UNESCO Papers Cite Metaliteracy

Two new essays in a series of research papers published by UNESCO cite metaliteracy and promote the framework.  The series is entitled Conceptual Relationship of Information Literacy and Media Literacy in Knowledge Societies and includes an essay authored by Dr. Alice Y. L. Lee, Associate Professor at the Department of Journalism from the Hong Kong Baptist University in China entitled “Literacy and Competencies Required to Participate in Knowledge Societies: WSIS+10: Overview and Analysis of WSIS Action Lines C3 Access to Knowledge and C9 Media.”  Lee references our article “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy” and summarizes several key points reinforcing that “metaliteracies are critical thinking and collaboration abilities in a digital age that provide a comprehensive framework from which to effectively participate in social media and online communities” (25).  In a second essay entitled “Conceptual Relationship of Information Literacy and Media Literacy: Consideration within the broader Mediacy and Metaliteracy Framework” Dr. Toni Carbo, Teaching Professor at Drexel University’s College of Information Science and Technology (The iSchool) states that “Metaliteracy comes full circle to the concepts introduced originally by Zurkowski and in ‘Mediacy’ in 1997 and expands the context into social media and the civil society” (99).  Carbo concludes her essay by stating: “This suggests an important role for UNESCO in bringing together both experts and other individuals from different cultures, age groups and disciplines to shape a true Metaliteracy program to improve the quality of life for all” (99).  We appreciate this recent attention to the metaliteracy framework and agree that it has broader implications for how we understand literacy in larger global contexts.  Perhaps our new learning objectives could advance this idea further.

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