Literacy is traditionally defined as the ability to read and write and is often enacted in secondary schools as the ability to read and write about works of literature. However, IUP Professor Mike Sell and doctoral students Rachel Schiera and Zeeshan Siddique argue that reading, writing about, and talking about great works of literature enables us to improve our ability to make good decisions.
Their argument is presented in the white paper “Decision Literacy: Defining the Critical Function of Reading, Writing, Talking, and Storytelling in the Improvement of Decision-Making.” The research framework and initial draft of the paper were developed by Sell and Schiera (faculty member at Lander University) during their participation in the Alliance for Decision Education’s inaugural research collaborative, held during the 2023–24 academic year.
As they note, classic and contemporary works of literature often explore the struggles of characters to make the right choice or contend with the consequences of their choices. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is about a young man choosing “to be or not to be.” In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo must decide between holding onto the traditional values of his people or acceding to the values of European colonizers. These are only two of the thousands of plays, novels, poems, short stories, films, television series, and videogames that center on characters who must make difficult, consequential choices. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to claim that the single largest database about decision-making can be found in the archives of world literature.
Moving beyond theory, Sell, Schiera, and Siddique identify multiple intersections between English Language Arts Common Core State Standards and the Decision Education domains defined by the Alliance for Decision Education. The authors define a set of immediate research objectives to support the integration of Decision Literacy into English Language Arts curricula. As they argue, “Ultimately, we believe a focus on Decision Literacy will enable researchers, educators, and, most importantly, young people to value the experience of reading, watching, and playing stories about difficult, consequential decisions and leverage that experience so they can lead healthier, happier, more thoughtful lives.”
The full paper can be accessed for free online.