What is Literacy?
Historically, the term literacy was used to refer to the act of reading and writing, meaning one was considered literate if they could both read and write alphabetical text (Moxley, 2020).
Modern literacy is so much more than just reading and writing. Literacies now are a commodity allowing for those who are literate to leverage their competencies for money, goods, services, opportunities, and jobs; literacy is now a technological toolset that empowers users and cultures; and last literacy is a valuable measure of educational attainment and usage (Moxley, 2020).
With literacy served as a commodity, it further illustrates the disparity between social classes, neighborhoods, and school systems. Moxley (2020) explained that literacies now are a commodity; commodities are a useful or valuable thing, such as water or time. Blanchard (2023) defines socioeconomic status as one's level of income, linking higher rates of literacy with higher income
Literacy is a lifelong learning process which involves reading, writing, and using numbers in a variety of competencies to perform tasks and think critically to solve problems (Vance & Walton, 2024).
References
Blanchard, M. (2023, January 5). The Relationship between socioeconomic status and literacy: How literacy is influenced by and influences SES – Michigan Journal of Economics. Michigan Journal of Economics. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2023/01/05/the-relationship-between-socioeconomic-status-and-literacy-how-literacy-is-influenced-by-and-influences-ses/
College of Education Illinois State University. (2023, April 27). What is literacy? Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlguMR1uU8I
Moxley, J. (2020, March 7). Literacy – New Tools, New Thoughts: The Progress of Expression - Writing Commons. Writingcommons.org; Writing Commons.https://writingcommons.org/section/literacy/#:~:text=Historically%2C%20literacy%20refers%20to%20the%20act%20of%20reading
Vance, J. & Walton, R. (2024) Literature and learning assignment five [Unpublished manuscript]. School of Information Science, University of South Carolina.
Image above is black with gold highlights in the top right corner, purple highlights in the bottom left corner. A panther for Ferrum College is in the top right corner, while a Koala for Columbia College sits in the bottom left corner. Text reads: Types of Literacy, Foundational Literacy, Information Literacy, Critical Information Literacy, Media Literacy, News Literacy, Computer vs. Digital Literacy, and Civic and Ethical Literacy. Next to each of the literacy headings there is a image depicting the type of literacy, for Foundational there are bricks being laid, for Information an open book with a pencil and light bulb, for Critical a lightbulb with a hand pointing at a star, for Media a globe with various social media and internet symbols rising from it, for News a newspaper, for Computer vs. Digital a desktop computer with popup boxes, and for Civic and Ethical a set of hands shaking with a check mark over them, a circle with arrows intersecting, and a hand holding three people all encompassed in a smaller circle.
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