ABSTRACT
The idea of literacy as a crucial component of education as human right has beeninternationally endorsed since 1948 (Global Monitoring Report (GMR), 2006).Understandings of what ‘literate’ means have, however, shifted considerably over theintervening years. Narrow early definitions of literacy as a set of decontextualised,technical skills (see Street, 1984) have largely been dismissed via combinations ofpositive experiences, programme failure — such as the Experimental World LiteracyProgramme (EWLP) of the 1960s — and theoretical advances, which have combined todeepen understandings of the heterogeneity, plurality and socially situated nature of ‘literacies’ (for example Street, 1984, 1995; Barton, 1994). Changing definitions aside,reducing unacceptably low levels of literacy is a major social development goal ofgovernments around the world and is a key component of the 1990 Education For All(EFA) agenda. While the scale of the challenge may vary from country to country, ‘literacy’ is apparently indelibly associated with ‘development’. However, to establish what the ‘literacy’ of development policy actually means in practice and, thus, address the persistent gap between policy intention and practice (Dyer, 2000; Sayed and Jansen, 2000), there is a need for close and nuanced examination of which kinds of ‘literacy’ link with communities' own perceptions of development.
