ABSTRACT
In this chapter I propose a culturally contextualized conception of literacy development and discuss its implications for the design of educational practices. In the first section I contend that becoming literate involves acquiring membership in a community of practice, and by implication acquiring a sense of ownership of the cultural meaning system that informs the literate activities of that community. I then suggest that the process through which an individual becomes literate is illuminated by considering development as participatory appropriation (cf. Rogoff, 1993; Rogoff, Baker-Sennett, Lacasa, & Goldsmith, 1995; Serpell, 1998). In Western middle-class society, children acquire a sense of ownership of literacy by participating in routines such as joint storybook reading that are built into the pattern of their everyday life. Such packaged routines are a highly efficient means of socializing literacy, but they are also deeply rooted in one particular subculture. A number of different literacy cultures and subcultures have been documented, each of which reflects a particular language and writing system and includes distinctive sociocultural practices.
