Overview

This book is based on an in-depth ethnographic study of the National Adult Literacy Programme (NALP) in Malawi. It highlights the significance of exploring power and identity in literacy studies. Employing the concept of ‘figured worlds’ to study literacy as a social practice, the book focuses on understanding power relationships and identities in literacy practices. It illustrates how literacy identities and power relationships of some local community members continuously vary from one context to another and, in some cases, even within the same context. Using notions such as agency, artefact, resistance, shame and positioning, the book demonstrates the potential of the concept of figured worlds to address some of the questions raised within the New Literacy Studies – especially those concerning power and identity. The book also illustrates the value of an ethnographic approach in adult literacy studies, by exploring the challenges faced by the researcher in gaining access to community members’ activities, and the opportunity to experience first-hand what instructors go through in facilitating adult literacy lessons.

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9781350144811

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This book will be a rich and interesting source for students of international development, adult learning and literacy. It makes for accessible reading for policy-makers and teachers, as well as being a useful guide for others planning to carry out ethnographic studies in international settings. As a study by an African scholar of an under-researched country it is ground-breaking and illuminating. As long as literacy continues to be a focus of international agencies and funding, it is essential that policy learns from such studies. * Mary Hamilton, Emeritus Professor, Lancaster University, UK *

Mjaya’s research provides valuable reading for literacy theorists and practitioners alike. ... [the] hope is that this book will inspire those engaged in literacy work with adults to renew their commitment to exploring new approaches to their fundamentally important task, complex though it is. * International Review of Education * This book will be a rich and interesting source for students of international development, adult learning and literacy. It makes for accessible reading for policy-makers and teachers, as well as being a useful guide for others planning to carry out ethnographic studies in international settings. As a study by an African scholar of an under-researched country it is ground-breaking and illuminating. As long as literacy continues to be a focus of international agencies and funding, it is essential that policy learns from such studies. * Mary Hamilton, Emeritus Professor, Lancaster University, UK * Mjaya renews theoretical and methodological perspectives on social studies of literacy with an exceptionally detailed ethnographic insight into the everyday literacy of adult learners in rural Malawi. The book challenges some of conventions of Western-dominated anthropology in a highly reflexive discussion of the meaning of “being there” while also carving a new space for Africa’s qualitative social sciences in their engagement with national policies. -- Yann Lebeau, University of East Anglia, UK

Author Information

Ahmmardouh Mjaya is Lecturer in African Languages and Linguistics and a Ciyawo Language Specialist at Chancellor College, University of Malawi, Malawi.

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