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Jake Chandler

Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-013
October 23,2014
Literacy as a Social Practice
"Our interest is in social practices in which literacy has a role, hence the basic unit of a
social theory of literacy is that of literacy practices." (Barton & Hamilton 7) David Barton and
Mary Hamilton seems to center around literacy being seen as more than simply reading
or writing, but as a social thing. They speak on how literacy uses similar practices within a
domain to strengthen social structures and practices as well as discussing literacy events
and practices in detail, leading us to believe these are key components in the essay. This
essay illustrates the views on literacy from Barton and Hamilton on how literacy can help
shape social structures and practice. Literacy in various practices means various different
things.
Literacy, in a social context, can be something that is exclusive to it's own domain. A good
example of this is how Barton and Hamilton illustrate how "practices which involve different
media or symbolic systems, such as a film or computer, can be regarded as different literacies, as
in film literacy and computer literacy." (Barton/Hamilton 10) The authors want to make it very
clear that literacy changes with context. Barton and Hamilton say "literacies are coherent
configurations of literacy practices." (Barton/Hamilton 11) Where there's a grey area is the
flexibility of a structured context, or a domain. As you can imagine there are many overlaps
within this theory. Everything and anything could potentially be in millions of domains
on it's own.

Domain's contain regular activities where a certain discourse of literacy is without a


doubt being used according to Barton and Hamilton. Obviously some domains may have similar
practices or have pulled practices from one or possibly multiple domains, but Barton and
Hamilton seem to put much thought into the "permeability" of a domain. They bring to light the
domains of "home and community." Many would, and many do see these as similar, if not the
same domain, but Barton and Hamilton go on to say "Home and community, for instance, are
often treated as being the same domain; nevertheless they are distinct in many ways, including
the dimensions of public and private behavior." (Barton/Hamilton 11) This shows how Barton
and Hamilton stray away from the idea of literacy being a purely individualized practice.
Barton and Hamilton want literacy to be seen as more than being able to read and write. In
multiple literacy events, there is usually more than one person acting out a literacy practice to
complete a task. "literacy becomes a community resource, realized in social relationships rather
than a property of individuals." (Barton/Hamilton 11) they hammer this thought in by later
saying on the page "Shifting away from literacy as an individual attribute is one of the most
important implications of a practice account of literacy." Barton and Hamilton's main goal here is
to really send home the idea of literacy being a major factor in a functioning society.
What I believe Barton and Hamilton are trying to get across with this essay is mainly that
literacy is more than just reading and writing. Literacy is a molder of how we act, it is used in all
of our social interactions in a multitude of different ways. It is found in an endless amount of
ways in an endless amount of scenarios, and is an insurmountable art that we incorporate into our
daily lives.

Barton&Hamilton, David&Mary. "A Social Theory of Literacy:practices and events."


Literacy Practices: 7-15. Print.

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