ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we juxtapose ethnographic and qualitative data from three projects carried out over a period of approximately 10 years: studies of the literacy requirements of new and traditionally organized workplaces in the Silicon Valley, a vocational program designed to provide intensive training on information technologies and life skills, and a community technology center offering adults and youth accesses and introductions to new literacies and attendant technologies (cf. New London Group, 1996). Some of the participants in these studies were recent immigrants and still struggled with English, whereas others had been born in the United States but had struggled in school. Most would be categorized as “low income,” and virtually all were looking—in school, in work, or through affiliations with community organizations—for opportunities to redesign their life chances, to start afresh, to get a new job, or simply to improve, grow, or accomplish (cf. Greene, 1990). Intertwined with these processes was an interest in and concern with literacy—a concern on our part, as literacy researchers, to be sure—but often a concern as well on the part of employers, workers, teachers, and students.
