From adult literacy to reading promotion for children: Changing literacy practices in Acadia
Over the course of my research on the discourses and representations on the issue of literacy in Acadia, I have noted a number of changes over time. One of the most notable of these changes concerns the demographic targeted by the actions underway to improve the literacy of the population. The objective of this article is to uncover the evolution of these discourses as concerns their contribution to the construction of a certain social reality. This analysis, which is both qualitative and interpretative, draws on exhaustive data collected from the daily newspaper L’Acadie nouvelle since its creation in 1984. The end of the last century was characterized by the promotion of actions aimed at adults who were struggling to find their place in a job market that was demanding more and more communication skills from its workforce. From the 2000s onward, however, the campaign of family literacy began targeting a new audience, namely that of younger family members and, in particular, children. The home became the setting for introducing improvements. This reflects a broader evolution in the social and economic issues surrounding language training in populations. This study shows that Acadia, considered by many to be a unique kind of minority language community, is part of a larger trend that views the acquisition of reading and writing skills by the population to be critical for the States economic development.