Applying Earlier Literacy Research in Iran to Current Literacy Theory and Policy

In this paper, I attempt to bring together approaches to literacy in theory and in practice, drawing upon various activities I have been involved in over the years–research in Iranian villages during the 1970s; linking research and theory to literacy policy, with particular reference to a contribution to the Unesco Global Monitoring Report in 2004 and involvement in an ongoing adult literacy training programme appropriately entitled Learning Empowerment through Training in Ethnographic Research (LETTER). IJSCL is interested in publishing original research and review articles on the relationship between society, culture, and language and in particular ‘linking sound theoretical approaches on these fields with visible practical applications that can be used by specialists in anthropology, sociology, linguistics, education, intercultural studies, and policy making’. I hope that this piece on literacy, with due reference to work in Iran, will fit with that brief.