Building and Enhancing New

Literacies across Curriculum

- Literacy In the 21st Century

- Globalization and Cultural &
Multicultural Literacies
Week 2
Building and Enhancing New Literacies
across Curriculum

 What was our discussion all about

last meeting? TCL
 What are the three sub-categories
of the concept of literacies
according to Miller? BCFL
 What is the UNESCO’s definition
of Literacy? K___ about s_____
what to d__ with it.”
 Literacy in the 21st Century

When viewed from the perspective of literacy as “knowledge”, the new

literacies begin to make as they begin to make sense as they are the “skill and
body of knowledge” that are necessary for survival and productivity in the
information age.
Literacy in the 21st Century

 The new literacies are not “new” per se – as in the sense that they never existed before.
Rather, we consider them to be new because the contexts in which old skills and
knowledge are being employed are new, both in nature and in scope.
 The ability to translate textual information into images is not a new skill, but it is the
ability to do so in a way that is concise, complete and clear that is certainly new, given
that it will be how ninety percent of the people will be informed on the issue.
 Case in point: Throughout history, humans have communicated on levels apart from
the spoken and written word, for example, visually, using the long-distance
communication system of smoke signals used by the ancient Chinese, the ancient
Greece, and the indigenous people of North America.
 In the Victorian Era, there was such a thing as the “Language of Flowers” where the
kind, color and arrangement of a bouquet of flowers were used to communicate
messages that could not otherwise be spoken aloud in Victorian society. For
example, a bouquet of oak leaves (represents strength), purple roses (sorrow), white
lilies (resurrection), yellow tulips and rosemary (memory or remembrance) would
altogether communicate a message of sympathy, usually over the death of a loved
one.
 Successfully interpreting these “visual languages” required a kind of “visual
literacy” to understand the message being presented and to manage the information
encoded therein – the difference is that now we are not analyzing smoke signals or
bouquets, but rather sounds, texts, and images from hundred difference sources at a
nearly non-stop rate to the points where accuracy, validity and reliability of the
messages we interpret form the basis for some very important personal and
collective decision-making.
 Another difference involves a question of necessity: One did not need to be literate
in the language of flowers to live a fruitful life in Victorian Era but to be not media
or digitally literate in the 21st century makes one vulnerable to manipulation by those
who are – individual time, money, property, and even life.
 These so-called “new” literacies arose from the increasing availability of
communication technologies that were once unavailable to the average individual.
 Technologies like blogging and vlogging, social networking, and even text-
messaging change and expand both the extent and the form of our communication.
Three things that have been critical in
the rise of the new literacies:
 1. Increased Reach – we are communicating with more people,
from more diverse cultures, across vaster distance than ever
before.
 2. Increased Means of Communication – we are
communicating in more ways and at faster speeds than ever
before.
 3.Increased Breadth of Content – we are communicating about
more things rather than ever before.
New Literacies in the 21st Century
 A. Globalization and Multicultural Literacy – the increasing ability to
communicate with almost anyone, anywhere, in real time requires new skills
and attitudes in interacting with people with different cultures, etc.
 B. Social Financial Literacy – explores the need for the ability to navigate
our own social networks.
 C. Media and Cyber/Digital Literacies – explore the emerging need to
locate, verify, and ultimate manage online information.
 D. Ecoliteracy and Artistic and Creative Literacy – explores how this in
productivity also brings with it an increase demand for arts and aesthetic and
the need to develop ways of effective communicating through creative arts.
 E. Critical Literacy – addressing the need to discern the underlying messages
behind the new “text” f the 21st century – ideas, culture, etc.
 Globalization and
Cultural &
Multicultural Literacies
 Globalization –
 It is the process of interaction and integration between people, business
entities, government, and cultures from other nations, driven by
international trade and investment and supported by information
technology.
 Millions of people in two hundred countries, where we are no longer
integrating just languages or mannerisms or food recipes, but everything
from styles of clothing, forms of entertainment, education, technology,
manufacturing, ways of doing business, ideas, and a whole worldviews
– this is globalization as we knew.
Globalization and Cultural & Multicultural Literacies
 Globalization as a phenomenon is not new. Nations and cultures have been interacting and
integrating with one another for millennia.
 For example, the ancient Greek’s culture was so widespread across Mediterranean that even
Egyptians could speak their language, the Rome was inspired by the Greek culture that they
adopted the wholesale, or the Chinese, Arab and Indian cultures have become part of our
own, and etc.
 The difference now is the speed at which globalization is happening, its overall scope, and
its effects on the lives of ordinary people.
 Not only are we interacting with, learning from, and integrating knowledge gleaned from
other cultures and nations at an unprecedented rate.
 Globalization and its effects are inescapable – even remote villages will be exposed to the
latest KPOP hit if they have access to a radio, if they produce rice, they will also feel the
effects of more affordable rice imports from Thailand and Vietnam or the fluctuation of oil
prices originating fro Arab nations. – This thins take place without having to know anyone
from or anything about those mentioned countries.
Describe the following based on globalization or
Multicultural Literacy.

 Bernard Arnault
 Vanessa Hudgens
 ICC
 Dalai Lama
 Marlon Tapales
The Effects of Globalization (multi-dimensional)

Meyer (2000)

 Economic, political, and military dependence and

interdependence between nations.
 Expanded flow of individual people among societies.
 Interdependence of excessive culture among nations.
 Expanded flow of instrumental culture around the
world.
The Effects of Globalization (multi-dimensional)

1. Economic Dependence/ Interdependence

 By attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), new technologies employment
opportunities, and money have come into the country. (Example, a taxi driver owning
multiple smartphones to browse social media while stuck in a traffic because of the rise of
the number of vehicles on the roads.)

2. Political and Military Dependence/Interdependence

- The Philippines is depending on the US’ political and military power in order to maintain
its sovereignty as a nation-state in the Southeast Asia region, and even in case of war. (The
participating nations (different countries) strive hard to protect their investments and interests
in one another.)
The Effects of Globalization (multi-dimensional)

3. Expanded Flow of Expressive and Instrumental Culture

 This is how a culture expresses itself in its language, music, arts, and the like. Globalization
encourages the monetization of these cultural artifacts and their import/export among participating
cultures. (Example, KPOP music and culture is practically ubiquitous in the country, also skin care
and noodles, another example is the Philippine educational system that is closely pattern after the
American education system.)
4. Expanded Flow of People among Societies
 Globalization encourages the movement of people between nation-states. There were 2.3 Million
OFWs (April to Sept 2017) that were responsible for the 205.2 Billion pesos in remittance. (PSA,
2018)
 Three reasons for this:
 A. Socio-economic migration explains OFW travels abroad to find better economic opportunities,
 B. Political Expulsion tries to escape the political climate of a particular country.
 C. Travel/Tourism (for the sake of leisure) – Filipinos are able to finance and short-term travel
abroad, fueled by curiosity that is fed by social media and enable by globalization.
Cultural Literacy
 Cultural Literacy is a term refers to the ability to
understand the signs and symbols of a given culture
and being able to participate in its activities and
customs as opposed to simply being a passive
observer.
 The signs and symbols of a culture include both its
formal and informal languages, its idioms and forms
of expression, entertainment, values, customs, roles,
traditions, and the like.
 Thus, they are learned by being part of the culture,
rather than by any formal means.
Cultural Literacy
 The ability to understand the similarities and the differences on
beliefs, customs, traditions of one’s own culture and the cultures of
others.
 Cultural literacy is culture-specific, but it is not limited to national
cultures, contrary to what many people assume.
 The culture of one workplace can be very different from another,
just as the culture of a particular school can differ widely from
another school nearby.
 There are far too many cultures for any one person to be literate in
all of them.
 As more and more Filipinos travel – both domestically and abroad
– as the result of globalization and the increased opportunities it
brings, the need to develop new cultural literacies comes to the
fore.
Cultural Literacy in the Philippines
 The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) is the
government body tasked with the documentation, preservation,
and dissemination of the Philippine culture, both locally and
abroad.
 Part of how the NCCA is addressing this and related matters is
through the establishment of the Philippine Cultural Education
Program (PCEP), which “envisions a nation of culturally literate
and empowered Filipinos.”
 Designed to make a cultural education accessible to all sectors of
Philippine society, the PCEP held national consultative meetings,
conferences, workshops, art camps, and festivals on culture-based
teaching and good governance from 2003 to 2007.
Cultural Literacy in the Philippines
 PCEP has been designated as the body, together with the Department of
Education (DepEd), tasked to “formulate the cultural heritage education
programs both for local and overseas Filipinos” that are to be an integral part of
Philippine education in all its aspects.
 Cultural education and thus cultural literacy – in the Philippines is quite a
challenge, given that Philippine culture is a complex blend of many indigenous
and colonial cultures and varies widely across region, and the average citizen is
almost as ignorant of other Philippine cultures as foreigners are.
 To point out, consider the question, “What makes something or someone
‘Filipino’?”
Cultural Literacy in the Philippines
 De Leon (2011) coins this propensity for Filipino to look at their culture
and themselves through Western lenses as the Doňa Victorina Syndrome,
a kind of inferiority complex wherein anything and everything natively
Filipino is considered by the Filipinos themselves as being inferior,
backward and worthless in comparison to their Western counterparts and
therefore a source of embarrassment and unease.
 The biggest challenge then is the deconstruction of the of the negative
self-images and notions of ourselves that we have imbibed over
generations more responsive and sensitive to Filipino dignity, needs,
values, and cultural potentials and assets.
Challenges for Cultural Literacy
in the Philippines

 As Applebee (1987) observes, interesting discussions on cultural literacy give rise to some
very difficult questions which are particularly important to a multicultural and multilingual
nation like the Philippines.
 1. What kinds of knowledge constitute cultural literacy? Is it knowing facts, names, dates or
is it something more experiential like being familiar with a story or a particular song?
 If culture is more “caught than taught, “ should cultural literacy be one of the goals of
education? If yes, does one teach?
 Whose cultures must we be literate in to be considered “culturally literate”? Who decides
which cultures are included and which ones to express its dominance on what base?
 How is cultural literacy to be assessed and evaluated? How can we know someone is
“cultural literate?
 Is cultural literacy education a means fro the dominant culture to express its dominance over
minority culture?
When you hear or see the words, what comes to your
mind?

DSWD
September 5, 2022
Sweetpotato and Sweet potato
St. Louis University, Tuguegarao
Forda ferson
China
Building and Enhancing New
Literacies across Curriculum

Multicultural Literacies

Week 3
Multicultural Literacy
 Multicultural literacy – as a set of skills and knowledge is difficult to define because of how it
changes depending on the contexts in which it is discussed.
 For example, multicultural literacy as defined in American literature to define from how it is
developed in a more European context.
 In America, multicultural literacy has a very strong learnings toward knowing or identifying the
poly-ethnic origins of knowledge with the express goal of fostering quality, diversity and social
justice.
 We define multicultural literacy in the Philippines as the knowledge and skills necessary to
ensure that any communication with a culture different from our own is a clear, product and
respectful such that their differences are celebrated and neither culture is demeaned or treated as
inferior.
 It is important to realize that under this definition, a “different culture” is not just limited to
“someone from other country,” but could also include someone whose gender, economic,
background, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or even sense fashion is difficult from our own.
Manner and Motives behind Communication
 The skills and knowledge required for one to be multi-culturally literate are not mere language
skills, since it is assumed that some medium of communication already exists between two
cultures.
 Rather, true multicultural literacy consist of perspective, attitudes and beliefs about other
cultures that affect the manner in which we communicate and the motives behind our
communication.

 Motives:
 1. Be selfless
 One that is less concerned with how I feel and more concerned with how I am making others
feel. – crucial to the multicultural literacy, as so much of the offense and conflict associated
with the meeting of different cultures is the result of a “me first” attitude: (I should be
accommodated, you should be the one to adjust to me, I should feel comfortable with you
before I make efforts to make you feel comfortable, etc.)
 Such selflessness is not instinctive to people, and is especially difficult when one feels
insecure of oneself and identity.
Manner and Motives behind Communication
Motives:
 2. Know the good and useful things can (and do) come from those different from us.
 Hand-in-hand with a dismissive attitude toward another culture is the idea that nothing good can come from
them.
 Furthermore, there is a tendency to ignore or outright dismiss evidence to the contrary.
 Simply acknowledging that good ideas and products have come from cultures we might not like goes a long way
in preparing our minds to perceive them as being equally valuable.

 3. Be willing to compromise
 Any significant interaction with someone from a different culture is governed by the principle of “He/She wants
something, and I want something.”
 In other words, cultures do not interact out of pure magnanimity.
 If both are unwilling to give what the other what they want, well and good, but what happens when one of both
are unwilling to give what the others wants?
Manner and Motives behind Communication
Motives:
 4. Accept that there are limits
 At some point, one of both cultures will be
unwilling/unable to adjust their wants for the sake of the
other any further.
 Beyond this point, the productivity of the interaction drops
and one must either change the purpose of the interaction
or walk away, accepting that what you want cannot be had
from that particular source.
 Attempting to force the other party to adjust only results in
misunderstanding, hurt, and conflict.
 The sooner we accept this, the sooner we can set realistic
expectations of one another.
 Issues in teaching and Learning
Multicultural Literacy in the Philippines