International Literacy Year Research Articles

Researching Literacy and Numeracy Costs and Benefits: What is possible

Assessing the social and economic benefits of investing in adult literacy and numeracy and the costs of poor adult literacy and numeracy, is largely uncharted territory in Australia. Some interest was evident in the late 1980s leading up to International Literacy Year, 1990 (for example, Miltenyi 1989, Singh 1989, Hartley 1989); however, there has been little work done in the area since then, with the exception of recent studies concerned with financial literacy costs and benefits (Commonwealth Bank Foundation 2005). Assessing the benefits (returns) of workplace training in general has received some attention (for example Moy and McDonald 2000), although the role of literacy and numeracy is often implied rather than explored in any detail. In contrast, there is a considerable body of relevant research emanating from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and some European countries. The release of data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) in the 1990s contributed to some of this research, as did policy developments for example, in the United Kingdom. The much greater use of IALS data in some other countries compared with Australia, seems to be related to a combination of factors in the overall policy and research environment for adult literacy and numeracy in each country.

The Costs of Adult Basic Education in Scotland

During 1990 the Scottish Office Education Department (SOED, 1990a) indicated that adult basic education (ABE), as an area of community education, was “currently receiving a high priority rating by Ministers”. The year had been designated International Literacy Year and an inspection by HM Inspectors was scheduled for 1991-92. To coincide with these two events, the SOED Research and Intelligence Unit commissioned a research project to map provision for ABE in Scotland and identify the costs and benefits of a number of different approaches to delivering ABE, paying pariticular attention to those key elements which contributed to the effective delivery of the service. Recent research funded by the Scottish Office had focused on effectiveness particularly at the school level, and had led to the production of training modules for headteachers and performance indicators for that sector. One authority, Strathclyde Region, had developed a system of quality pointers including both quantitative measures and exempla...

Toward a Community Development Approach to Literacy

The question of universal literacy was given fresh impetus by the United Nations' designation of 1990 as the International Literacy Year. In this paper, a community development approach to literacy is outlined. There are two generic models of literacy education: motivation/immersion and social structural. The first is individual centered and isolates the problem of literacy from its contexts. The second model regards literacy as a function of social structure–this model is in harmony with the principles of community development. The community development approach must begin with an analysis of the society concerned. The elements of such an analysis are presented, and an argument is offered for a community-centered literacy program that is respectful of the culture and idiom of the community.

The ABC and Adult Literacy

International Literacy Year (ILY) 1990 focused attention on literacy problems in Australia, which are much wider than earlier believed, resulting in real social and economic costs. Literacy campaigns of overseas broadcasters, including the United Kingdom (0n The Move) and the USA (Project PLUS), have shown that television and radio have important roles in raising awareness about literacy problems as well as reaching people with low literacy skills. The ABC made a strong commitment to supporting and extending the objectives of ILY through a co-ordinated series of television and radio programs and promotions, working closely with literacy organisations. These efforts were responsible for a large number of adults with reading and writing difficulties who sought help via a national literacy hotline.

Some Computer Strategies for Achieving Literacy in Australian Languages: The Yintarri Project

Yintarri is a West Australian government community school situated at Coonana: 180Km due east of Kalgoorlie. It has about sixty children who enter school speaking Wangkatja, a Western Desert language. There is no formal bi-lingual program; the language of instruction being English. The Yintarri Project is an International Literacy Year (ILY) funded program which uses touch-sensitive boards with microcomputers to assist in the development of literacy in both Wangkatja and English. This is accomplished, at Yintarri, with Concept Keyboards and Acorn BBC microcomputers though the same facilities could be provided with all other major types of computer. The project won a major ILY Literacy Achievement Award for its ‘Outstanding Contribution to Literacy‘.

Adult Literacy Development

The 1980s experienced a worldwide increase in interest in adult literacy, culminating in the designation of 1990 as International Literacy Year by the United Nations, and the setting of a variety of international and national goals for the reduction or eradication of adult illiteracy by the year 2000. While attention to adult illiteracy resembles a pendulum, a number of factors have contributed to the current heightened awareness of this problem as well as interest in working toward its solution.

An Overview of Literacy in Sub-Sahara Africa-Images in the Making

The choice of a policy perspective in writing this paper is justifiable for at least two reasons: discussion will be oriented toward policy decisions; and analysis could draw from a whole array of policy sciences. Literacy today has indeed come center stage. It has come to be accepted as a fundamental human right, as liberator of the mind from the bondage of dependence, as the portal to most knowledge, and thus as a tool for both the modernization and the democratization of societies. Of course, not everyone accepts all this. While few are against literacy any more, not everyone is fully and totally committed. The centrality of the role of literacy in development is not always understood and literacy sometimes waits while more urgent needs are fulfilled first! It is not realized that there are no first's and second's in social change, that literacy and development have a mutually beneficial relationship, and that without literacy, development indeed limps on one leg (Bhola, 1984, 1990). Happily, literacy policy influentials have been able to make important gains and to set important goals. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution no. 42/104 of 1987, by declaring 1990 the International Literacy Year (ILY), put a seal of approval on the ideological and theoretical justifications for the role of literacy in development. UNESCO has been named the lead agency to mobilize the world community for universal literacy by the year 2000 (UNESCO, 1987). At the World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA), jointly sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank, in Jomtien, Thailand, 5-9 March 1990, the nations of the world adopted the following planning targets for the year 2000:

Alerts

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 1990 as International Literacy Year. Activities in the UK are being handled and coordinated by ALBSU, the Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit, funded by grants from the Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office. A 16‐page booklet, obtainable from ALBSU at Kingsbourne House, 229–231 High Holborn, London WC1V 7DA (01 405 4017) gives some uncomfortable statistics about the low levels of literacy and numeracy in the UK and describes ALBSU's aims and plans for Literacy Year, with details of local initiatives for activities. There are posters and stickers for libraries and others wishing to become involved in the improvement of literacy.

The Psychology of Developmen t and the Psychology of Literacy: A Poin t of Intersection

The correlations between literacy and development are universally recognised, though not always fully understood. Since the individual is the locus of all learning as well as the agent of all development actions, psychological approaches to the study of the relationship between literacy and development should be promising. The essential question in the psychology of development is: What type and quality of human psyche is relatively more amenable to generating and sustaining development, both at the personal and societal levels? The essential question in the psychology of literacy is: What effect, if any, does literacy learning have on the psyche of the new literate? Finally, at the intersection of these two research and theory traditions lies another question: What is the role of literacy in development? Formulated in practical terms, we can ask the question: At this historical time, in the midst of the International Literacy Year, 1990, is development in the Third World possible without the universalisation of literacy in the region?

LEGAL LITERACY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The departure point of this article is the assumption that the United Nations, in particular the Commission on the Status of Women (set up in 1946) and the specialized agencies of the organization, have provided decisive influence in establishing throughout the world the individual rights of women: The impact of the international community in promoting the advancement of the status of women has moved them in the course of this century into the mainstream of social change. Apparently, a new educational philosophy, related to the personal rights of women and men, will have to be formulated for the twenty‐first century. Since inter‐university co‐operation related to international teaching and research is being strengthened, why not benefit from the multilateral achievements mentioned cursorily in this article, which would allow the more efficient use of scarce resources? It therefore seems perfectly obvious that the objectives of the International Literacy Year 1990 and its follow‐up plan of action should be...

Reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic: Being literate in science and mathematics

1990 is International Literacy Year. 'Literacy' is on everyone's lips...or, at least, in many peoples' minds. Traditionally, 'literacy' has been associated with 'reading' and 'writing'. What about the person who is scientifically and mathematically literate: how do we recognise such a person?

1990, International Literacy Year

The moment the United Nations declared 1990 as International Literacy Year, the international literacy movement began to consider how the year could strenghten the movement in every corner of the world. The U.N. plan of action is to "help member states in all regions to eradicate illiteracy by the year 2000".