being more involved in their community. Despite this success, Scottish policy is changing and moving closer towards the functional ladder of literacy characterised in English adult literacy policy.
In the remainder of this text I want to examine how the change is occurring and how practitioners are managing this process and keeping literacies open. I will present two current cameos of adult literacies to illustrate their work; however, I'm not claiming these are representative of practice. Finally, I turn towards criticisms of the social practice perspective, which also needs to be explored.
The current Scottish policy context
Two relatively recent policy developments have had a major impact on adult literacies in Scotland. The first is a policy funding Concordat established between the Scottish Government and local authorities in 2007. In return for local authorities freezing their tax levels, the Scottish government allows them greater flexibility in how to spend their revenue by relaxing the “ring-fencing” of funding. This deal requires local authorities to target work at government defined National Performance Indicators. However, what this means is that dedicated funding of provision for adult literacy is now over whilst austerity in the public sector is reducing spending generally, and competition for what is available is fierce.
Raising adult literacy skills is acknowledged as a key goal in the setting of National Performance Indicators, but this is a mixed blessing. Although the indicator provides official recognition for adult literacy, and policy recognition can be an important argument for securing resources, the terms in which it is valued is restrictive: 'to reduce the number of working age people with severe literacy and numeracy problems.' Older adults or those outside the labour market are excluded whereas adult learners are depicted as 'a drag on Scotland's economic capacity' and a potential social problem because they risk '…the next generations capacity to engage in lifelong learning.' (Scottish Government, 2007:10). The original commitment to what was termed a “wealth model” of lifelong learning in the ALNIS policy is diminished if not dispensed with altogether.
This reframing of policy is expressed in the following contemporary definition:
By 2020 Scotland's society and economy will be stronger because more of its adults are able to read, write and use numbers effectively in order to handle information, communicate with others, express ideas and opinions, make decisions and solve problems, as family members, workers, citizens and lifelong learners. (Scottish Government, 2011:7)
Although the original scope of literacy practice is still evident, the focus on Scotland's society and economy is now to the forefront, with the real emphasis on the economy. Nevertheless, despite these policy setbacks the commitment to a social practice approach and its location in community education provision are still highly relevant for a social justice agenda. Two cameos of current practice illuminate this claim.
Cameo 1: Football literacies
Player (2012) demonstrates the value of a social practice perspective in his work on “football literacies”, which uses the generative theme of football for motivating students to develop critical awareness of the concerns and issues which pervade sport generally (racism, inequality etc) and which motivate students into using text and oral literacies to communicate.
Located in the community, the classes for the football literacies programme are based in two of the City of Edinburgh's most famous football stadiums. The project attracts a range of students but particularly young
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