Literacy Practices and Literacy Events

Barton and Hamilton (1998) contrast literacy practices and literacy events. Literacy practices refer to the basic unit of a social theory of literacy. They are the "general cultural ways of utilising written language which people draw upon in their lives" (p. 6). Literacy practices are not observable behaviors, but social processes that connect people and involve values, attitudes, feelings and social relationships. They are the accepted ways of doing things (Barton, 1994). Cultural groups may have their own set of literacy practices which are shaped by social rules and "include shared cognitions represented in ideologies and social identities" (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; p. 7).

According to Barton and Hamilton (1998), literacy events arise from literacy practices. They are those observable activities where literacy has a key role (Heath, 1983). Usually there is written text, and there may be talk around the text. Many of the literacy events may be observed in regular and repeated routines or communicative situations in which people participate in home, school and community contexts. Some settings may be overtly instructional, while other ones are not. Knowledge of Barton and Hamilton's (1998) notion of literacy events helped to shape my views on the range of literacy in low-income homes, while Edwards' (1994) division of literacy events into the categories of activities of daily living, entertainment and religion guided the method of data collection in my study.