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Research Snippet

Research Snippet

Excerpts from the recent issue of Adult Literacy Education: The International Journal of Literacy, Language, and Numeracy (emphasis and hyperlinks added by me):

Asking “when and why the discourse in the field of adult literacy education shifted from the language of human rights and social justice to the language of human capital and workforce development“, Ira Yankwitt from the Literacy Assistance Center in New York answers “the 1990s, neoliberalism […]”.

Stephen Reder from Portland State University argues that “adult literacy education needs to be repositioned within a new framework of lifelong and life-wide learning, a framework in which new policies are formulated, programs are designed and evaluated, and research is funded and carried out. To appreciate how much this suggested framework differs from the neoliberal framework in which adult education is currently embedded, it is worth considering briefly how neoliberalism has gained its foothold in (some would say its stranglehold on) adult education.”

Check out the open access Adult Literacy Education journal on https://www.proliteracy.org/ALE-Journal to read more about the “neoliberalism stranglehold” on education.

“To be sure, many students have goals that are consistent with the workforce development agenda, but many other adults needing stronger basic skills have other learning goals and motivations.” Reder goes on.

Scientia gratia scientiae.

Sources quoted:

Reder, Stephen. 2020. “A Lifelong and Life-Wide Framework for Adult Literacy Education.” Adult Literacy Education: The International Journal of Literacy, Language, and Numeracy 2 (1): 48–53. https://doi.org/10.35847/SReder.2.1.48.

Yankwitt, Ira. 2020. “Toward a Vision of Movement Building in Adult Literacy Education.” Adult Literacy Education: The International Journal of Literacy, Language, and Numeracy 2 (1): 58–63. https://doi.org/10.35847/IYankwitt.2.1.58.