More Powerful Literacies

The growth of a knowledge-based economy and an information society has meant that literacy increasingly mediates our lives and activities. Literacy has also been a way of critically comprehending the world in order to make it different and better. It has been, and can be, an important tool for increasing the autonomy of powerless individuals and groups by reducing the gap between those with access to information and those denied it. Building on the original Powerful Literacies (first published in 2001), this new volume considers the new developments in theory, technology, and policy that are having an impact on learning and teaching literacies of adults. The book links to the current policy context of lifelong learning, active citizenship, and social inclusion by showing how adult learners can be positioned in ways that seek to enhance their control and autonomy. Using international examples, it makes a powerful contribution to the analysis of the different - and sometimes ' hidden' - ways in which literacies are conceptualized and politicized; and on the generation of 'liberating' educational practice in the light of such work.