Functional education and human development are not mutually exclusive. To achieve an all-round development, the fourth Sustainable Development Goal partly emphasizes the need to '… promote lifelong learning opportunities for all' by year 2030. This article, therefore, uses a case study approach to analyse the impact of a government funded adult…

This paper examined lifelong education and learning trajectories and issues of policy, ideology and practice that have underpinned the implementation of adult literacy and adult learning education strategies within a lifelong learning perspective in Ghana. Using documentary analysis, the paper noted that although the concept of lifelong…

Recent literature shows that younger cohorts have lower levels of literacy ceteris paribus in Canada, the United States, Norway and other developed countries. Very few explanations are provided to justify the existence of this negative cohort effect. Yet this decline has serious implications for the economy, education system and society. In this…

The demand for adult training opportunities is substantial as labor markets often require adult workers to obtain advanced skills. Opportunities to obtain advanced skills are often pursued by high-income and high-skilled workers whereas low-skilled or low-income adult workers are less likely to participate. For this study, we used data from the…

Globally, literacy can be conceived of in different ways. Two perspectives that have influenced adult literacy policy internationally are the economic functionalist and the sociocultural. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Maori educators have repeatedly advanced a matauranga Maori perspective of literacy. This perspective has parallels with the embodied,…

The importance of literacy to the personal development of an individual and existence of any nation cannot be overemphasized. Literacy is the foundation for meaningful development of any nation. It is not a single entity but an interconnection of several fields--education, health, agriculture, and more. For example, a literate individual can have…

The ideas of the Cuban 'School of Literacy' are much less well-known in the west than Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. This paper is an exploration of the theoretical and practical links between these two historic examples of popular education. The analysis is informed by our direct experience working and undertaking participatory action…

This article presents an instrument for measuring the effectiveness of literacy programmes for youth and adults. To assess the impact of participation on individual learners' lives and their environment, the authors developed a structure comprising five main dimensions: (1) "personal sphere" (six sub-dimensions); (2) "social…

Adult literacy is a pressing policy issue in Canada. Reports reveal immigrant communities as accounting for a relatively large share of the country's population experiencing low reading, writing, numeracy, and information processing skills. This paper explores how Black immigrant women who are adult literacy learners negotiate and reconfigure…

Literacies are the social processes that emerge and sustain, from everyday life, representing and transforming the mundane and repeated activities which resist the unequal power adjustment in society. In this regard, informal learning and literacies cultivate critical reflexivity of people to perform like activists. This paper aims to explore…

The UK continues to face a huge adult-literacy challenge, with a sizeable percentage of the UK adult population having very low literacy skills. In addition to highlighting the literacy challenge in the UK, this report shows these individuals experience negative impacts on personal relationships, wellbeing, health, and education, as well as a…

In Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, current adult literacy and numeracy assessment is skills oriented; at the same time, there is a growing interest in more balanced understanding by also looking at the broad wellbeing-related outcomes of literacy education. In the research project reported below adult literacy learners in three community…

Testing language abilities is common in the context of migration. It has been observed that approximately 6.2 million adults in Germany are low literate and that approximately 47% of this group does not have German as their L1. Similar findings have been reported for other modern Western societies with compulsory schooling and a well-developed…

This case study details the impacts of an Aboriginal-led adult literacy campaign in Brewarrina between 2015 and 2017. Forming part of a wider investigation into literacy as a social determinant of health, the study explores the relationship between involvement in the literacy campaign and the capacity of graduates to take greater control of the…

This article examines how university-community outreach was an enabler for integral human development during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative information about the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) Community Outreach Program (COP) is described and analyzed. In particular, the Kabagis Aeta Projects succeeded in its initial…