Literacy and the Promotion of Citizenship: Discourses and Effective Practices

Many European governments associate improving literacy with providing development assistance to regions like Africa and Asia from which the majority of the world's 774 million illiterates come. As school attendance is compulsory in the region, it is assumed that the Education for All (EFA) goals have been achieved and literacy is therefore not deemed a priority concern. It is in this context that the Institute and its partners, the Agence Nationale de Lutte Contre L'Illettrisme (ANLCI) and the UNESCO French National Commission, organized a Regional Meeting on "Literacy and the Promotion of Citizenship: The Challenge of Learning" from 2-5 April 2005 in Lyon, France. With the support of the European Union and the involvement of the European Association of Education of Adults (EAEA), it brought together 145 participants representing governments, research institutes and universities, non-government organizations, and public and private literacy providers. This publication brings together the main presentations from that meeting, and as such documents the diversity of literacy-related thinking and practice in the region. This publication begins with a foreword by Adama Ouane and contains the following papers: (1) Literacies for Active Citizenships (Evangelos Intzidis and Eleni Karantzola); (2) Literacy and Social Inclusion in Ireland and the European Union (Inez Bailey); (3) Young Adults, Gender and Literacy: A UK Perspective (Bethia McNeil); (4) Ensuring Quality in Literacy: Populations, Practices, Pedagogy and Professionalism (Ursula Howard); (5) Assessing Low Levels of Literacy: The Case of France (Jean-Pierre Jeantheau); (6) Basic skills education for the Turkish Roma population (Maria Simion); (7) Social Integration through Literacy: The Example of Romas in Bulgaria (Maria Todorova); (8) Literacy for Migrants: The Nordic Example (Qarin Franker); (9) Interventions for the Imprisoned Populations in Greece (Dimitrios Bekiaridis-Moschou); (10) Professional Development Training Staff in Austria (Antje Doberer-Bey); (11) Ensuring Learners' Participation: The Experience of Frontier College (John O'Leary); (12) Ensuring Learners' Participation Workshop Skills for Life in England (Andrew Nelson); (13) Workplace Basic Education in Ireland (Inez Bailey and Helen Ryan); (14) The Role of Municipalities in Literacy (Rosa M. Falgas i Casanovas); (15) From Adult Learners' Week to Local Education Plan (Lidwien Vos de Wael); (16) Literacy and Numeracy in Local Communities (Jan Eldred); (17) Libraries as an Open Space for Further Education (Barbora Horavova); (18) Illiterates Online! Learning reading and writing via internet? (Ralf Kellershohn); and (19) Literacy through ICTs (Helen Ryan). Individual papers contain tables, footnotes, notes, endnotes, appendices and references. [Additional funding for this paper was provided by French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Conseil general du Rhone, and Trace Element Institut pour l'UNESCO, and Ecole nationale superieure des sciences.]