The Concept of Literacy under Analysis: Towards a Discursive Perspective of Alphabetization

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the political and pedagogical relations between the concepts of alphabetization and literacy, as they are studied in Brazil. The concept of literacy is examined in terms of a compensatory strategy and the process of alphabetization is understood as a discursive process. In Brazil, there has been a historical struggle to universalize both reading and writing learning knowledge in a socially meaningful way. Bakhtin’s enunciation theory is a theoretical basis to examine alternative ways to discuss this question.