The Literacy We Teach Today

Abstract

The article discusses the issues of text culture transformation, literacy and reading. The purpose of the article is to explore the modern interpretation of the concept of "literacy" and determine its place in creating the shape of tomorrow’s world. The author analyzes the changes in the culture of reading and literacy education that resulted from the introduction of massive educational reforms in Western Europe. The author reminds us that literacy and our reading culture are not givens but that they constantly evolve under the influence of new text technologies. The author tries to comprehend the consequences of the current digital media revolution for intellectual development and the future structure of society; to identify new features that reading and literacy have acquired in modern culture. Besides, considerable attention is paid to the place of text in the digital age. The author concludes that the parallel presence of all mediums on the same screen suddenly showed the real place of text in people’s affections. Being cognitively more demanding, text clearly takes second position to auditory and visual media for entertainment and as a vehicle of cultural experience. Meanwhile the social use of text in the meantime is a different matter: text is still very important in social media – although in an ever more rudimentary form. Author concludes that none of the new mediums were ever regarded as a serious threat to books and other text forms. Reading and writing had as it were simply “got their first”. Books could pride themselves on a centuriesold tradition, and when film, radio and television came along, all subjects had already been properly described in (text-) books. The author highlights that the “screen effect” leading to the demotion of such more demanding forms of reading clearly shows once again the contingent nature of literacy. What follows is a plea to give back to literacy its original aura as a major intellectual achievement: a means to shape future minds, and thus the society in which our children will live. Based on previous research, the author draws our attention to the fact that digital media revolution is already having the effect of devaluing reading as a cultural technique. It has been generally accepted that schools should include “digital literacy” in the curriculum - even though there is little agreement what position it should take (purely practically and philosophically). In conclusion, the author emphasizes that the future of the literacy project still comes down to overcoming the social and digital divide.