Global education policy discourse is based on an unshakable belief that more and improved skills will promote economic prosperity, global competitiveness and social inclusion. In England, the Further Education and Skills sector (FES) has emerged as the vehicle to deliver these skills. However, the portrayal of FES as focusing primarily on…

Adult literacy provision began in Australia during a radical education era in the 1970s, and yet in recent decades, social class as a construct has been largely absent in the academic literature on adult literacy. We argue however that social class is essential to understanding adult literacy provision and furthermore that working class people…

This article examines the origins, influence, and contemporary understandings of class-based theories of student resistance in education, contributing to or emerging from "Learning to Labor" by Paul Willis. It reports the results of a review of the literature that discusses class-based student resistance and cites the seminal book. More than 500…

In summarizing earlier arguments for privileging a class perspective on adult education, this chapter considers that perspective's practical relevance and suggests resources for further reading.