"Reading the world always precedes reading the word" TO INTERPRET LITERACY FROM PAULO FREİRE’S POINT OF VIEW

Abstract

In contemporary societies, the ability to provide literacy and reading habits is considered to be one of the criteria for development. Today, cultural, financial, technological, etc. many literacy concepts of life have emerged. The term literacy mentioned here emphasizes self-fulfillment through reading and writing in any field. Simply defined, literacy is the condition of being able to read and write (Reinking, 1994: p.9). But literacy doesn't exactly meet that definition. Because being literate isn't just about reading letters. Understanding the values of society is becoming able to solve problems. Literacy should not be limited to this, because the society of the individual is effective in the quality of life. Its impact on social life is undisputed. The level of development of individuals and societies depends on their development and change, and when the individual is limited, it has a narrow perspective on literacy. This should be discussed in the government's policy and the educational support of the school, in continuous and consistent co-operation. Literacy status has changed over the years. With the introduction of technology, the ways of accessing information have gained diversity. For example at present, one of the hottest 'literacies' going around in this sense is digital literacy. It is emerging in many education policy documents as a core educational goal (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006: p.21). In summary, the person is living in the company of literacy, reading and writing it's a concept about how he perceives, understands, and gives meaning to all relationships in his social life (Aşıcı, 2009: p.11). According to Freire: That is, literacy cannot be reduced to the treatment of letters and words as the purely mechanical domain. We need to go beyond this rigid comprehension of literacy and begin to view it as the relationship of learners to the world, mediated by the transforming practice of this world taking place in the very general milieu in which learners travel (Freire, 1987). Innovation is also necessary. Therefore, this study is to explore the concept of literacy based on the publications written by Paulo Freire and Donaldo Macedo called "Reading Words and the World" and "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" written by Paulo Freire.

Keywords: Liberation, literacy, education, the oppressed.

REFERENCES

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Aşıcı, M. (2009). Kişisel ve Sosyal Bir Değer Olarak Okuryazarlık. Değerler Eğitimi Dergisi, 17, 9-26.

Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, London: The Continuum International Publishing Group.

Freire P. and Macedo D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the Word and the World, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Lankshear, C. ve Knobel, M. (2006). New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Classroom Learning. U.K., Berkshire: Open University Press.

 Reinking, D. (1994). Electronic Literacy. Perspectives in reading research, 4, 1-26.