Submission Purpose
Main Conference
Type of Proposal
Paper: Empirical
Abstract
The 2014 reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) – a major source of funding for adult education programs in the United States – meant even greater emphasis on workforce-focused skills in the classroom and intensified tracking of occupational outcomes. Concerns have been raised about how a move away from critical literacy has impacted some of the field’s most vulnerable learners, those at the lowest levels of literacy. This paper examines the experiences of veteran adult literacy educators to illuminate the impact workforce-focused policies have had on educational services for adult literacy level learners.
Keywords
adult basic education, adult education policy, workforce development, WIOA
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Jones, J. (2020). “They just don't invest in those students…" Adult literacy education and the shift to career readiness: Conversations with veteran educators in the US. Peer reviewed and approved by the AERC Steering Committee for the Adult Education in Global Times Conference. University of British Columbia. Canada. (Conference Cancelled).
“They just don't invest in those students…" Adult literacy education and the shift to career readiness: Conversations with veteran educators in the US
The 2014 reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) – a major source of funding for adult education programs in the United States – meant even greater emphasis on workforce-focused skills in the classroom and intensified tracking of occupational outcomes. Concerns have been raised about how a move away from critical literacy has impacted some of the field’s most vulnerable learners, those at the lowest levels of literacy. This paper examines the experiences of veteran adult literacy educators to illuminate the impact workforce-focused policies have had on educational services for adult literacy level learners.
