Cultural literacy is a term coined by the American educator and literary critic E. D. Hirsch for the ability to understand and participate fluently in a given culture, drawn as an analogy to literacy in the ordinary sense of reading and writing. Just as a literate reader knows a language's alphabet, grammar and vocabulary, a culturally literate person knows a given culture's signs and symbols, including its language, dialect, stories, entertainment and idioms, and can talk to and understand others from that culture with fluency.
Facts
Core ClaimCultural literacy is the ability to understand and participate fluently in a given culture, a term coined by American educator and literary critic E. D. Hirsch. 1 Sources
1. Cultural literacy (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead paragraph, opening definition
the ability to understand and participate fluently in a given culture. Cultural literacy is a term coined by American educator and literary critic E. D. Hirsch
Further reading, Hirsch 1987 book
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (Boston: Houghton Mifflin).
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