The Western Australian Adult literacy Council (WAALC)  chose the title  Getting back to our roots: Literacy for empowerment for their 2013 Conference as a follow on from last year’s theme At the heart of the matter: identity and trust in adult learning.

But just what is literacy for empowerment? What roots are we getting back to?

When WAALC was incorporated back in 1986, the adult literacy field was rooted in the idea that adult literacy initiatives were needed to empower individuals and their communities to address injustice and inequality.  Students themselves were encouraged to set the objectives and to acquire skills they wanted and needed to make their lives better.

Today, such a notion may seem quaint and old-fashioned alongside the current emphasis on frameworks that define in little assessable chunks at graduated levels what literacy is required to be taught and learnt with the purpose of building Australia’s workforce skills. When practitioners try to match these modern frameworks to real people learning for real purposes, sometimes they find learner-centred activities are pushed to the fringes.

However, teachers still report that the most exciting things that happen in adult literacy classes can’t be counted against the frameworks. And many of them don’t clearly match to the objective of  the development of human capital to improve Australia’s productivity though I am sure in the long run, they do!  After all more justice and equality means more people can participate in the activities of society more fully, including employment.

So WAALC is working on a program that will acknowledge the reality of the system-driven frameworks while supporting practitioners to find ways to hold on to the importance of individual and community empowerment as a central objective of our work.

So if you want to contribute to this conversation, put 18-19 July 2013 in your diary. Registrations will open soon: keep an eye on the WA Adult Literacy Council website

Hope to see you there!

Cheryl Wiltshire

2013 WAALC State Conference Convenor