Family literacy and indigenous learning: perspectives from Malawi, Nepal, Ethiopia and the Philippines

Family literacy programmes in the Global South have tended to be modelled on US/UK approaches, underpinned by assumptions about nuclear families and promoting Western ‘schooled’ literacy. This webinar will present preliminary findings from the UKRI-funded research 'Family Literacy, Indigenous Learning and Sustainable Development Project' which set out to develop an alternative model of family literacy that could build on indigenous knowledge and everyday learning. Team members will share their ethnographic research on indigenous approaches to intergenerational learning and knowledge in Nepal, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Malawi, exploring literacy practices in relation to diverse livelihoods, religion, health, forestry and agriculture. The research aims to bring policymakers' and educators' attention to the disjunction between current mainstream approaches to adult/family literacy instruction and the ways in which adults and children learn in everyday life in order to enhance the contribution of education to sustainable development.