The reading world of black workers

• Main Author: French, Edward.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Reading; Research; Blacks; Education; South Africa
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/17278

An understanding of the identity of reading and its social meanings should contribute to the quality of adult literacy work. This study is an inquiry into ways ot understanding reading, and specifically into its meaning and role in the lives of black workers in South Africa. The understanding of reading has been dominated by positivism, but 1ncreasing interest has been shown in the relationship cf literacy and society. However, even these approaches remain largely objective. Alternatives to objectivism are presented in some detail. This provides the background and rationale for a broad account of the social history and contexts of reading in black society in South Africa and for a study of what reading means to eighteen leading black employees at two East Rand factories. The reading world of black workers is characterised by various deprivations and disadvantages. The printed word is owned and controlled by white government and capital in a contradictory and contested hegemony, yet it is perceived positively as an aspect of our society in which black people participate fully, and from which they benefit unequivocally. Reading is understood in terms of aspirations to modernity and to be.ng at home in s national and cosmopolitan community. The experience of reading is felt to be vitally important, although it is not a major feature in the daily lives of most of the participants in this study. Newspapers occupy a dominant position in the reading world of black workers, but t ne level of critical awareness of the media would appeal to be low. The study as a whole works against reductionism; the tendency for literacy to be claimed in the name of instrumental purposes is contested. Implications of the study for adult education and research are briefly considered.