Drawing upon developing views of literacy and learning within a sociocultural frame and using these ideas to examine a literacy education program that helps to integrate adults into the workplace, has helped to uncover some of the key theoretical and practical issues that could become starting points for more in–depth discussion and exploration. As the field attempts to move away from schooling models of literacy education, it is important to provide practical (as compared to strictly theoretical) discussions that focus on the complexities of program change. The driving force behind the study is to provide an initial discussion of the application of sociocultural ideas of literacy and learning within an adult literacy program.

WORKING DEFINTIONS

Several key terms and concepts guided this study and need to be defined for clarity and common understanding. Definitions of literacy, low literacy and employment preparation will be detailed in the following section. In addition, concise explanations of sociocultural learning and literacy will be presented in the following chapter.

Literacy

For the purposes of this study, literacy will refer to one's ability to use and derive meaning from written text. Lytle and Wolfe (1989) and Freebody and Luke (1990) have proposed parallel constructs of literacy that were used in the study. Lytle and Wolfe have suggested literacy can be viewed as skills, tasks, practices and critical reflection. The authors developed their framework based upon existing concepts of literacy in theory and practice. Utilizing a similar organizational structure, Freebody and Luke (1990) have proposed four roles for the reader: 1) reader as code breaker, in which the focus is on phonics, letter knowledge and spelling; 2) reader as text participant, in which the reader uses knowledge and text structures to construct meaning; 3) reader as text user, in which text is used to meet purposes in the class, at home, or at work; and 4) reader as text analyst, in which the reader takes a more critical view of text. These four roles—code breaker, participant, user, and analyst—parallel the four views of literacy as skills, tasks, practices and critical reflection, and help to strengthen the idea that literacy is not simply a singular notion but a collection of ideas that are not static. This study has adopted Lytle and Wolf's definition of literacy as skills, tasks, practices, and critical reflection.