Writing for Professional Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Writing for Professional Practice - Essay Example This has resulted in the development of media and scientific literacies. While in the globalized world technologies spread at rapid pace, there are still over 860 million adults that are illiterate. Additionally, nearly 100 million lack access to school. The importance of literacy within contemporary society has not gone unnoticed. The United Nations has declared 2003-2012 the decade of Literacy as Freedom. The notion of literacy is witnessed in a variety of ways. This essay considers the various freedoms literacy offers in a globalized society. Analysis Considered from an overarching perspective literacy has been recognized as contributing to freedom in a variety of ways. An examination of literature on the subject of literacy freedom demonstrates thematic nodes. Many theorists have focused on literacy in terms of empowerment, including women’s right freedoms or emerging nations (Freire 2000; Freire 2005; Dighe 1994). Still, it’s clear that literacy extends to freedoms that relate to all elements of society. One freedom literacy affords individuals and populations is security. Indeed, insecurity has been prominently linked to illiteracy. This term is extended to insecurity in a variety of avenues. Not being able to read and write is a tremendously anxiety producing experience, as individuals fear social stigmatization, ridicule, or a variety of other conditions. While there is the potential that something awful may happen to an individual that is illiterate, Knobel (1999, p. 20) indicates that the very state of being illiterate is indicative of something terrible having happened. In many ways this perspective on literacy as granting the individual the freedom of mental and emotional help is not restricted to populations in Western societies, but can be extended globally, particularly in the emerging world. Bhasin (1984, p. 37) examined literacy in India. Specifically, she examined the construction and development of an educational institute named the Pratichi Trust. The study revealed that over time the girl’s that were admitted to the institute quickly gained the literacy skills of their male counterparts; in this way literacy afforded the freedom of gender equality. Gender equality, however, wasn’t the only freedom gained through this literacy. The study notes that soon the parents became involved and it encouraged a greater degree of community involvement and harmony. In Development As Freedom, Amartya Sen advances a framework that considers the relation between literacy and freedom (Sen 2000). The consideration of this framework reveals a number of prominent ways that literacy offers freedom in a globalized society. One of the central thorough-puts of Sen’s framework is the recognition that literacy often contributes to opportunities and options. The consideration in this way is that literacy must be considered in terms of development. This development extends to personal and professional modes and comprehensively influences the individual’s existence. Rather than specifically considering the way that literacy contributes to freedoms or the avoidance of unfreedoms, there is an emphasis on the social structures that the individual must navigate. The argument then is that development in literacy allows the individual the skills necessary for this navigation. Sen (2000, p. 284) writesn, â€Å"A child who is denied the opportunity of elementary schooling is not only deprived as a youngster, but also handicapped all through life (as a person unable to do certain basic things that rely on reading, writ- ing and arithmetic).† While Sen recognizes there are considerable freedoms that are achieved through literacy, perhaps even more important is the recognitio