'Ordinary Writings': lower-class writing practices in the transition to mass literacy in Europe, 1800-1918

该项目促进了关于扫盲和扫盲标准的公众辩论。它的历史视角为传统智慧提供了一剂解药。它将表明，读写能力和文盲之间没有明确的区分，文学能力的水平根据特定场合和特定任务而变化，并且学校教育不是获得读写能力的必要条件。这将有助于把澳大利亚的研究推向国际文化史的前沿。它将表明，书面遗产在各个方面都值得充分承认，而不仅仅是受过教育的精英的表达。我们的书面遗产的这一方面需要重新评估，我们需要改善它的保存和可及性。

This project contributes to public debate on literacy and literacy standards. Its historical perspective offers an antidote to conventional wisdom. It will show that there is no clear separation between literacy and illiteracy, that levels of literary competence vary according to specific occasions and specific tasks, and that schooling is not necessary for literacy acquisition. It will help put Australian research in the international forefront of cultural history. It will show that written heritage deserves full recognition in all its aspects, not just as the expression of educated elites. This aspect of our written patrimony needs re-evaluation, and we need to improve preservation of it and accessibility to it.