Partizipation und Alphabetisierung/Grundbildung

People with low literacy skills are often experiencing difficulties to manage their everyday life. For example, filling out forms, correspondence or banking may pose huge challenges. But what about the political participation of functional illiterates in a society which is dominated by the use of literacy? The following article focuses on how participants of literacy classes use their possibilities of contribution. These assumptions are based on first results of the qualitative research project „Interdependencies of literacy skills and life management“ (Supervision: Prof. Dr. Sandra Deneke).

Initial results of the Level One Survey Germany (leo.) show that functional illiteracy affects 14.5 percent of working-age population (18–64 years of age). This translates into 7.5 million people who lack functional literacy skills in Germany. We will first introduce the method and design of the study. We will then explain the decisions taken in order to obtain the estimate of the dimension of functional illiteracy. These decisions were carefully taken, and they have contributed to a rather conservative estimate of functional illiteracy in Germany. There are three parts where our calculations lean towards an underestimate of the phenomenon rather than an overestimate. Hence, we can conclude that the here reported number of 7.5 million people who lack functional literacy skills is likely to be a conservative representation of the illiteracy issue in Germany.

The article presents findings of an ethnographical research project concerning the international concept of literacy as social practice. In this project, literacy was analyzed from an individual and a public point of view, focusing on its multidimensional uses and purposes in everyday life. Referring to a broader understanding of literacy as social practice, the study aims at initiating a discussion concerning the purpose and use of literacy among adult educators and practitioners in literacy classes. Overcoming the restricted understanding of literacy as a functional skill, which then leads to certain implications like inclusion or exclusion from economic life or social and political participation, different individual approaches to literacy should be appreciated in their individual and social significance.

The article illustrates a heuristic model that describes the multidimensional interdisciplinary social phenomena of functional illiteracy in a clearly arranged way. To implement professional literacy programmes that match the different target groups, scientific findings about educational deprivation, life circumstances and barriers to equal participation in connection with low literacy skills are to be arranged in a proper order. One result of the research project “HABIL” is the development of ideal types, designed to be a point of reference for further social science research on functional illiteracy.

The article summarizes the results of a case study in which two further education courses at universities are comparatively analyzed. It is examined how the knowledge transfer is linked to the governance of the courses. It can be shown that there is instrumental knowledge transfer in connection with managerial governance in the one study course whereas the other study course is distinguished by reflexive knowledge transfer and academic self-governance.

This article discusses the question how knowledge may be used for new or alternative learning decisions and in how far the post-modern understanding of “knowledge” is involved in this process. More precisely, it is discussed how organisations and individuals use knowledge as a result of learning in general and with respect to continuing learning decisions and how expectations and evaluations regarding the use of continuing education are placed in cultures of learning. The argument is based on literature research. For this purpose, theories of culture, modernisation and the economics of knowledge are applied in order to characterise “knowledge” and “use”. Both categories are discussed from a heuristic and hence open as well as from a critical perspective. It is argued that under the circumstances of post-modern change and individual performance both in professional and in private life a functional use of knowledge is as important as a non-functional general and reflective one. A multivalent spectrum of knowledge might lead to alternative and profound learning decisions.