Three dimensional change? the relationship between theory, policy and adults' understanding of literacies

Abstract

Despite the essentially functional, technicist basis of both the International Adult Literacy Survey (1997), and the Moser report in England (1999), the past two decades have witnessed a radical shift in our understanding of the nature of literacy and numeracy, which should in turn have a marked effect on the way that provision is structured. This ‘new’ approach is embedded in a definitional shift from literacy and numeracy, to literacies. This article examines the impact that the new approach to literacies has had in three areas; (1) the nature of literacies provision in communities, (2) adults’ understanding of ‘being literate’, and (3) their perceptions of literacy learning. Drawing on an innovative research project in North Ayrshire, it asks whether this new vision of literacies is a shared one, or one that has not yet impacted on providers and learners. The authors suggest that the task of translating theoretical understandings into local praxis is a major one. In addition to the significant changes that it requires of providers, evidence from their research indicates the enormity of the task ahead in changing many adults’ perceptions both of self as learner and of literacies learning, and they consider the policy implications of this.