Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of Jyväskylä
Abstract
International comparisons of levels of literacy have in some countries been
interpreted as an indication of a prevailing literacy crisis that demands political
actions to avoid negative impact on national competitiveness, democracy, and
coherence. Special attention is focused in the Danish crisis discourse on literacy as
a reading competence and on migrants who, in particular, have become symbols of
the crisis. In this article, the values and beliefs embedded in the political actions
taken in the wake of the literacy crisis are analysed and the implications of the
functionally based discursive construction of the literacy crisis for migrants are
discussed. Based on an understanding of literacies as historically situated
practices and value systems it is argued that the construction of the Danish
literacy crisis can be seen as an ideological phenomenon aimed at changing
pedagogical and educational values and practices. In addition, the specific
construction of the literacy crisis leads to an increased pressure on migrants to
adjust and adapt to a monolingual standard of literacy, and to certain valued
literacy practices.peerReviewe