Changing Policy Discourses: Constructing Literacy

Abstract: In this paper we explore the ways in which policy discourses have historically constructed rationales for addressing adult literacy and inequalities over the last 50 years. We offer an overview of the gradual “discovery ” of adult literacy in rich, western countries during this period and look in detail at two key policy documents from the UK: the Right to Read manifesto of the 1970‟s campaign and the Skills for Life Strategy document produced in 2001 by the New Labour administration of Tony Blair. These two documents were produced during different policy periods, the first at the end of a period of welfare reform concerned mainly with social justice; the second a product of neo-liberalism that provides an international back drop to national policy. Our discourse analysis reveals both continuities and differences across these different policies in the construction of the goals of programmes and of the adult learner as citizen