Description:
This book raises important questions concerning the "shame" of illiteracy. What does it mean to students to be drawn into a world where family and friends cannot follow? Can the same person appear literate and illiterate at the same time? Is literacy, for that matter, an either/or condition? Does it "hurt" to be illiterate in more than one language, more than one culture? To whom can literacy education be a threat instead of a promise?
The chapters in this book confront the unknowable implication of joining literate systems, and carry us toward an understanding that can help literacy practitioners and policy-makers at local, national, and international levels to better understand the issues involved in this important area of work.
Brief description: Alan C. Purves is Director of the Center for Writing and Literacy, and Professor of English and Humanities at the State University of New York at Albany.
Review Quotes:
"...a well-written and accessible introduction to issues of concern to individuals in elementary and secondary schooling, adult literacy programs, and college developmental skills departments. It promotes an essential cross-fertilization of ideas and disciplines. The authors reveal a gentle appreciation of the ways in which we take too much for granted. The gentleness, though, enhances the power of the insight." -- John Garvey, City University of New York