The conversation about the need for a broader, more critical view of literacy is not a recent phenomenon.
The definition is, “the ability to read and write,” though many argue that as the world changes, so should this definition. Luke Carmen emphasizes that learning is about the specific situation someone is in now, so learners need to be able to question, break down, and judge the information that they’re being presented with at that given moment. So, instead of the simple need to read and write, Carmen argues that literacy is rather the ability to think creatively and understand different kinds of information from different cultures.
Learning and literacy happens in both digital spaces and in the real world, where young people have to make sense of what’s happening around them. Carmen suggests that working together, solving problems, and learning by doing are better ways to learn than just memorizing facts. As more information is available digitally, people are reading, writing, and thinking in new ways.
Similarly, JP Gee looks at literacy as a set of tools to understand and play a role in society. According to him, there are many ways to be literate, depending on the different groups someone participates in. Some of these ways include primary and secondary discourses, or the way someone learns to talk and communicate in different places. Primary discourse is what is taught at home, usually by parents, and secondary is what we learn in school by teachers and classmates. Another set of discourses are dominant and non-dominant discourses, or societal standards about who has power. Dominant is about big and powerful groups while non-dominant is about smaller, less powerful groups with different views.
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