Definition of Literacy

After the first lecture I really found myself thinking a lot about what literacy means in education as well as how the definition has changed over the years. As we discussed in lecture, literacy is more than decoding words on a page, it is also about creating social meanings that vary across contexts. This point really stuck with me because it made me think about previous misconceptions I’ve had about what literacy can be. As long as I can remember literacy has meant having the ability to read and write. I would read the books my teachers told me to read, I’d write essays on topics I was told was important, and I even dedicated long periods of time to learning proper grammar and spelling. So while all these skills are important, sometimes I felt like I didn’t take away information that I felt was important to my life. After thinking about the ideas of critical literacy, environmental literacy, financial literacy, and many other types of 21^st century literacies I realized that my definition of literacy was outdated. Literacy in my eyes was a skill that everyone needed to learn to be successful in school and the greater world, but literacy is also knowledge, and knowledge is power. The knowledge that 21^st century literacies create allow for people to think about the world in deep critical ways and help form possible solutions for problems that influence our world today. 

       Retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/a/mail.csuchico.edu/21st-century-literacy/

21^st century literacies also allow for the development of 21^st century skills such as critical thinking and innovation which are needed to be successful in the modern world. I believe the school systems in North America tend to function on an assembly line mentality where all children are taught skills such as memorization or repetition so they can spit out answers on a test but don’t learn any valuable life skills. Children are falling through the cracks because repetition and memorization are not skills that allow for good learning and growth experiences in the school system, setting them up for failure when they leave school. I think the most difficult part about this new definition of 21^st century literacy skills is that sometimes it feels like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. As said before, the school system has a big focus on standardized testing and scores that determine whether children are learning well or not. Unfortunately topics such as critical literacy and environmental literacy are not so easily assessed under standardized testing. I wonder how can 21^st century skills be implemented into a 19^th century school system? How can teachers change their practices to fit in new ideas? And what does that mean for student teachers like myself? I have been learning more and more about 21^st century skills and I wonder how the new generation of teachers can change the fabric of the education system? Regardless, I’m excited to see where this new literacy definition takes me :)