Adult Literacy Provision In Australia

Includes programmes for Aboriginal people and lists schemes in each state.

This study examined non-accredited community language, literacy and numeracy provision in Australia. A diverse range of providers assist many adults who do not need or cannot yet cope with accredited training. Growth in self-confidence appears as important as development of literacy and numeracy skills, with teachers and tutors playing a key role in this. The support document includes a literature review, survey results, and seven case studies. List of eligible organisations that responded to survey is appended. (Contains 85 tables.) [This document was produced by the author based on research for the report, "Community Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Provision in Australia: Diverse Approaches and Outcomes" (ED499762) and was funded under the Adult Literacy National Project by the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training.].

Adopting a 'social practice' approach to literacy research based on ethnographic methods, this book provides a strong critique of dominant understandings of the role of literacy in the lives of adults in Australia. It explores how groups of working-class adults can manage the literacy practices of their everyday lives by drawing on social networks of support. It is based on research conducted by the author over a forty-year career in adult literacy education, featuring the voices of varied adult groups, including: prisoners, the long-term unemployed, local council workers, manufacturing workers, adult literacy students, marginalised young people, vocational students, and patients living with a chronic illness (type 2 diabetes). Each chapter explains how dominant society views these adult groups in relation to literacy, and provides a qualitative examination at the local level of how members of these groups manage the literacy practices of their everyday lives.

This report documents the current situation in Australia with respect to literacy learning of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Information for the study was obtained in the following ways: literature review; a survey of services offered in Australia (respondents were 90 principals/directors/presidents; 201 service providers; 37 correctional service institutions; 108 course convenors; 102 teachers/tutors; and 205 community agencies); a study of the competencies and needs of a sample of 18 adults with intellectual disabilities in their work environments; and 5 special projects focusing on providing literacy services for people with intellectual disabilities. The report is organized in three volumes. Volume 1 comprises an overview of the project, an executive summary, and conclusions and recommendations. Volume 2 contains the literature reviews, results of studies and questionnaire surveys, and the five special project reports: "Study of the Provision of Adult Literacy/Numeracy to Adults with Intellectual Disabilities at Rockhampton College of Technical and Further Education (TAFE)" (Simonds); "Study of the Support Offered to Students with Intellectual Disabilities at Redlands Community College" (Laakso); "Assessment of Literacy Skills Using Facilitated Communication" (Attwood, Remington-Gurney); "Investigation of the Use of Rebuses, and the Strategy of Symbol Fading To Enhance the Literacy Skills of Twelve Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities" (Woolard, Groves); and "Report on an Adult Literacy Tutor Training Program for Caregiver/Supervisors Who Work with Adults with Moderate/Severe Intellectual Disabilities at Rockhampton College of TAFE" (Harreveld). Volume 3 has three sections: (1) 12 appendices containing the questionnaires and lists of survey respondents; (2) 11 appendices of participant profiles and sample materials from the Rockhampton College study; and (3) 9 appendices of sample materials from the Redlands Community College project. (KC)

Developing Social Equity in Australian Adult Education: Lessons from the Past presents a case study of the trajectory of an Australian adult basic education program in New South Wales from its humanist, social justice beginnings, through forty years of destabilising change. It identifies the influences and influencers that have directed this change; those that were responsible for the creation of the field in its foundation years, and that were displaced by other, more powerful actors representing the global influence of the neoliberal ideology. The story is told largely through archival evidence and the voices of those practitioners who helped shape the discourse and practice of the foundation years, and who were required to respond to constantly changing policies and socio-economic contexts. It discusses some lessons that might be learnt from the past in order that a new set of actors might be mobilised to promote an alternate discourse. This book will appeal to students and scholars of social justice and adult education, and practitioners involved in adult education.