Joining Gee’s theories of literacy from a slightly different angle, Brian Street started with the assumption that there are multiple literacies and then labeled them as either “autonomous” or “ideological” literacies. An autonomous model of literacy is similar to the default understanding of literacy: literacy is the ability to decode and encode text. It is only a skill, irrelevant to the “saying(writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations” that make it possible for someone to belong to, or be excluded from, a group.

According to Gee, every person, by virtue of being human, naturally develops one primary Discourse: our home and family Discourse that we grow up in. We don’t make any effort to learn this primary Discourse; we simply absorb and acquire it as we grow into our early years. By five-or-six years old, our primary Discourse is established, and we use language to belong to whatever social group we are living within.

Gee claimed everyone develops their primary Discourse without making any effort; it’s one of the gifts of being human. Every other Discourse—known as secondary Discourses—requires some work if we wish to belong to it. We have to learn these secondary Discourses through instruction and acquisition (by spending time in them). In our early years, the most prominent secondary Discourse that many people encounter is school. Other secondary Discourses might include church, or sports, or community groups. When we develop fluency and control within a secondary Discourse—when we can add it to our set of “identity kits”—we become literate in that Discourse. Logically, Gee argues, that since there are multiple secondary Discourses that we move through in our lifetimes, there must be multiple literacies, not just a singular “literacy” that means being able to read (“Literacy, Discourses, etc.”).

When we talk about “literacy” by itself, however, the default and most common understanding is the ability to enact the processes of decoding text: recognizing the shapes of letters or symbols, understanding the functions and meanings of word parts and words, and interpreting the meaning of sentences and paragraphs. However, this definition of literacy is way too simple for its complexities and the impacts it has on humans’ potential to achieve their goals.