Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Domains, questions, and directions
- 2 Language and literacy in Morocco
- 3 The cultural context of schooling
- 4 Doing fieldwork in Morocco
- 5 Learning to read in Arabic
- 6 Social factors in literacy acquisition
- 7 Beliefs and literacy
- 8 Learning to read in a second language and a second literacy
- 9 Functional literacy: School learning and everyday skills
- 10 School dropout and literacy retention: Out of school, out of mind?
- 11 Literacy and poverty
- 12 Linking research and policy
- 13 Literacy, culture, and development: Concluding thoughts about a changing society
- Appendix 1 Cognitive consequences of Quranic preschooling
- Appendix 2 Details of test construction
- Appendix 3 Parent interview
- Appendix 4 Student interview
- References
- Name index
- Subject index
- Plate section
13 - Literacy, culture, and development: Concluding thoughts about a changing society
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Domains, questions, and directions
- 2 Language and literacy in Morocco
- 3 The cultural context of schooling
- 4 Doing fieldwork in Morocco
- 5 Learning to read in Arabic
- 6 Social factors in literacy acquisition
- 7 Beliefs and literacy
- 8 Learning to read in a second language and a second literacy
- 9 Functional literacy: School learning and everyday skills
- 10 School dropout and literacy retention: Out of school, out of mind?
- 11 Literacy and poverty
- 12 Linking research and policy
- 13 Literacy, culture, and development: Concluding thoughts about a changing society
- Appendix 1 Cognitive consequences of Quranic preschooling
- Appendix 2 Details of test construction
- Appendix 3 Parent interview
- Appendix 4 Student interview
- References
- Name index
- Subject index
- Plate section
Summary
Revisiting Oum Fatitna
Oum Fatima is now in her mid-60s. Still a lady of considerable local respect, she can no longer put in the long hours of housework and marketplace. Bargaining for prices remains an important traditional skill, and one in which Oum Fatima takes great pride. But times are changing.
The literacy knowledge that Oum Fatima learned in the street is now considered of only marginal practical value in an evolving and modernizing economy. Letters, government documents, and jobs requiring writing are intruding on what was once a flourishing commerce in traditional literacy. Oum Fatima, herself, is beginning to realize that being viewed as illiterate (even if she is skilled and highly thought of in her derb) can affect her life and the economic existence of her family.
The Morocco Literacy Project took most of the 1980s to complete. During that decade, Moroccan society went through major changes, as did many of the actors and societal norms described in this book. As we have argued throughout, literacy and society are bound together and evolve together. What once seemed to be taken for granted (such as a world of literates and illiterates) is no longer so, given rapidly changing societies. So we come to an important practical question: To what extent can this kind of research be made relevant to today's social scientists, educators, policymakers, and interested laypersons? The principal difficulty in analyzing and relating our research findings is that, even though each of these audiences may find something of use, each also comes to the work with a different frame of reference.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Literacy, Culture and DevelopmentBecoming Literate in Morocco, pp. 268 - 270Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994