Literacy for citizenship : gender and grassroots dynamics in Brazil
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Literacy for citizenship : gender and grassroots dynamics in Brazil
(SUNY series, literacy, culture, and learning : theory and practice)
State University of New York Press, c1997
- : pbk
Available at 4 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-243) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book explores the involvement of nineteen women in an emancipatory literacy program conducted under the administration of Paulo Freire in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The study presents the classroom experiences of these women and the psychological, cognitive, and behavioral changes they undergo over a three-year period. Their low limited acquisition of literacy and their limited reading and writing practices are explored in the context of their circumscribed environment of poverty, living in families and societies that place definite boundaries and expectations regarding the everyday tasks they must perform. The analysis of the women's individual experiences is linked to a political and structural inquiry into the grassroots groups and the political party implementing the literacy program. In this way, contradictions, ambiguities, and antagonisms within and among social forces regarding literacy for social change are made transparent. Literacy acquisition is shown to be a process fraught with multiple exogenous demands that distance these women from the constant exposure to print required for literacy competence.
Table of Contents
Tables
Foreword
Acknowledgments
I. Development, Literacy, and Women
1. Literacy and Development
2. Women and Literacy
3. Grassroots Groups in Literacy
4. Illiteracy in Brazil
II. MOVA as a State-Civil Society Partnership
1. MOVA Features
2. The Context
3. MOVA in the Struggle for Literacy
III. Analytical and Methodological Considerations
1. A Gender Perspective on Literacy/Illiteracy
2. Qualitative Approaches to Literacy Research
3. Constructivist and Emancipatory Approaches to Literacy
4. Data Sources
IV. Characteristics of Women Students in Literacy Programs
1. Women in the Longitudinal Study
2. Women in MOVA as a Whole
3. The Intersection of Poverty and Illiteracy
V. The Classroom Experience in Literacy
1. Snapshots of Three Literacy Classes
2. Literacy Classes as Social Spaces
3. The Political Message of the Classroom
VI. Outcomes from Literacy
1. Cognitive Gains
2. Psychological Gains
3. Changes in the Monitors
4. Literacy Uses and Practices
VII. The Civil Society-State Connection
1. Grassroots Involvement in Education and Literacy
2. The Tensions between Formal Education and Literacy
3. The Reaction of the New Administration of Sao Paulo
4. Assessing the Civil Society-State Partnership
VIII. MOVA through a Feminist Lens
1. The Politics of Everyday Life
2. Women as Citizens
3. Women as Leaders
4. Women's Need for Conscientization
5. Traditional vs. Emancipatory Knowledge
IX. Drawing Conclusions
1. Further Insights into Gender and Literacy
2. GRGs and the Stater in the Pursuit of Literacy
3. Literacy for Citizenship?
4. Key Lessons from the MOVA Experience
5. A Future Research Agenda
Notes
Glossary
References
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"