No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
The employability skills discourse and literacy practitioners
Abstract
This chapter shows how the human capital model of knowledge that is embedded in transnational and national policies has led, in literacy programmes, to a focus on skills at the expense of wider goals. However, practitioners have resisted this discourse of deficit to some extent by a shared understanding of what is good practice, clear views of their underpinning value system and creative ways of delivering pre-set outcomes.
In contrast to qualitative and theoretical approaches, the mainstream of quantitative research often still finds it difficult to incorporate modern concepts of diversity and intersectionality into its work. This article aims to highlight various aspects in which large studies and their evaluations marginalise or ignore certain parts of the population. In surveying data, large-scale surveys like the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) often not only operate on a binary gender concept but also do not differentiate between a person gender identity and their social gender. In addition, commonly used methods keep unequal distributions invisible. Non-binary people are virtually invisible, unequal benefits for women remain hidden and the intersectional diversity inside the broad gender categories poses challenges to the mainstream of quantitative research in adult education. Therefore, there is a need for a feminist approach to statistical methods and quantitative research and in particular a feminist approach to a careful and critical interpretation.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.