Reflect and Literacy
Literacy as empowerment
Reflect is a way for people to discover that they can influence what happens to themselves and their families by influencing what happens in their groups, their wider communities and further afield. A significant aspect of this process of empowerment is developing the literacy or literacies needed to act confidently within a given environment to access basic human rights such as health, clean water, education and food security. This includes both using services and actively influencing their design, quality and provision to ensure that they meet the needs of those concerned.
In traditional societies people became literate through learning to "read" the natural world of plains, forests, seas and skies, which were major influences on their survival. The world has become considerably more complex and to survive, live with dignity and contribute as a global citizen requires an expanded range of skills and experience.
Thus literacy helps many facilitators and participants from Reflect circles to take on community leadership roles or develop business skills which increase their income and status and bring new opportunities for their families. There are examples of changes in traditional practices so that women have access to and even ownership of land where this was previously not the case; of men taking on some tasks traditionally done by women; of people living with HIV/AIDS supporting each other to live productive and fulfilling lives; of villages repairing deteriorating physical environments; of mutual support between groups that were previously in conflict and of exploitative employers being forced to improve workers' conditions.
The Reflect approach to literacy values diversity, while respecting the choices of those concerned. If banks, town halls, schools and health centres use mother tongue languages, reading and writing in such languages becomes meaningful. The literacy environment must be challenged and transformed to ensure that it is responding to pre-existing practices and new literacy needs. Reflect circles play an important role in identifying the needs and developing the materials, simultaneously being empowered through these activities and opening the way for others.
Literacy also includes the ability to navigate, create and understand numbers and images, encompassing the different aspects of communication that can influence the decisions of those holding power. Understanding budgets can lead to transparent management. The spoken word, theatre, song and dance are all powerful communication media, often particularly well developed in communities where fewer people read and write. Increased self confidence can empower people to recognize, use, adapt and develop such traditional communication.
Understanding literacy - Guinea 2007
Following the Cape Town meeting (see below) representatives of National Pamojas from Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau looked at their understanding of literacy and shared their Reflect literacy practices at a workshop in Guinea.
Mapping the literacy environment
Cape Town 2007
In 2009 the global adult education constituency met in Brazil for CONFINTEA VI, the International Conference on Adult Education convened by the UN every 12 years since 1949. See the UIL website for more details. To reverse decades of under-investment there was an urgent need for new evidence about effective literacy programmes and the links between literacy and other development goals. The 2007 Cape Town meeting brought Reflect practitioners together from around the world to work on these issues including the development of the Reflect Evaluation Frameworkin preparation for CONFINTEA VI.
