| Many different views of literacy exist. In my study, I make use of Brian V. Street's two major models of literacy---the autonomous and the ideological. These models show contrasting views of literacy and are based on very different assumptions. I examine the views of literacy prevalent in family literacy campaigns, with special focus on Barbara Bush's Foundation for Family Literacy. I examine primary source documents published by the foundation to look for instances of Pierre Bourdieu's description of the transfer of cultural capital. Literacy program teachers and directors are almost universally members of the dominant class, and the specific recruitment strategies of programs funded by the Bush Foundation ensure that participants are members of non-dominant classes (namely individuals who are minorities, poor, or non-native English speakers). Within these programs, values of the dominant class are taught alongside specific reading and writing instruction. While most family literacy campaigns are based on the assumption that literacy has the power to change lives and individual circumstances, scholarly research shows that literacy does not necessarily result in economic change. The very assumptions that programs like the Bush Foundation rest upon are divorced from scholarly truth. |
