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International Review of Education

, Volume 62, Issue 6, pp 751–770 | Cite as

Adult literacy benefits? New opportunities for research into sustainable development

  • David Post
ORIGINAL PAPER
First Online:

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.

Keywords

literacy sustainable development evaluation Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) World Values Survey (WVS) Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP) 

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.

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Notes

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.

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© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Education Policy StudiesCollege of Education, Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkUSA

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