Participatory literacy programmes in developing countries are often seen as an important tool for women's empowerment and equality. This article problematises the way in which evaluation of progress towards these goals is couched in a linear trajectory, and often fails to uncover the messy reality of women's negotiations to achieve their own aims.…

Because of the important role played by community learning providers, Premier Ed Stelmach asked Canadian Minister of Advanced Education and Technology to increase support for community education and literacy programs. Community Adult Learning Councils and other community providers of adult literacy and family literacy programming are primarily…

Research suggests that technology use among adult literacy students has positive effects on learning outcomes, with the majority of these studies focused on traditional classroom environments where technology is used as a supplement to existing instruction. Adult literacy students are affected in many ways by technology use within less structured…

Focusing on students' responses to an 1876 writing assignment at Illinois Industrial University (which would ultimately become the University of Illinois), the author analyzes ideological tensions that occurred as the United States found itself revising the pastoral image of the farmer in an increasingly industrial age. (Contains 9 notes.)

This book contains a collection of 76 original essays produced by students at a model adult literacy program run by Literacy Volunteers of America-Chippewa Valley (Wisconsin). The essays were produced by the students with the encouragement of their tutors. The essays are grouped into the following topic categories: life's lessons, citizenship,…

The principal failure of attempts to reduce illiteracy in the United States lies in the conceptualization of the problem to which literacy is the solution and in an underfinanced practice that parallels dominant educational institutions, emphasizing the service of individuals. Adult education plays a critical role in liberatory action. Although…

This report provides a summary of an adult education conference in Kentucky. It contains practical information to future planning groups and to persons who may not have experience in planning large conferences. The report is organized in four sections. The introduction includes the early planning process of the conference and the conference goals.…

As part of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1992, the National Center for Education Statistics published a separate study that focuses on the literacy skills of older adults (aged 60 years and older) from a variety of perspectives, such as age, sex, amount of education, race or ethnic background, income, and geographic region. Some of…

This document contains two extended papers and one shorter commentary that reflect a continuing debate between two schools of thought on literacy that have been called the "autonomous" and the "sociocultural.""The Persisting Power and Costs of the Literacy Myth" (Harvey J. Graff) argues that current discourse on…

This document provides summaries of conference papers and discussions at a workshop focused on improving the quality of literacy education in developing countries. The workshop was attended by 20 project leaders and observers from 11 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, India, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and…

Recently, several industrialized nations have engaged in extensive and expensive assessments of adult literacy using door-to-door surveys and tests of "functional" reading. A study examined the use of simple checklists of author's names, magazine titles, famous people's names, and vocabulary works used earlier by West, Stanovich and Miller (1993)…

This report describes adult literacy needs, the role of the libraries in meeting those needs, literacy needs and services in New York, and the contributions the City University of New York (CUNY) is making to the literacy effort. Quotations from Paulo Freire and Jonathan Kozol are used to define the nature of illiteracy and its extent in the…

This booklet, aimed at adult basic education students, pinpoints and summarizes a few common spelling rules to help make spelling easier, and includes a component on using the dictionary. In the text, each rule is presented with many examples. Exercises follow each spelling rule, allowing students the opportunity to apply the rule to specific…

The Ohio Adult Literacy Survey, like the National Adult Literacy Survey of which it is a part, aimed to characterize adults' literacy skills in English based on their performance on diverse tasks that reflect the types of materials and demands they encounter in their daily lives. To gather information on the literacy skills of adults in Ohio,…

When people seek to augment their reading and writing skills through participation in adult literacy programs, what do they expect to happen? An examination of brochures promoting adult literacy programs both nationally and in Philadelphia indicates that the programs promote adult literacy instruction as empowering learners and rescuing them from…