Examines the opportunities for and barriers to workplace learning among low-grade staff in the United Kingdom public sector and the role of managers and supervisors in providing access to learning opportunities. Describes innovative examples of workplace learning. Concludes that the reality for many low-grade manual and routine clerical staff…

Summarizes the legislation upon which the current welfare-to-work transition is based and describes characteristics of the former welfare population. Discusses current program emphases and presents directions for future program development including academic programs, situated cognition programs, integrated literacy/occupational skills programs,…

Provides a brief overview of Japanese high school students in terms of 1995 post-school destinations and types of jobs obtained. Describes the school-based job referral process that systematically regulates job distribution for high school graduates, including high school-employer networks and guidance for students in employment-related…

Argues that the current move at Australian universities toward instrumental programs of work-based learning threatens the existence of the liberal university, where knowledge is pursued predominantly for its own sake. Four dominant discourses--the liberal, the utilitarian, the reformist, and the liberal-vocational models--are identified as forces…

Explores the process of workplace learning and problem solving by examining Western and local enterprises in South China. Discusses whether the managerial concepts embedded in Chinese culture help or impede collective learning and concludes that new ways of working and learning are emerging through the interaction of Western and Chinese culture.…

Urges systems of education and training to cater to both formal and informal labor markets. Identifies the following components of such efforts: (1) taking into account the traditions and values of the system of vocational learning in working life; (2) accommodating local development needs; and (3) building on the competencies that people in the…

Discusses the benefits of an enlarged view of learning that emphasizes the abilities of the individual learner and the role of the teacher as partner in a joint educational process and includes informal acquisition of skills on-the-job. Argues that much is to be learned from popular educational movements in Latin America. (KS)

Reports that the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was administered to 20 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1998. IALS identified a very large proportion of adults with very low levels of literacy, most of whom did not see literacy as being crucial to their well being. (Contains 12…

Describes the theoretical framework and practical application of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). Concludes that the survey is based on an empirically-proven statistical construct that has been executed accurately with results that shed light on the relationship between functional literacy and national and individual well being.…

Evaluates the International Adult Literacy Survey (as reported in OECD 1997) from a New Literacy Studies perspective. Criticism of the survey includes charges that: it provides only a partial picture of literacy; culture is treated as bias; and the test items do not represent the real-life items as claimed. Contains 30 references. (PGS)

Examines underlying epistemological and theoretical assumptions of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). Concludes that IALS is primarily geared toward enhancing labor-market competencies but should instead make learners co-responsible actors of their own learning process and participants in a democratic debate defining the kind of…

States that French authorities refused to make International Adult Literacy Survey results public, citing methodological flaws, the need for better procedural precautions, and a more adequate notion of literacy. Presents a synthesis of the counter investigations demanded by French authorities that justify their doubts on the IALS definitions and…

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) has serious limitations. Interpretation of data often manifests an ethnocentric Western attitude, ranking handling of data-based information higher than experiential and contextualized information, and ignoring how people solve problems in their life context. Proposes an alternative model, called…

Document addresses political and ethical questions generated by OECD's International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and the New Zealand Foresight Project. Calls for further critical work on changing patterns of literate activity in the information age, stressing the importance of contemplating futures other than those driven by imperatives of global…

Points out the difficulties of defining and operationalizing literacy and literacy development across communities with diverse socioeconomic profiles. Proposes consideration of diverse socioeconomic patterns and level of community (in addition to macro-level of nation-state and the micro-level of individual) to analyze matters relating to literacy…