Chapter 2
Issues in Literacy Practice and Policy

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, literacy has been the subject of much public discussion, many reports, and much publicity. Politicians' speeches, and prefaces to policy documents, commonly assert the importance of improvements in literacy. Millions of dollars have been spent on public awareness activities. These often let the public know that some government or organization is promoting and perhaps involved in teaching literacy; and they likely generate some public support for that activity. And, although the studies available show repeatedly that word-of-mouth recruitment is central in attracting students to programs, public awareness (sometimes even called "marketing") must help.

In many forums, views of action for literacy have been articulated — literacy "consultations" bringing together members of different sectors of society; public policy forums attended by business, labour and government leaders; provincial advisory committees; interministerial committees; coalitions and alliances of practitioners; literacy conferences; and others. Reports and action plans have been developed concerning literacy and health, literacy and the law, literacy and the public schools, literacy and social service organizations, and so on. Most of these forums for discussion have had funding from the National Literacy Secretariat. They have resulted in pressure on provincial and territorial governments (not on the federal government) to increase support for literacy programming.

I
Is it government policy to create a literate society?

Beyond noting that progress has been made, it is fitting in a review of the state of literacy work actually to examine the political will for literacy — whether creating a literate society is a serious goal of literacy policy in Canada. To do so, we should both review the scope of goals and plans in official policy documents, and give an accounting of actual levels of adult literacy activity.