The diversity of vulnerability conditions, that have prevented children and adolescents from exercising their right to school education, also produces a diversity of cultural references of the public that comes to Basic Education programs for Youth and Adults in developing countries. This diversity often forges appropriation processes of numeracy…

This paper introduces the Mathematics Dialogic Gatherings (MDG) as a successful way to encourage adults' learning of mathematics. We report on a group of adults who attended a MDG in an adult school placed in Barcelona. Participants in this group do not have an academic trajectory. They attend once a week a session in the adult school, where they…

This paper focuses on the rapidly expanding field of largescale international assessment surveys and their impact on the field of adult education and learning. I take the case of OECD's survey assessing adult skills (PIAAC) and situate it within the wider context of the datification of educational policy and practice. The claims made for the…

The results of the first PIAAC survey were published in October 2013. In the case of Denmark, the survey showed that Denmark is below the OECD average when it comes to reading skills, above average with regards to numeracy and on average with regards to IT skills. In this paper we analyse how the PIAAC results were covered by the media and how…

Australia appears to be in the grip of a "literacy crisis" in workplaces. Media reports and industry/skills organisations are decrying the low literacy and numeracy levels of workers and the negative effects these have on productivity. As a consequence, the Australian government has increased funding for workplace literacy and numeracy…

While a substantial body of research suggests that adult numeracy and literacy learners possess funds of knowledge and informal practices, it is not always clear to what extent these might be used in teaching and learning. In this study of linguistic interaction in adult numeracy classrooms, analysis of naturally-occurring student-student…

A critical discourse analysis of the Adult Numeracy Core Curriculum is used to expose and challenge the underlying assumptions of the Skills for Life strategy, and to examine the way in which the text constructs subject positions for adult numeracy teachers and learners. The analysis finds that presuppositions include the unproblematic transfer of…