The European High Level Group of Experts on Literacy commissioned by Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Youth and Sport in 2011 was appointed to oversee the state of literacy in Europe and come up with recommended steps to improve the situation. Their final report (EC, 2012) talks about a „literacy crisis”. The three main directions of the recommended steps are: 1. creating a more literate environment, 2. raising the level of literacy teaching and providing more reading support and 3. increasing participation and inclusion. Many policy makers, curriculum developers, researchers and educational practitioners are engaged with identifying solutions to address these tasks. But what is perceived as literacy? Across Europe, increasing literacy is high on the educational agendas. Originally, literacy entails reading and writing skills, but over time embraced other areas as well, like numeracy and more recent digital and media literacy. The inclusion of these areas extended the original meaning into a more competence-like approach, expressing the need to rethink literacy from a multi-literacy perspective.

This symposium is based on the 2015 Yearbook of the Consortium of Institutions for Development and Research in Education in Europe (CIDREE) and brings together four European perspectives on increasing literacy. From a more theoretical basis, it will be argued that approaching literacy in the narrow sense of the word is out-dated. The use of other disciplines will help to strengthen and develop language acquisition. Extending this idea, multi-literacy approaches will help pupils to read the world and communicate in, with and about their environment.

The Irish paper provides a more theoretical and philosophical view on multiliteracy. Building on Freire’s (1996, 2005) and Lyotard’s philosophy (1986, 1993), the author argues that we should not deal with literacy too narrowly, but always keep in mind its broader meaning, which Freire describes as „reading the world”. The French contributor argues for the inclusion of art education from the periphery of the secondary school curriculum to its core, as it develops transferable literacy skills. The Scottish paper further extends the multiliteracy scope with employability. The Finnish article embraces the most holistic approach: Multiliteracy includes the ability of understanding multimedia, selecting information, critical thinking, problem-solving and collaboration The whole new approach is characterised by the recognition of the complexity of the multicultural and diverse world we live in, and concentrating on complex phenomena instead of conveying knowledge strictly divided into subjects.

CIDREE (2015). Improving literacy skills across learning. Budapest: Hungarian Institute for Educational Research and Development (OFI). EC (2012). High-level group issues 'wake-up call' for Member States to address literacy crisis. Available: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-940_en.htm [12 January, 2016]. Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin. Freire, P. (2005). Education for Critical Consciousness. London: Continuum Lyotard, J. F. (1986). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Lyotard, J. F. (1993) Political Writings. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.