Towards a glotopolitic and ethnographic perspective of literacies

Abstract

Based on anthropological studies about reading and writing, this article starts from the identification of a dualism between two perspectives: universalist and relativist. From two ethnographies, one in a reading club in a municipality near Bogotá and another in a literacy program for older adults in a suburban neighborhood of Bogotá, researchers identify in both contexts that both poles of dualism overlap in practice. Subsequently, the paper problematizes the dualistic view and recommends a glotopolitic and ethnographic approach to teaching reading and writing.