Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Adult literacy benefits? New opportunities for research into sustainable development

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
International Review of Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Understandings of “literacy” broadened after the United Nations Development Decade of the 1960s. The corresponding research into the benefits of literacy also widened its focus beyond economic growth. The effects of adult literacy and its correlates appeared diffuse with the rise of New Literacy Studies, and the scholarship on consequences seemed less essential to advocates following the rise of a human rights perspective on education. In 2016 the agenda for literacy research has returned – but at a higher level – to concern over its benefits. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have reintegrated literacy research within an agenda to understand the channels through which literacy skills might effect change. This article briefly reviews progress in adult literacy, touches on existing perspectives on literacy, and then illustrates four recent sources of information useful in the revitalised agenda offered by the SDGs. Data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Values Survey (WVS), and the World Bank’s Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP) study are now available to researchers wishing to link educational change with attitudinal and behavioural change. Another important resource are the emerging data on mobile learning. By integrating literacy into the SDGs, literacy researchers can reveal the channels through which literacy can contribute to social welfare and transformation.

Résumé

Avantages de l’alphabétisation des adultes ? Nouveaux champs de recherche sur le développement durable – Les conceptions de l’ « alphabétisation » se sont élargies dans les années 1960 après la première Décennie des Nations Unies pour le développement. La recherche afférente sur les avantages de l’alphabétisation a également étendu sa dominante au-delà de la croissance économique. Les effets de l’alphabétisation des adultes et de ses corrélats semblaient diffus avec les Nouvelles études sur l’alphabétisation, et les travaux universitaires sur ses conséquences apparaissaient moins importants à ses défenseurs après l’émergence d’une perspective de l’éducation sous l’angle des droits fondamentaux. Le programme de recherche sur l’alphabétisation est revenu en 2016, et à un niveau supérieur, à la préoccupation sur ses bienfaits. Les Objectifs de développement durable (ODD) des Nations Unies ont replacé la recherche sur l’alphabétisation dans un programme afin de cerner par quels canaux les compétences de base peuvent induire un changement. Cet article recense brièvement les avancées en alphabétisation des adultes, aborde les perspectives actuelles de l’alphabétisation, puis illustre quatre sources récentes d’information, utiles au programme redynamisé que proposent les ODD. Les données de l’étude menée par l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE) sur le Programme pour l’évaluation internationale des compétences des adultes (PEICA), l’Enquête sur les valeurs mondiales (WVS) et l’enquête de la Banque mondiale sur les compétences au service de l’emploi et de la productivité (STEP) sont désormais accessibles aux chercheurs désireux de relier changement éducatif et changement d’attitude et de comportement. Les données émergentes sur l’apprentissage mobile constituent une autre ressource majeure. En rapportant l’alphabétisation aux ODD, les chercheurs en la matière peuvent révéler par quels canaux l’alphabétisation peut contribuer au bien-être social et à la transformation de la société.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. “The notion of functional literacy became a linchpin of UNESCO’s Experimental World Literacy Programme (EWLP), initiated at the General Conference in 1966, implemented in eleven countries and discontinued in 1973. The EWLP, funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other agencies, aimed to provide literacy acquisition via experimentation and work-oriented learning” (UNESCO 2006, p. 153).

  2. If the woman being interviewed has completed primary school, she is presumed literate and not shown a card.

  3. In the same retrospective, Graff also called UNESCO “one of the last bastions of the unqualified literacy myth” (Graff 2010, p. 651).

  4. There are moral arguments against the human rights approach in global governance. British philosopher Onora O’Neill (2005) echoes Edmund Burke’s sceptical view of the French Revolution’s assertion of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man (Burke 1790; Paine 1791). O’Neil questions the sense of embracing abstract rights without identifying any corollary bearer of the duty to provide or protect those rights. If human rights and obligations are corollary normative claims, then there can be no universal rights without a counterpart obligation by a universal guarantor of those rights. What body would serve as the guarantor for universal literacy? Using the language of rights to promote education, not only for primary schooling but also for lifelong learning, makes little sense without strong states willing to guarantee adult literacy. As already noted, despite twenty-five years of rights-based rationales through EFA, universalisation of adult literacy has not been achieved. Invoking literacy as a universal human right does not guarantee success.

  5. The impact of adult learning and education on health and well-being is also one of the topics which the 3rd Global Report on Adult Learning and Education focuses on (UIL 2016).

  6. Round 1 included 22 OECD member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom (England and Northern Ireland), and the United States – and 2 partner countries: Cyprus and the Russian Federation. Round 2 (2012–2016) surveyed 6 OECD member countries: Chile, Greece, Israel, New Zealand, Slovenia and Turkey – and 3 OECD partner countries: Indonesia, Lithuania and Singapore. The report for Round 2 was published in June of this year (OECD 2016). Round 3 is scheduled for 2014–2018, surveying Ecuador, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru and the United States. For more on the literacy and numeracy aspect of the Survey of Adult Skills, see Windisch 2016.

  7. The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was conducted in three phases (in 1994, 1996 and 1998) in 20 nations.

  8. In 1893, the great French bibliophile Louis Octave Uzanne witnessed a demonstration of the kinetograph – forerunner of a movie camera. The next year he published his dystopic tale, “The End of Books” (Uzanne 1894). Uzanne warned that electronic media would soon replace books. Today, literacy researchers are uncovering both positive as well as negative consequences of fewer print reading materials and more mobile reading.

  9. Worldreader Mobile (WRM) is a mobile application launched in 2012 by Worldreader, a non-profit organisation.

  10. One important source of information which is not yet publically available are further country results of UNESCO’s Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP), which measured literacy in several countries during the decade after Dakar. It is hoped that data from those assessments will also become available for researchers in the near future.

References

  • Aker, J., Ksoll, C., & Lybbert, T. J. (2012). Can mobile phones improve learning? Evidence from a field experiment in Niger. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 4(4), 94–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asino, T. I., Wilder, H., & Ferris, S. P. (2011). Innovative use of ICT in Namibia for nationhood. In R. N. Lekoko & L. M. Semali (Eds.), Cases on developing countries and ICT integration: Rural community development (pp. 53–61). Hershey, PA: Idea Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barakat, B. (2015). Improving adult literacy without improving the literacy of adults? A cross-national analysis of adult literacy from a cohort perspective. Background paper prepared for the 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 9 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002324/232473e.pdf.

  • Barakat, B. (2016). Improving adult literacy without improving the literacy of adults? A cross-national cohort perspective. World Development, 87, 242–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartlett, L. (2008). Literacy’s verb: Exploring what literacy is and what literacy does. International Journal of Educational Development, 28(6), 737–753.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaug, M. (1966). Literacy and economic development. The School Review, 74(4), 393–418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowman, M. J., & Anderson, C. A. (1968). Concerning the role of education in development. In M. J. Bowman & C. A. Anderson (Eds.), Readings in the economics of education (pp. 113–131). Paris: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, E. (1790). Reflections on the revolution in France, and on the proceedings in certain societies in London relative to that event, in a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Paris. London: J. Dodsley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chudgar, A. (2009). The challenge of universal elementary education in rural India: Can adult literacy play a role? Comparative Education Review, 53(3), 403–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dolan, P., Fujiwara, D., & Metcalfe. R. (2012). Review and update of research into the wider benefits of adult learning. London: Department of Business, Innovation & Skills. Retrieved 9 September 2016 from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/34671/12-1243-review-wider-benefits-of-adult-learning.pdf.

  • Easton, P. (2014). Sustaining literacy in Africa: Developing a literate environment. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 21 September 2016 from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/resources/online-materials/publications/2014/sustaining-literacy-in-africa-developing-a-literate-environment/.

  • Esposito, L., Kebede, B., & Maddox, B. (2015). The value of literacy practices. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 45(3), 363–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glewwe, P. (1999). Why does mother’s schooling raise child health in developing countries? Evidence from Morocco. The Journal of Human Resources, 34(1), 124–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graff, H. J. (1979). The literacy myth: Literacy and social structure in the nineteenth-century city. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graff, H. J. (2010). The literacy myth at thirty. Journal of Social History, 43(3), 635–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heatwole, A.-R. (2010). The Namibian turns text messages into letters to the editor. MediaShift, 13 April [online article]. Retrieved 9 September 2016 from http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2010/04/the-namibian-turns-text-messages-into-letters-to-the-editor099.

  • Heckman, J., & Kautz, T. (2012). Hard evidence on soft skills. Labour Economics, 19(4), 451–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inkeles, A., & Smith, D. (1974). Becoming modern: Individual changes in six developing countries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • IIEP (International Institute for Educational Planning). (2015). The impact of the EFA agenda: Comparing national education plans before and after Dakar. Background paper prepared for the 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 9 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002324/232462e.pdf.

  • Jefferson, T. (1905 [1787]). Letter written in Paris by Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington. In P. L. Ford (Ed.), The works of Thomas Jefferson, vol. V: Correspondence 1786–1789. New York: G. B. Putnam’s Sons. Retrieved 13 September 2016 from http://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/302.

  • Levine, R., Levine, S., Schnell-Anzola, B., Rowe, M., & Dexter, E. (2012). Literacy and mothering: How women’s schooling changes the lives of the world’s children. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Maddox, B. (2007). What can ethnographic studies tell us about the consequences of literacy? Comparative Education, 43(2), 253–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maddox, B. (2008). What good is literacy? Insights and implications of the capabilities approach. Journal of Human Development, 9(2), 185–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). (2013a). OECD Skills outlook 2013: First results from the Survey of Adult Skills. OECD Skills studies series Paris: OECD. Retrieved 13 September from https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/Skills%20volume%201%20(eng)–full%20v12–eBook%20(04%2011%202013).pdf.

  • OECD. (2013b). Skilled for life? Key findings from the survey of adult skills. Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2016). Skills matter: Further results from the Survey of Adult Skills. OECD Skills studies series. Paris: OECD. Retrieved 13 September 2016 from http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/8716011e.pdf?expires=1473753891&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=9A638C93773ACB2F29F910D7BC93F9BF.

  • OECD & HRDC (Human Resources Development Canada). (1997). Literacy skills for the knowledge society: Further results of the international adult literacy survey. Paris and Ottawa, ON: OECD and HRDC.

  • OECD & Statistics Canada. (1995). Literacy, economy and society: Results of the first international adult literacy survey. Paris and Ottawa, ON: OECD and Statistics Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill, O. (2005). The dark side of human rights. International Affairs, 81(2), 427–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe). (1975). Final act of the conference on security and co-operation in Europe. Helsinki: OSCE.

  • Oxenham, J. (2008). Effective literacy programmes: Options for policy-makers. Fundamentals of educational planning series (Vol. 91). Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Retrieved 31 March 2014 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0016/001636/163607e.pdf.

  • Paine, T. (1791). The rights of man: Being an answer to Mr Burke’s attack on the French revolution. London: J. S. Jordan.

  • Prins, E. (2010). Salvadoran campesinos/as’ literacy practices and perceptions of the benefits of literacy: A longitudinal study with former literacy participants. International Journal of Educational Development, 30(4), 418–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prins, E., Monnat, S., Clymer, C., & Toso, B. (2015). Examining associations between adult health and literacy, numeracy, technological problem-solving skills, and post-initial learning in the U.S. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research—American Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (AIR-PIAAC). Retrieved 2 February 2016 from http://static1.squarespace.com/static/51bb74b8e4b0139570ddf020/t/54da78a6e4b0f5214f04f907/1423603878589/Prins_Monnat_Clymer_Toso_PIAAC.pdf.

  • Rotberg, R. I., & Aker, J. (2013). Mobile phones: Uplifting weak and failed states. The Washington Quarterly, 36(1), 111–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scribner, S., & Cole, M. (1981). The psychology of literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sørensen, K., Van den Broucke, S., Fullam, J., Doyle, G., Pelikan, J., Slonska, Z., et al. (2012). Health literacy and public health: A systematic review and integration of definitions and models. BMC Public Health, 12. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12-80. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3292515/?report=classic.

  • St. Clair, R. (2010). Why literacy matters: Understanding the effects of literacy education for adults. Leicester: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE).

    Google Scholar 

  • Statistics Canada & OECD. (2005). Learning a living: First results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills survey. Ottawa; ON and Paris: Canadian Minister of Industry and OECD. Retrieved 14 September 2016 from http://www.oecd.org/education/innovation-education/34867438.pdf.

  • Statistics Canada & OECD. (2011). Literacy for life: Further results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills survey. Ottawa, ON and Paris: Statistics Canada and OECD. Retrieved 14 September 2016 from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-604-x/89-604-x2011001-eng.pdf

  • Street, B. (2003). What’s new in new literacy studies? Current Issues in Comparative Education, 5(2), 77–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • UIL (UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning). (2013). 2nd Global report on adult learning and education: Rethinking literacy. Hamburg: UIL. Retrieved 4 April 2014 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002224/222407E.pdf.

  • UIL. (2016). 3rd Global Report on adult learning and education: The impact of adult learning and education on health and well-being; employment and the labour market; and social, civic and community life. Hamburg: UIL. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://www.uil.unesco.org/adult-learning-and-education/global-report-grale/third-global-report-adult-learning-and-education.

  • UIS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics). (2013). Adult and youth literacy. National, regional and global trends, 1985–2015. UIS Information Paper, June. Montreal: UIS. Retrieved 11 April 2014 from http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/literacy-statistics-trends-1985-2015.pdf.

  • UN (United Nations). (1948). The universal declaration of human rights. Paris: United Nations. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0007/000741/074116eo.pdf#74129.

  • UN. (1961). Resolution 1710 (XVI): United Nations Development Decade. A programme for international economic cooperation (I). In United Nations General Assembly—16th Session. Resolutions adopted on the reports of the Second Committee (pp. 17–18). New York: United Nations. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/1710%20(XVI).

  • UN. (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989; entry into force 2 September 1990, in accordance with article 49. New York: United Nations. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx.

  • UN. (2015). Sustainable development goals. Presented on the Sustainable development knowledge platform [interactive online resource]. New York: United Nations. Retrieved 12 September from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (1990). World declaration on education for all and Framework for action to meet basic learning needs. Adopted by the World Conference on Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning Needs, Jomtien, Thailand, 5–9 March. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001275/127583e.pdf

  • UNESCO. (2006). Literacy for life. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001416/141639e.pdf.

  • UNESCO. (2015). Education for all 2000–2015: Achievements and challenges. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2015. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002322/232205e.pdf.

  • Uzanne, O. (1894). The end of books. Scribner’s Magazine Illustrated, 16, 221–231. Retrieved 14 September 2016 from https://archive.org/stream/TheEndOfBooks#page/n1/mode/2up.

  • Wagner, D. A. (2011). What happened to literacy? Historical and conceptual perspectives on literacy in UNESCO. International Journal of Educational Development, 31(3), 319–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WEF (World Education Forum). (2000). Dakar framework for action. Education for all: Meeting our collective commitments. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf.

  • WEF. (2015). Incheon Declaration. Education 2030: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 12 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002338/233813M.pdf.

  • West, M., & Chew, H. E. (2014). Reading in the mobile era: A study of mobile reading in developing countries. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved 18 September 2016 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002274/227436e.pdf.

  • Windisch, H. K. (2016). How to motivate adults with low literacy and numeracy skills to engage and persist in learning: A literature review of policy interventions. International Review of Education – Journal of Lifelong Learning, 62(3), 279–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2014). Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP) household surveys [online database]. Retrieved 14 September 2016 from http://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/step/about.

  • WVS (World Values Survey). (2014). World Values Survey, wave 6 (2010–2014) [online database]. Retrieved 14 September 2016 from http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWV6.jsp.

Download references

Acknowledgement

The author is grateful for comments from his former colleagues at the UNESCO Global Education Monitor, as well as to the anonymous reviewers. Useful suggestions came from Bilal Barakat, Esther Prins, Alexandria Valerio, Maya Kiesselbach and Stephen Roche.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education Policy Studies, College of Education, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    David Post

Authors
  1. David Post
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Post.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Post, D. Adult literacy benefits? New opportunities for research into sustainable development. Int Rev Educ 62, 751–770 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9602-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9602-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation