The Social Uses of Literacy
Theory and Practice in Contemporary South Africa
Editors
Preface Author
This book details the findings of a research project investigating the social uses of literacy in a range of contexts in South Africa. This approach treats literacy not simply as a set of technical skills learnt in formal education, but as social practices embedded in specific contexts, discourses and positions. What this means is made clear through a series of fine-grained accounts of social uses and meanings of literacy in contexts ranging from the taxi industry in Cape Town, to family farms, urban settlements and displacement sites, rural land holdings, and various sites during the 1994 elections, and among different sectors of South African society, Black, Colored and White.
Since the view of literacy presented here is so dependent on context, the book provides not only descriptions of literacy practices but also rich insights into the complexity of everyday social life in contemporary South Africa at a major point of transition. It can be read as a concrete way of understanding the emergence of the New South Africa as it appears to actors on the ground, focused through attention to one central feature of contemporary life — the uses and meanings of literacy.
“Using fascinating and carefully documented case-study material, this book raises vital questions about literacy and illiteracy, and about adult education. Above all, it questions the efficacy of any literacy programme which fails to acknowledge the many ways in which uneducated and so called ‘illiterate’ people already use reading, writing and numeracy in their everyday lives.” Jenny Maybin, The Open University, Milton Keynes
Since the view of literacy presented here is so dependent on context, the book provides not only descriptions of literacy practices but also rich insights into the complexity of everyday social life in contemporary South Africa at a major point of transition. It can be read as a concrete way of understanding the emergence of the New South Africa as it appears to actors on the ground, focused through attention to one central feature of contemporary life — the uses and meanings of literacy.
“Using fascinating and carefully documented case-study material, this book raises vital questions about literacy and illiteracy, and about adult education. Above all, it questions the efficacy of any literacy programme which fails to acknowledge the many ways in which uneducated and so called ‘illiterate’ people already use reading, writing and numeracy in their everyday lives.” Jenny Maybin, The Open University, Milton Keynes
[Studies in Written Language and Literacy, 4] 1996. viii, 279 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
-
PrefaceBrian Street | p. 1
-
IntroductionMastin Prinsloo | p. 11
-
Section 1: Literacies at work
-
1. Literacy, voter education and constructions of citizenship in the Western Cape during the firstdemocratic national elections in South AfricaMastin Prinsloo | p. 33
-
2. Literacy, knowledge, gender and power in the workplace on three farms in the Western CapeDiana Gibson | p. 49
-
3. Literacy and communication in a Cape factoryMignonne Breier | p. 65
-
4. Communicative practices of the service staff of a schoolKathy Watters | p. 85
-
Section 2: Mediating literacies
-
5. Literacy mediation and social identity in Newton, Easter CapeLiezl Malan | p. 105
-
6. Cultural brokers and bricoleurs of modern and traditional literacies: Land struggles inNamaqualand’s Coloured reservesSteven Robins | p. 123
-
7. Literacy learning and local literacy practice in Bellville SouthLiezl Malan | p. 141
-
8. ‘We can all sing, but we can’t all talk’: Literacy brokers and tsotsi gangstersin a Cape Town shantytownAmmon China | p. 157
-
Section 3: Contextualising literacies: policy lessons
-
9. Literacy, migrancy and disrupted domesticity: Khayelitshan ways of knowingPhumza Mpoyiya | p. 177
-
10. “We are waiting/ this is our home’: Literacy and the search for ressources in the ruralEastern CapeM.J. McEwan | p. 197
-
11. Taking literacy for a ride — reading and writing in the taxi industryMignonne Breier | p. 213
-
12. Literacy practices in an informal settlement in the Cape PeninsulaCatherine Kell | p. 235
-
AfterwordTony Morphet | p. 257
-
-
Index | p. 275
“Using fascinating and carefully documented case-study material, this book raises vital questions about literacy and illiteracy, and about adult education. Above all, it questions the efficacy of any literacy programme which fails to acknowledge the many ways in which uneducated and so called ‘illiterate’ people already use reading, writing and numeracy in their everyday lives. ”
Jenny Maybin
, The Open University, Milton Keynes
Cited by
Cited by 114 other publications
Asfaha, Yonas Mesfun & Sjaak Kroon
2011. Multilingual education policy in practice: classroom literacy instruction in different scripts in Eritrea. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 41:2 ► pp. 229 ff. 
Auleear Owodally, Ambarin Mooznah
2014. Maternal reports of home literacy experiences in multilingual Mauritius: a case study of pre-schoolers. Early Child Development and Care 184:11 ► pp. 1615 ff.
Owodally, Ambarin Mooznah Auleear
2011. Multilingual Language and Literacy Practices and Social Identities in Sunni Madrassahs in Mauritius: A Case Study. Reading Research Quarterly 46:2 ► pp. 134 ff.
Bailey, Chris
2021. Situating the Study. In Researching Virtual Play Experiences [Digital Education and Learning, ], ► pp. 37 ff.
Barton, David
2012. Ethnographic Approaches to Literacy Research. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Basu, Kaushik, Bryan Maddox & Anna Robinson-Pant
2008. Literacies, Identities and Social Change: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literacy and Development. The Journal of Development Studies 44:6 ► pp. 769 ff.
Baynham, Mike
2012. Sociolinguistic Studies of Literacy. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Bialostok, Steve
2006. Literacy Campaigns and the Indigenization of Modernity: Rearticulations of Capitalism. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 37:4 ► pp. 381 ff.
BLOMMAERT, JAN
2004. Writing as a problem: African grassroots writing, economies of literacy, and globalization. Language in Society 33:5 ► pp. 643 ff.
Blommaert, Jan
2004. Grassroots Historiography and the Problem of Voice: Tshibumba's Histoire du Zaïre. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14:1 ► pp. 6 ff.
Blommaert, Jan
2005. Discourse,
Botha, Werner, Bertus van Rooy & Susan Coetzee‐van Rooy
2021. South African Englishes: A contemporary bibliography. World Englishes 40:1 ► pp. 136 ff.
Brouard, Andrew, Lynda Wilkinson & Pippa Stein
1999. ‘Literacy is all around us’: Literacy, Ethnography and Curriculum 2005 in three Johannesburg classrooms. Southern African Journal of Applied Language Studies 7:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Burns, Anne
2003. Reading Practices: From Outside to Inside the Classroom. TESOL Journal 12:3 ► pp. 18 ff.
Cabral, Estêvão & Marilyn Martin-Jones
2008. Writing the Resistance: Literacy in East Timor 1975–1999. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 11:2 ► pp. 149 ff.
Castanheira, Maria Lucia & David Bloome
2021. Street, Brian V. (1943–2017). In The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, ► pp. 1 ff.
Castleton, Geraldine
2000. Workplace Literacy: Examining the virtual and virtuous realities in (e)merging discourses on work. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 21:1 ► pp. 91 ff.
Charlewood, Lucy
2000. Book Preferences, Conceptions of Books and Reading Practices Among Urban Adults with a Basic Level of Literacy. African Research & Documentation 83 ► pp. 61 ff.
Cheffy, Ian
2011. Implications of local literacy practices for literacy programmes in a multilingual community in northern Cameroon. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 41:2 ► pp. 247 ff.
Coleman, Lynn & Jackie Tuck
2021. Understanding student writing from lecturers’ perspectives: acknowledging pedagogic complexity to support transformative practices in context. Studies in Higher Education 46:9 ► pp. 1894 ff.
Collins, James & Richard Blot
2003. Literacy and Literacies,
Darville, Richard
1999. Knowledges of adult literacy: surveying for competitiveness. International Journal of Educational Development 19:4-5 ► pp. 273 ff.
Evans, Rinelle & Ailie Cleghorn
2010. ‘Look at the balloon blow up’: Student teacher-talk in linguistically diverse Foundation Phase classrooms. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 28:2 ► pp. 141 ff.
Gee, James Paul
2009. Digital Media and Learning as an Emerging Field, Part I: How We Got Here. International Journal of Learning and Media 1:2 ► pp. 13 ff.
Gleich, Utta von
2004. New Quechua literacies in Bolivia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2004:167
Green, Julie, Joseph Lo Bianco & Johanna Wyn
1970. Discourses in Interaction: The intersection of literacy and health research internationally. Literacy and Numeracy Studies 15:2 ► pp. 19 ff.
Hamilton, Mary
2006. Just do it: Literacies, everyday learning and the irrelevance of pedagogy. Studies in the Education of Adults 38:2 ► pp. 125 ff.
Harran, Marcelle
2011. What higher education students do with teacher feedback: Feedback-practice implications. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 29:4 ► pp. 419 ff.
Harries, Patrick
2001. Missionaries, Marxists and Magic: Power and the Politics of Literacy in South-East Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies 27:3 ► pp. 405 ff.
Hayes, Elisabeth R. & James Paul Gee
2010. No Selling the Genie Lamp: A Game Literacy Practice inThe Sims. E-Learning and Digital Media 7:1 ► pp. 67 ff.
Hull, Glynda & Katherine Schultz
2001. Literacy and Learning Out of School: A Review of Theory and Research. Review of Educational Research 71:4 ► pp. 575 ff.
Hunter, Judy
2007. Language, Literacy, and Performance: Working identities in the back of the house. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 28:2 ► pp. 243 ff.
Iversen, Jonas Yassin, Juliet Munden & Margaret Nambao
2023. Stories and early literacy education in Zambia: donor-initiated projects, educational policy and teacher beliefs. Language and Education ► pp. 1 ff.
Janks, Hilary
2000. Domination, Access, Diversity and Design: A synthesis for critical literacy education. Educational Review 52:2 ► pp. 175 ff.
Janks, Hilary
2006. GAMES GO ABROAD. English Studies in Africa 49:1 ► pp. 115 ff.
Janks, Hilary
2014. Globalisation, Diversity, and Education: A South African Perspective. The Educational Forum 78:1 ► pp. 8 ff.
Kell, Catherine
2008. ‘Making Things Happen’: Literacy and Agency in Housing Struggles in South Africa. The Journal of Development Studies 44:6 ► pp. 892 ff.
Kelly, Ann
1970. Explicating Literacy Activities at Work: The use of ‘okay’ as an effective topic-changing device in service request calls. Literacy and Numeracy Studies 18:1 ► pp. 19 ff.
Kendrick, Maureen E. & Hizzaya Hissani
2007. Letters, Imagined Communities, and Literate Identities: Perspectives from Rural Ugandan Women. Journal of Literacy Research 39:2 ► pp. 195 ff.
Kinloch, Valerie
2009. Suspicious Spatial Distinctions. Written Communication 26:2 ► pp. 154 ff.
Lankshear, Colin & Peter O’Connor
1999. Response to “Adult Literacy: The Next Generation”. Educational Researcher 28:1 ► pp. 30 ff.
Lauwo, Monica Shank
2021. Literacies and translanguaging in Africa: A critical review of sociocultural perspectives. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 39:2 ► pp. 210 ff.
Lillis, Theresa & Carolyn McKinney
2013. The sociolinguistics of writing in a global context: Objects, lenses, consequences. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17:4 ► pp. 415 ff.
Maddox, Brian
2008. What Good is Literacy? Insights and Implications of the Capabilities Approach. Journal of Human Development 9:2 ► pp. 185 ff.
Maddox, Bryan
2007. What can ethnographic studies tell us about the consequences of literacy?. Comparative Education 43:2 ► pp. 253 ff.
Mankowski, Patty
1998. A Bridging Engineering-English Communication Course. Southern African Journal of Applied Language Studies 6:1 ► pp. 74 ff.
Martin‐Jones, Marilyn, Sjaak Kroon & Jeanne Kurvers
2011. Multilingual literacies in the global south: language policy, literacy learning and use. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 41:2 ► pp. 157 ff.
Maybin, Janet
2007. Literacy Under and Over the Desk: Oppositions and Heterogeneity. Language and Education 21:6 ► pp. 515 ff.
Maybin, Janet
2013. Working towards a more complete sociolinguistics. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17:4 ► pp. 547 ff.
Millora, Chris
2023. ‘Social-contextual’ approaches to family literacy programmes: policy and practice lessons from Nigeria, Mexico and Nepal. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education ► pp. 1 ff.
Morris, Gayle & David Beckett
2004. Learning for/at work:Somali women “doing it for themselves”. Journal of Workplace Learning 16:1/2 ► pp. 75 ff.
Moya, Mario R.
2020. Empowering Multilingual Learners Through Critical Liberating Literacy Practices in English-Dominated Speech Communities. In Handbook of Research on Cultivating Literacy in Diverse and Multilingual Classrooms [Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design, ], ► pp. 210 ff.
Moya, Mario R.
2022. Empowering Multilingual Learners Through Critical Liberating Literacy Practices in English-Dominated Speech Communities. In Research Anthology on Bilingual and Multilingual Education, ► pp. 519 ff.
Muller, Johan
1996. Dreams of Wholeness and Loss: critical sociology of education in South Africa. British Journal of Sociology of Education 17:2 ► pp. 177 ff.
Murray, Sarah
2002. Language issues in South African education: an overview. In Language in South Africa, ► pp. 434 ff.
Narunsky-Laden, Sonja
2007. CONSUMER MAGAZINES IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ISRAEL. Journalism Studies 8:4 ► pp. 595 ff.
Ngaka, Willy
2021. The role of communities in Uganda’s mother tongue-based education: Perspectives from a literacy learning enhancement project in Arua district. Applied Linguistics Review 12:4 ► pp. 545 ff.
Nixon, Helen & Barbara Comber
2006. Differential recognition of children's cultural practices in middle primary literacy classrooms. Literacy 40:3 ► pp. 127 ff.
Nkansah, Theophilus
2022. The Role of Adult Literacy in Community Development in Ghana: Perceptions and Experiences of Two Rural Communities. The International Journal of Community and Social Development 4:3 ► pp. 272 ff.
Nurss, Joanne R.
1998. Functional Context/Outcomes-Based Literacy Assessment. Southern African Journal of Applied Language Studies 6:1 ► pp. 59 ff.
Openjuru, George
2004. A comparison of the ideological foundation of the FAL and REFLECT approaches to teaching adult literacy in Uganda. Language Matters 35:2 ► pp. 407 ff.
Openjuru, George Ladaah & Elda Lyster
2007. Christianity and rural community literacy practices in Uganda. Journal of Research in Reading 30:1 ► pp. 97 ff.
Otto, Sheila & David Bloome
2000. Book Review: Studies of Everyday Literacy Practices and Case-Study Methodology. Journal of Literacy Research 32:1 ► pp. 129 ff.
Papen, Uta
2010. Literacy mediators, scribes or brokers?. Langage et société n° 133:3 ► pp. 63 ff.
Papen, Uta & Karin Tusting
2020. Using ethnography and ‘real literacies’ to develop a curriculum for English literacy teaching for young deaf adults in India. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 50:8 ► pp. 1140 ff.
Parry, Kate
1999. Language and Literacy in African Contexts. Language Matters 30:1 ► pp. 113 ff.
Perry, Kristen H.
2009. Genres, Contexts, and Literacy Practices: Literacy Brokering Among Sudanese Refugee Families. Reading Research Quarterly 44:3 ► pp. 256 ff.
Poole, Deborah
2003. Linguistic Connections Between Co-Occurring Speech and Writing in a Classroom Literacy Event. Discourse Processes 35:2 ► pp. 103 ff.
Poole, Deborah
2008. Interactional Differentiation in the Mixed‐Ability Group: A Situated View of Two Struggling Readers. Reading Research Quarterly 43:3 ► pp. 228 ff.
Postill, John
2007. Knowledge, literacy and media among the Iban of Sarawak. A reply to Maurice Bloch. Social Anthropology 11:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Pretorius, Elizabeth J
2010. Issues of complexity in reading: Putting Occam's razor aside for now. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 28:4 ► pp. 339 ff.
Prinsloo, Mastin
1998. ‘Behind the back of a declarative history’: Acts of erasure in Leon de Kock'sCivilizing Barbarians: Missionary narrative and African response in nineteenth century South Africa. English Academy Review 15:1 ► pp. 32 ff.
Prinsloo, Mastin
2012. Literacy in Community Settings. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Prinsloo, Mastin
2023. Literacy in Community Settings. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 1 ff.
Richardson, Paul
1998. Literacy, Learning and Teaching. Educational Review 50:2 ► pp. 115 ff.
Riskedahl, Diane
2023. Playing with Accents in the Khede Kasra Campaign in Lebanon: Multimodality in Visual Politics. In Visual Politics in the Global South [Political Campaigning and Communication, ], ► pp. 29 ff.
Robinson, Clinton
2007. Context or key? Language in four adult learning programmes. International Journal of Educational Development 27:5 ► pp. 542 ff.
Robinson, Clinton
2023. Literacy. In Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research, ► pp. 3928 ff.
Rogers, A.
2006. DFID experience of adult literacy. International Journal of Educational Development 26:3 ► pp. 339 ff.
Rogers, Alan
1999. Improving the quality of adult literacy programmes in developing countries: the `real literacies' approach. International Journal of Educational Development 19:3 ► pp. 219 ff.
Samson, Melanie
1999. Undressing Redress: a feminist critique of the South African National Qualifications Framework. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 20:3 ► pp. 443 ff.
Schneider, Cindy
Schneider, Cynthia
2011. Why Field Linguists Should Pay More Attention to Research in Applied Linguistics. Australian Journal of Linguistics 31:2 ► pp. 187 ff.
Searle, Jean
2009. A Lens on Literacy: Workplace Competence and Professional Practice. In Elaborating Professionalism, ► pp. 35 ff.
Sligo, Frank, Elspeth Tilley, Niki Murray & Margie Comrie
2015. Young adult literacy learners describe the text–orality nexus. Text & Talk 35:1
Smith-Greenaway, Emily
2015. Educational attainment and adult literacy. Demographic Research 33 ► pp. 1015 ff.
Snyder, Ilana, Lawrence Angus & Wendy Sutherland-Smith
2002. Building Equitable Literate Futures: Home and school computer-mediated literacy practices and disadvantage. Cambridge Journal of Education 32:3 ► pp. 367 ff.
Snyder, Ilana & Mastin Prinsloo
2007. Young People's Engagement with Digital Literacies in Marginal Contexts in a Globalised World. Language and Education 21:3 ► pp. 171 ff.
Stein, Pippa & Lynne Slonimsky
2001. Knowledge, authority and identity in home literacy events: A case study from Gauteng. Current Writing 13:2 ► pp. 66 ff.
Strawn, Clare & Geraldine Monama
2012. Making Soweto stories: photovoice meets the New Literacy Studies. International Journal of Lifelong Education 31:5 ► pp. 535 ff.
Street, Brian
1997. The Implications of the ‘New Literacy Studies’ for Literacy Education. English in Education 31:3 ► pp. 45 ff.
Street, Brian
2004. Academic literacies and the ?new orders?: implications for research and practice in student writing in higher education. LATISS: Learning and Teaching in the Social Sciences 1:1 ► pp. 9 ff.
Street, Brian V.
2017. New Literacy Studies in Educational Contexts. In Teacher and Librarian Partnerships in Literacy Education in the 21st Century, ► pp. 23 ff.
Sánchez Tyson, Lorena
2024. ‘Learning to read and write is to defend yourself’: Exploring Indigenous perspectives and reimagining literacies for self-determination in Mexico. International Journal of Educational Development 106 ► pp. 102992 ff.
Unterhalter, Elaine
2008. The capability approach and gendered education: some issues of operationalisation in the context of the HIV/AIDs epidemic in South Africa. In The Capability Approach, ► pp. 489 ff.
Velghe, Fie
2014. ‘I wanna go in the phone’: literacy acquisition, informal learning processes, ‘voice’ and mobile phone appropriation in a South African township. Ethnography and Education 9:1 ► pp. 111 ff.
Walter, Pierre
2005. Literacy practices in development: An ethnographic study of women in Northeastern Thailand. Studies in the Education of Adults 37:1 ► pp. 63 ff.
Wedin, Åsa
2006. Literacy Practices in Rural Tanzania: The Case of Karagwe. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 27:3 ► pp. 225 ff.
Wedin, Åsa
2013. Letters, authority and secrecy: the case of Karagwe in Tanzania. Language and Education 27:1 ► pp. 44 ff.
Wedin, Åsa
2024. Becoming an independent Swedish citizen: Critical literacy as a tool for multilingual literacies in Swedish for Immigrants. Studies in the Education of Adults 56:1 ► pp. 26 ff.
Whitescarver, Keith & Judith Kalman
2009. Extending traditional explanations of illiteracy: historical and cross‐cultural perspectives. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 39:4 ► pp. 501 ff.
WILSON, ANITA
2009. Literacy and Writing: Ideology in Practice. Reviews in Anthropology 38:4 ► pp. 290 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. “Papelito Manda”. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 153 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. References. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 311 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. From Khipu to Narrative. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 71 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. Power over Writing. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 183 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. Conclusions. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 285 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. Introduction. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 1 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. Notes. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 301 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. An Andean Community Writes Itself. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 31 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. Writing and the Rehearsal of the Past. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 221 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. A Tale of Two Lettered Cities. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 125 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. Village and Diaspora as Deterritorialized Library. In The Lettered Mountain, ► pp. 261 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. The Rural Community Library in Africa as a Context for Literacy and Reading. In Rural Community Libraries in Africa [Advances in Library and Information Science, ], ► pp. 18 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Linguistics
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General