Data from two research projects with adult literacies practitioners based in Scotland are used to illustrate how policies underpinned by ideologies based on Human Capital Theory (HCT) lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education. It is argued that HCT ideology permeates international and national policies and thus influences practice. This results in a focus on the economy, rather than the individual, leading to narrow domains of skills-focused knowledge that become accepted as normal and are difficult to challenge. The paper outlines the changes experienced by practitioners, especially those focused on employability programs, but also shows how these changes have been resisted, particularly in relation to how the curriculum is negotiated, and outcomes are assessed with learners. Practitioners were able to maintain values-based approaches and protect democratic practice through interactions with colleagues that reinforced a collective understanding of fundamental principles for delivering social justice-based literacies programs. It is concluded that, while practitioners were critically reinterpreting aspects of the dominant discourse through building on learners' experience and valuing their perspectives, social justice requires that the impact of broader social and economic inequalities on participation in education is addressed through structural changes rather than individual effort.