Day Twenty Five - democracy, literacy and a Sunday sauna

Day Twenty Five

Literacy

I read a good article yesterday on the Hybrid Pedagogy website.  The article entitled “Wither the Digital Humanities” discussed a number of issues, but I was particularly struck by the author’s attitude to various types of reading.  There was a reference to Katherine Hayles’s How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis and I tended to agree with the proposition that “accommodating various types of reading can benefit students, instead of assuming deep reading as the only reading that matters.”

There was also another line in the article that really struck a chord with me as it aligned very much with some conclusions that I have been coming to recently.

“We cannot naively dismiss the cultural impact of the digital on reading and writing without compromising our ability to cultivate a reflective, critical sensibility to both appreciate and nourish, while questioning and containing, the power of tradition, common sense, and authority to govern our lives. Put simply, public literacy — the cornerstone of a democracy — is at stake.”

“Put simply, public literacy — the cornerstone of a democracy — is at stake.”

I think many of us are growing increasingly concerned at events in the world.  Indeed I do hope that you are.  The situation in the Middle East, in Iraq and Syria. The impact that has had on mass migration. The shift towards nationalism in politics in many countries and now what we see happening in the United States.  If you watch too much news it can feel as if it is spiraling out of control.  Perhaps it is doing exactly that and people felt the same in the 1930s?

Public literacy.  What does it mean to be literate? 

 

See http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/racist-anti-immigrant-cartoons-from-the-turn-of-the-20th-century/383248/

I think that it of course includes that ability to read and write, listen and speak.  It also includes a literacy of numerical functions and understanding of mathematics.  As I travel around the online and e-learning world, both virtually and literally, I hear the many calls for digital literacy and join that call myself. (Not that I am an unthinking advocate of all things Ed Tech, but that is another post).

However it strikes me that as education in many countries has become increasingly focused on the economic, that is to say employability and being a productive component of a workforce, we have neglected other important literacies.   I am not arguing that employability is not important, what I am saying is that it should not be the only component.   The focus on education as only preparation for employment has impacted in many ways, including, but not limited to, a drive towards ‘credentialism’ and surface learning.

My own view is that other literacies are important and are being neglected.  These include economic and financial literacy.  After all, in a democracy you have a duty and responsibility to cast a vote, but if you do not understand even basic principles of economics, finance or politics, how can you do that in an informed way?

I have heard people who have studied business and entrepreneurship, without any real understanding of economic policies and the way national and international economies work.  The metaphor they are fed by the media and politicians of the ‘household and commercial business’ are false narratives.  They make sense to those without a real understanding, but the metaphor is incorrect.  I am not talking about disagreeing over policies, I am talking about being unable to even have that debate.  If I were a conspiracy theorist I might even believe that there was a plan afoot to misdirect and mislead even those who do study these subjects when one looks at the curriculum that is taught.

I would also add a literacy of history and politics to my list.  I do not just mean being able to recall dates and events, I mean understanding why and how things happened and what the impact is on the world we live in today.  I know that this is done by some teachers and some systems, but it is too often neglected.  This is the problem in countries where the curriculum for the 14 – 18 age groups becomes increasing narrow, so that by 16 – 18 you end up studying only 3 or 4 subjects seriously at a rigorous level.

Many of the problems we see in the world today have a basis in fear. That fear is used by politicians and the media.  It is a fear of an uncertain economic future, fear of people different.  People see a world that is stuck in stagnation with no end in sight, in fact a situation that may well get very much worse and they want to blame someone and raise the drawbridge and hunker down, with a gun.

For those interested I recommend this was also a very interesting article about how cognitive science and linguistics explains the situation in USA.

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You may have spotted that nowhere do I mention the “man who shall not be named” in the USA.  This is because every time we use his name in this virtual world we contribute to a narrative about him and whether it is good or bad, the narrative helps him and he gains strength.

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A very Finnish Sunday evening in this household, with a family sauna and the Finnish sausages and ice-cream for dessert.  So ends the weekend.  Goodnight and thanks for still being here after more than three weeks.