[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-589354-105":59,"doc-detail-589354-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","redefining-literacy-from-an-egalitarian-perspective","Redefining Literacy from an Egalitarian Perspective","","The equality framework developed in the Equality Studies Centre, University College Dublin (UCD) is used as a basis for thinking about adult literacy from an egalitarian perspective. The paper critiques neo-liberal, critical, and situated approaches for limited impact on the Irish context, where only 6% of adults with unmet literacy needs participate in learning. It examines how egalitarian theory can explain low participation and point to an alternative path forward.",{"@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/redefining-literacy-from-an-egalitarian-perspective/589354/",{"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/redefining-literacy-from-an-egalitarian-perspective/589354.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Đào","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-27","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why does mainstream literacy discourse focus on falling standards and economic implications?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It has been dominated since the OECD studies in the 1990s by crises of falling standards and their economic implications, while social, cultural, and political consequences of unmet literacy needs receive much less attention.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What does the paper say about adult literacy learning participation in Ireland?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Despite government rhetoric, funding and outcomes are limited, and only about 6% of adults with unmet literacy needs have engaged in formal literacy learning in the past five years.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the paper frame the cause of unmet literacy needs?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It argues that low participation and persistent unmet needs are better explained by layered structural inequality rather than by individual failure or inadequate efforts from educationists.","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},589354,1792189056,{"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":24,"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},1374402968488,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Redefining Literacy from an Egalitarian Perspective  \nmaggie feeley  \nAbstract  \nThe equality framework developed in the Equality Studies Centre, University College Dublin (UCD), provides a useful base for thinking about literacy from an equality perspective. Neo-liberal, critical and situated approaches to literacy have made minimal impact in the Irish context where only 6 per cent of those with unmet literacy needs participate in learning. This paper explores what an egalitarian theory of adult literacy might have to offer by way of explaining this low participation and also indicating an alternative way forward.  \nIntroduction  \nMainstream literacy discourse since the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) studies in the 1990s has been dominated by crises of falling standards and their economic implications for individuals and States. By comparison, the social, cultural and political consequences ofunmet literacy needs have received only marginal attention and considerations ofthe affective dimensions of equality in relation to literacy remain embryonic. The alternative, predominantly deconstructionist approach of New Literacy Studies (NLS)1 is making an important contribution to challenging the mainstream message but does not, as yet, explicitly address the structural inequalities that continue to reproduce educational disadvantage. Altogether, neo-liberal, situated and even Freirean critical theories of adult literacy have made little impact on the reality of persistent basic educational inequalities. In practice, despite much government rhetoric, funding for adult literacy research and adult learn-  \n1New Literacy Studies (NLS) brings together a range of theoretical and empirical writing that challenges hegemonic, mainstream views of literacy. Often associated with the ‘Lancaster School’, NLS proposes that literacy is not fixed but rather an evolving socially situated phenomenon that is deeply interwoven with historical and powerrelated societal patterns. Main proponents of NLS include Mary Hamilton, David Barton, Paul Gee, Brian Street,  \nRoz Ivani˘c, Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. 13  \ning programmes remain relatively low and participation rates continue to be stubbornly unrepresentative of measured need. This relative stagnation maybe rooted in a state of denial that it is layered structural inequality that perpetuatesunmet literacy needs, rather than the repeatedly cited failure of individuals or educationalists to meet the literacy challenge.  \nThis paper will examine the scope for social change in the diverse conceptions of literacy and explore the transformative potential that might be offered by an egalitarian theory that contextualises literacy within a wider equality project. The challenge posed here for both egalitarians and the State is to embrace the political grounding that was consistently at the heart of Freire’s pedagogy for real radical literacy work (Freire, 1970; 1972; 1985; 2000; 2003) . I suggest that using the equality framework developed in the Equality Studies Centre, UCD (Baker, Lynch, Cantillon and Walsh, 2004) may provide the theoretical basis for more closely and usefully associating notions of literacy and equality. The paper is informed by ongoing ethnographic research exploring the impact of affective aspects of inequality on marginalised groups in Irish society.  \nMainstream literacy discourse  \nBy far the dominant literacy discourse for the past decade has been one of ‘falling standards’ and the perceived inability of the education system to furnish the market with sufficiently flexible and productive workers (CEC, 2001; DES, 2000; OECD, 1992; 1995; 1997) . The now well-thumbed International Adult Literacy Study (IALS − OECD, 1997) of twenty countries, situated Ireland second last to Poland in the functional literacy league tables. These measurements revealed that 23 per cent of the Irish population aged 16-25 had not reached the level of prose literacy that w","cbCaijZUJJNpYN6l","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijZUJJNpYN6l","pdf",90043,13,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# Mainstream literacy discourse","[{\"question\":\"Why does mainstream literacy discourse focus on falling standards and economic implications?\",\"answer\":\"It has been dominated since the OECD studies in the 1990s by crises of falling standards and their economic implications, while social, cultural, and political consequences of unmet literacy needs receive much less attention.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the paper say about adult literacy learning participation in Ireland?\",\"answer\":\"Despite government rhetoric, funding and outcomes are limited, and only about 6% of adults with unmet literacy needs have engaged in formal literacy learning in the past five years.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper frame the cause of unmet literacy needs?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that low participation and persistent unmet needs are better explained by layered structural inequality rather than by individual failure or inadequate efforts from educationists.\"}]","Redefining Literacy from an Egalitarian Perspective | PDF",1792067028,33]