What does it mean to be literate?

Concerns regarding adult literacy have been a common feature in UK educational policy and in the media since at least the 1970s, with a series of initiatives aimed at improving adults’ literacy skills. Previous research has explored these initiatives, identifying a range of attitudes towards and perceptions of adult literacy. For some, literacy is about social justice and the easing of poverty (Hamilton and Hillier, 2006). For others, it is linked to prosperity and economic success, both of the individual and of the nation as a whole. Notions of what actually constitutes literacy have differed over time, ranging from simply having the ability to sign one’s name (Gardner, 2004) or to be able to read and write with confidence, to the decoding of icons and the manipulation of documents in electronic formats. (Smith, 2005). Other writers have acknowledged a more diverse concept of ‘literacies’ recognising a broader range of forms literacy might take (Mannion et. al., 2007). My interest in what it means to be literate has grown out of this earlier work, and through analysis of policy documents and interviews with literacy teachers and learners, my doctoral research aims to investigate how literacy is currently perceived and conceptualised by teachers, learners and policy-makers within adult literacy education in England, and to identify the factors that influence these perceptions. Early analysis of the data has identified a fairly rigid discourse of employability and functionality within current literacy education policy compared to a much more diverse response from practitioners and learners. Interview data, while acknowledging the link between literacy and employment and the ability to function in everyday life, present a broad range of issues such as independence, autonomy, empowerment, social inclusion and the development of critical awareness as factors involved in literacy. Relationships between literacy and technology, along with literacy and numeracy have also been acknowledged by interview participants

Agency as the Acquisition of Capital: the role of one-on-one tutoring and mentoring in changing a refugee student's educational trajectory

Current research into the experiences of refugee students in mainstream secondary schools in Australia indicates that for these students, schools are places of social and academic isolation and failure. This article introduces one such student, Lian, who came to Australia as a refugee from Burma, and whom the author tutored and mentored intensively during his final year of schooling. The article provides an empirically derived understanding of how one-on-one tutoring and mentoring became a platform through which this student was able to succeed in a structure which systematically tried to exclude him. Here, agency is conceptualised in terms of Bourdieu's concept of capital. The analysis highlights the ways in which one-on-one tutoring and mentoring provided the necessary platform by which this refugee student was able to acquire the necessary capital that effected a positive change in his educational trajectory

Listening and learning : the reciprocal relationship between worker and client

The relationship between worker and client has for the best part of 100 years been the mainstay of probation, and yet has recently been eroded by an increased emphasis on punishment, blame and managerialism. The views of offenders are in direct contradiction to these developments within the criminal justice system and this article argues that only by taking account of the views of those at the 'coal face' will criminologists, policy makers and practitioners be able to effect real change in crime rates. The article thus focuses on the views of a sample of previously persistent offenders in Scotland about offending, desistance and how the system can help them. It explores not only their need for friendship and support in youth but also the close association between relationships and the likelihood of offending. It also demonstrates the views of offenders themselves about the importance of the working relationship with supervising officers in helping them desist from crime. The article concludes that the most effective way of reducing offending is to re-engage with the message of the Probation Act of 100 years ago, namely, to 'advise, assist and befriend' offenders rather than to 'confront, challenge and change' offending behaviour

Adult literacies from the perspective of practitioners and their learners. A case study from the north of England

This article is based on qualitative research with adult literacy practitioners and learners in the north of England. The author draws on interview and focus group data to identify their perspectives on adult literacies and compares these with the understandings of literacy on which current policy-making for adult literacy in England is based. The research revealed a wide range of ways in which literacy is understood in practice, compared with a much narrower conceptualisation in current policy. The article concludes that teachers’ and learners’ perspectives on adult literacies reinforce the notion that literacy is not a fixed concept, but that its meanings and uses vary according to time and context. It argues, however, that a policy environment based on an understanding of literacy which emphasizes employability and economic outcomes creates challenges for teachers and learners to maintain their own perspectives in relation to what literacy constitutes and what is important in adult literacy education. (DIPF/Orig.

Intruder bands and configuration mixing in the lead isotopes

A three-configuration mixing calculation is performed in the context of the interacting boson model with the aim to describe recently observed collective bands built on low-lying $0^+$ states in neutron-deficient lead isotopes. The configurations that are included correspond to the regular, spherical states as well as two-particle two-hole and four-particle four-hole excitations across the Z=82 shell gap.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, accepted by PRC, reference added for section 1 in this revised versio

Adult literacy and social inclusion

Hamilton and Pitt (2011, p. 598) describe how literacy has been used by the UK government as ‘one of the key indicators of social exclusion’ and as such it would seem a reasonable assumption that adult education should aim to foster an inclusive society. Using a definition of social inclusion based on ‘enabling people or communities to fully participate in society’ (Charity Commission, 2001, p. 2) this paper explores the extent to which adult literacy education is aimed at increasing the social inclusion of its learners. It examines the relationship between adult literacy and social inclusion as it is currently perceived in current UK policy, in international literacy surveys and by adult literacy teachers and their learners. UK policy on adult literacy education over a number of decades has already been the subject of considerable analysis, with strong discourses of employability, economic prosperity and functionalism identified within policy documents relating to the earlier Skills for Life initiative and Functional Skills qualifications (Taylor, 2008; Burgess and Hamilton, 2011). A ‘human resource’ model of literacy (Hamilton, 2012, p.169) has been recognised, for example, which views literacy ‘as a commodity to be exchanged within the global market place’ and links it firmly with economic success and prosperity. Concerns for standardisation and measurement have also been highlighted in analyses of literacy education policy. More recently, analysis of current policy for literacy education in England and Wales and its lack of specific provision for adult learners has identified a much stronger focus on younger learners and the unemployed, and presents notions of literacy that are focused to an even greater extent on the need to achieve qualifications in order to find and sustain employment (Allatt, 2016). While acknowledging that employability and economic prosperity may be important factors in social inclusion, the paper identifies a tension between the narrow focus of policy on employability and functionalism and the perceptions of adult literacy teachers and their learners, whose views encompass a broader range of factors relating to literacy education and social inclusion, including community participation and social life, avoiding isolation, involvement in digital environments and the ability of individuals to make informed choices about their futures. The paper draws on data from Critical Discourse Analysis of UK policy documents, interviews with literacy teachers and discussions with adult literacy learners. Notions of adult literacy presented by international surveys are also considered. The paper argues that a greater sense of adult literacy education being about social inclusion, along with a broader notion of inclusion itself, emerges from the views of practitioners and their learners than in the policy documents, which appear to have a much narrower focus on literacy education as a means of younger learners gaining and maintaining employment

Is adult literacy education still on the policy agenda in England or have the gremlins gone now?

The presentation considered the position of adult education within the UK Government’s policy agenda. Using data from document analysis and telephone interviews with literacy teachers, it also explored how literacy is currently perceived by policy makers and practitioners

What Does It Mean to Be Literate? How Literacy Is Currently Perceived by Adult Literacy Teachers, Learners and Policy-Makers in England

This study considers the ways in which literacy is defined and understood within current policy for adult literacy education in England. It also explores the perceptions of teachers of adult literacy and their learners about what it means to be literate at the present time. In order to access the view of literacy on which current policy-making is based I undertook Critical Discourse Analysis of policy documents, and comparison with analyses of earlier policies found that this view has changed little over time. A similar functional and instrumental viewpoint, which understands literacy as a fixed set of skills based on the use of printed texts and focused on economic and employment outcomes, was found to that identified in previous education policy. Telephone and face-to-face interviews with seventeen literacy practitioners, followed by discussions with two groups of literacy learners, found that a much broader view of literacy exists in practice, however. Teachers’ and learners’ perceptions, while acknowledging the role of literacy in employability and economic success, also identify personal well-being, confidence and self-esteem, benefits for family life, social and community participation amongst the key aspects of being literate. Meanwhile, literacy itself encompasses, not just the reading, writing, speaking and listening abilities required to function in everyday life and at work, but also digital skills, numeracy, creative writing and reading for pleasure. The research found that at times there are tensions between policy and practice, with teachers developing ways of working which allow them to meet the requirements of policy while still maintaining their own values, and those of their learners, in relation to literacy education