Literacy events and literacy practices are key to understanding literacy as a social phenomenon. Literacy events serve as concrete evidence of literacy practices. Heath (1982) developed the notion of literacy events as a tool for examining the forms and functions of oral and written language. She describes a literacy event as “any occasion in which a piece of writing is integral to the nature of participants’ interactions and their interpretive processes” (p. 93). Any activity in which literacy has a role is a literacy event. As Barton and Hamilton (2000) describe, “Events are observable episodes which arise from practices and are shaped by them. The notion of events stresses the situated nature of literacy, that it always exists in a social context” (p. 8). Writing in a shelter register, talking to someone about such writing, reading a map, telling a story, and reading weather patterns are examples of literacy events I encountered in my research.
Barton and Hamilton (2000) describe literacy practices as “the general cultural ways of utilizing written language which people draw upon in their lives. In the simplest sense literacy practices are what people do with literacy” (p. 8). Literacy practices involve values, attitudes, feelings, and social relationships. They have to do with how people in a particular culture construct literacy, how they talk about literacy and make sense of it. These processes are at the same time individual and social. They are abstract values and rules about literacy that are shaped by and help shape the ways that people within cultures use literacy. Street (1993) described literacy practices, which are inclusive of literacy events, as “‘folk models’ of those events and the ideological preconceptions that underpin them” (pp. 12-13). Thus, the values, beliefs, and models that are portrayed through thru-hiker literacy events would be classified as thru-hiker literacy practices.
During my research within the AT thru-hiking community, I used the notions of literacy events and literacy practices to provide structure for my observation, interviews, and collection of artifacts. I sought to document literacy events, or activities in which literacy had a role, in order to understand literacy practices, or the values and beliefs related to literacy, in the community.
Section References
Barton, D., & Hamilton, M. (2000). Literacy practices. In D. Barton, M. Hamilton, & R. Ivanic (Eds.), Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context (pp. 7-15). New York: Routledge.
Heath, S.B. (1982). Protean shapes in literacy events: Ever-shifting oral and literate traditions. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Spoken and written language: Exploring orality and literacy (pp. 91-117). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Street, B. (1993). Introduction: The new literacy studies. In B. Street (Ed.), Cross-cultural approaches to literacy (pp. 1-21). New York: Cambridge University Press.
From “Taking a Broad View of Literacy: Lessons from the Appalachian Trail Thru-hiking Community” by Leslie S. Rush.
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted April 2003