Beyond Economic Interests: Critical Perspectives on Adult Literacy and Numeracy in a Globalised World (International Issues in Adult Education)

Preface -- Introduction: Critical Perspectives in Adult Literacy and Numeracy in a Globalised World -- Part 1: Globalisation, the OECD and the Role of Powerful International Surveys -- Imagining Literacy: A Sociomaterial Approach -- Policy Making at a Distance: A Critical Perspective on Australia's National Foundation Skills Strategy for Adults -- What to Look for in PIAAC Results: How to Read Reports from International Surveys -- Part 2: Resistance and Agency in Local Literacies and Numeracies -- From the Local to the Global: Socialisation into Adult Literacy Practice in the Remote Indigenous Australian Context -- "Basically, I Need Help": Responding to Learner Identity in a Skills-Driven ESL Literacy Programme -- Apprentice Mentoring: A Return to Relationship in Learning -- "I Can See the Rabbit!": Perceptions of the Imagined Identity of Foundation Study Students and Its Link to Academic Success -- Beyond Compliance: Developing a Whole Organisation Approach to Embedding Literacy and Numeracy -- Museum Literacies: Reading and Writing the Museum -- Popular Education and Mass Literacy Campaigns: Beyond 'New Literacy Studies' -- Part 3: Contesting Dominant Discourses -- The Significance of Research and Practice in Adult Literacy in the UK -- The Four Literacies: An Exercise in Public Memory -- The Radical Statistics Group: Promoting Critical Statistical Literacy for Progressive Social Change -- Critical Re-Visioning: The Construction of Practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand's Literacy Campaign.;Over the last two decades, an increasingly economistic discourse has dominated discussions about adult literacy and numeracy. This book provides critiques of, and alternative narratives to the dominant discourse. Authors provide tools and methodologies of critique, including ways of seeing how policies in the countries of focus come to be captured almost completely by the interests of business and industry, as well as how to critically interpret the data that policy makers use to justify their priorities. But adult literacy and numeracy practitioners and learners find spaces and places to pursue learning that matters for the lived experiences of adults and their communities. Beyond Economic Interests presents the struggles and achievements of practitioners and learners that lead the readers of the book to critically appreciate that a counter narrative to the purely economistic discourse of adult literacy and numeracy is much needed, and possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 6 PREFACE......Page 8 INTRODUCTION:Critical Perspectives in Adult Literacy and Numeracy in aGlobalised World......Page 10 GLOBALISATION, THE OECD, AND THE ROLE OF POWERFUL INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS......Page 11 NEGOTIATING IDENTITIES AND PRACTICES IN LOCAL CONTEXTS......Page 12 COLLECTIVE STRUGGLES FOR ALTERNATIVE FUTURES......Page 14 REFERENCES......Page 15 PART 1: GLOBALISATION, THE OECD AND THE ROLE OF POWERFUL INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS......Page 18 LITERACY AS A KEY ASPECT OF THE MODERN SOCIAL IMAGINARY......Page 19 HOW LITERACY HAS BEEN THEORISED AND UNDERSTOOD – CONTINUITIES AND CHANGE......Page 21 A SOCIOMATERIAL APPROACH TO LITERACY......Page 23 CIRCULATING DISCOURSES OF LITERACY......Page 25 REFERENCES......Page 30 INTRODUCTION......Page 34 VOICES FROM THE MARGINS......Page 35 Equivalences and Their Attractions......Page 37 Making Equivalences Count......Page 38 The Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey......Page 40 The Australian Economy Needs an Education Revolution......Page 43 Anticipating a New Strategy......Page 45 The Release of the Strategy......Page 48 REFLECTIONS ON THE EXCAVATIONS......Page 50 REFERENCES......Page 52 INTRODUCTION......Page 55 POLICY CONTEXT......Page 56 THE PIAAC SURVEY......Page 57 Content Validity......Page 59 Measurement Validity......Page 60 External Validity......Page 61 Beyond Methodology......Page 62 SOME FURTHER RESULTS FOR PIAAC FROM AUSTRALIA......Page 63 DISCUSSION: POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS AND ‘COUNTERVAILING FORCES’......Page 67 NOTES......Page 69 REFERENCES......Page 70 PART 2: RESISTANCE AND AGENCY IN LOCAL LITERACIES AND NUMERACIES......Page 73 INTRODUCTION......Page 74 WESTERN DESERT......Page 75 CENTRAL DESERT......Page 77 Schools......Page 79 Adult Education......Page 80 FROM THE LOCAL TO THE GLOBAL......Page 81 ALTERED LANGUAGE SOCIALISATION FRAMEWORK......Page 83 CONCLUSION......Page 85 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 86 REFERENCES......Page 87 INTRODUCTION......Page 90 CONTEXTUALISING THE CASE STUDY......Page 91 AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ADULT ESL LITERACY LEARNER IDENTITY......Page 92 Component B: Learners’ Conceptualisations of Themselves as ESL Literacy Learners......Page 93 Component C: Identity Formation as a Mode of “Becoming”......Page 94 Paula’s Class......Page 95 Lucy’s Class......Page 99 DISCUSSION......Page 103 REFERENCES......Page 105 PRE-20TH CENTURY APPRENTICESHIP......Page 108 GLOBALISED ECONOMIES AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION......Page 109 CONTEXT IN LEARNING......Page 110 MENTORING RESEARCH......Page 111 APPRENTICE MENTORING INITIATIVES......Page 112 RELATIONAL APPROACHES TO MENTORING PRACTICE......Page 113 REFERENCES......Page 115 BACKGROUND......Page 118 THE STUDY......Page 119 Groups in Foundation Studies......Page 120 Factors Affecting the Retention and Success of Foundation Students......Page 122 DISCUSSION......Page 127 CONCLUSION......Page 128 REFERENCES......Page 130 ADULT LITERACY AND NUMERACY EDUCATION IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND......Page 132 A WHOLE ORGANISATION APPROACH TO IMPROVING EMBEDDED LITERACY AND NUMERACY PRACTICE AND LEARNER OUTCOMES......Page 135 A Self-Assessment Model for Literacy and Numeracy Data Utilisation......Page 137 FACTORS INFORMING THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR APPROACH......Page 139 Research on Organisational Change......Page 140 Challenge at the Organisational Level......Page 142 Challenge at the Tutor Level......Page 143 CONCLUDING REMARKS......Page 144 REFERENCES......Page 146 INTRODUCTION......Page 148 CONCEPTUAL RESOURCES FOR STUDYING LITERACIES IN MUSEUMS......Page 149 TOWARDS A FRAMEWORK FOR MUSEUM LITERACIES......Page 150 Reading and Writing the ‘Objects’......Page 154 Reading and Writing the ‘Visitors’......Page 156 Reading and Writing the ‘Museum’......Page 158 REFERENCES......Page 159 INTRODUCTION......Page 161 THE NEW LITERACY STUDIES......Page 163 MASS LITERACY CAMPAIGNS......Page 164 CULTURES AND RESISTANCE......Page 166 NLS CRITIQUE OF CAMPAIGNS......Page 168 LITERACY, THE WORLD BANK AND NEOLIBERALISM......Page 170 CONCLUSION......Page 172 REFERENCES......Page 174 PART 3: CONTESTING DOMINANT DISCOURSES......Page 177 INTRODUCTION......Page 178 BEING A PROFESSIONAL IN ADULT LITERACY......Page 180 REFLECTION IN ACTION: LEARNING AS A PROFESSIONAL IN ADULT LITERACY......Page 181 PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND PRACTITIONER RESEARCH......Page 182 SUPPORT STRATEGIES FOR LINKING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE WITH PROFESSIONALS IN ADULT LITERACY......Page 183 Opportunities for Practitioner Research......Page 184 Professional Qualifications and Research: Formal Routes for Linking Researchand Practice......Page 187 Supporting Research and Practice through Networks and Organisations......Page 188 Continuing the Practitioner Research Journey through PhD Level Study......Page 189 CONCLUSION......Page 190 NOTE......Page 191 REFERENCES......Page 192 INTRODUCTION......Page 196 FROM AL TO ABE, THENCE TO ALBE......Page 199 LDC: Forging a Discursive Understanding of Language and Learning......Page 202 Towards a Second-Chance Secondary Schooling for Adults: Adult Literacy as AdultBasic Education......Page 206 REFLECTIONS......Page 211 NOTES......Page 212 REFERENCES......Page 213 INTRODUCTION......Page 215 Difficult Early Relationships with the Relevant Professional Association......Page 217 Campaigns Against the Threats to the NHS, from the Late 1970s......Page 218 Concerns about the Quality of UK Official Statistics Generally......Page 219 Concerns about Information Provision in Other Policy Areas:The Work of Other Subgroups......Page 220 Attempts to Provide No-Cost Statistical Support to Campaigns: The ‘Fire Brigade’and Other Initiatives......Page 221 Unusual Longevity?......Page 223 Changing Methods of Communication......Page 224 Changes in the Group’s ‘Publications’......Page 225 Big Data: Information Windfall, or Merely Hot Air?......Page 226 What Radical Statistics and Similar Organisations Can Offer in Terms of Numeracyand Statistical Literacy......Page 227 REFERENCES......Page 229 WEBSITES......Page 231 NEW ZEALAND LITERACY REFORMS......Page 232 The Progressions......Page 233 The Assessment Tool......Page 236 ADULT LITERACY AND NUMERACY EDUCATOR: POSTGRADUATE QUALIFICATIONS......Page 237 DOMINANT DISCOURSES AMONG PRACTITIONER/STUDENTS......Page 238 ALED 525: ESTABLISHING THE ROLE OF CONTEXT IN MEANING MAKING......Page 241 LOOKING FORWARD......Page 244 REFERENCES......Page 245 "Over the last two decades, an increasingly economistic discourse has dominated discussions about adult literacy and numeracy. This book provides critiques of, and alternative narratives to the dominant discourse. Authors provide tools and methodologies of critique, including ways of seeing how policies in the countries of focus come to be captured almost completely by the interests of business and industry, as well as how to critically interpret the data that policy makers use to justify their priorities. But adult literacy and numeracy practitioners and learners find spaces and places to pursue learning that matters for the lived experiences of adults and their communities. Beyond Economic Interests presents the struggles and achievements of practitioners and learners that lead the readers of the book to critically appreciate that a counter narrative to the purely economistic discourse of adult literacy and numeracy is much needed, and possible"--EBL