developed by the printers themselves and later by independent entrepreneurs in publishing houses.

The rise of the middle class and the spread of the use of vernacular language (instead of the Latin of the Church) increased a need for "common people" to read. As the Reformation swept over Europe, translating the Bible into the language of the people became a priority. Even with this proliferation of material, however, oral language was still at the center of most communication. Scholars have debated the degree of literacy that existed in Western Europe throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and the estimates of the number of readers range from the low 1 percent for women to the high 30 percent for some regions of Germany. It was not until the later half of the eighteenth century, however, that what some have called a "reading revolution" occurred. Conservative bookseller Johann Georg Heinzmann expressed a sentiment shared by many of his contemporaries in 1795: "[It] was not the Jacobins who dealt the fatal blow to the ancien regime in Germany, it was readers" (Wittmann, 1999, p. 285). Although historians debate the extent to which reading had spread in the latter half of the eighteenth century, there is no doubt that factors such as the growth in book production, proliferation of newspapers, and lower book prices among others encouraged a growth in the general interest in reading.

The Spread of Literacy

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, conditions in Western Europe were conducive to the spread of literacy. Public education was available in both the United States and Europe, although it was not until the middle of the century that most industrialized countries had legislation that provided for the firm establishment of formal schooling. In France, the Guizot Law of 1833 suggested the need for education, but basic education was not mandated until reform laws were passed in the 1880s. The literacy rate in Great Britain in 1850 was approximately 70 percent for men and 55 percent for women, but it was only with the enactment of the Education Act of 1870 that the basis for mandatory education was created in the British Isles. Although the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law in 1647 to "establish and maintain schools," attendance was not mandatory. It was not until 1852 that Massachusetts established a compulsory attendance law. Within the following fifty years, many states established universal public education as a standard. Public education in the United States was originally based on three assumptions: that all citizens could be taxed to support education, that parents must provide opportunities for basic education, and that free public education must be secular. In some places, factory schools allowed children and workers to attend classes for part or all of a day. Parents could choose to send their children to a school other than one supported by public monies, but that did not relieve them of their responsibility to provide support for the public schools. This general establishment of a basic, compulsory education system set up the possibility for educating a literate public. There was still a great discrepancy in readers between rural and urban communities, but with the rise of the Industrial Revolution, the shorter workday provided more opportunities for reading.

This shift in literacy led to many changes. One of the first was a withdrawal of both teachers and children from the work force. Learning took place away from the family; it was given over to an established system for both socialization and education. This profound revolutionary development is still prevalent in modern educational systems. Another development was that the availability of and market for reading materials (including newspapers and "cheap" fiction) blossomed. Publishers became established as distributors of the printers' work. Books that had originally been printed in quantities of 1,500 to 2,000 copies in a first run were being issued in editions of 30,000 by 1850. The novel, which was not highly regarded as an art form, came into its own by the middle of the nineteenth century. Publishers began to expand the market for these new favorites by issuing chapters for newspapers and magazines to print in installments. In fact, there are accounts of American readers crowding the docksides to obtain the latest installment of the trials and tribulations of Charles Dickens's Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. This is similar to the modern phenomenon of lines of readers waiting to buy the latest book of the Harry Potter series.

Although public education initially catered primarily to young boys, girls were still part of the public education system, and they were a major part of the reading population by the 1890s. Novels were in great demand and magazines flourished. For women, Godey's Lady's Book was eagerly awaited for its tips on housekeeping and current fashion. Children read St. Nicholas Magazine, which was published between 1873 and 1939 and featured young writers and illustrators such as Louisa May Alcott and Winslow Homer.

In the transition from a largely non-reading population to one in which primary education provided a rather large mass of literate individuals, oral tradition still persisted. Street cries of peddlers hawking wares, song-sellers chanting ballads, and the reading of the Bible to families or workers was still very much a part of the everyday life of an ordinary citizen. In schools, children's recitations of Bible passages, poetry, or other forms of oratory often gathered large groups of adults to listen and applaud. Families shared the serialized adventures (such as those written by Dickens or Jules Verne) in a group as avid listeners—even though each member of the group might well have been able to read on his or her own.

Libraries also were important in the spread of reading in the nineteenth century. With Boston leading the way in 1852, tax-supported public libraries were organized in cities in the northeastern and midwestern parts of the United States. Public libraries were seen by community leaders as educational agencies, supporting and supplementing the newly formed public primary schools (although some public libraries posted "No children or dogs allowed" signs). Libraries were considered a public good, a necessity to support an expanding market and worthy of public support. State laws enabled public libraries to exist, rather than mandating them, and left ambiguities in the concept of just who was to be served. Well into the twentieth century, certain groups of people (e.g., African Americans and young people who were under fourteen or sixteen years of age) were excluded from being able to use some public libraries.

Although the idea that most communities should have a tax-supported public library was widely recognized, it was primarily the largess of Andrew Carnegie that spread the public library from major urban cities to smaller cities and towns across the United States and throughout the world. Carnegie's libraries represented a partnership with government—with Carnegie funding the buildings and the community providing the land and the upkeep of the facilities and collections. In England, public lending libraries were also widely distributed, helped by an 1850 law that allowed local authorities the right to levy support for a public library. As Martyn Lyons (1999, p. 332) points out, libraries in Great Britain and Europe were seen as "instruments of social control, designed to incorporate a sober working class elite into the value system of the ruling classes." Public taste did not necessarily conform to this concept, but the possibilities for self-education and life-long learning were goals that existed early in the public library movement.

Literacy in the Twentieth Century

In the early part of the twentieth century, some educators believed that the problem of literacy was settled, especially with the establishment of compulsory education in many parts of the United States and Western Europe. Many countries that were less developed were also still under colonial rule. As part of that social structure, literacy was considered to be a skill of the occupying powers and therefore available to only a small segment of the population. In the United States, however, it was quickly discovered that some groups of people had decidedly lower or relatively nonexistent literacy levels. African Americans and large groups of immigrants both had problems in literacy and learning. African Americans had consistently been denied access to materials and sometimes even instruction; immigrant groups had problems because of language differences. So although the basic pattern of public education was fairly well set at the beginning of the twentieth century and it was assumed that each child had an equal opportunity to learn to read and write, the actual implementation of public education programs varied greatly. Brave new experiments in learning (exemplified by the teachings of John Dewey, which, for example, held sway for some thirty years) did not touch the learning lives of children in rural and urban poverty. Beset by two world wars and a worldwide economic depression, the first fifty years of the twentieth century saw some major increases in literacy rates, with equally dismal rates for other segments of the population.

The actual definition of "literacy" has been the subject of some intense discussion. On an operational level, definitions have ranged from the ability to sign one's name, to pronouncing words, to comprehending paragraphs. In 1994, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED) conducted the International Adult Literacy Survey. The second in a series of related reports (Darcovich et al., 1997) identified three "domains" of literacy, defining literacy along a continuum of skills rather than limiting the definition to a distinction of those who were literate and those who were not. The domains include "prose literacy," "document literacy," and "quantitative literacy." Prose literacy was used to describe the knowledge and skills that are needed to understand and use information from texts such as news stories, brochures, and instruction manuals. Document literacy identified the knowledge and the skills that are necessary to use information in a variety of formats, from job applications to bus schedules, from payroll information to charts, tables, or maps. Quantitative literacy was used to refer to such operations as balancing a checkbook or completing an order form or understanding other types of numerative material that is embedded in text. This categorization of adult literacy skills along a continuum has provided a more realistic way of assessing literacy for both adults and children as learners.

The way in which reading has been taught has also been the subject of heated debates in both the popular press and academia. The early studies of reading instruction concentrated on what was wrong with instruction. Since then, researchers have tried to identify those factors that were predictive of success in reading. David Wray (1997) has offered a clear overview of the many differences of opinion about the teaching of reading. He has identified two streams of thought: one that focused on a code-based approach to reading and another that emphasized the place of meaning. Wray contends that, although some aspects of the argument have shifted from whether teaching should focus on whole language or phonics to whether written language should be acquired naturally or through more formal means, most researchers and practitioners rely on a balanced approach to reading instruction. Research by Shirley Brice Heath (1983), for example, concentrated on the social context of literacy in her widely cited study of three communities in the Carolina Piedmont region. Brian Street (1999) notes that debates about literacy have shifted from teaching methods (i.e., phonics versus whole language) to literacy practice in a social context, which clearly sets an agenda for research, policy, and curriculum. Street further contends that this shift in direction extends "the clarification of the key concepts in the field, the analysis of the underlying assumptions and theories, and development of practical applications" (p. 39).

Preschool children and their families have also been the subjects of interest to those who are concerned about relatively low levels of literacy, especially among poorer families with less education. Some researchers have concentrated on literacy for younger children, not teaching reading but creating a "climate for reading." Terms such as "family literacy" or "emergent literacy" are generally associated with efforts to link early literacy efforts to success in school for poor children, while at the same time offering some sort of adult education program to parents, grandparents, or caregivers of these poor families. Family literacy programs may share a common goal, but the programs vary greatly from country to country, depending on funding, family culture within the country, and the political priority for literacy. While these programs have various goals, many other researchers have suggested that planning is a significant factor in the success of these programs. Short-term goals with very specific outcomes must be matched with long-term planning that takes into account the needs and successes of both child and family. Factors that are of major importance in determining the strength and direction of family literacy programs and plans include (1) a conceptual framework that identifies the cultural and social structures of families and (2) careful consideration of the measures used to assess the program.

Another area of controversy has been ways in which literacy programs for both children and adults are evaluated. Methods of assessing programs have altered as critics argue that traditional assessments are based on outdated and inappropriate models. The debates regarding children of school age have taken place within a larger discussion of the quality of education in the United States. Studies and publications—including A Nation at Risk, by the National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983)—have pointed to continuing arguments about literacy and its measures in society. Both the popular press and academia seem to disagree about the meaning and usefulness of some approaches to literacy. While some studies point to the fact that literacy rates have risen steadily since the end of the nineteenth century, others argue that simply reading and writing is not enough. Reading and writing well enough to function in an increasingly complex environment is the challenge.

By the end of the twentieth century, academics, employers, policymakers, and parents had begun to realize that the ability to organize, understand, and use language is essential to a creative, productive life. Many scholars who work with literacy programs, plans, and policy have come to agree that there can be no single, uniform approach to literacy. Rather, programs on a local or regional level are often the result of a national or international attempt to solve the problem. Several agencies are key players in this arena internationally and can serve as examples of how such agencies often directly affect lives on levels beyond that of acquiring skills in reading and writing.

The United Nations has a network of agencies, functioning on a practical level to address global concerns, guided by principals of peace, progress, and the setting of standards. In 1945, the United Nations charged one agency in particular with the responsibility of literacy provision: the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). By the end of the 1990s, several other agencies of the United Nations that had mandates for assistance to poorer countries saw education as a target for development. Chief among these agencies are the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

From the beginning, UNESCO's task was to persuade governments that universal literacy should be a priority. By identifying literacy as a basic human right, UNESCO set about analyzing needs, demonstrating the best practices, setting up pilot or experimental projects, and fostering cooperation between governments, the academic community, and practitioners. For nearly four decades (from its founding in 1945 through the mid-1980s), for example, UNESCO had a strategy of funding that emphasized basic education in African countries, which was shaped largely by British Colonial Office philosophy from the 1920s and 1930s. However, politics within the United Nations itself often stymied implementation of policies, including those related to literacy. When the Soviet Bloc in the 1960s proposed a World Campaign for Universal Literacy as part of the Development Decade, the proposal was opposed by the United States. The United States was much more interested in education as a part of economic growth, especially when connected with worker productivity, an approach that led to a rapid expansion of formal schooling in most newly independent nations. By the mid-1970s, however, UNESCO had begun to recognize that universal application of policy was not effective and instead adopted a more flexible and diversified approach to literacy policy, with an emphasis on culture as an organizing principal. UNESCO's policy stressed the social and economic consequences of literacy instead of the political and consciousness-raising implications. At the national government level, UNESCO argued for a balance between formal schooling and out-of-school strategies for literacy acquisition.

The World Bank is an agency that is concerned with lending, and projects are often developed to create systemwide change, along with reforms, training programs, policy advice, or other such arrangements. The World Bank, which is one of the major sources of funding (in the form of loans) for educational programs around the world, accounts for nearly 25 percent of educational assistance. One policy approach is to support universal primary education. The World Bank rejects adult literacy education, however, insisting that there is little evidence to support the link between adult programs and worker productivity, therefore economic growth.

UNDP is the largest provider of grant aid (as opposed to loans). Its programs attempt to foster partnerships between public and private agencies in order to enhance living standards and economic growth. In the literacy field, the UNDP's lack of commitment to adult literacy programs in the mid-1960s kept such efforts at a minimum. In 1990, however, UNDP was a co-convener of the World Conference on Education for All. This conference, held in Jomtien, Thailand, featured considerable rhetoric about the need for literacy programs for adults and young people. In addition, the participants in the conference pledged that the world illiteracy rate would be cut in half by the year 2000. Funding realities suggest, however, that UNDP remains more in line with the World Bank policy of favoring formal education programs rather than the balanced approach of UNESCO.

UNICEF is primarily concerned with the welfare of children, and it has always considered this commitment to include the mothers of these children. At first, UNICEF was careful to avoid conflict with UNESCO and declined any involvement with formal school programs. As UNESCO's influence shifted and waned, UNICEF incorporated both formal education as well as out-of-school programs for mothers and young women, hoping to elevate the level of the care being provided to children. UNICEF accomplishes much of its work through country-based programs for literacy.

In spite of the funding provided by these inter-governmental agencies, the promise made at Jomtien to cut the world illiteracy rate in half by the year 2000 was not realized. Oxfam International, a long-time leader in international development aid, refused to participate in the planning for the year 2000 follow-up to the Jomtien conference because of lack of progress, leadership, and commitment to literacy from the more developed countries. Mohamed Maamouri (2000) has identified several reasons for the failure to meet the goals of the Jomtien conference. He asserts that "basic education" is too often restricted to primary, formal schooling and that, in spite of a major emphasis in funding, the results of work concentrated in that area are not satisfactory. Economic restructuring, wars, falling amounts spent on basic education per capita, and high demographic growth rates have contributed to an increase in illiteracy and the continuation of low literacy rates among out-of-school youths and young adults. Maamouri points to three problems (in addition to monetary concerns) that have created such declines. First, mass literacy programs are often political in nature, making claims that cannot be fulfilled. Second, both teachers and students lose motivation when learning is not associated with positive, identifiable results. Third, he suggests that while adult literacy classes are often taught in local languages, formal primary schooling uses an official language (often that of the former colonial power). This barrier between formal and nonformal educational efforts can sow confusion and create problems for learners.

The number of illiterate people in most developing countries represents more than half of their total populations of youths and adults—with girls and women accounting for nearly two-thirds of the illiterate population. This gender imbalance reflects the growing "feminization of poverty." A number of programs attempt to offer practical solutions to the low literacy rate by suggesting activities that produce income and employment and foster good parenting skills. Other programs suggest a link between adult learning and the education of children and youths, encouraging the use of materials related to nutrition, primary health, and HIV-AIDS education as learning tools.

Conclusion

The problems for those who struggle with the basic skills of reading and writing and meaning are exacerbated by intensive technological expansion. The Internet and the World Wide Web have created even more demands on learners at every level, and the term "computer literacy" now vies with other forms of literacy for programs of education. Those who work with the poorest nations find themselves debating issues about which language or dialect to teach. Libraries, which were a force in the spread of literacy and life-long learning in the nineteenth century, struggle with problems of identity and survival in the twenty-first century. Those who set policy and create priorities find themselves faced with choices much like the clerics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who were afraid of the results of offering the "lower classes" access to reading the word on their own.

See also:Alphabets and Writing; Carnegie, Andrew; Computer Literacy; Libraries, Functions and Types of; Libraries, History of;Printing, History and Methods of.

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Margaret Mary Kimmel