Blog 21, by William G. Brozo & Sari Sulkunen  

In this blog we want to stress one of the often-overlooked affordances of literacy – as a tool for action: in the workplace, in personal and community development, and for political and societal transformation. In an era that seems to prioritize basic reading skills and reading test performance above all else, there is an urgent need for a broader vision of the desired outcomes of a literate life.

What is left out when basic skills become an end in themselves is the understanding that literacy equips those who take advantage of this ever more essential technology with the tools for success in their personal, civic, and occupational worlds and, more critically, to act on insights and knowledge gleaned from engagement with multiple text forms (Cervetti & Pearson, 2023; Hofstetter, Stitcht, & Hofstetter, 1999). … Read the rest

ELINET Webinar series Multilingual Literacies Across Learning Contexts

In May 2025 Elinet organized successfully the second series of webinars.  We kindly ask you to share this information with any academics, teachers, teacher educators and others interested in educating students for multilingual literacies. We hope to see you at the events!

See and download the flyer here.

Seminar 1 Presenter: Aoife Ahern

Reading to Learn, Learning to Write, genre pedagogy in multilingual school contexts
Date: Thursday 29th May 2025
Time: 18:00–19:00 CET

Video

The webinar was recorded and is available here. 

Abstract

This talk will explain recent extensions, for second / additional language
learning contexts, of Rose & Martin’s (2012) approach to literacy education,
Reading to Learn. The approach is based on a carefully designed, scaffolded
teaching and learning cycle.… Read the rest

A blog by Winnie Giera

The research and teaching project Stop Bullying! A Drama Project focuses on promoting reading skills, self-efficacy and social interaction on the topic of bullying.

Bullying involves the repeated use of physical or psychological violence against an individual, often by classmates or even a teacher, in situations with a power imbalance (Holigas, 2004). One in six students experiences bullying, and 80% of these incidents occur within schools. Encouraging positive social interactions and fostering a sense of community through shared learning can help address this issue (Zeichen gegen Mobbing, n.d.). The research and teaching project Stop Bullying! A Drama Project by Prof. Winnie-Karen Giera focuses on improving reading skills, self-efficacy, and social interaction through a theatre project addressing bullying.

Germany signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007 and ratified it in 2008.… Read the rest

A Blog by Sari Sulkunen, Sandra Langer and Colin Harrison

The European Conference on Literacy was held in Chania, Greece, on June 24–26, 2024. Approximately 300 literacy scholars and practitioners from 40 countries gathered together to present their work and discuss literacy. The conference was co-organized by the Hellenic Association for Language and Literacy and the Federation of European Literacy Associations (FELA).

Together with many ELINET colleagues, we spent three interesting and illuminating days at the conference listening to intriguing presentations and discussing timely issues on literacy. Equally important were the numerous informal interactions with ELINET colleagues over coffee breaks, lunches, and dinners. We enjoyed meeting face-to-face instead of on Zoom!

The conference had invited three excellent keynote speakers that had different perspectives on literacy and nicely complemented each other’s views.… Read the rest

Have you already read the theme issue on the future of literacy by the European Lifelong Learning Magazine?

It includes interesting readings about the complexity of future literacy needs, data literacy, climate literacy, illiteracy and fighting disinformation.
In the theme issue also Elinet member Sari Sulkunen shares her thoughts about literacy in the current diverse textual world.
You can find the theme issue here. A direct link to an interview with our Elinet member Sari Sulkunen you can find here

ELINET’s “European Declaration of Digital Literacy as a Basic Right of Children” and the related presentation about the work results of our cross-cutting topic project on “Enhancing digital literacy skills in early and primary years’ education” have been presented at the 22^nd European Literacy Conference in July 2022 in Dublin and are now available on our website.

You can find both documents here:

 

Citizen Literacy Blog
John Casey, Diane Gardner

TETO: Test Early and Test Often!
The importance of user feedback in developing an adult literacy programme using modern technology.

Citizen Literacy is an adult literacy programme that uses integrated printed and digital resources to support tutors teaching adults how to read and write. Designing and creating such resources cannot be conducted in a feedback vacuum. The title of this blog is taken from the early days of user-centred feedback for the web and is more relevant than ever to those of us involved in using technology in education.

We have been working hard to meet the needs of low literacy adult learners and their tutors, by creating a structured, phonics-based programme which includes a focus on spelling, the alphabet and grammar.… Read the rest

ELINET wants to draw your attention to the 4th International Conference ‘Literacy and Contemporary Society. Transitions in Digital Learning’ on May 12 and 13 in Cyprus. The conference will be held online as a virtual conference.
From ELINET the chairs of the TWG Digital Literacy, Fabio Nascimbeni, and  Jeroen Clemens will give  presentations at this conference. 

The 4th International Conference Literacy and Contemporary Society: Transitions in Digital Learning focuses on the transformation of learning, being, and communicating, as an inherent characteristic of modern societies but as yet intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past year. The pandemic has accelerated the utilization of new literacy forms, practices, and spaces, and hybridized new and traditional literacies.
The wide transition to digital learning and communication exacerbated the need to critically engage with text and information, while also making visible broader challenges that have long permeated education and society.… Read the rest

Fabio Nascimbeni, member of the ELINET Board of Directors, authors the UNICEF Scoping Paper on Children Digital Literacy. Fabio has been leading a research on behalf of UNICEF that has culminated with the publication of the UNICEF Scoping Paper “Digital Literacy for Children”.
The paper presents a definition and some possible competencies frameworks for children digital literacy, closing the gap connected to the fact that children are not specifically targeted by most existing definitions and frameworks, and is particularly relevant in the present moment, as digital literacy of young people has become even more important due to the increase of time spent online by children.
The report is available here: https://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/reports/digital-literacy-children.