A transformational approach to addressing the needs of a new generation of ‘left behinds: a preliminary exploration of the dominance of ‘it/digital literacy’ in organisational processes

There are two parts to this paper. In the first part, the paper takes a preliminary look at an emerging dominant literacy, IT literacy, and its potential impact on some members of relevant communities. Drawing on the perception of literacy as social practice, the paper locates organisational processes within institutions as belonging to a specific social practice and explores the pattern of dominance of IT literacy that is beginning to emerge within this practice. Using qualitative methods of interviews and a focus group discussion, the study conducted a preliminary exploration of the views of staff within one organisation on the impact of this new dominant literacy. Some of the emergent views elicit the notions of exclusion, inadequacies, and imposition. The second part of the paper explores how this potentially excluding process could be addressed in a democratic way. It suggests that organisations can avoid the negative impact by drawing on transformative approaches to literacy development. It emphasises the use of dialogic engagement with staff to identify needs and map out the processes for meeting the identified drives and advocates that employers should shift from a reductive model and instead build a transformative approach into their needs analysis processes to promote a cycle of empowerment.