The potential of practitioner-led action research (PLAR) to contribute to professional development in adult literacies work is considered from two perspectives. First, a recent initiative in Scotland is examined to illustrate PLAR implemented as professional development. The structural factors needing to be addressed for PLAR to contribute to…

Scotland has a strong learner-centred system of adult literacy and numeracy education. Examination of the Scottish system can usefully highlight the issues associated with application of this approach in adult education more generally. Two important aspects are the need for highly skilled educators and the difficulty of evaluating such systems.…

The author argues for the importance of social capital effects being taken into account in assessing the effects of family literacy programs, and literacy programs generally. Focus upon short-term effects such as test scores, which can be considered as assessments of human capital, does not serve literacy education well. It would be helpful to…

As a comment on the paper "Adult Literacy" presented by Cecilia Soriano during the ICAE Virtual Seminar in Preparation for CONFINTEA VI, that took place from April 21st to May 09th, this paper recaptures the debate of the programmes to teach literacy to adults with characteristics of campaign; it talks about a new type of exclusion that…

This interdisciplinary paper is about applying Adult Education methods of learning and teaching to higher education. I argue that higher education students need to be stimulated via interactive methods that improve their motivation and lead them to question the value system/s that exist around them. A Freirean approach as used in the teaching of…

There are no official data, but it is estimated that four million adults in Germany have little or no reading, writing and numeracy skills, so that they are known as "functionally illiterate". This is a fact which was long ignored. In this contribution, literacy activities and research in Germany are analysed through a human rights-based…

At a series of four "Issues That Matter" meetings held by the Education Department's Office of Vocational and Adult Education over the last academic year, nearly 80 college leaders gathered to discuss issues urgent to community colleges. All are familiar--the need to create career pathways, improve articulation and developmental education, and…

In this paper, the author reflects on some of the complexities involved in theorizing change and the policy process, stimulated by the framing offered by the Learning and Skills Sector (LSS) project and the detailed case studies it presents. Focusing on a period in the development of the LSS that has been characterized by a determined policy…

It is no secret that America is at risk of losing its place as a world leader in education. Some 88 million adults in America need help with their English as a Second Language (ESL) and basic skills, yet the nation is currently providing services to only 3 million people. The Commission on Adult Literacy calls for bold change at the state and…

Twenty-five years after the seminal report "A Nation at Risk," American education remains in a state of crisis. Millions of students continue to pass through the public schools without mastering basic skills and knowledge. Policymakers and the public must recognize both this persistent failure and the attendant need for systemic reform…

In this article, we argue that adult literacy as part of international development is an issue of both human rights and women's rights. We explore this by presenting a case study of the effects of one innovative adult literacy program in Afghanistan that places men and women, as well as various ethnicities, together in the same classroom as…

As many as 70 million Americans are functionally or marginally illiterate. Among the consequences: disproportionate numbers of illiterates are unemployed, 50 percent of inmates are illiterate, and illiterate parents are more likely to raise illiterate children. (SK)

Discusses the issue of adult literacy in Ireland and the efforts that have been made to increase the literacy rate. Describes the National Adult Literacy Agency, established to respond to the literacy needs of adults in Ireland. (JOW)

With the increasing use of computers in education, adults will need to adapt to their use. While understanding of computer programing languages is not needed, rudimentary knowledge and skills are. One must have some facility with a keyboard and be able to respond to the computer. (JOW)

Adults with low-level literacy skills are not a homogeneous group. They are creators of their own social lives and participate in the ongoing creation and maintenance of the social world in which they live. Understanding the underlying communicative competence of most nonreading adults leads to fundamental questions about the assumptions…