1 an affective perspective on literacy and equality maggie feeley equality studies centre university...

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An affective perspective on literacy and equality

Maggie Feeley

Equality Studies Centre

University College Dublin

Maggie Feeley - Equality Studies Centre, UCD

Literacy is an equality issue

• Literacy work needs an equality context• Economic, cultural, political and affective• Literacy defined as: ‘ the full range of

language capabilities that are a necessary precondition for the acquisition of all forms of economic and cultural capital and for the full and fair realisation and management of relationships of power and intimacy.’

– 2


Literacy facilitates our interdependence

• Literacy is relational: encoding and decoding are socially situated

• A vehicle for language that connects us• Hypothesis: unmet literacy needs linked to

learning care inequalities• Learning care inequalities derived from

Lynch and McLaughlin (1995)• Affective inequalities linked to wealth,

power and status


• Literacy dominated by issues of productivity and profitability: IALS (1997); Moser (1998);Lankshear and Knobel (2003)

• No recognition of care as a link to learning• Care is dependent on resources• Lack of learning care in childhood results in

unequal educational challenges and outcomes• Literacy fluency in adulthood is linked to

resource and affective wellbeing that in turn determine

• Generational cycles of privilege and affluence

Literacy, care and resources


Literacy, care and resources

• A benign circle of care

Care

Work

Resources

Education


Learning care resources-private

• financial• material• environmental: private and public• human• corporal• temporal• credentialised


Learning care resources-public

• Inequality of resource condition• Disadvantaged groups and communities-

disadvantaged schools and pupils:(ERC,2004)

• National anti-poverty strategy-1997; Review in 2002 set new targets for 2006 that will be unmet

• Caring about literacy: concern for profit?


Literacy, care and relationships of power

• Hierarchical educational system• Dominant and vernacular literacies• Low status of literacy work gives limited

power to advocates• Illiteracy, powerlessness and abuse• Multiple intelligences: Gardner (1993;1999)

Sternberg (1998)• Functional literacy• Vested interests


The other side of care: Illiteracy as social harm

• Hillyard et al (2004) - Zemiology• Illiteracy as State harm that leads to exclusion

and marginalisation (ward, 2004)• Nussbaum (2001): literacy as a capability• Illiteracy as a violation of rights- Jamil Salmi

(2004)• Failure of State duty of care• School as harmful – Lynch and Lodge (2002)• Adult literacy and relationships of solidarity


Literacy, care, respect and recognition

• Literacy and being an uncared for ‘other’ – global and national distribution reflects unequal status

• Cultural marginalisation – unrepresented in curriculum; denied access to culture

• Stigma – Goffman (1963) impacts on family circle• Gendered attitudes to learning care:

predominance of women in literacy work; mothers’ role as literacy tutor (Mace,1998;Smythe and Isserlis, 2003; Horsman; 2004)

• Need for culture of care in schools that recognises, respects and caters for diversity


Conclusions

LearningCare

Work

Resources, power, respect

and recognition

Education

1 an affective perspective on literacy and equality maggie feeley equality studies centre university...

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