The social uses of literacy
Subtitle: theory and practice in contemporary South Africa
By: edited by Mastin Prinsloo and Mignonne Breier ; preface by Brian V. Street.
Contributors: Breier, Mignonne.
Series: Studies in written language and literacy
Publisher: John Benjamins
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Amsterdam
Language: eng
Number of pages: 279
Description: The Social Uses of Literacy: Theory and Practice in Contemporary South Africa challenges state-driven policy and provision in South Africa around the construction of a national delivery system for adult literacy that is part of a programme for Adult Basic Education. The implication is that many people who are the target of this system will be unwilling to participate at the entry point of literacy acquisition unless a reconceptualisation of the nature of literacy use by adults is made. Using fascinating and carefully documented case-study material, this book raises vital questions about literacy and illiteracy, and about adult education. Above all, it questions the efficacy of any literacy programme which fails to acknowledge the many ways in which uneducated and so called 'illiterate' people already use reading, writing and numeracy in their everyday lives.