BC Leaders’ Survey

“If someone were to ask you what ‘literacy’ means, what would you tell them?”

NOTE: As many respondents gave more than one answer, percentages do not total 100%

Overall, two thirds of respondents’ comments related literacy to reading and writing; another third referred to comprehension; a quarter to communication; and a fifth to numeracy and/or technical and applied skills.

What are particularly interesting are the differences among the groups: Educators and workforce literacy practitioners – those presumably closest to learners – were the least likely to refer to reading and writing and the most likely to refer to numeracy and/or technical and applied skills. Business, on the other hand, was the least likely to mention the relationship between literacy and these skills.

A Multitude of Perspectives…

“Literacy is too fragmented a concept. We need to make it simple.” – Community Development Worker during consultation

• People’s views around the notion of literacy vary significantly. This multitude of perspectives makes literacy a confusing and difficult concept to grasp and define.

• During the consultation, the employers and business representatives we spoke with said they were more concerned with “skills issues” than they were with “literacy issues”. Indeed, they are most likely to think about reading and writing in the context of employability skills. For them, employability skills are perhaps a more accessible and less stigmatized concept than literacy.

• Many representatives from School Districts, on the other hand, seem more likely to think of the family aspect of literacy and to focus on early childhood intervention – perhaps because that addresses the need they are closest to.

• Clearly, literacy does not lend itself to universal definition. Each individual and each constituency group sees it differently – from the standpoint of their own situation and interests. That it is contextual makes its meaning much more difficult to define.