The Psychology of Developmen t and the Psychology of Literacy: A Poin t of Intersection

Abstract

The correlations between literacy and development are universally recognised, though not always fully understood. Since the individual is the locus of all learning as well as the agent of all development actions, psychological approaches to the study of the relationship between literacy and development should be promising. The essential question in the psychology of development is: What type and quality of human psyche is relatively more amenable to generating and sustaining development, both at the personal and societal levels? The essential question in the psychology of literacy is: What effect, if any, does literacy learning have on the psyche of the new literate? Finally, at the intersection of these two research and theory traditions lies another question: What is the role of literacy in development? Formulated in practical terms, we can ask the question: At this historical time, in the midst of the International Literacy Year, 1990, is development in the Third World possible without the universalisation of literacy in the region?

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