A New Approach to Literacy

     The concept of literacy is much more complex than I could have ever imagined.  I think about the literacy programs that are typically developed in the classrooms at my school, and the very narrow focus that these programs tend to have.  We go through a checklist of topics to cover throughout the year; reading comprehension strategies (i.e. visualizing, making connections and asking questions), text forms, and various forms of writing.  However, I have to wonder how effective our programs are, and if our literacy programs are as meaningful as they need to be. Finn’s notion of Powerful Literacy vs. Functional Literacy is something I believe all educators need to become familiar with, and perhaps decide which of these literacy’s is most predominant in their classroom.  Since reading Finn’s text, Literacy with an Attitude, I am beginning to become more mindful of the instructional approach I am taking, particularly with language. I need to ask myself if I’m truly preparing my students in such a way that they will be able to adopt positions of power and authority, or will they just be able to “get by”, and have minimal impact when engaging socially on a larger scale.

     At the beginning of his article, “The Social Process of Literacy”, Adrian Blackledge listed a series of rather important questions about literacy.  I immediately thought to myself, “how many of these questions are actually taken into consideration by teachers as they develop their literacy programs?”   A couple of the questions he posed really made me think – “What is the importance of literacy in terms of cultural and personal identity?”  What role does literacy play in societies where there are unequal relations of power between different groups?” And finally, “If schools are important sites of social and cultural reproduction, what is the role of literacy in the process of schooling?” As I suggested previously, educators need to be challenged, whether it be personally or by their peers, to ask themselves questions of this nature. 

    What we have sought to achieve as a result of our literacy programs, has simply been about teaching our students to become better readers and writers, but from a technical perspective.  We don’t often think about the social, political or cultural influences that may or may not arise as a result of our teaching.  However, that being said, I don’t think that we can view literacy as either a set of individual skills or just a set of cultural practices or relations of power and control. For the most part, I think they go hand in hand – you cannot have one without the other.  There are so many cultural and social implications when it comes to literacy, that the idea that literacy is exclusively about correct spelling and fluent reading, seems extremely archaic. 

     I still see a great deal of importance in the development of basic skills in reading and writing, but how we use literacy in response to various social dynamics appears to be more critical.  It’s more advantageous to have a strong sense of how certain messages/ideas are being conveyed and/or received, verses mastering the mechanics of the language that is involved.  In Finn’s analysis of why working class students continue to be put at a disadvantage, he made it quite clear that one of the major factors in this unbalanced educational experience is the quality of teaching that is being offered to these students. Finn uses several concrete examples to illustrate the fact that teachers (at times subconsciously), adopt a pedagogy that can be regarded as subpar, because they believe it is most appropriate for students of a certain profile.  On the other hand, they may ensure their teaching practice is thorough and challenging when working with students of a higher social class. This phenomenon has obviously cycled through the education system for far too many years.  In an effort to change the mentality of working-class students, teachers need to re-wire their own thinking as well.