Skills for Life or Skills for Work: a critical history of adult literacy and numeracy policu

Beginning in 2024, I am using a critical education policy framework to examine the recent developments of adult literacy and numeracy policies and practice, with a focus on the UK, but bringing in relevant insights from other countries. this is a combination of policy research, using multimodal critical discourse analysis with in-depths research with practitioners (teacher, programme managers, curriculum developers and others). My aim is to understand the discourses that shape how adult literacy and numeracy are defined, how this, in turn, influence what is funded or not, what programmes are offered (or not) and who is able to benefit. This work is leading to a monograph to be published by Routledge in 2026/27.