Functional and Elective Illiteracy in Canada
Keywords:
Functional illiteracy, Elective illiteracy, Reading behaviour, Literacy, Educational attainmentAbstract
Using nationally representative data from the 1978 Canadian Readership Survey, the authors model a range of reading activity. They demonstrate empirical problems in associating illiteracy with education at less than a Grade 9 level. The survey data indicate that a majority of Canadians identified as illiterate in this manner do in fact read. The paper identifies and describes the truly functionally illiterate (i.e., those who report that they cannot read). This discussion turns to the problem of explaining the far more numerous elective illiterates (i.e., those who can read but do not). Using explanatory statistical models based on log-linear and logit-techniques, the article attempts to explain (in a statistical sense) elective illiteracy in Canada. In addition to confirming the expected bivariate associations between reading activity and age, occupation, education, language, and settlement type, this research uncovers three statistically and substantively significant higher order specification effects involving (1) reading, education and language, (2) reading, age and settlement type, and (3) reading, settlement type, and language.
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