RaPAL event on Friday, 26^th September 2025 in the Midlands, venue tbc

Keynote

Adult literacy, language and numeracy education: Skills for Life or Skills for Work?

Uta Papen, Literacy Research Centre, Lancaster University

In the past 20 years, policy commitment and funding for adult literacy, language and numeracy education (ALLN) has been steadily reduced and so has the number of people participating in programmes. At the same time, understandings of the purpose and role of ALLN have become increasingly narrow. But what has led to the dominance of the reductive and yet powerful discourses of adult literacy, language and numeracy education as human resource development and functional skills in current policy and practice? Why have other perspectives, for example social practice and critical views of literacy, not had a more significant impact on the sector? And why does ALLN provision seem to borrow ideas from the school sector? These are some of the questions that I explore in my current research. As part of my study, over the past year I have searched for and examined policy documents and published research, and I have talked to many practitioners, working in adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL. In this talk, I present initial insights from this study.

To understand current policies and what has led to them is an ambitious goal. The growing influence of what is known as ‘evidence-based’ policy and the ‘what works’ agenda are likely to play a role. The influence of multinational agencies on national discourses and policies of ALLN is also relevant. Other factors are the global economic and political context, with financial crises and neoliberal ideologies playing their part in governments investing into work-related ALLN education only. In Britain and elsewhere, increasingly we see governments rethinking the state’s role and responsibilities towards their citizens’ education, and this bears upon government support and funding for ALLN. Building on my (still developing) analysis of past and current policies and research trends, I would like to invite a rethink of the current approach, hoping to offer ideas for the future of ALLN, arguing for its essential role in relation to individuals’ ability to live well and society’s capacity to deal with the pressing issues of our times.

Agenda

10am Registration and light refreshments

10.30 RaPAL Annual Editorial Meeting

12.30 Lunch

1.30 Now: who and where are we?

2pm Keynote with Professor Uta Papen 'Adult literacy, language and numeracy education: Skills for Life or Skills for Work?'

3.15 Light refreshments

3.30 Futures discussion

4.30 Cake: celebrating 40 years of RaPAL

5pm Close

Book and pay

Event Booking

Running this all day event costs RaPAL over £60 per head. We are charging members a nominal early bird fee of £10 to secure the booking; £20 for non-members (subsidised standard fees are £20 and £40 respectively).

Further details and payment

If you have any queries or comments, please email info@rapal.org.uk, including if the payment causes financial difficulty. 

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RaPAL is run entirely by volunteers. We look forward to seeing you in September.