Another goal of this research was to draw upon sociocultural ideas of literacy and learning—which have been underutilized despite encouragement to do so (Darville, 2001; Sparks, 2002; Taylor & Blunt, 2001)—and apply these ideas directly to a program setting. An "analysis of school learning as situated requires a multilayered view of how knowing and learning are part of social practice" (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 40). This study has analysed an innovative program that has attempted to integrate literacy skill development and employment preparation. Only one of its three program components is a formal classroom, incorporating many of the traditional methods and approaches that can be found in a school setting. As students experience all three settings, how do their ideas of learning and literacy change? What are their insights? And what can a multilayered situated analysis tell us about adult literacy education programs?

B: Applied Literature

Very few studies have applied the theoretical ideas presented in the previous section—situated learning and situated literacy—to the field of adult literacy education. Subsequently, the following section will focus for the most part on the literature in a more indirect and generalized manner. Key concepts of this study—the lives of the students, program delivery and development, employment and literacy, and the impacts of literacy and employment preparation programs—have been explored in order to place this study within a context of applied research in the field.

STUDENTS IN ADULT LITERACY PROGRAMS

It is important to describe the kinds of students who attend adult literacy programs in order to understand their needs and goals and to see how the students who are the focus of this study are in many ways typical of the students described in the following section. Descriptions of the students in programs will be devised using a variety of studies: statistical descriptions based on the IALS, qualitative studies that describe students' values related to education and employment, and survey studies that reveal students' motivations to attend programs. Overall, the studies produce a complex picture of students, their strengths, and their challenges in meeting their educational and employment goals.