In the past two decades, the interdisciplinary push to denaturalise the concept of society has historicised the very object of social history. In this paper, I propose a way of studying the social history of education that eludes the presupposition of the social as a transcendental or pre-discursive object. My central claim is that it is possible…

This article draws from interviews with two Mixtec migrant farmworkers whose life experiences demonstrate how communication, language, and community, across time and borders, impact the ways Indigenousmigrants choose to practice literacy and non-literacy. Using their stories, I disrupt and decenter the Western definition of literacy and instead…

One current challenge highlighted by the United Nations is to increase the number of adults who achieve literacy and numeracy by 2030. This article focuses on one experience from an underprivileged Mexican school that implements "Family Education, a Successful Educational Action." Following a communicative methodology, we conducted a…

The purpose of this study was to understand the literacy practices of individuals in Africa and the Americas who had between one and seven years of schooling. The questions investigated included: "In what literacy practices do adults with limited or no schooling engage for personal fulfillment? and (2) What do these practices reveal about the…

"Literacy for the Americas" was an audiovisual educational program implemented in Mexico and other Latin American countries in the early 1940s by the Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA). Walt Disney Studios made four short films that were designed to teach illiterate residents of Latin America how to read and write. In Mexico, this…

This article emphasizes the importance of understanding local contexts to provide appropriate education for teachers about literacy instruction. The author reviews general problems that follow from extrapolating from unrepresentative research samples and the errors and deficit conceptions that follow from assuming that all cognition takes place…

This article examines perceptions of indigenous women of the "Bilingual Indigenous Education Model for Life and Work" (MIB) programme which the Mexican Government initiated a decade ago as an alternative route for indigenous youth and adults into basic education. Programme objectives include the promotion of equal access to quality basic…

Through this international cross-case analysis of ethnographic literacy practices data, we investigated two questions: (1) In what literacy practices do adults with limited or no schooling engage for personal fulfillment? and (2) What do these practices reveal about the nature of literacy for individuals who are often characterized as illiterate?…

While it is known that the process of becoming literate begins in early childhood and usually involves several years of schooling, research related to cognitive characteristics has been done mostly on illiterate adults, and information concerning illiterate children is therefore limited. The aim of the present study, involving 21 illiterate and 22…

UIL has published a second edition of a collection of case studies of promising literacy programmes that seek to empower women. "Narrowing the Gender Gap: Empowering Women through Literacy Programmes" (originally published in 2013 as "Literacy Programmes with a Focus on Women to Reduce Gender Disparities") responds to the…

Literacy is the foundation of lifelong learning and a crucial element in the universally recognised right to education. However, illiteracy continues to exist as a global challenge, and many individuals still lack the basic literacy skills that are needed to engage in further learning opportunities and for the economic and social development of…

Discusses the relationship between globalization and education: its ideology (as generated by global system-intellectuals), and its current structure and future tendencies. Presents a case study of Mexico and the increasing importance of socialization through cyberspace. Concludes that without a worldwide democratization process, more than 50% of…

This article proposes a pedagogy of multiliteracies for Mexican indigenous groups. Using the Multiliteracies Framework developed by the New London Group (Cazden, Cope, Cook, Fairclough, Gee, et al., 1996), specifically the notions of "multimodality" and "design," it is argued that many "illiterate" indigenous people…

Describes the obstacles encountered in developing a pamphlet to transmit technical information on contraceptive use to nonliterate or minimally literate women in Mexico. (LLS)