A comparative analysis of the current literacy policies of five european countries

Abstract

This paper is developed under the scope of a Portuguese study carried out in the University of Minho – within the framework of ELINET project (European Literacy Policy Network – EAC/S05/2013) – whose main goal is to characterize adolescents’ literacy policies and practices from Portugal, Spain, Greece, Romania, and Ireland. The selection of those countries is grounded on two reasons: the existing educational and socioeconomic similarities among them, and the fact of they are the most effected by the economic crisis in Europe. For this qualitative research, it was adopted a ‘top-down’ approach, drawing on international research to define the areas, sub-areas and preliminary features of literacy policies as well as the structure of template used to organize them. Based on those preliminary features and template, several examples were collected which were, in a second phase, analyzed through a content analysis of a range of different documents, and according to five categories defined a priori in agreement with the study goals.