In light of globalization and technological developments, this article argues that educators need to cultivate multiple literacies for contemporary technological and multicultural societies, that teachers need to develop a range of literacies of diverse sorts, including a more fundamental importance for print literacy, to meet the challenge of restructuring education for a hi-tech, multicultural society, and global economy and culture. Drawing on Dewey, Freire, Illich and others, the author argues for a reconstruction of education to increase democratization and to make education more relevant to the challenges of the contemporary era. In particular, it is maintained that by introducing multiple literacies to empower individuals and groups traditionally excluded, education could be reconstructed to make it more responsive to the challenges of a democratic and multicultural society. (Contains 15 notes.)