ABSTRACT
Literacy is a highly valued and unique human phenomenon. To study this phenomenon, psychology continually (re)defines and (re)analyzes this concept. In this concluding chapter, the two basic research orientations to literacy – the information processing approach and the socio-cultural approach – will be outlined and illustrated with examples taken from the extensive research. The meaning of ‘social context’ in both approaches will be analyzed. Next, the contributions presented in this volume will be confronted with these two basic orientations to literacy, and some of their accents and limitations will be discussed. Literacy research, including the empirical work presented in the present volume, not only aims to resolve current issues in the field, it also generates theoretical questions. The last section of this chapter will focus on some of these questions.
