This book presents a case study of the MOVA (Movimento de Alfabetizacao de Jovens e Adultos) literacy program in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1989-1993. It examines the meaning and uses of literacy at the micro- and macro-levels, the interplay between both levels, and forces influencing educational policy formation and outcome. The foreword provides background information on the study, during which 19 women enrolled in MOVA were interviewed, and the objectives, methods, and outcomes of MOVA, which was a large-scale effort in education for citizenship that was sponsored by a progressive municipal government and involved approximately 20,000 students at its height. The book's nine chapters discuss the following topics: development, literacy, and women (grassroots groups in literacy, illiteracy in Brazil); MOVA as a state-civil society partnership; analytical and methodological considerations; characteristics of women students in literacy programs (intersection of poverty and illiteracy); the classroom experience in literacy (literacy classes as social/political spaces); literacy outcomes (cognitive and psychological); the civil society-state connection (grassroots involvement, tensions between formal education and literacy); MOVA through a feminist lens (women as citizens and leaders, women's need for conscientization, traditional/emancipatory knowledge); and further insights into gender and literacy. Contains 195 references and 12 tables. (MN)