THE PRACTICE OF MULTIPLE LITERACIES AND COMMUNICATION AMONG NANDI COUNTY RESIDENTS, KENYA

Abstract

Literacy as a social practice is basically not a universal construct in the sense that its specific manifestations and meanings vary across different cultures and contexts. The way literacy as a technology is used, valued, and transmitted differs significantly from one society to another. But as noted in its 2006 UNESCO Global Monitoring Report on “Literacy for Life”, it is limiting to promote a single universal literacy as there are different literacies and literacy practices. The term “Multiple literacies”, captures different literacies found in the linguistic, technological and cultural contexts in which literacy is practised. However, this development of the practice of multiple literacy remains largely under-investigated in Kenya, where multiple languages and literacies abound. Further still, multiple literacies as connected to power dynamics have hardly been investigated. As multiple literacies gain traction, there is need to give different strands of literacy practices more scholarly attention. This study set out to investigate multiple literacies under the following objectives: to explore ways in which Nandi County residents use multiple literacy practices in their everyday life; to assess power dynamics in the practice of multiple literacies and to examine the importance of multiple literacies in these people‟s lives. The study adopted a qualitative mixed method research design underpinned by Street‟s Model of literacy as a social practice, Lotman‟s Theory of Cultural Semiotics as well as Foucault‟s theory of Literacy power relations. The study used a purposive stratified sample of 36 respondents drawn from a mix of intercultural contexts in Nandi County. Data were generated using face to face interviews, observations, in-built audio and video recording, research diaries and documentations. The results of the study demonstrate significant ways in which residents in Nandi County use multiple literacies in their everyday lives ranging from literacies of farming, religion, sports, civic, business and education activities. In particular, the results reveal the use of digital (technology and media) literacy, visual (traditional and modern) literacy, cultural (artefacts) and textual literacy (reading and writing). These literacies were mediated through English, Kiswahili, Sheng and the mother tongue. Interfaced with these literacies are varied power dynamics and functional literacy roles. The results of the study are expected to benefit scholars in applied linguistics, policy makers and the general public.