Critical Perspectives on Adults’ Mathematics Education

Evans, Jeff; Wedege, Tine; Yasukawa, Keiko

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-4684-2_7

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…PIAAC Numeracy Expert Group, 2009, p. 9), thus reinforcing the view that learning in everyday situations and initiation into disciplinary knowledge can be unproblematically conceived as a continuum (but see Muller & Taylor, 1995). However, when we examine the detail of learning within social practices in the life of a particular adult "learner", we often find tensions between what is learned formally, and what is learned informally (Evans et al, 2013).…”

Section: Curriculum and Pedagogy In The Discourse Of Competencymentioning

confidence: 84%

“…In international policy debates, LLL has been the focus of much disagreement and divergence, e.g. between "humanistic" and "economistic" approaches (Evans, Wedege, & Yasukawa, 2013) -but here we focus on the view promoted by the OECD, PIAAC's main sponsor. This view aims at promoting the development of knowledge and competencies enabling each citizen to actively participate in various spheres of globalised social and economic life.…”

Section: Educational Policy In a Globalising Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This framework of concepts and findings is important for considering the common characteristics of the concept of lifelong learning used around the world: this indicates a move towards a TPS, which affects our understanding of numerate activities, among others (Ball, 2009;Bonal & Rambla, 2003;Evans et al, 2013). Its basic logic is the de-differentiation of educational institutions, so that "historically distinct institutions and activities are becoming more alike" -a logic also evident in the progressive blurring of the boundaries between formal, informal and non-formal education (Young, 2010).…”

Section: Theoretical Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From within adult education, or what can be called adults' mathematics education (AME) -areas that are sometimes relatively neglected (Evans et al, 2013) -we can illustrate the potential to challenge the currently dominant ideas of numeracy and adult skills. For example, Hoyles, Noss, Kent & Bakker (2010) go beyond a narrow definition of numeracy to develop a richer conception of "Techno-mathematical Literacies" (TmLs), informed by the affordances, flexibilities and demands of information technologies, and document its use by middle ranking UK professionals, in decision-making in specific workplaces.…”

Section: Theoretical Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The later objectives for PIAAC appear to be more detailed, and to emphasise more strongly comparisons between countries, presupposing a basically competitive global economic context (Cussó, & D'Amico, 2005;Evans, Wedege & Yasukawa, 2013).…”

Section: Aims Of Piaac and Its Precursorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Adult numeracy and the totally pedagogised society: PIAAC and other international surveys in the context of global educational policy on lifelong learning

Tsatsaroni

Evans

2013

Educ Stud Math

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Copyright and moral rights to this thesis/research project are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Any use of the thesis/research project for private study or research must be properly acknowledged with reference to the work's full bibliographic details.This thesis/research project may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from it, or its content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s).If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address:eprints@mdx.ac.ukThe item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. AbstractThis paper aims to discuss the emergence, form and likely effects of international surveys of adults' skills by locating them in the global context of policies on education and Life Long Learning (LLL). It focuses on adults' numeracy and discusses its conceptualisation and assessment in PIAAC (Project for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies), which is the most recent survey. Drawing on critical theoretical resources about new forms of governance in education and transformations in the pedagogic discourse, the paper further substantiates existing critiques of global policy trends, namely that they are motivated by human capital approaches to education and LLL. In particular, we show that the apparently commonsensical appeal of evaluative instruments like PISA and PIAAC is based on a competency model of knowledge, which embodies an exceedingly narrow notion of competence. Relatedly, the notional curricula promoted by such surveys potentially articulate a more radical idea of LLL, captured by Bernstein's conception of trainability as the mode of socialisation into a Totally Pedagogised Society. The paper presents a dual approach to understanding international adult performance surveys in general -in that, besides deploying the theoretical resources already indicated, it also raises a number of methodological issues relevant to the valid interpretation of these studies' results. Ultimately, it argues for the importance of mobilising resources from critical educational perspectives to support the development of potentially powerful knowledge like numeracy and to prevent its being reduced to a narrow competency.

show abstract

Section: Curriculum and Pedagogy In The Discourse Of Competencymentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Educational Policy In a Globalising Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%