Abstract
Culture and heritage are plural and fluid, continually co-created through interaction between people. However, traditional monologic models of cultural literacy reflect a one-way transmission of static cultural knowledge. Using the context of a large European project and augmenting the work of Buber with models of literacy as social practice, in this article cultural literacy is reconceptualized as fundamentally dialogic. We argue that cultural literacy empowers intercultural dialogue, opening a dialogic space with inherent democratic potential. Considering implications for the classroom, we outline how a dialogic pedagogy can provide a suitable context for the development of young people's cultural literacy.
Highlights
The twenty-first century has intensified a movement of people within and across state borders, and a major challenge is the building of societies that reflect inclusion and collaboration where children and young people can learn ‘to know’, ‘to do’, ‘to live together’ and ‘to be’ (UNESCO, 1996: 20–1)
In a new European Horizon 2020 project, DIalogue and Argumentation for cultural Literacy Learning in Schools (DIALLS), these ideas are explored as the project addresses the role of formal education in shaping the knowledge, skills and competences needed for effective cultural literacy learning, intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding
The original concept of cultural literacy can be seen in alignment with this, adopting literacy as a desirable standard with the stance that culture is a set of knowledge to acquire and that those most literate are those well versed in this knowledge set
Summary
The twenty-first century has intensified a movement of people within and across state borders, and a major challenge is the building of societies that reflect inclusion and collaboration where children and young people can learn ‘to know’, ‘to do’, ‘to live together’ and ‘to be’ (UNESCO, 1996: 20–1). In this article we illustrate how the direction of our research leads us to move beyond a concept of cultural literacy as being about knowledge of culture, into a consideration of cultural literacy as a dialogic practice enabled through constructive encounters about what it means to be different from each other.
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