Shopping [for] Power: How Adult Literacy Learners Negotiate the Marketplace

Abstract

Little empirical evidence exists on how adult literacy learners act as consumers. Yet, adult literacy programs often employ a “functional” approach to consumer education and assume that adult learners are deficient in consumer skills. Data from a qualitative study of the consumer behaviors of adult literacy learners are used to explore how adult learners negotiate the marketplace. The findings challenge the validity of a functional model and support the conceptualization of consumer literacy as a social practice, which includes reading and writing skills, personal and social skills, and the ability to manage the stigma of low literacy.