We draw on theories of policy enactment to explore the ways in which the situated, material and external contexts and professional cultures in adult literacy in the UK have influenced practitioners. Our analysis of the transnational (OECD, EU) and UK external policy contexts found that skills-related education is prioritised, with a focus on…

This article contrasts educational discourses and their associated policy and practice in the field of adult literacy in two sociopolitical eras in Australia: firstly, the social-democratic era that describes the beginnings of adult literacy as a distinct educational field from the late 1970s, and in particular the 1980s; and secondly, the…

The purpose of this qualitative, ethnographic case study was to compare the experiences of stakeholders connected to adult high schools and adult literacy programs in Manitoba, Canada. This is an important study, because it gathered information about providing educational services to adults who have dropped out of school. The researcher used…

The last two decades have seen fast-moving and wholescale changes in the ways that education is now provided in French schools, in the nature of learner assessment, and in the form and scale of system evaluation. Innovation and reform have in part followed international trends, themselves triggered by the global impact of the international…

The paper analyses the status and characteristics of adult literacy campaigns and programmes since 2000. Global trends are analysed in terms of the ten key aspects of the suggested framework for successful literacy campaigns and programmes. Four case studies on major literacy campaigns in Brazil, India, South Africa and Indonesia are used to…

Accountability plays a key role in the field of adult literacy. Indeed, practitioners often juggle multiple accountabilities--to funders, taxpayers, learners, boards of directors, the community, and their profession. These may be in tension with each other, as when teachers' accountability to learners conflicts with their accountability to deliver…

This article examines the growth of practitioner research in England through the creation of the Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN) and identifies its effect on subsequent developments in what is generally known as the Lifelong Learning Sector (LLS). It offers an analysis of this development as a case study in developing practitioner…

This paper and the four commissioned works on which it is based are guided by the important question: How can we start valuing practices and outcomes of teaching and learning that are difficult to reduce to numbers? As the process of developing indicators for the Post-2015 education targets unfolds, some of the targets are at risk of being dropped…

The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments related to the development of indicators of educational progress in the context of the Post 2015 deliberations to generate a new international architecture for educational investment through to 2030. There have been a plethora of suggestions and several parallel consultation processes…

This article analyses the role of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) in teachers' work in the "Skills for Life" sector. It shows how ILPs, originally a means of formative assessment, have become part of a system of performance indicators and function as a key mediating mechanism between local interactions and system goals. The article…

This issue of "literacy.ca EXPRESS" presents an overview of literacy-related developments at the national level. This issue reports that: (1) The Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES) has announced that in order to ensure a strong national network, it will provide "results- and performance-based multi-year contribution…

This paper presents a study of dominant educational discourses through textual critique and argues that such an approach enables education studies to preserve an important distinction from teacher training. The texts deconstructed here are specific to English education, but the discourses at work have international relevance as the rhetorics of…

This bibliography was compiled for the 2006 Summer Institute at The Centre for Literacy-"Accountability and Public Trust: Restoring the Balance." The selections include lectures, research studies, policy papers, and government documents that describe and analyze recent concepts of accountability in the context of government funding in…

This publication reprints the text of the Accountability Framework for the Adult Literacy Education System and Core Quality Standards for Programs in Ontario. The framework describes how the Ontario Training and Adjustment Board (OTAB) is accountable to Ontario's adult literacy education system and explains how OTAB-funded programs are accountable…

Examines the need for accountability in language planning in multilingual contexts in the Southern Countries. Provides a brief overview of language diversity in the South, considers how world trends of increasing democratization and strengthening of minority rights are generating calls for greater accountability and language rights, and looks at…