‘I'm a resourceful person and I ask questions everywhere I go:’ adult job seekers’ adaptive literacy practices in the platformized workforce development system

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the experiences of adult job seekers in a community technology center, primarily exploring three cases. In adult education, the term digital literacy has been used to refer to technical skills, reflecting a hierarchical framing of learning that positions technologies as neutral tools. Drawing from a sociomaterial perspective, I explore the broader range of adaptive literacy practices emerging for adult job seekers as they moved across entangled platforms and workforce agencies during a six-month ethnographic case study. Findings explore three aspects of the adults’ practices across the platforms: maneuvering resumes across platforms as boundary objects; collaboratively navigating platforms’ rules; and drawing from formal and informal knowledge.