Randall Holme, Literacy: An introduction

Extract

Randall Holme, Literacy: An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. Pp. xii, 272. Hb. £18.99.

This text is not just an introduction to literacy; it is an argument for a particular way to understand literacy. For the author, literacy is best understood through a combination of approaches that address its complex and multifaceted nature. These approaches encompass the socioeconomic nature of literacy, literacy understood as visual and linguistic sign usage, and literacy as mental construct. Within the book, each approach is outlined in detail and critiqued. In each case, the critique is integral to the author's claim that single perspectives provide partial accounts of literacy. Together, these approaches are said to enable literacy to be more fully understood as “the interaction of social practice and mind through the medium of sign” (p. 239).