An examination of the difference between the contents of the FAL literacy curriculum/primers used in Uganda and everyday literacy practices in rural community life.
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Date
2007
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Publisher
Journal of Research and Practice in Adult Literacy
Abstract
Adult literacy learning programmes in Uganda and, I
believe, in most African countries, are largely driven
by national and community development concerns
(see Carr-Hill et al., 2001; Fiedrich & Jellema, 2003;
Wagner, 1995). These concerns are informed by the
dominant theories of literacy. However, how the
content of adult literacy learning programmes relates
to literacy uses in everyday life is often taken for
granted when developing adult learning programmes.
In this article, I used the Uganda Functional Adult
Literacy [FAL] programme as a case study, to show
the difference between the content of the FAL
curriculum/primer and what rural people read and
write in their everyday life in Uganda‟s rural
community life. I then recommend a social practices
or the real literacy approach to adult literacy education
as a better alternative that can reconcile literacy
learning and literacy use in rural community life, and
help the learner to make the connection between what
they are learning in the literacy classes and the
literacies that goes on outside the classrooms.
Description
George teaches at the Institute of Adult and Continuing Education, Makerere university, Uganda