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The argument shows HCT ideology shaping international and national policy and practice, shifting attention toward the economy and limiting employability-focused skills knowledge. Practitioners report curricular and assessment changes while resisting them through values-based approaches, sustaining democratic practice via peer interactions. The paper concludes social justice requires structural responses to broader social and economic inequalities affecting participation.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/australian-journal-of-adult-learning-literacies-practitioners-resisting-human-capital-theory-through-values-based-approaches/593301/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/australian-journal-of-adult-learning-literacies-practitioners-resisting-human-capital-theory-through-values-based-approaches/593301.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Elsa","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-05","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does Human Capital Theory (HCT) influence adult literacies education in the paper?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"HCT-informed policies lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education, emphasizing what is good for the economy rather than human flourishing.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What kinds of changes do practitioners experience, and how do they respond?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Practitioners, especially those in employability programs, experience changes in curriculum negotiation and learner outcome assessment; they resist by maintaining values-based approaches.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What role do social justice and collective practice play in practitioners’ resistance?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Practitioners protect democratic practice and sustain values-based approaches through interactions with colleagues that reinforce shared principles for delivering social justice-based literacies programs.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},593301,1792192741,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},137455077381,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 64, Number 3, November 2024  \nLiteracies practitioners resisting human capital theory through values-based approaches  \nLyn Tett  \nUniversity of Edinburgh, United Kingdom  \nData from two research projects with adult literacies practitioners based in Scotland are used to illustrate how policies underpinned by ideologies based on Human Capital Theory (HCT) lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education. It is argued that HCT ideology permeates international and national policies and thus influences practice. This results in a focus on the economy, rather than the individual, leading to narrow domains of skillsfocused knowledge that become accepted as normal and are difficult to challenge. The paper outlines the changes experienced by practitioners, especially those focused on employability programs, but also showshow these changes have been resisted, particularly in relation to how the curriculum is negotiated, and outcomes are assessed with learners. Practitioners were able to maintain values-based approaches and protect democratic practice through interactions with colleagues that reinforced a collective understanding of fundamental principles for delivering social justice-based literacies programs. It is concluded that, while practitioners were critically reinterpreting aspects of the dominant discourse through building on learners’experience and valuing their perspectives, social justice requires that the impact of broader social and economic inequalities on participation in education  \nLiteracies practitioners resisting human capital theory through values-based approaches 303  \nis addressed through structural changes rather than individual effort.  \nKeywords: resistance; critical pedagogy; dialogic spaces; funds of knowledge  \nIntroduction  \nIn this paper I draw on two research projects with literacies practitioners based in Scotland to illustrate how policies underpinned by ideologies based on Human Capital Theory (HCT) can lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education.This conceptualisation focuses on what is good for the economy rather than on promoting education’s role in human flourishing (Lynch, 2022) . The literature shows (e.g.Baquedano-Ló[pez et.al](pez et.al), 2013), however, that if the emphasis in literacies programs is on the development of narrow employability-focused skills, then the rich resources that participants’experience and interests provide for learning are not utilised.Research also illustrates how practitioners committed to social justice can create “locally relevant curricula”(O’Cadiz, [et.al](et.al), 1998, p.536) rather than following prescribed programs.I contribute to this literature by showing how the HCT approach can be challenged by practitioners from professional cultures that emphasise the quality of the teaching, inclusion, and relationships in adult literacies rather than narrow skillsbased outcomes.  \nIn the rest ofthe paper, I show how the HCT ideology has influenced literacies practices (especially through The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and United Kingdom (UK)  \npolicies) and how practitioners have resisted such influences but first I explain the Scottish context.  \nThe Scottish context  \nScotland provides an interesting site to study adult literacies (AL) because of its differences from other countries. A significant difference is that Scottish practitioners come from a unique profession, Community Learning and Development (CLD), whose key role is to address the learning needs of disadvantaged individuals and communities.Thus,  \n304 Lyn Tett  \nit is focused on responding to adults in ways that prioritise their own needs and desires.It uses a “social practices” approach to learning that acknowledges that the use and meaning of literate practices depends on the context in which they are being used.This means that the curriculum is contextualised by tutors ","cbCaivAYXUPw5TeR","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivAYXUPw5TeR","pdf",210939,22,"English","# Introduction\n## The Scottish context\n## The influence of HCT ideology","[{\"question\":\"How does Human Capital Theory (HCT) influence adult literacies education in the paper?\",\"answer\":\"HCT-informed policies lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education, emphasizing what is good for the economy rather than human flourishing.\"},{\"question\":\"What kinds of changes do practitioners experience, and how do they respond?\",\"answer\":\"Practitioners, especially those in employability programs, experience changes in curriculum negotiation and learner outcome assessment; they resist by maintaining values-based approaches.\"},{\"question\":\"What role do social justice and collective practice play in practitioners’ resistance?\",\"answer\":\"Practitioners protect democratic practice and sustain values-based approaches through interactions with colleagues that reinforce shared principles for delivering social justice-based literacies programs.\"}]","Australian Journal of Adult Learning - Literacies practitioners resisting human capital theory through values-based approaches | PDF",1792077012,55]