Part 1 Literacy processes - access to a symbolic system: the development of writing in the child, Alexander Luria; parallels between the perspectives of Alexander Luria and Emilia Ferreiro, Maria Thereza Fraga Rocco; educational tendencies in the beginning of reading and writing instruction, Berta P. De Braslavsky. Part 2 Learning and meaning in childhood: approaching knowledge and meaning elaboration in the classroom - some theoretical and methodological issues, Ana Luiza B. Smolka; why there might be several ways to read storybooks to preschoolers in Aotearoa (New Zealand) - models of tutoring and socio-cultural diversity in how families read books to preschoolers, Stuart McNaughton; literacy and language processes - orthographic and structural effects, Pratihibna Karanth. Part 3 Literacy and activity contexts in adulthood: illiterate adults in literate societies - interactions with a social world, Ann Hagell and Jonathan Tudge; schooling, literacy and social change - elements for a critical approach to the study of literacy, Angela B. Kleiman; conceptual organization and schooling, Marta Kohl de Oliveira; learning to write letters - semiotic mediation in literacy acquisition in adulthood, Simone Goncalves de Lima and Maria Helena Favero.