Literacy in the Lives of Working-Class Adults in Australia: Dominant versus Local Voices

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Description

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. 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 40-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 follows a format of firstly explaining how dominant society views these adult groups in relation to literacy, followed by a qualitative examination of the perspectives of members of these groups on how they manage the literacy practices of their everyday lives.

Author Bio

Stephen Black is Senior Researcher in the School of Education, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.