ABSTRACT
This chapter rests on a theory of literacy as social practice. The discussion is a development on from that in Barton (1994: 34-52), where contemporary approaches to literacy are discussed within the framework of the metaphor of ecology. The essence of this approach is that literacy competence and need cannot be understood in terms of absolute levels of skill, but are relational concepts, defined by the social and communicative practices with which individuals engage in the various domains of their life world. It sees literacy as historically and socially situated. As Brian Street (1995) puts it, it is a shift from literacy as an autonomous gift to be given to people, to an ideological understanding of literacy that places it in its wider context of institutional purposes and power relationships. The focus shifts from literacy as deficit or lack, something people haven’t got, to the many different ways that people engage with literacy, recognising difference and diversity and challenging how these differences are valued within our society. This involves us in looking beyond educational settings to vernacular practices and informal learning, and to the other official settings in which literacies play a key role. Learning does not just take place in classrooms and is not just concerned with methods. This approach has come to be known as the New Literacy Studies (NLS).
