National Literacy Campaign Research Articles

Genre-Based Learning Model With Literacy Activities and Character Strengthening: Effectiveness in Language Learning

During the implementation of online learning, some policies in the education sector cannot be implemented such as the National Literacy Campaign and Strengthening Character Education. These two programs can be integrated into the learning process including in language learning, especially the learning models and teaching materials. This study aims to develop a genre-based learning model by integrating literacy and character-strengthening activities. This Research & Development (R & D) used the Plomp Development model (Preliminary Research, Prototyping Phase & Assessment Phase). In the Assessment Phase, the researcher tested the developed product to check its practicality and effectiveness. The instruments used were questionnaires, observation sheets, and tests. The subjects were students of State Senior High School 8 Padang. The results showed that the genre-based learning model which integrates literacy activities and character-strengthening effectively increases students’ literacy (reading and writing) and builds their character. This model does not significantly influence students' reading skills but significantly influences students’ writing skills.

Education in Black and White: Myles Horton and the Highlander Center's Vision for Social Justice

Education in Black and White: Myles Horton and the Highlander Center's Vision for Social Justice

Education in Black and White: Myles Horton and the Highlander Center's Vision for Social Justice

Education in Black and White: Myles Horton and the Highlander Center's Vision for Social Justice

« Éduquer nos sœurs opprimées » : urbaines diplômées et paysannes dans la révolution éthiopienne (1974-1991)

Starting in 1979, the military government that took power in the 1974 Ethiopian revolution launched a national literacy campaign to build the socialist nation. Tens of thousands of young city-dwellers were sent to the countryside to educate the peasant population. The experience of these young instructors offers a privileged vantage point for observing the social dynamics of the revolution through gender and class relations. Studying official and activist documents as well as interviews conducted among former instructors allows to understand how the latter took responsibility for their role and interacted with peasants, and enables to identify the possibilities opened up by the revolution and the uses women have made of them. This approach requires, first, to consider the academic and political socialization of educated urban women under the preceding regime as well as the revolutionary discourse regarding the “woman question”. It contributes to ongoing research on how women used the policies of otherwise authoritarian socialist regimes to win greater autonomy and recognition.

Ignorance

Mouftah’s article explores Egyptian anxieties about ignorance and how the January 2011 uprising brought new urgency to calls for managing it. In post-Mubarak Egypt, literacy activism became a major platform from which to “continue the revolution.” Drawing on ethnographic research that observes a national literacy campaign among shipyard workers, Mouftah demonstrates how a particular strand of Islamic reformism makes modern education an indicator of morality, ultimately constraining the revolutionary potential of the literacy movement. Literacy activism offers a crucial lens to observe a major challenge for revolutionary action—the negotiation of recognition among social classes. Through attention to teacher-student interactions, she depicts how workers negotiated the power of the written word to gain respect in their early experiments with writing. This article contributes toward an anthropology of ignorance by revealing the political predicaments that arise out of an Islamic literacy activism that, Mouftah argues, is ultimately counterrevolutionary in its effects.

¡Puño en Alto! The Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign and What it Means for Literacy Today

Modern notions of literacy can be informed by past successes in the field of literacy. One of the most successful national literacy campaigns occurred in Nicaragua in 1980 and was called Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización (CNA). The fight against illiteracy to provide a space for marginalized voices in Nicaragua is a story worth telling to current literacy professionals in the United States, who are painfully aware of high illiteracy rates in certain geographic areas and among particular populations. First is an historical accounting of the literacy campaign by contextualizing the background of Nicaragua's political and social situation. Next is an explanation regarding how critical pedagogy can be useful in reading the historical event. Last, a critical lens is used to decipher what lessons might be taken from Nicaragua's literacy campaign to identify critical issues and inform the difficult decisions in literacy education today in the United States.

Through the Eye of a Fly: Action Research as a Support for the South African National Literacy Campaign

Globally and across the African continent, the past decade has seen an increase in the commitment to reducing adult illiteracy, inspired among other things by the Education for All (EFA) drive to halve the incidence of illiteracy among adults and youth by 2015. While literacy campaigns were less common during the 1990s, the last decade saw a new impetus for mass adult literacy campaigns as a way of improving national literacy levels. This paper examines the South African endeavour to meet its EFA target through the implementation of the South African Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign, which was launched by the South African government in 2008 with the aim of enliterating 4,7 million adults who had little or no education as a result of the apartheid legacy. The Campaign was deemed successful receiving a number of South African awards for best practice and its work in rural and impoverished communities including the international UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy (UNESCO 2016). This article focuses on how the campaign utilised action-oriented processes, specifically the methods of participatory action research (PAR), to enhance the achievement of its goals. The methods of PAR were embedded in the campaign structure, comprising clusters of communities of practice (COPs) which provided fora for educators to voice and address challenges. Moreover, since the Campaign was implemented in post-apartheid South Africa, the article shows how the Campaign operations were guided by the ethos of ubuntu as necessary for redress and empowerment.

The mosques-based literacy campaign in Morocco: A socio-cultural perspective

The present article offers a discussion of the national literacy campaign in Morocco which has been in effect since 2000. I drew on New Literacy Studies (NLS) to offer insights into the large-scale state-endorsed mosque-based literacy programme as a major channel of adult literacy. The aim is to highlight the geopolitical climate, which has given impetus to state policy makers to undertake religious reformation and to the royal initiative to use mosques as sites for the eradication of adult illiteracy. More specifically, I argue that due to strong political will, mosques have overshadowed ‘literacy sponsors’ as evidenced by the sharp increase in the number of enrolees in mosque-based literacy classes and the number of mosques used for this purpose. Viewed in a socio-cultural perspective, the mosque is increasingly being used not simply as a ‘neutral’ site for the instruction of literacy and the teaching of ‘ideology-free’ adult literacy skills to the predominantly female participants but, rather more importantly, as a site for the promotion of a moderate view of Islam and the inculcation of ‘balanced’ ideological beliefs and values and a platform where every effort is invested to preserve the ‘spiritual security’ of the nation.

Lifelong literacy: Some trends and issues in conceptualising and operationalising literacy from a lifelong learning perspective

In a fast-changing and highly inequitable world, lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important, not only as a key organising principle for all forms of education and learning but also as an absolute necessity for everyone. It is particularly important for disadvantaged individuals and groups who have been excluded from or failed to acquire basic competencies through formal schooling. Within a lifelong learning framework, literacy and numeracy are viewed as foundation skills which are the core of basic education and indispensable to full participation in society. This article discusses recent developments in conceptualising literacy as a foundation of lifelong learning. Starting from the evolving notions of adult literacy, the author identifies some current trends, the most important being that literacy is now perceived as a learning continuum of different proficiency levels. Dichotomous states of being either “literate” or “illiterate” no longer apply. She analyses (1) findings extracted from UNESCO Member States’ national reports submitted to the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) for the 2nd Global Report on Adult Learning and Education; (2) a desk study of national literacy campaigns and programmes as well as (3) some recent developments in formal education. Her suggested three-dimensional analytical framework considers literacy as a lifelong and life-wide learning process and as part of lifelong learning systems. She draws a number of conclusions for policy and practice of literacy as a foundation of lifelong learning. These conclusions are a timely contribution to the ongoing post-2015 education debate, in particular to the challenge of how to mainstream youth and adult literacy into the implementation of the sustainable development agenda for 2015–2030.

Cuba’s “Yes, I Can” mass adult literacy campaign model in Timor-Leste and Aboriginal Australia: A comparative study

In the field of international adult education, mass literacy campaigns enjoyed wide support in the 20th century, when they were seen as a way to increase the participation of previously marginalised and excluded populations in national development. Cuba’s 1961 campaign achieved iconic status, but was only one of many successful campaigns in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In the 1990s, while mass literacy campaigns continued in many countries, scholarly interest in them declined under the influence of World Bank empirical critiques of their effectiveness and increasing postmodern scepticism towards the socialist “grand narrative” of liberation which underpinned some of the more famous examples. Recently, the mass campaign model has gained new impetus through Cuba’s international literacy missions, which use an approach known by its Spanish name, Yo, Si Puedo [Yes, I Can]. This paper reports on the deployment of this model in two very different settings, one being a national literacy campaign in Timor-Leste, a newly-independent island nation in the Asia–Pacific; and the other a pilot campaign in an Aboriginal community in Australia. The authors have utilised participatory action research methods to evaluate the model in both countries, and locate their comparative analysis in the theoretical tradition of popular education.

Lineages of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1940)

This article articulates the significance and multiplicity of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and its legacies and sets the stage for this special issue on Art and Revolution in Mexico. In particular, a line is drawn between scholars who examine and contribute to the comprehension of the diverse nature of the war and its legacies and revisionists and neo-revisionists who have a more singular approach to the rebellion and its narrative. An interrogation of problematic frameworks that have been applied to Mexican history and art history includes: the Caudillo (or great man) based conception of history, the Corporativist model of state patronage, and a structuralist/post-modernist model. As part of his critique the author discerns major structural and institutional changes that occurred between 1910 and 1940 that were unique to Mexico, including the Constitution of 1917, separation of Church and State, a national literacy campaign, and agrarian land reform.

Optimism reborn. Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution, the Citizen Power development model and the construction of ‘21st century socialism’

This paper explores Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement. Centred around the notion of ‘revolutionary democracy’, I argue that Citizen Power, promoted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) since returning to government in January 2007, means the structural transformation from neoliberalism to socialism. Rather than providing a comprehensive analysis of the FSLN education policies, I explore two elements of the Participative Education Revolution of direct relevance to the construction of socialism/revolutionary democracy: the National Literacy Campaign ‘From Martí to Fidel’ and the 2007/2008 Great National Consultation for the Reform of the Basic and Medium Education Curriculum.

Desprivatização da educação, ‘revolução participativa da educação’ e socialismo do século XXI na Nicarágua

This article investigates aspects of Nicaragua’s ‘participative education revolution’ in relation to the ‘Citizen Power’ national development model and the construction of ‘21st century socialism’ in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP). Centred around the notion of ‘revolutionary democracy’, which is the definitional foundation of the envisioned 21st century socialism, I argue that Citizen Power as promoted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) since returning to government in January 2007 means the structural transformation from neoliberalism to socialism. The article, however, does not provide a comprehensive analysis of the FSLN education policies. Rather, I draw attention to the deprivatisation of education and it s reinstitution as a human right and state responsibility, whilst exploring two elements of the participative education revolution of direct relevance to the construction of 21st century socialism: the National Literacy Campaign ‘From Martí to Fidel’ and the Great National Consultation for the Reform of the Basic and Medium Education Curriculum of 2007/2008.

Discourse of (il)literacy

The concepts of literacy and illiteracy are fluid; their meanings vary according to sociocultural-political trends and language ideologies. Reflections of literacy workers about their involvement in national literacy campaigns are a source of data for such fluctuations. This paper analyzes the recollections of Israeli former soldier-teachers from the time of the campaign, and additional data collected decades later in personal interviews. Close attention to discourse strategies used in both sets of data demonstrates how changes in the structure of society, and the public discourse of identity, affect the cluster of meanings along the continuum of literacy-illiteracy.

News

Students who are involved in a national literacy campaign are combining their university studies with volunteering to encourage children to read.

Defining Success, Defending Failure: Functions of Reported Talk

This article analyzes the functions of reported talk in interviews conducted with women who participated in a national adult literacy campaign. The distribution of voices helps the interviewees position themselves within the complex social relations and public discourses both during the historical time of action and the present time of interaction. Reported talk is a powerful discursive strategy for positioning, defining, and defending actions; the emerging story of the literacy campaign challenges both the hegemonic and counterhegemonic narrative of the campaign.

!Revolucion!: Cuban poster art

The poster was the popular art form in Cuba following the Cuban Revolution, when the government sponsored some 10,000 public posters on a fascinating range of cultural, social, and political themes. Revolucin!, produced with unprecedented access to Cuban national archives, assembles nearly 150 of these powerful but littleseen works of popular art. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the posters rallied the Cuban people to the huge task of building a new society, promoting massive sugar harvests and national literacy campaigns; opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam; celebrating films, music, dance, and baseball with a unique graphic wit and exuberant colorful style. With an introduction illuminating the rich social and artistic history of the posters, and rare biographical information on the artists themselves, this striking volume offers a window into the story of Cubaand a truly revolutionary chapter in graphic design.

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere: a critical review of his contributions to adult education and postcolonialism

Despite being one of Africa's greatest postcolonial thinkers, implementing an award winning national literacy campaign and writing extensively on adult education and development, the contributions of Julius Kambarage Nyerere remain relatively unknown within mainstream adult education. This paper critically examines the contributions of Nyerere to adult education and postcolonial theory. The paper makes two assumptions. First, it assumes that there is a relationship between the discourses of postcolonialism and the project of constructing a more inclusive knowledge base of adult education. Second, that postcolonial theory provides a relevant framework for understanding the politics of adult education and development. Through a comprehensive and critical textual analysis of Nyerere's major works on adult education and development, the paper concludes that Nyerere's philosophy of adult education and lifelong learning was very progressive if not radical. Nyerere's ideas on education for liberation and development resonate with those of Paulo Freire. By linking the principles of education for liberation to the goal of building an egalitarian, socialist society based on the philosophy of Ujamaa, Nyerere provided an innovative and yet ‘localized’ theory of social change. Finally, Nyerere provided a sustained critique of colonialism and racism, and was a committed advocate of equality, unity and economic and social justice for the postcolonial world.

The Power of Words: Literacy and Revolution in South China, 1949-95

1. Introduction: Literacy and Society in South China 2. Minban Schools and the Reaffirmation of Voluntarism in Village Education 3. The Contested Priorities of Early Post-Revolutionary Mass Education 4. The Problem of the Teachers 5. Collectivization and the Increased Importance of Literacy 6. The National Literacy Campaigns of 1956 and 1958 7. Beijing's Language Reform and Guangdong's Opposition 8. Literacy Expansion and Social Contraction: The Agricultural Middle School Experiment 1958-65 9. The Cultural Revolution 10. Literacy and Economic Development in the Post-Mao Era 11. The Struggle for Literacy in Guagndong Appendix: Educational Levels in Guagndong by District, City, and County 1982 Bibliography Notes Index

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: The Economic Emergence of Women. Barbara R. Bergmann. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1986. The Responsive Workplace: Employers and a Changing Labor Force. Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987. Gender at Work: The Dynamics Of Job Segregation by Sex during World War II. Ruth Milkman. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. Patriarchy at Work: Patriarchal and Capitalist Relations in Employment. Sylvia Walby. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. From Boy to Man: From Delinquency to Crime. Marvin E. Wolfgang, Terence P. Thornberry, and Robert M. Figlio. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1987, 221 pp. The Politics of Environmental Mediation. Douglas J. Amy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987, 255 pages, $30.00, hardback. The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Andrew Abbott. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988, 435 pp. National Literacy Campaigns: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, edited by Robert F. Arnove and Harvey J. Graff. New York: Plenum Press, 1987, 322 pages, hardback. Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, Volume 10, edited by Michael Tonry and Norval Morris. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988, 343 pages, $27.50 cloth. The Scientific Attitude. Frederick Grinnell. Boulder & London: Westview Press, 1987, 141 pp, $34.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.