Adult Literacy as Technique and Technology of Governmentality

This book examines the policy for adult literacy in New Zealand, in particular developments since the International Adult Literacy Survey of 1996. The findings of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) led to the problematising of adult literacy in terms of the needs of New Zealand society and economy and the greater engagement of government, businesses and tertiary education providers. Foucault’s notion of governmentality provides a lens through which policy developments and documents are analysed for the period from 2001 to 2011. It is argued that the policy formulation around adult literacy is concerned with the techniques and technologies through which the literacy needs of the population are constructed and controlled. The concerns of policy are how to bring people to a state of literacy so that they can be usefully involved in society, as employable workers. The book argues that the recent tertiary education reforms and the subsuming of adult literacy into the tertiary education sector with increased emphasis on audit and monitoring practices impact on identities and self government of learners and providers.