Social sustainability and reading promotion: linkages between public policies and quality education in Brazil

Sustentabilidade social e promoção da leitura: vínculos entre políticas públicas e a educação de qualidade no Brasil

Abstract

This paper was aimed at knowing to what extent the Brazilian public policiesPlano Nacional do Livro e LeituraandPolítica Nacional de Leitura e Escritamerge with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 of quality education, namely Quality Education, from a social sustainability perspective. A mixed-methods approach was required for this purpose due to both quantitative and qualitative approaches to dealing with the data. We chose the Content Analysis research method to analyze them. Specifically, we used the categorical analysis technique and established a coding scheme. The policiesPlano Nacional do Livro e LeituraandPolítica Nacional de Leitura e Escritamerge with only three out of ten Sustainable Development Goal 4 targets, being: (a) to guarantee meaningful learning processes (4.1 target); (b) to offer scholarships for professional development (4.b target); and (c) to develop teacher training programs (4.c target). However, other linkages not related to the Sustainable Development Goal 4 were observed. They concern the following: (a) copyright and book economy matter; (b) social reading practices; (c) learning environments where to promote reading; (d) research and studies on the book production chain and information consumption market; (e) the use of technology to enhance reading promotion practices; and (f) symbolism during activities of reading promotion. The study concludes that despite the potential of Brazilian public policies for reading promotion to leverage quality education within the realm of social sustainability, the documents analyzed do not exhibit significant correlations with Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda. This suggests that the Plano Nacional do Livro e Leituraand Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita should incorporate the seven missing requirements of the Quality Education Sustainable Development Goal (4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, and 4.a target), demonstrate all the ten targets, and establish a reading policy based on sustainable development until 2030.

Keywords:
sustainable development; 2030 Agenda; policymaking; reading policy; policy analysis

Resumo

Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo saber em que medida as políticas públicas brasileiras Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura e Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita se harmonizam com o Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável 4, de educação de qualidade, da Organização das Nações Unidas sob uma perspectiva de sustentabilidade social. Para esse fim, foi necessária uma pesquisa de método misto, devido às abordagens quantitativa e qualitativa para lidar com os dados. Escolhemos o método de pesquisa Análise de Conteúdo para analisá-los. Especificamente, usamos a técnica de análise categórica e estabelecemos um sistema de codificação. As políticas públicas Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura e Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita se unem a apenas três das dez metas do Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável 4, sendo elas: (1) garantir processos de aprendizagem significativos (meta 4.1); (2) oferecer bolsas de estudo para o desenvolvimento profissional (meta 4.b); e (3) desenvolver programas de formação de professores (meta 4.c). Entretanto, foram observados outros vínculos não relacionados a esse Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável. Eles dizem respeito ao seguinte: (1) direitos autorais e economia do livro; (2) práticas sociais de leitura; (3) ambientes de aprendizagem onde promover a leitura; (4) pesquisas e estudos sobre a cadeia produtiva do livro e o mercado de consumo de informação; (5) uso da tecnologia para aprimorar as práticas de promoção da leitura; e (6) simbolismo durante as atividades de promoção da leitura. O estudo conclui que apesar do potencial das políticas públicas brasileiras de promoção da leitura para alavancar uma educação de qualidade no âmbito da sustentabilidade social, os documentos analisados ​​não apresentam correlações significativas com o Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável 4 da Agenda 2030. Isto sugere que o Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura e a Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita devem, até 2030, incorporar os sete requisitos que faltam do Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável de Educação de Qualidade (metas 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 e 4.a), evidenciar todas as dez metas e estabelecer uma política pública para a promoção da leitura baseada no desenvolvimento sustentável.

Palavras-chave:
desenvolvimento sustentável; Agenda 2030; formulação de política pública; política de leitura; análise de política pública

1 Introduction

Studies on sustainable development or sustainability (terms treated here as synonyms) have been confirming the so-called multidisciplinary component of the library and information science field. In Brazil, many studies have focused on sustainability in department processes of libraries (Araújo; Araújo, 2021; Silva; Karpinski, 2019), in information management practices in archives (Coutinho, 2020), or even in knowledge management (Souto; Pizzol, 2019) and information literacy approaches to the business world (Berbel; Andrelo, 2020). In this way, the Brazilian literature on library and information science has been demonstrating that sustainability is present in recent studies aimed at different goals.

Sustainable development has become the cornerstone of countries’ economic, social, and environmental development around the globe. The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda holds 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), seen in Figure 1, to achieve many purposes related to a green-oriented economy, the establishment of peace among nations, the preservation of the environment, and the sustainable development of people worldwide. These three dimensions meet the present and future generations’ needs, and they have also been the spreaders in international literature: the social dimension is about seeking social justice for the people; the economic dimension states that economic development must be set on a clean energy-based economy and not on a carbon-based one; and lastly, the environment dimension concerns guaranteeing the environment’s capacity of self-repair or resilience in the context of large production and consumption of goods as it takes place currently (Nascimento, 2012).

Figure 1 -
Sustainable Development Goals

Lately, the concept of sustainable development (“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on the Environment and Development, 1987, p. 41)) has been associated with research on public policies for reading promotion, a research field within the information policy domain that aims to delineate and define actions that use information to alter society in both the public and private realms (Marciano, 2006).

Recent research findings on public policies for reading promotion and sustainable development were published in Brazil. In 2019, Camillo and Castro Filho (2019a ) presented some connections between Brazilian and Chilean public policies for reading promotion regarding the fourth goal of UN’s SDG, namely, Quality Education (SDG4). In the same year, the scholars (Camillo; Castro Filho, 2019b) researched a 2018 Brazilian policy and its connections to the same SDG. Later on, the authors contributed by linking the public policies for reading promotion in South American countries to that SDG in 2020 (Camillo; Castro Filho, 2020). This way, several studies on public policies have been recently boosted in the field of information policy in the library and information science domain in Brazil, aiming to change society through the use of information in different domains.

Although the economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability are significant, the social dimension itself underlines many opportunities for education practices in society. The UN’s SDG 4, for instance, demonstrates such concern. It refers to ensuring equitable and inclusive education, as well as promoting lifelong learning opportunities for the people (United Nations, 2023b). One of the ways of advancing quality education in all countries, particularly in Latin American and Caribbean ones, is by having public policies guaranteed (Oficina Regional de Educación para América Latina y el Caribe, 2017). First, public policies compose the field of knowledge in which the government acts or analyzes actions to recommend changes in society (Souza, 2003); second, they are understood as guidelines to solve public problems (Secchi; Coelho; Pires, 2019), which are unacceptable conditions in society (Tietje, 2018).

In Brazil, a recurring public problem concerns people’s lack of reading ability, a problem that stresses inequality in education in the country. According to the latest reports from the Instituto Pró-Livro (Instituto Pró-Livro, 2016; 2020), Brazil continues to be a nation characterized by non-readers, i.e., individuals who have not read an entire book or half of a book within approximately three months. This is an indicator of who is deemed a reader, as established by the Instituto Pró-Livro.

The Brazilian public policy for reading promotion Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura considered in 2014 that Brazil still presented, at that time, a deficit in literacy practices, including reading ability. The document also highlights that the level of consumption of books is considerably low compared to European countries and even some Latin American and Asian ones (Brasil, 2014). Additionally, 2018 results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed that Latin American countries’ performance was inadequate when compared to that of countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Even in Latin America itself, countries have score discrepancies. The Brazilian reading test score was 413, while Chile, the first-ranked country in Latin America, scored 452 points on this assessment. On the other hand, the Dominican Republic had the worst score in reading ability at 342 points (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2019).

One of the ways to shed light on Brazil’s inability-to-read problem is to know the content of its two main public policies for reading promotion. The policies are Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita; both documents have not been simultaneously researched yet in the sustainability scope. We assume that this aim does not offer instant solutions to Brazil’s issues concerning reading ability. Instead, a set of scientific answers from distinguished perspectives on reading promotion is needed to address the country’s poor reading ability. However, the outcomes obtained with this research might assist in comprehending how these public policies apprehend the notion of reading promotion. This is the first step to understanding the ineffectiveness of reading promotion in Brazil in the library and information science field.

This paper estimates that public problems related to the people’s lack of reading ability in Brazil can be eased by implementing effective public policies for reading promotion, which are political instruments intended to deal with writing and reading inabilities (Camillo; Castro Filho, 2022). However, to do so, such Brazilian documents must have content that meets the UN’s SDG 4, which is why in this paper we search for some SDG 4 content in Brazilian public policies for reading promotion from a social sustainability perspective.

2 Seeking quality education in reading promotion: a social sustainability issue in the Brazilian realm

Sustainable development is a term that is at the heart of nations’ current development and includes many dimensions widely spread in the international literature. The environmental, cultural, economic, political, and social sustainability are the main ones. Although they are fundamental to developing society on any front, not all five dimensions will be observed here; instead, we will highlight solely social sustainability due to the purpose of this research. Approaching quality education in reading promotion seems to correlate heavily to social issues like people’s lack of reading ability, a situation that can be understood under the social sustainability framework.

But what does social sustainability mean? Gomes (2005) argued that it refers to combining economic development patterns and effective income distribution to reduce social inequalities. More recently, Serrão, Almeida, and Carestiato (2020) stated the same. For them, social sustainability aims to reduce social inequalities and balance income distribution for present and future generations. The issues that are at the core of social sustainability are the following: social equality; income distribution; job opportunities providing adequate individual income; equality between men and women; full integration of women in politics and the labor market; and universalizing education, health, and housing rights, as well as social security for the people (Serrão; Almeida; Carestiato, 2020). Attempting to define social sustainability, Littig and Griessler (2005, p. 72) stated a conception that aligns with the goals of this research:

Social sustainability is a quality of societies. It signifies the relationship between nature and society, mediated by work, as well as relationships within society. Social sustainability is given, if work within a society and the related institutional arrangements (1) satisfy an extended set of human needs and (2) are shaped such that nature and its reproductive capabilities are preserved over a long period of time and the normative claims of social justice, human dignity and participation are fulfilled.

This study recognizes that sustainable development is essential for meeting the needs of current and future generations. When it pertains to social sustainability specifically, this objective cannot be overlooked, as it is understood this way: to attain social justice, social participation, and human dignity, social sustainability must serve both the present and future generations. Therefore, this sustainability approach must satisfy the human needs inherent in social activity, the interaction between people and institutions, and the environment in which we live. The social pillar of sustainability requires the mitigation of inequalities in society, and this research seeks to cooperate in this sense in the scope of quality education.

According to the World Inequality Report 2022, “Contemporary global inequalities are close to early 20th-century levels, at the peak of Western imperialism” (World Inequality Lab, 2022, p. 11). In other words, inequalities have declined between countries but increased within them. This situation seems to be a result of political choices (World Inequality Lab, 2022) and a process of countries’ relapse in poverty. Inequalities are truly some sort of open vein in the world, and Latin America and the Caribbean do not escape them. The current sociopolitical turbulence observed across these territories on inequality is not a result of inevitable events, but rather stems from political and party agendas that fail to consider welfare and the common good as sustainable from a social perspective.

Considering inequality in education in Brazil, for instance, the Instituto Pró-Livro reports (Instituto Pró-Livro, 2016, 2020) indicate that the number of readers in North Brazil increased by 2% in 2019 compared to 2015. The readership percentage in this region is currently 10%, the lowest rate in the country. Northeast Brazil, on the other hand, is stagnant. There was no discernible increase in the proportion of individuals who became regular readers, whereas the data from 2015 indicated that 25% of individuals in this region were deemed readers, and the 2019 data demonstrate the same value. The Midwest Brazil region saw a 1% decrease in the rate. In 2015, the percentage of readers who effectively read was 8%, but in 2019, it was 7%. The data for Southeast Brazil has also declined. According to statistics from 2015, 46% of people were considered readers, but that number has fallen to 42% in 2019, the highest rate up to date. Finally, in the South region, an increase was observed. Data from 2015 indicated that 13% of people were readers, but in 2019, 16% of them were.

Given these statistics, it appears that Brazil’s public policies for reading promotion have not been achieving their goal in the country. The amplitude of the percentage difference between the two regions with the lowest and highest rates of people deemed readers is 32%, which is alarming. Brazil’s population might have neither equal access to primary reading promotion elements (books, literature, libraries, other learning spaces, and practitioners) nor be part of complex education practices intended to stimulate all-age reading ability in the five regions of the country. Further, none of the Brazilian regions rated well with at least 50% of readers. Simply put, no more than around 36 million people are considered readers in the southeast of Brazil, and in the North, no more than 1.8 million. These data suggest that reading promotion in the country must be developed effectively, i.e., this action needs to produce satisfying outcomes in the education field in the country.

Certainly, public policies are intended to solve people’s problems in an array of development areas, such as education, where the population’s reading inability issue is included. On the one hand, we should ask “Have Brazil’s public policies for reading promotion been producing the results they are intended to?”; on the other, however, it seems the answer has always been “maybe not”. In fact, Brazil’s issues on education are long-standing and recidivist ones, and they do require government, political, and party attention on what pertains to quality education, mainly within the sustainability scope.

Concerning the UN’s 2030 Agenda, SDG 4 of quality education is a solid set of goals that helps establish quality patterns for education practices in the sustainability realm. The SDG 4 targets are ten, and they concern different approaches to sustainable development in education. Their focuses are: to guarantee meaningful learning processes (4.1 target); to access early childhood education (4.2 target); to get technical, professional, and higher education for the people (4.3 target); to get technical skills for life (4.4 target); to have gender equality and social inclusion in education (4.5 target); to develop literacy and basic knowledge of mathematics for the people (4.6 target); to promote cross-sustainability (4.7 target); to have gender safety in learning environments (4.a target); to offer scholarships for professional development (4.b target); and to develop teacher training programs (4.c target) (United Nations, 2023b).

From the UN standpoint, if all of these SDG 4 targets are achieved, then it will be possible to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all people (United Nations, 2023b). The SDG 4 content is not directly related to public policies for reading promotion, although this research aligns with it to some extent. In this regard, Camillo (2022) recently posited that these types of public policies, i.e., reading policies, have not been commonly associated with sustainable development in the field of library and information science. It is a relatively new approach in this domain in Brazil. The author also affirms that this new approach to public policies for reading promotion is as time-critical as the current demands for more sustainable and equitable societies worldwide (Camillo, 2022).

The focus of this investigation is on pondering public policies for reading promotion in Brazil. The data obtained will help suggest changes to existing public policies aimed at promoting reading abilities in the country. In order to have effective and sustainable education practices resulting from actions of policy implementation, we believe it is fundamental that the content of public policies for reading promotion align with the 2030 Agenda SDG 4. Moreover, it is imperative that such practices be a collective commitment in the national, state, and municipal spheres to ensure social sustainability within the framework of high-quality education. Subsequently, the research assumption is established, and the research methodology is presented.

3 Methodology

This research is aimed at knowing to what extent the Brazilian policies Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita merge with the UN’s SDG 4 of quality education from a social sustainability perspective. Both documents are the main ones in Brazil to help people achieve higher levels of quality in reading abilities. The Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura was published in 2006 and updated in 2014 (the edition chosen for this research), and the Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita was promulgated in 2018.

Here, three specific goals are proposed:

1. to understand what these public policies have in common with the SDG 4 targets;

2. to comprehend what these public policies carry as content related to any other goal;

3. to present suggestions to both public policies for them to have social sustainability and quality education at their core.

We have done a floating reading of both documents. This procedure consists of the moment when the researcher allows himself to take in overall impressions from the documents under analysis (Bardin, 2016). In this regard, the research assumption is that the public policies Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita have significant content aligned to: meaningful learning processes; early childhood education; technical, professional, and higher education; technical skills for life; gender equality; social inclusion; literacy; knowledge of basic mathematics; cross-sustainability; gender safety; learning environments and information resources; scholarships for professional development; and teacher training programs. All these elements are considered high-quality education indicators for the UN’s SDG 4.

A mixed-methods approach was required for this purpose due to both quantitative and qualitative approaches to dealing with the data. If, on the one hand, this study is intended to describe the contents of documents in a major qualitative manner, on the other, the research does not fall short in producing statistical data, even if a few. The confluence of both approaches allowed the mixed study to be the most appropriate.

Data collection took place in the third week of August 2023, between days 14 and 18. After examining the documents attentively, their content was mapped out using the Atlas.ti software. We considered meaningful for the study short and long sentences whose contexts address reading promotion and its core elements (books, literature, libraries, other learning spaces, and social and government agents), processes (educational, cultural, and professional approaches), and intentions (understandings of what reading promotion is meant and is for). Still, we considered any kind of support to help promote reading in society (technology and network approaches, political instruments, efforts of the book economy, etc.).

We chose the content analysis research method to analyze the data. According to Bardin (2016), this method is a set of techniques to analyze all-format communication processes. The author affirms that the analysis considers message content, which leads the researcher to produce qualitative and/or quantitative data out of the analysis by dealing with raw data.

Considering the purpose of this study, we decided on conducting a categorical analysis. In this technique, the content analyzed is arranged in content codes or categories. Here, the coding scheme or category system (a set of content codes or categories) was built under the mixed-coding approach, which uses emergent and a priori coding approaches simultaneously. Emergent coding is the process in which the categories are established after a preliminary examination of the data, while in a priori coding, the categories are established before data collection (Amado; Costa; Crusoé, 2014). For the latter, codes were established based on the ten SDG 4 targets.

When running content analysis, coding units are the smallest element in which meaningful information that answers the research problem is contained. Coding units relate immediately to context units, which are the means to comprehend the structure to which the coding unit content refers (Bardin, 2016). The context unit chosen for coding was the document’s paragraphs. The research coding scheme has eight content codes and 26 subcodes to precisely classify each coding unit into the content codes. Chart 1 illustrates all the coding scheme.

Chart 1 -
Coding scheme: content codes and their subcodes

CONTENT CODES	SUBCODES
Education and reading promotion	- Early childhood education - Knowledge of basic mathematics - Learning environments and information resources - Literacy practices - Meaningful learning process
Labor market and reading promotion	- Scholarships for professional development - Teacher training programs - Technical, professional, and higher education
Practices and elements of reading promotion	- Access to the core elements of reading promotion - Non-writing-based approach in reading promotion - Stimulating practices of reading promotion
Research and reading promotion	- Research in reading promotion
Society and reading promotion	- Gender equality - Gender safety - Social inclusion - Socioeconomic development and reading promotion - Welfare and the common good for the people through reading promotion practices
Support for reading promotion	- Copyrights and the book economy in reading promotion - Government support for reading promotion - Networked efforts for reading promotion - Public policies for reading promotion - Social agent efforts in reading promotion
Technology and reading promotion	- Technology in reading promotion
Transversality in reading promotion	- Cross-sustainability - Symbolism in reading promotion - Technical skills for life

• Source: The research data.

It is important to mention that doing content analysis has some pros and cons. We believe the pros of using the categorical analysis technique are the opportunity to extract meaningful content from the documents. This procedure definitely helps achieve the research goal without applying more than one solid, valid, and known research method to deal with qualitative data. Inversely, the cons of using both of these techniques include the possibility of misreading the content due to the volume of data in the units of analysis. This way, researchers could end up with a fatiguing task in the content analysis process. In the next section, content codes arrange the research results.

4 Result and discussions

In this section, data from the content analysis are presented, followed by their interpretation, and then some research findings are shown.

4.1 Data and interpretation

The sum of coding units obtained by doing content analysis was 241, of which 192 were related to the Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and 49 to the Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita, as seen in Graph 1.

Graph 1 -
The distribution of the coding units into the research content codes

The content code “Support for reading promotion” is the most expressive one (85 coding units), followed by the categories: “Practices and elements of reading promotion” (54 coding units); “Education and reading promotion” (28 coding units); “Society and reading promotion” (23 coding units); “Research and reading promotion” (22 coding units); “Labor market and reading promotion” (21 coding units); “Technology and reading promotion” (five coding units); and “Transversality in reading promotion” (three coding units).

This great quantity difference in coding units between both public policies is probably due to the length of the documents analyzed. The policy Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura is 39 pages long, while Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita is three. We understand that the more extensive the document is, the more content there will be to analyze. Then a document of 39 pages would provide a more prolific content analysis than a three-page one, depending on the research purpose and design. Further, we present the results ordered by content codes, beginning with the one with the most coding units.

4.1.1 Support for reading promotion

In the category “Support for reading promotion”, 33 coding units out of 85 concern copyrights and book economy issues; 29 are about public policies for reading promotion; 12 are related to government support for reading promotion; six are on social agent efforts for reading promotion; and five are linked to networked efforts for reading promotion.

Data suggest that both public policies analyzed have a focus on copyright and book economy issues, as well as on public policies for reading promotion themselves. We understand the analyzed documents mostly approach copyright and book economy issues because of the complexity of making one an effective reader. The book production chain and its economy bring together the authorial, editorial, graphic, paper producer, printing machine producer, distributor, wholesaler, bookseller, and librarian sectors, which compose the book economy itself (Earp; Kornis, 2005). The participation of such agents in the process helps to consider that there is no way of promoting reading in society if none of them are involved in initiatives and public policies related to the matter. This way, more than needing sectors and agents involved in the support of reading promotion, we must guarantee State public policies (i.e., the enduring ones, not government public policies, which are volatile). The focus is on combining the efforts of society, production sectors, and professionals to support reading promotion. This consideration also has to do with government support, social agents’ practices, and institutional networked efforts for reading promotion, approaches that surround the intentions that are at the core of the support for reading promotion.

4.1.2 Practices and elements of reading promotion

We have observed that 32 coding units out of 54 are related to stimulating practices of reading promotion; 15 concern access to the core elements of reading promotion; and seven concern a non-writing-based approach in reading promotion.

These numbers may suggest that social practices that stimulate reading abilities are one of the main goals of public policies for reading promotion. However, to achieve this goal, the core elements of reading promotion, such as books, literature, libraries, other learning spaces, and social and government agents themselves, should take part in this context. Accessing books and literature at a young age, for instance, is a practice that faces low-quality education in the lifelong and continuing education scope (Camillo, 2020). Moreover, having contact with books since a young age awakens an interest in reading practices, in addition to offering several benefits for the development of citizens (Nunes; Santos, 2020). That is why access to the core elements of reading promotion was observed to be as significant as the stimulating practices of reading promotion. In addition, both the public policies analyzed have no focus on non-writing-based reading promotion, which enables the comprehension that their aim concerns dealing almost entirely with a writing-based approach when developing one’s reading ability.

4.1.3 Education and reading promotion

In the category “Education and reading promotion”, 17 coding units out of 28 are on learning environments and information resources; ten are related to literacy practices and one to meaningful learning processes. The subcode “Early childhood education” and “Knowledge of basic mathematics” counted no coding units.

Data obtained through content analysis enables us to infer that the public policies analyzed deal with learning environments and information resources. This observation is as important as the one concerning literacy practices. The relationship between them suggests that to develop the latter, learning environments and information resources are required, but meaningful learning processes are not. Libraries are one of the learning environments where we can develop literacy practices. Becker and Grosch (2008) state that libraries play a fundamental role in enabling people to access reading through libraries’ collections and, more precisely, by accessing the books. The responsibility of librarians as managers is significant in this sense because these learning spaces help ensure the promotion of reading, and reading is intrinsically linked to being literate, then to literacy practices. Further, Gusmão et al. (2021) add that for literacy to be developed in the education realm, meaningful, challenging, and fruitful activities should be developed. Nonetheless, this perception is not observed in the research data.

4.1.4 Society and reading promotion

The sum of 23 coding units was classified in the category “Society and reading promotion”, with 13 of them about social inclusion; 5 have to do with socioeconomic development and reading promotion; and the other 5 are related to welfare and the common good for the people through reading promotion practices. The subcode “Gender equality” and “Gender safety” counted no coding units.

The research data suggests that both public policies for reading promotion aim primarily at social inclusion from a societal perspective. To include people, many actions must be developed involving professionals, institutions, the government, wide and specific action plans, and policymakers. Doing it from a socioeconomic perspective, aiming for welfare and the common good for the people, is one of the ways to deliver social inclusion. In this regard, Sachs (2008) contends that local development can aid in reducing social disparities by introducing more balanced economic, social, and environmental activities in territories. Such an approach would result in bringing social agents and symmetry closer in relationships. Welfare and the common good are conditions related to localities where good economic and environmental practices pervade society in such a manner that imbalances among people are minimized. It is in this context that people can be included. It refers to a sustainable approach in which social inclusion comes from a combination of actions that are sustainable locally so that people get access to conditions that surround equity and equality in the social scenario. Nonetheless, the two analyzed public policies fail to acknowledge the importance of equality and safety in gender-related matters; rather, they prioritize inclusion only.

4.1.5 Research and reading promotion

The amount of 22 coding units was classified in the content code “Research and reading promotion” and all of them are on research in reading promotion.

Data represent what is in one of the four axes of the Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and in one of the goals of the Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita. The former states that conducting research on reading habits, examining the history of books, libraries, publishers, and reading practices in Brazil, and launching funding programs to support research on reading promotion in the country are essential for enhancing public policies for reading promotion (Brasil, 2014). The latter, on the other hand, asserts that promoting research, studies, and the establishment of indicators pertaining to books, reading, writing, literature, and libraries is crucial for qualifying and evaluating public policies in the domain of reading promotion (Brasil, 2018). The development of research in the field of reading promotion cooperates to strengthen actions that involve all social agents and institutions that form the book economy. Notwithstanding the formulation and implementation of public policies for the sector, scientific studies are equally fundamental since they produce useful indicators to shape political decisions for the book production chain and information consumption market.

4.1.6 Labor market and reading promotion

The content code “Labor market and reading promotion” has 21 coding units, of which 12 are related to scholarships for professional development, nine to teacher training programs, and none for technical, professional, or higher education.

The research data demonstrates that the majority of coding units have to do with obtaining scholarships for professional development and even outlines the importance of professional qualification programs for teachers, librarians, public managers, and other professionals. The labor market approach to promoting reading refers to the preparation of professionals to develop effective educational practices in society and opportunities for the population to develop their multiliteracies. Being proficient in reading and writing in the present time is a condition that determines social inclusion, quality of life, and the opportunity for people to access welfare, employment, information, and culture. Regarding access to employment, Vergna (2021) argues that when individuals are exposed to literacy, their cognitive skills are developed, which provide them with reading and writing skills and access to information, work, and full citizenship. This discourse is consistent with Oliveira and Silva’s (2021), who claim that literate people have a greater chance of getting better-salary jobs.

4.1.7 Technology and reading promotion

The category “Technology and reading promotion” counts with five coding units, which concern technology in reading promotion.

The few coding units in this category demonstrate the importance of information and communication technologies for reading promotion. First, digital inclusion is crucial for social inclusion, as modern society’s economic and social structure is built around information and communication technologies (Silva; Silva; Freire, 2018). Furthermore, this type of social inclusion is profoundly related to the use of books and literature itself in the context of information diffusion and the use of electronic devices in the realm of reading promotion. Accessing technologies to reach literature, information, and cultural goods is necessary for all individuals to fully participate in society. Libraries ought to be considered in this scenario since they are cultural environments whose linkages are with information and communication technologies to offer multi-language support for people to consolidate reading habits in different realms. Pinho Neto (2014) claims that public libraries, for instance, have a role in including people digitally, mainly the handicapped. In addition, information and communication technologies can contribute to proposing ways to preserve and access cultural goods, such as books and libraries, online. The population should be trained for this finality.

4.1.8 Transversality in reading promotion

The content code “Transversality in reading promotion” has three coding units whose content is about symbolism in reading promotion. The subcode “Cross-sustainability” and “Technical skills for life” counted no coding units.

The only three coding units of this content code stated symbolism in the use of books and the promotion of reading. According to Brasil (2014), the book must occupy a prominent place in the national imagination. It must have strong symbolic power and be valued by large segments of the population. For Brasil (2018), it is important to promote reading and increase its symbolic and institutional value by launching campaigns, awards, and events for the diffusion of books, reading, literature, and libraries in the cultural context. “Reading, as a cultural good, is part of a movement to produce belief in its value, i.e., to produce its symbolic value, along with other cultural goods.” (Farias, 2017, p. 88). The promotion of reading is associated with symbolism that permeates the entire social practice of reading and its constituents. This way, the social value of reading is reinforced by the creation of meanings that surround reading habits and the elements attained from them.

4.2 Findings

The first specific goal of the research was to understand what the public policiesPlano Nacional do Livro e LeituraandPolítica Nacional de Leitura e Escritahave in common with the SDG 4 targets. After doing content analysis, the answer is that the linkages are among three out of 10 SDG targets: to guarantee meaningful learning processes (4.1 target); to offer scholarships for professional development (4.b target); and to develop teacher training programs (4.c target). In other words, what both public policies and SDG 4 have in common are related to:

1. highlighting learning environments like libraries as essential spaces where to promote reading using information resources to do literacy practices;

2. offering scholarships for professional development like teacher training programs to help with promoting reading in society.

No more than these two approaches are linked to the UN’s SDG four targets.

On the other hand, the second specific goal of the research was to comprehend what these public policies carry as content related to any other goal. We observed six approaches that differ from the content of the UN’s SDG four targets. The document Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita consider:

1. copyright and book economy issues and relate them to public policies for reading promotion. Social agents to support achieving this goal are also considered;

2. reading practices that provide access to the core elements of reading promotion and activities in which a non-writing-based approach is required;

3. social inclusion as a result of full socioeconomic development with an emphasis on welfare and the common good for the people;

4. doing research and studies to strengthen political decisions for the book production chain and information consumption market;

5. the use of technology to enhance reading promotion for the people; and

6. symbolism during activities of reading promotion to value reading habits as a critical practice for social development. This way, these six and the previous two goals are summarized in Chart 2, as seen below.

Chart 2 -
Summary of the result of the content analysis

CONTENT CODE	RESULT
Support for reading promotion	The content aims copyright and book economy issues and relates them to public policies for reading promotion. Social agents to support achieving this goal are also considered
Practices and elements of reading promotion	The content aims reading practices that provide access to the core elements of reading promotion and activities in which a non-writing-based approach is required.
Education and reading promotion	The content aims to highlight learning environments like libraries as essential spaces where to promote reading using information resources to do literacy practices.
Society and reading promotion	The content aims social inclusion as a result of full socioeconomic development with an emphasis on welfare and the common good for the people.
Research and reading promotion	The content aims doing research and studies to strengthen political decisions for the book production chain and information consumption market.
Labor market and reading promotion	The content aims scholarships for professional development like teacher training programs to help with promoting reading in society.
Technology and reading promotion	The content aims in the use of technology to enhance reading promotion for the people.
Transversality in reading promotion	The content aims symbolism during activities of reading promotion to value reading habits as a critical practice for social development.

• Source: Research data

The third specific goal of the research was to present suggestions to the policiesPlano Nacional do Livro e LeituraandPolítica Nacional de Leitura e Escritafor them to have social sustainability and quality education at their core.

As observed, the following subcode based on the SDG 4 targets counted no coding units regarding the public policies analyzed during content analysis: early childhood education (4.2 target); technical, professional, and higher education (4.3 target); technical skills for life (4.4 target); gender equality (4.5 target); knowledge of basic mathematics (4.6 target); cross-sustainability (4.7 target); and gender safety (4.a target). This information demonstrates that public policies for reading promotion merge with only three out of ten SDG 4 targets, and, therefore, these documents vaguely relate to this SDG. Quality education does not play an important role in the analyzed Brazilian public policies for reading promotion. In contrast, the Brazilian documents’ concerns are: copyright and book economy matter; social reading practices; learning environments where to promote reading; research and studies on the book production chain and information consumption market; scholarships for professional development; the use of technology to enhance reading promotion practices; and symbolism during activities of reading promotion.

The importance of social sustainability permeates the education field, as the state of well-being and social justice are claimed in this domain. Considering approaches like early childhood education, technical, professional, and higher education, technical skills for life, gender equality, knowledge of basic mathematics, cross-sustainability, and gender safety in a formulating-goal process during policymaking might be crucial. It might actually make the Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita more socially sustainable and quality-education-delivering public policies for reading promotion in Brazil.

5 Conclusions

To remind the audience, this research was aimed at knowing to what extent the Brazilian policies Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita merge with the UN’s SDG 4. Our understanding is that the research goal was achieved.

The key result of the research consisted of the understanding that the policiesPlano Nacional do Livro e LeituraandPolítica Nacional de Leitura e Escritamerge with only three out of ten SDG four targets, being:

1. to guarantee meaningful learning processes (4.1 target);

2. to offer scholarships for professional development (4.b target);

3. to develop teacher training programs (4.c target).

In the context of these public policies, such actions would be translated into:

1. guaranteeing learning environments like libraries as essential spaces where to promote reading using information resources to do literacy practices and

2. offering scholarships for professional development like teacher training programs to help with promoting reading in society.

This way, both documents vaguely associate themselves with the UN’s SDG 4, which is composed of ten targets. In fact, the analyzed policies lack elements to supply current social sustainability demands concerning quality education for present and future generations like: early childhood education; technical, professional, and higher education; technical skills for life; gender equality; knowledge of basic mathematics; cross-sustainability; and gender safety.

However, other linkages not related to SDG 4 were observed. They concern the following:

1. copyright and book economy matter;

2. social reading practices;

3. learning environments where to promote reading;

4. research and studies on the book production chain and information consumption market;

5. the use of technology to enhance reading promotion practices;

6. symbolism during activities of reading promotion.

The research data demonstrated that these are the approaches that thePlano Nacional do Livro e Leituraand thePolítica Nacional de Leitura e Escritafocus on.

Due to the need to present the linkages between Brazilian public policies for reading promotion and SDG 4, whether they are many or a few, we suggest that future studies on this topic can present the fundamental actions that will make it possible to insert the ten SDG 4 targets in the analyzed public policies for reading promotion. We recommend that this purpose consider the cycle of public policies, since there are steps in the process that are consistent with the analysis of them, and therefore can contribute to the redesign of the policies Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita.

The study concluded that despite the potential of Brazilian public policies for reading promotion to leverage quality education within the realm of social sustainability, the documents analyzed do not exhibit significant correlations with SDG 4 of the 2030 Agenda. This suggests that the Plano Nacional do Livro e Leitura and Política Nacional de Leitura e Escrita should incorporate the seven missing requirements of the Quality Education SDG (4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, and 4.a target), demonstrate all the ten targets, and establish a reading policy based on sustainable development until 2030.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  20 May 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  28 Sept 2023
• Accepted
  28 Nov 2023