search

Advanced Search

Ariadne Pfad:

Inhalt

details

Title
The rise and fall of adult literacy. Policy Lessons from Canada
Authors
SourceEuropean journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults 11 (2020) 1, S. 109-125 ZDB
Document  (416 KB)
License of the document Lizenz-Logo 
Keywords (German)
sub-discipline
Document typeArticle (journal)
ISSN2000-7426; 20007426
LanguageEnglish
Year of creation
review statusPeer-Reviewed
Abstract (English):There was a period of time, from the late 1980s until the early/mid-2000s, when interest in adult literacy in Canada was strong among the public, in the media, and with policymakers, and a policy window opened for the mainstreaming of literacy. Against this background, it is surprising that the Canadian literacy infrastructure was subsequently largely dismantled. Drawing on theories of policy formation, and recent and previous research, including interviews with key stakeholders, we argue that mainstreaming literacy has failed and explore the reasons for this failure. The paper is structured in three sections. First, the authors report on the construction of an adult literacy infrastructure in Canada over two phases: i) the period from the 1970s up until the launch of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) in 1994; ii) the story of IALS and changes occurring up until around 2005. Second, we examine the reasons for the failure of the mainstreaming of literacy in Canada. We conclude with further reflections on the present situation in which adult literacy has been largely reduced to employability skills which are under-supported. (DIPF/Orig.)
other articles of this journal
Statistics
Checksums
Date of publication28.02.2020
CitationElfert, Maren; Walker, Jude: The rise and fall of adult literacy. Policy Lessons from Canada - In: European journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults 11 (2020) 1, S. 109-125 - URN: urn:nbn:de:0111-pedocs-188473 - DOI: 10.25656/01:18847; 10.3384/rela.2000-7426.rela9203
export files

share content at social platforms