Why do international literacy policies, Freirean critical literacy teachers, and literacy students hold markedly dissimilar beliefs about literacy, and what difference does that divergence make in a literacy classroom? How are the supposed “consequences” of literacy, such as economic development, political empowerment, and human development more broadly, shaped by these understandings, as well as other factors? What are the contradictions and limitations of Freirean, critical literacy philosophies and pedagogies.

Drawing on two years of ethnographic research of Brazil, this book examines how cultural politics shape the teaching, learning and uses of literacy. Drawing on the fields of anthropology, comparative and international education, and literacy studies, the author offers a powerful critique of development discourses surrounding literacy even as she contributes a constructive re-imaging of critical literacy and critical pedagogy.