The purpose of our study was to discover who researches functional literacy. This study was situated within a larger systematic literature review. We searched seven electronic databases and identified 90 sources to answer our larger question regarding how functional literacy is defined and conceptualized as well as the specific question pertinent to this paper. An analytic template guided our data collection. The analysis was completed by using a spreadsheet to examine two levels of institutional affiliation: 1) the larger institution such as a university or government unit, and 2) the department, program, or division within the institution. Findings showed the 209 authors of these 90 sources represent a diverse set of fields. Further, it appears that multidisciplinary research is being conducted. We discuss implications of these findings and call for more interdisciplinary research.

Much of the current research on scientific literacy focuses on particular text genres read by students within the classroom context. We offer a cross-case analysis of literacy as social practice in multicultural communities around the world, through which we reveal that individuals with no formal education, as well as people with varied levels of schooling completed, customarily and actively engage in literacy events with the goal of learning about science as part of their everyday lives. We argue that these outcomes substantiate the notion that multiple ways of being scientifically literate actually exist and that scientific literacy in its most fundamental sense is crucial in science education, despite the fact that the most common definitions and notions of scientific literacy have predominantly considered its derived sense (Norris and Phillips 224).