This document discusses metaliteracy from the perspective of an expert in South Africa. It begins by providing context about the author's location and how that has shaped his views. It then summarizes the key aspects of metaliteracy as proposed by Mackey and Jacobson, focusing on understanding formats, evaluating information critically, and participating ethically. The author argues that critical consciousness must underlie metaliteracy for it to be a tool for agency. He analyzes how various 21st century discourses shape understandings of literacy and proposes viewing metaliteracy through the lens of Bourdieu's field theory to understand how habitus, capital, and field interact to shape one's literacy practices and agency. The document concludes by emphas

1. Metaliteracy in beta:
A personal view from
the South
By Dr Paul Prinsloo
Directorate: Curriculum and Learning Development
University of South Africa (Unisa)
Twitter profile: @14prinsp

2. Metaliteracy in beta – the storyline…
Clarifying my
own position
Quick recap of
metaliteracy
In order to read
the word, I need
to read the world
Making sense of
some of the
discourses of the
21st century world
In order to be
literate in a
networked and
(un)flat world I
need to know…
Metaliteracy in
beta – a proposal
(In)conclusions

3. Disclaimer
• I don’t claim to present a global view, not even a “view from
the South, ” or an “African” perspective
• My views have been shaped by my location – not only as
part of the developing world, but from a continent that is
(often) portrayed as a dark, and “failed” continent
• Africa, as part of the “global south,” increasingly contests
historical descriptions and definitions and exclusions from
decisions that (in)directly affect us
• My views have been shaped and continue to be shaped by a
number of authors and works, such as …

5. Metaliteracy in beta: discourses not
information
Information is never neutral and always in service of
or used to contest dominant discourses.
We therefore need to understand information as field
with different players, and different
agendas, rules, power-relations, inclusion and
exclusion

6. Metaliteracy (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011)
Image retrieved from retrieved from http://metaliteracy.cdlprojects.com/what.htm
Understand format
type and delivery
mode
Evaluate user
feedback as active
researcher
Create a context
for user-generated
information
Evaluate dynamic
content critically
Produce original
content in multiple
media formats
Understand
personal
privacy, information
ethics and
intellectual property
issues
Share information in
participatory
environments
Mackey, T.P., & Jacobson, T.E. (2011). Reframing
information literacy as metaliteracy. College &
Research Libraries, 72(1), 62-78.

7. Web 2.0 is a huge information
warehouse
THE UNIVERSAL LIBRARY
Web 2.0 is a jigsaw puzzle of
fragmented interconnected
pieces
THE HYPERTEXTUAL
CONNECTION
Web 2.0 is a vast souk or
market of digital services and
products
THE GLOBAL MARKET
Web 2.0 is a stage for
multimodal expression
MULTIMEDIA & AUDIOVISUAL
COMMUNICATION
Web 2.0 is a public space or
assembly of human interaction
SOCIAL NETWORKS
Web 2.0 is an artificial
ecosystem for human
experience
VIRTUAL INTERACTIVE
ENVIRONMENTS
WEB 2.0
Area, M., & Pessoa, T. (2012). From the solid to the liquid: New literacies for the cultural changes of Web 2.0. Communicar. Scientific
Journal of Media Communication. DOI: 10.3916/C38-2011-02-01. http://www.revistacomunicar.com/pdf/preprint/38/En-01-PRE-
12378.pdf
From the solid to the liquid: New literacies for the cultural
changes of Web 2.0

8. Liquid metaliteracy (Area & Pessoa, 2012; Mackey &
Jacobson, 2011)
Mackey & Jacobson (2011) Area & Pessoa (2012)
Understand format type and delivery mode Instrumental competence: “technical control over
each technology and its logical use procedures”
Evaluate user feedback as active researcher Cognitive-intellectual competence: “the
acquisition of specific cognitive knowledge and
skills that enable the subject to search for, select,
analyze, interpret and recreate the vast amount of
information to which he (sic) has access *to+…”
Create a context for user-generated information
Evaluate dynamic content critically Socio-communicative competence: “the
development of a set of skills related to the
creation of various text types… and their
dissemination in different languages”
Produce original content in multiple media
formats
Understand personal privacy, information ethics
and intellectual property issues
Axiological competence: “referring to the
awareness that ICT are not aseptic or neutral from
the social viewpoint but exert a significant
influence on the cultural and political
environment of our society…”
Share information in participatory environments

9. Critical consciousness as the foundation for metaliteracy as
agency
Understand format type and
delivery mode
Evaluate user feedback as
active researcher
Create a context for user-
generated information
Evaluate dynamic content
critically
Produce original content in
multiple media formats
Understand personal
privacy, information ethics
and intellectual property
issues
Share information in
participatory environments
METALITERACYMETALITERACY

10. “The act of learning to read and write start from a very comprehensive
understanding of the act of reading the world, something which humans
do before reading the words” (Freire, 1989, p. xvii; emphasis added)
“To be illiterate, for Freire, was not only the lack of skills of reading or
writing; it was to feel powerless and dependent in a much more general
way …” (Burbules & Berk, 1999, p. 52)
In order to read the world, I therefore need to be able to map who
shapes/shaped my world, the reasons for it, how the shape influences
where I am and the choices I have, what the rules of my world are and
who benefits from those rules (and my adherence) and how to disrupt
and formulate alternative narratives, for myself and for others.
Critical consciousness as the foundation for metaliteracy

11. Making sense of the 21st century
Our understanding of the scope and function of
literacies is influenced by our understanding of the
major discourses of the current (and future) age

12. “A global cocktail of intolerable poverty and
outrageous wealth, starvation, mass terrorism with
nuclear/biological weapons, world war, deliberate
pandemics and religious insanity, might plunge
humanity into a worldwide pattern of unending
hatred and violence – a new Dark Age” (Martin, 2007,
p. 32)
A new dark age?
How does such a view of the world shape my view of the
scope, definition and function of literacy?

13. Meta/discourseliteracy
Rampant consumerism and
rapacious capitalism
“From cradle to coffin we are
trained and drilled to treat shops
as pharmacies filled with drugs to
cure or at least mitigate all the
illnesses and afflictions in our
lives…” (Bauman, 2012, p. 89)
• The myth of economic growth
• Downward mobility
Local and global (dis)connections
and contestations
Finding local answers to globally
produced problems? (Bauman,
1998; Bauman, 2012; Castells,
2009)
A networked age
Not everyone is included, but
everyone is affected… “Networks
are created not just to
communicate, but also to gain
position, to outcommunicate”
(Geoff Mulgan in Castells, 2009, p. 26)
Personal privacy and state
security
• Collection and use of personal
data
• Crusades, jihads and the clash
of fundamentalisms
• “Ubiquitous mixophobia”
(Bauman, 2012, p. 63) –
Growth of interdictory spaces
& gated communities
(Bauman, 2012, p. 68)….
Meta/discourseliteracy

15. Image retrieved from http://www.allstaractivities.com/images/soccer-positions.gif
In order to be literate/ a player in the 21st century I
need to understand the field, the game, and my
position, and my skills
• Boundaried site
• Players have set/
predetermined
positions
• Rules are
predetermined
• Players have different
skills
• What players can do is
determined by their
position on the field
• The physical condition
of the field impacts play

16. Image retrieved from http://envirolaw.com/wp-
content/uploads/black-student.jpg
CAPITAL:
What type of “capital” I
have or don’t have
• Economic
• Cultural
• Social
• Symbolic
HABITUS: Who and how
my past shaped/shapes
me:
• Genetic makeup
• Gender
• Race
• Socio-economic circumstances
• Parental background
• Geopolitical location
• Educational experiences
• Health
• The choices I made in the
past…
• My dispositions
• Etc.
These are durable and
transposable (Maton, 2012)
In order to be literate in a networked and (un)flat world
I need to know…
THE FIELD:
How does the field in which I
find myself in, shape me?
What/who shapes the field?
Who are the (other) players
in the field:
• Who are they?
• How come they are
shapers?
• What are the rules?
• Who are the referees?

17. Looking at metaliteracy from a field theory (Bourdieu)
perspective
The “field” is not a benign, pastoral space, but rather le champ – a battle
field, where players have set positions, predetermined paces, specific rules which
novice players must learn together with basic skills.
“What players can do, and where they can go during the game, depends on their
field position. The actual physical condition of the field (whether it is
wet, dry, well grassed or full of potholes), also has an effect on what players can
do and this how the game is played” (Thompson, 2012, p. 66).
[(habitus)(capital)] + field = practice/agency
(Maton, 2012, p. 50)

18. A field theory perspective on agency
My dispositions - how
my past and present (and
my understanding
thereof) shaped and still
shape me
The capital that I have
acquired in the process
(or not)
The field – the
context in which I
find myself in. This
is not a neutral
space, but
is, itself, shaped by
various
structures, and
agencies of
individuals and
collectives
My practice/agency and my
understanding thereof…
We are not “pre-programmed automatons acting out the
implications of our upbringings” (Maton, 2012, p. 50).

19. “…where we are in life in any one moment [is+… the result of numberless events
in the past that shaped our path” (Maton, 2012, p. 51).
Literacy and agency is understanding that the choices we have in any particular
moment and time in a specific context, are shaped by the positions we have in
that particular social field at that moment in time.
Complicating matters is the fact that the context we find ourselves in (at that
particular moment in time), has itself been shaped by and is shaped by other
contexts, individuals in an evolving power play.
Being literate in a networked and (un)flat world it is
important to know…

20. HABITUS
FIELD
CAPITAL
Image retrieved from
http://metaliteracy.cdlprojects
.com/what.htm

21. (In)conclusions
1. We need to understand the emergence of social media in the broader
context of political, economic, social, technological, legal and
environmental discourses and contestations.
2. It is crucial to understand who produces (and consumes) information,
for what purpose, what claims are made, and who/what
supports/excludes the producers and claims
3. The production, reproduction, sharing, remixing of information is not a
neutral act but flows from and often perpetuates existing discourses
4. The need for critical and self-reflective agency has never been greater,
formulating alternative narratives, disrupting normative discourses and
asking new questions

22. Thank you. Ke a leboga.
Baie dankie
Dr Paul Prinsloo
Directorate for Curriculum and Learning Development (DCLD)
TVW 10-156
P O Box 392
Unisa, 0003, Republic of South Africa
Personal blog: http://opendistanceteachingandlearning.wordpress.com
Twitter profile: @14prinsp
+27 (0) 12 429 3683 (office)
+27 (0) 12 429 3551 (fax)
+27 (0) 82 3954 113 (mobile)

23. References
Area, M., & Pessoa, T. (2012). From the solid to the liquid: New literacies for the cultural changes of Web 2.0.
Communicar. Scientific Journal of Media Communication. DOI: 10.3916/C38-2011-02-01.
http://www.revistacomunicar.com/pdf/preprint/38/En-01-PRE-12378.pdf
Bauman, Z. (1998). Globalization. The human consequences. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Bauman, Z. (2012a). On education. Conversations with Riccardo Mazzeo. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Bauman, Z. (2012b). Collateral damage. Social inequalities in a global age. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Burbules, N.C. & Berk, R. (1999). Critical thinking and critical pedagogy: relations, differences and limits, in Critical
theories in education: changing the terrains of knowledge and politics, edited by T.S. Popkewitz & L. Fendler.
New York: Routledge, pp. 45—66.
Castells, M (2009). Communication power. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Freire, P. (1973). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Freire, P. (1989). Learning to question: a pedagogy of liberation. New York: Continuum.
Ghemawat, P. (2011). World 3.0. Global prosperity and how to achieve it. Boston: Harvard Business School
Publishing.
Mackey, T.P., & Jacobson, T.E. (2011). Reframing information literacy as metaliteracy. College & Research
Libraries, 72(1), 62-78.
Martin, J. (2007). The meaning of the 21st century. A vital blueprint for ensuring our future. London, UK: Transworld
Publishers.
Maton, K. (2012). Habitus. In Michael Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu. Key concepts. Durham, UK : Acumen
Publishing, pp. 48—64.
Mayer-Schönberger, V. (2009). Delete. The virtue of forgetting in the digital age. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Thompson, P. (2012). Field. In Michael Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu. Key concepts. Durham, UK : Acumen
Publishing, pp. 65—82.