The conception of literacy is changing to reflect the profound economic, social, political and cultural changes of the past half century. Michele Lonsdale and Doug McCurry examine three broad literacy ideologies - cognitive, individual-based model, economics-driven model, and sociocultural model. While current research situates literacy in social practice, government policy aligns more with the cognitive and economics-driven models of literacy.

The authors identify the need for a new national literacy policy which recognises wider contexts, supports community capacity-building, and is flexible to accommodate current and future literacies. At practitioner level, they find that all practitioners are teachers of literacy and need to be able to recognise and teach different literacies needed by all learners. The report also highlights implications for literacy testing.