This year the president’s columns are organized around six critical issues that I believe educators must rethink for the 21st century. My first column focused on reconceptualizing literacy. My second column focuses on a broader question for teachers around the world to ponder: How does the world read? During my graduate student days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I became curious about this question. In May 2008, when I became vice president of IRA, I returned to this question. I was motivated to ask because IRA has members in more than 100 countries, and one of our slogans is “Teaching the world to read.”

Overview of global literacy initiatives

The World Education Forum, held in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000, was the first and most important event in global education at the dawn of the new century. By adopting the Dakar Framework for Action, the 1,100 participants in the forum reaffirmed their commitment to achieving Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015 and entrusted UNESCO with the overall responsibility of coordinating all international players and sustaining global momentum.

Participants included teachers, prime ministers, academics, policymakers, political activists, and heads of major international organizations, including IRA. They dreamed of a world in which everyone, child and adult alike, would command the basic literacy and numeracy skills needed to function in the emerging global society as a citizen, worker, family member, and fulfilled individual.

The United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD, 2003–2012) is eight years into its project and is gaining momentum in its efforts to support literacy. Overall global literacy rates have increased approximately 8% over the past two decades, and developing countries gained about 11%.

These improvements, however, are not enough to meet the 2015 EFA goals of increasing adult literacy by 50% and providing free and compulsory primary education for all people. There are still many social, cultural, and economic differences within and across countries. In addressing these challenges, it is important that literacy be reconceptualized as discussed in my first column. New, broader definitions of literacy not only will help students build skills, but also will help them critically face the global challenges of the societies in which we live.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a project of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), is designed to provide policy-oriented international indicators of the skills and knowledge that 15-year-old students must possess in order to fully participate in society. PISA addressed the following questions:

• How well are young adults prepared to meet the challenges of the future?
• Are they able to analyze, reason, and communicate their ideas effectively?
• Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life?
• Are some kinds of teaching and school organization more effective than others?

According to Brozo, Shiel, & Topping (2007/2008), “few university and fewer public school educators in the United States know about this assessment” (p. 304). Why should teachers in the United States care about the results of PISA? Because, the authors say, the concept of “literacy” used in PISA is concerned with the capacity of students to apply knowledge and skills and to analyze, reason, and communicate effectively as they pose, solve, and interpret problems in a variety of situations. This conception of literacy is clearly a much broader one than the historical notion of the ability to read and write (p. 305). PISA’s definition of reading is “…the capacity to identify and understand the role that reading plays in the world, to make well-founded judgments, and to use and engage with reading in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen” (OECD, 2003, p. 108).

Reconceptualizing a global definition of literacy

We have long known that literacy provides opportunities and access to equity. Unfortunately, equitable opportunities to acquire and use literacy are not available to certain groups, such as indigenous populations, nomadic communities, marginalized young people, rural people, prisoners, migrants, or people with disabilities.

“International Discoveries in China” by Edwards and Piazza in the April/May 2010 issue of Reading Today provided a glimpse of these issues in the world’s most populated country. These issues may be addressed through formal schooling, equivalency programs, social programs, family literacy, or distance education.

Gender considerations are different across regions. In areas such as rural China and sub-Saharan Africa, women have far fewer educational opportunities than men. However, in the Caribbean and in some European nations, boys and men have lower literacy rates.

Poverty and geographic location also influence the ability to deliver meaningful literacy support worldwide. A reconceptualized effort to improve global literacy support will help promote the rebuilding of war-torn countries, movements toward peace, and the empowerment of individuals to live more productive and satisfying lives.

Many in our field of reading argue for broader definitions of literacy. In 1990, the four resources model emphasized the multiple roles of a literate individual and provided a sound framework for thinking about a broader global definition of literacy (Freebody & Luke, 1990). The four resources model posits four necessary but, in isolation, insufficient “roles” for the reader in a postmodern, text-based culture:

• Code breaker (coding competence)
• Meaning maker (semantic competence)
• Text user (pragmatic competence)
• Text critic (critical competence)

It is not enough to simply break the code, or even to construct meaning. Today, literate individuals need to understand the pragmatic use of texts and to critically engage with the worlds they live in. Brozo, Shiel, & Topping pointed out, “the focus of PISA is on reading to learn, rather than learning to read, and students are assessed on these higher order skills. Reading tasks are set in four real-life contexts: private (e.g., a personal letter), public (e.g., an official document), occupational (e.g., a report), and educational (e.g., school-related reading). These domains are broad in focus, keeping in mind that critical literacy can be, and should be, built in to each of these domains.”

Why should teachers know how the world reads?

“Many teachers find themselves ill-prepared to comprehend the multiple cultures that students bring to the classroom, let alone bring dignity and respect for those cultures. They are taught subject matter, but not what to do when the subject matter does not pertain to the life experiences of the students. Teacher education programs rarely prepare teachers to make education meaningful to diverse groups of students” (Kretovics & Nussel, 1994, p. xi).

There is much to learn about the world we live in. If we approach this inquiry with guiding questions, the intent is not to know everything but to be curious and begin cross-cultural communication. Here are some questions that educators across the globe might want to ponder:

• If classrooms exist, how are they organized for learning?
• What does a typical school day look like?
• How are teachers selected, educated, and compensated?
• What are the educational resources provided to young learners?
• How are special populations’ educational needs addressed?
• How are differences in language and dialect addressed in schools?

The current intensity and speed of globalization compounds the urgency of addressing the issue of literacy for all, especially because many young people and adults immigrate to other countries. While we have learned a great deal about the status of literacy in different countries, what we do not know is how teachers teach children how to read or how teachers are prepared to teach reading in different countries around the world.

There have been studies on literacy instruction in a few countries, but to my knowledge, there is no study focused on how the world reads or how reading instruction is taught worldwide. It is time that such a study is done.

References

Brozo, B., Shiel, G., & Topping, K. (2007/2008). Engagement in reading: Lessons learned from three PISA countries. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51, 304–315.
Edwards, P. A. & Piazza, S. V. (2010). International discoveries: IRA delegation explores education in China. Reading Today 27(5), 28–29.
Freebody, P., & Luke, A. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect: Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(7), 7–16.
Kretovics, J., & Nussel, E. J. (1994). Introduction: School reform and transforming urban education. In J. Kretovics, & E. J. Nussel (Eds.),
Transforming urban education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

 

How does the world read? (August 2010). Reading Today, 28(1), 22-23.