Cultural literacy

Cultural literacy is familiarity with and ability to understand the idioms, allusions, and informal content that create and constitute a dominant culture. From being familiar with street signs to knowing historical references to understanding the most recent slang, literacy demands interaction with the culture and reflection of it. Knowledge of a canonical set of literature is not sufficient in and of itself when engaging with others in a society, as life is interwoven with art, expression, history, and experience. Cultural literacy requires familiarity with a broad range of trivia and implies the use of that trivia in the creation of a communal language and collective knowledge. Cultural literacy stresses the knowledge of those pieces of information that content creators will assume the audience already possesses.

See also

• Cultural competence
• Educational essentialism

Further reading

• E. D. Hirsch Jr. (1987). Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-43095-X. 
• Christenbury, Leila "Cultural Literacy: A Terrible Idea Whose Time Has Come" The English Journal 78.1 (January 1989), pp. 14-17.
• Broudy, Harry S. "Cultural Literacy and General Education" Journal of Aesthetic Education 24.1, (Special Issue: Cultural Literacy and Arts Education,Spring, 1990), pp. 7-16.
• Anson, Chris M. "Book Lists, Cultural Literacy, and the Stagnation of Discourse" The English Journal 77.2 (February 1988), pp. 14-18.
• Zurmuehlen, Marilyn "Serious Pursuit of Cultural Trivialization" Art Education 42.6 (November 1989), pp. 46-49.
• Simpson, Alan "The Uses of "Cultural Literacy": A British View" Journal of Aesthetic Education 25.4, 25th Anniversary Issue Winter, 1991), pp. 65-73.
• Reedy, Jeremiah "Cultural Literacy and the Classics" The Classical Journal 84.1 (October 1988), pp. 41-46.
• Murray, Denise E. Diversity as Resource. Redefining Cultural Literacy (Alexandria, Virginia) 1994.

External links

• E. D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, James Trefil, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy 3rd ed. (Houghton Mifflin) 2002.
• Free Cultural Literacy Tests

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This sociology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Culture terms Culture stubs Sociology stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР? Constance of Sicily George Pataki Look at other dictionaries: cultural literacy — cultural literacy, knowledge of the history, literature, music, art, science, and other aspects of a particular culture: »How, for instance, would Amy and her peers perform on Prof. E.D. Hirsch s recently published test of the 5,000 indicators of …   Useful english dictionary cultural literacy — noun Knowledge of and ability to discuss the history of and major concepts underlying a culture, particularly ones own and those of ones peers. Critics of contemporary culture generally posit a steep decline in cultural literacy …   Wiktionary Cultural health — is an education discipline, that facilitates being in possession of accurate cultural information, leading to a productive psychosocial orientation to a culture or cultures. Cultural Health implies intra, and/or inter, cultural competence… …   Wikipedia Cultural Detective — is a core process for improving collaboration, productivity, satisfaction and effectiveness in an international or multicultural environment. The project is noteworthy for two primary reasons: it is a collaborative project of over 130 worldwide… …   Wikipedia Literacy — Global adult literacy according to the CIA Factbook …   Wikipedia cultural\ latency — The converse of cultural literacy, which measures how versed one is on the music, literature, and events of the times, cultural latency is a measure of how far behind the times one has become. Chuck s dad still thinks that going into the crane… …   Dictionary of american slang cultural\ latency — The converse of cultural literacy, which measures how versed one is on the music, literature, and events of the times, cultural latency is a measure of how far behind the times one has become. Chuck s dad still thinks that going into the crane… …   Dictionary of american slang Cultural studies — is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely… …   Wikipedia Cultural-historical psychology — (also called the school of Vygotsky, sociocultural psychology, socio historical psychology, activity theory, cultural psychology, cultural historical activity theory, and social development theory) is a theory of psychology founded by Lev… …   Wikipedia Cultural competence — refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures, particularly in the context of human resources, non profit organizations, and government agencies whose employees work with persons from different cultural/ethnic… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”