Reading and writing practices of peasant women: reflections from some appropriation stories

Abstract

This text aims to present practices of reading and writing of peasant women with little schooling. The study is part of the research on the ways of participating in cultural practices related to reading and writing through different instances of socialization. It arose from the assumption that there is no written culture yet, but rather a diversity of writing cultures that vary according to the context of use and learning that are not exclusively dependent on written language based on the alphabetic system. The research methodology followed an orientation of the qualitative research presuppositions. We used oral history, a field diary made up of the literacy events observed in the CEBs and interviews, in order to identify forms of access and appropriation of written materials. In addition, the meanings, roles, and conceptions that CEB leaders attribute to reading and writing are presented, specifically from some appropriation histories. Through the procedures adopted in the analysis of the data it was possible to interpret that the different forms of participation in the writing cultures of these women are based on the mediation between the oral and the written.

Keywords

• Peasant Women
• Writing Cultures
• Literacy
• CEBs
• Citizen Participation