Jurnal e-Utama

Literacy is everyday social practice and is present in both secular and sacred spheres of life. Yet these two spheres are often, not meeting, nor integrating. This paper attempts to examine similarities and contrasts in these two differing contexts to enable a more connected narrative to inform educational practitioners. In the global cosmopolitan cityscape of Singapore as in many places elsewhere, sacred literacy often comprises the peripheral-weekend one; while secular literacy the mainstream-weekday one. This paper attempts to chart the ―distance that spans these two literacies in Primary 3 children aged 9 in Singapore and to discuss implications for curricular and pedagogic reforms in the context of the social-political and educational lives of Singaporeans. Our data includes classroom observations as well as pupil and teacher interviews.