Getting one step ahead in life. A study of an adult literacy programme in Northern Malawi

Abstract: The aim of this Bachelor thesis is to study the connection between literacy and development and poverty reduction in a third world country. The study is based on Mothers’ Union Literacy and Development Programme (MULDP) in Malawi, where it examines what difference literacy makes in the learners of MULDPs lives and what meaning literacy has for them. The results found in the study are analysed with a theoretical framework that is built on Freire’s theory of ‘conscientization’ and the concepts of functional literacy and functional illiteracy. The method chosen is unstructured focus group interviews with the learners of MULDP and the findings were classified into themes through meanings condensation and thereafter compared with the theoretical framework. The results show that the effects of literacy are visual in both the personal and public sphere, changing the lives of the individual, the family and the community. The findings illustrate that literacy is both a tool and a social practice. Literacy itself does not develop the learners; it is the knowledge that comes with the social practice that is the trigger to development. This study concludes that literacy is developing the learners as human beings. A connection can, however, not be made between literacy and poverty reduction; literacy cannot on its own take the learners out of poverty because other means are also needed.