Abstract
The purpose of this study is to review the scientific productions associated with literacy that have been published in indexed articles in two periodical portals, namely: PePSIC and LILACS. The bibliographical search was conducted by electronic means amidst indexed scientific productions, whose descriptor letramento (literacy, in Portuguese) were part of the title; it includes articles published in Brazil from 1995 through 2015. Data provided material to prepare worksheets that facilitated to systematize the information collected from the bibliography on literacy by means of electronic search. The proposal was to apprehend which topics and areas of knowledge have most frequently occupied such publications. Thus, the concepts of literacy, educational inequalities and ethnic-racial relations were discussed. Theoretical framework utilized was from contemporary authors working on these subjects, in addition to Thompson´s depth hermeneutics (DH), a methodological reference. Results show that the journals were mainly from the areas of Education, Psychology, Geriatrics, Nutrition Science, and Nephrology, with a highlight to the following topics on literacy: school context (children, young people, and teachers), inclusive education in the educational environment and outside of it (older people), literacy in health (hospitals), and digital literacy. However, there was no focus on social inequalities, especially those connected with ethnicity/race. Future studies on literacy should be more comprehensive, especially in regard of the Blacks and Indians in Brazilian society.
Literacy; Educational inequalities; Ethnic-racial relations