INTRODUCTION

This edited volume brings together the work of a number of such ethnographers of literacy projects who have spent many years conducting indepth qualitative studies of everyday literacies in different parts of the world and of the literacy programmes that have been developed to enhance them. The ethnographic approach represented here is, then, more concerned with attempting to understand what actually happens than with trying to prove the success of a particular intervention or ‘sell’ a particular methodology for teaching or management. The dominant account of literacy programmes remains concerned with ‘effectiveness’, often measured through statistics on skill outcomes, attendance, etc., and justified through correlations with important development

indices such as health, agricultural production and economic take off. The findings of the ethnographic approach may lead to different measurement and claims for outcomes and to different curriculum and pedagogy than in many traditional programmes (Hill and Parry 1994; Holland and Street 1994; Black and Wiliam 1998). What counts as ‘effective’ cannot, then, be prejudged, hence the attempt to understand ‘what’s going on’ before pronouncing on how to improve it.