7. Implementation of multiple literacies

The concept of multiple literacies is relevant to family literacy programs in a minority setting, and thus, a
chapter describing how it can be implemented is warranted.

According to Masny (2002), multiple literacies include personal, academic, community and critical
literacies. The Coalition francophone prefers the term "cultural literacy". By cultural literacy, the Coalition
francophone means

An intervention that associates and integrates into language learning-whatever the
approaches and methods used to this end-a special program of facilitated group
learning and cultural information that aims to increase the participant's personal store of
knowledge, to reinforce his sense of belonging, and to appreciate and value his culture of
origin and his own acquired cultural resources (Coalition francophone, 2005b, p.9). [Free
translation]

7.1 Description of multiple literacies

According to masny (2002), litteracies are

A social construct that includes words, gestures, attitudes, social identities or, more
precisely, ways of speaking, reading, writing and appreciating--in short, a way of
becoming in the world.... Literacies contain inherent values. They are often entrenched in
dimensions derived from religion, gender, race, culture, identity, ideologies and power.
When we speak, write or read, we construct meaning by referencing a particular context.
More precisely, this act of constructing meaning that is called literacy is integrated into
the culture and the socio-political and socio-historical dimensions of a society and its
institutions. The meaning of literacies becomes operational and is realized from a specific
context in time and space where it finds itself and where it functions (p. 15). [Free
translation]

In an era of globalization and an evolving knowledge-based society, the conceptual framework of multiple
literacies serves to make family literacy practitioners more aware of the forms of knowledge belonging to
the minority community that is in the process of becoming and that must confront tensions and
ambiguities.