Adult education – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Using a wellbeing framework to recognise, value and enhance the broad range of outcomes for learners in adult literacy and numeracy programmes

Aotearoa New Zealand’s attention to adult literacy and numeracy (L+N) education arose from the results of the OECD / Statistics Canada International Literacy surveys begun in the mid-1990s, when, as a nation, we achieved unexpectedly low results for L+N proficiency. The Government responded with an adult L+N strategy (Ministry of Education, 2001) that spellt out initiatives in building professional capability for delivery, improving the quality of the system, and ensuring that larger numbers of learners could access L+N learning. Over the next 10 years, further measures were included, such as credentialising tutors, expanded funding for educational provision, a national literacy centre housed in the University of Waikato, a national set of

Who, what, how, and why? Profiles, practices, pedagogies, and self-perception of adult literacy practitioners

1. Introduction This study began in the Spring of 2003, when we—the Canterbury Adult Basic Education Research Network (CABERN), an informal cross-sector network of local adult literacy researchers and practitioners—sent out a questionnaire. The questionnaire addressed potential respondents by asking: “Are you a tutor engaged in any aspect of adult literacy?” and the accompanying information sheet explained the main driver behind the research: We began this particular project because we felt that, while there is a lot of talk currently on what adult literacy tutors should do, there is actually very little material available on what they do do and why they do it; our project is an opportunity for tutors