Examining the Plurality of Literacies through the Habermasian Lens

In other words, have we been brought to the other extreme where the acceptance of every literacy/social practice comes at the expense of what is right and wrong, i.e., social justice? [...]this paper is concerned with how to avoid being trapped in relativism while advocating multiple literacies in t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of curriculum theorizing Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 46 - 58
Main Author Lee, Cheu-Jey
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Rochester Foundation for Curriculum Theory 01.01.2020
Subjects
Adult Literacy
Educational philosophy
Educational theory
Ethnography
Habermas, Jurgen
Language
Language Acquisition
Learning
Literacy
Literacy Education
Multiple Literacies
Relativism
Working class
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Summary:In other words, have we been brought to the other extreme where the acceptance of every literacy/social practice comes at the expense of what is right and wrong, i.e., social justice? [...]this paper is concerned with how to avoid being trapped in relativism while advocating multiple literacies in the classroom. The Limba are, by and large, non-literate (i.e., not able to read and write) and live in contact with many neighboring peoples who speak different languages. [...]many Limba "are often bilingual, or at least able to understand a considerable amount of the neighboring language or languages" (Finnegan, 1988, p. 46). Heath (1983) found that children in Trackton learned very early that it was not appropriate to report on the behavior of their intimates to strangers. [...]the teachers were likely to receive no answer if they asked a child anything related to the child's family like how many brothers and sisters he/she had. [...]Street (1984) argued that literacy is multiple and subject to individual interpretation regardless of the fact that it may be first acquired in a textually invariant context.
ISSN:1942-2563