Volume: 19  Number: 1  Page: 1–9

Identity Work and Cultural Artefacts in Literacy Learning and Use: A Sociocultural Analysis

Lesley Bartlett Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 W 120th Street, Box 55, New York, NY 10027

This paper aims to contribute a sociocultural theoretical perspective for the creative identity work involved in the ongoing process of learning and using literacies. Drawing on anthropological theories of identity formation, I argue that people employ cultural resources, such as cultural artefacts, to develop new identities and literacies. I illuminate these processes by drawing examples from interviews with adult literacy students in Brazil and current literature in sociocultural studies of literacy.

Keywords: cultural artefacts, identity, literacy

© 2005 L. Bartlett

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