Conceptual Framework and Overview of the Handbook

Dolores Perin

Teachers College, Columbia University, USA

Introduction

Although global adult literacy rates have been gradually rising, an estimated 750-758 million adults in the world today remain characterized as "illiterate" (CIA World Factbook, 2018; United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2017). Based on an estimate of the total adult world population of 5,460,231,050 (adults defined as age 15 and above, CIA World Factbook, 2018), the worldwide adult illiteracy rate is approximately 14%. The phenomenon of low literacy skills among adults has negative effects on the attainment of educational goals, job functioning, civic participation, health, family life, and, more broadly, on national economic productivity and well-being (Akello, Lutwama-Rukundo, & Musiimenta, 2017; Cilasun, Demir-Seker, Dincer, & Tekin-Koru, 2018; Feinberg, Tighe, Greenberg, & Mavreles, 2018; Oxenham, 2008; Post, 2016; Tejero, Insa, & Roca, 2019; World Literacy Foundation, 2015). Although adult literacy rates have increased dramatically over the past century, especially in industrialized countries (Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2018), concern about low literacy skills among adults has persisted (International Council for Adult Education, 2016; Sticht, Caylor, Kern, & Fox, 1972; U.S. Department of Education Office of Career Technical and Adult Education, 2015). To understand the impact of this problem it is important to review definitions of adult literacy.

Definitions of Literacy

Definitions of literacy run the spectrum from broad to narrow. At its broadest, literacy refers to knowledge of a specific domain, such as in the terms "financial literacy" and "health literacy" (Happ, Förster, Rüspeler, & Rothweiler, 2018; Zambrana et al., 2015). Slightly less broad are definitions that extend to communication by a variety of means. For example, the International Literacy Association (2018) defines literacy as "the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, compute, and communicate using visual, audible, and digital materials across disciplines and in any context" (International Literacy Association, 2018, p. 2).

More narrowly, literacy refers to print literacy, that is, understanding and expressing ideas in printed language (Castles, Rastle, & Nation, 2018; Lynch, 2009). Attempts to understand the nature of print literacy bring the subject to contested ground, as views differ on the use of printed language. Essentially, the debate concerns whether literacy should be seen as an unchanging set of skills or as a constellation of socially conditioned practices. For example, it has been argued that the benefits of "having" literacy will be contingent upon the typical behaviors and the expectations of specific societies. This view, called an "ideological model," is compared favorably with an "autonomous model" (Street, 1984, pp. 2-3) in which literacy is seen as a predetermined set of print behaviors that are uniform across societies.

Within this comparative framework, the view to which one subscribes has important effects on how adult literacy practices are understood and taught. An example of the ideological model is seen in the instructional approach of a seminal thinker and practitioner in the field of adult literacy, Paolo Freire (Freire, 1968/2005), who taught disenfranchised Brazilian adults to read printed words using material designed to promote "conscientização" (conscientization, Freire, 1974/2005, p. 37). Within a visionary framework of "dialogic pedagogy" (Shih, 2018, p. 230), Freire's method of teaching reading utilized phonologically based decoding techniques (Freire, 1974/2005, pp. 43-47 and 76-77) that were highly similar to the current decoding techniques that are effective for teaching children to read (Clarke, Paul, Smith, Snowling, & Hulme, 2017; Lovett et al., 2017) and were characteristic of the autonomous model. However, Freire's instructional approach differed in the use of vocabulary selected to raise students' awareness of the political oppression currently existing in their lives and in the extension of his pedagogy beyond the formal academic environment to the community at large (Fleuri & Fleuri, 2018).

Beyond their instructional implications, definitions of literacy may be tied to assessment approaches. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) focuses on reading ability and excludes writing from the definition of literacy for its "Survey of Adult Skills" in the Programme for the International Assessment for Adult Competencies (PIAAC):

Literacy is defined as the ability to understand, evaluate, use and engage with written texts to participate in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential. Literacy encompasses a range of skills from the decoding of written words and sentences to the comprehension, interpretation, and evaluation of complex texts. It does not, however, involve the production of text (writing). Information on the skills of adults with low levels of proficiency is provided by an assessment of reading components that covers text vocabulary, sentence comprehension and passage fluency.

(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2013a, p. 59)

In estimating the worldwide adult illiteracy rate of 14% mentioned earlier, literacy was taken to be a person's ability to "both read and write with understanding a short simple statement on his/her own life" (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], n.d.) or, even more simply, "age 15 and over can read and write" (CIA World Factbook, 2018). However, by using a definition better aligned to the types of reading and writing required for full civil, academic and community functioning in many countries today, the number of adults without adequate literacy skills is much higher than the estimated 14%.

Identifying Adults with Low Literacy Skills

In the early 2000s, the global standard for adult literacy was set at the ability to read and perform numeracy tasks in "technology-rich environments" (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2013b, p. 3). Among 33 countries1 participating in an OECD survey of adult literacy skills in this more demanding context (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2013a, 2016), an average of 18.5% of respondents were found to have low reading skills. OECD divided its 500-point scale into five levels, with Levels 2 and 3 (score range 226-275) signifying adequate performance on typical literacy tasks in the target countries.

At Level 1 of the OECD scale, a person can understand the literal meaning of short, simple texts but not much more. Many students attending adult literacy programs are found at this level. At the highest level, an individual must demonstrate the ability to:

perform tasks that involve searching for and integrating information across multiple, dense texts, constructing syntheses of similar and contrasting ideas or points of view, or evaluating evidence and arguments. He or she can apply and evaluate logical and conceptual models, and evaluate the reliability of evidentiary sources and select key information. He or she is also aware of subtle, rhetorical cues and can make high-level inferences or use specialised background knowledge. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016, p. 21).

This level of literacy is needed to learn effectively in postsecondary (tertiary) education, where students must be able to comprehend complex texts and convey complicated information coherently in writing (Fallahi, 2012; Holschuh & Lampi, 2018). Thus, students who enter postsecondary education lacking these skills (Georgiou & Das, 2015; MacArthur, Philippakos, & Ianetta, 2015) could conceivably be included in the population of adults with low literacy skills.

In this handbook a somewhat unusual position on adult literacy is taken by seeing as its constituent population not only individuals at the lowest levels of literacy skill, that is, those eligible to participate in adult literacy programs, but also adults who have literacy skills significantly lower than those required in their educational environments. Thus, research on three groups is reported in the handbook: adults who participate in or would qualify for entry to adult literacy programs; and two groups of postsecondary students: students assessed to have low literacy skills and referred to developmental (remedial) programs (Bailey et al., 2016; De Paola & Scoppa, 2015; Rienties, Tempelaar, Waterval, Rehm, & Gijselaers, 2006) and students with dyslexia (Birch, 2016; Joshi & Bouck, 2017; Suárez-Coalla & Cuetos, 2015).

People in each of these groups display difficulties reading and writing printed text that severely interfere with the accomplishment of their educational goals. Furthermore, although there is limited...