Literacy practices in adult learning biographies: possibilities and constraints

Abstract

In Portugal, until 2013, large numbers of adults had access to written culture, through processes of Recognition, Validation and Certification of Prior Learnings (RVCC). By means of these 'new opportunities', adults both acquired a certificate as added to their learning biographies personal and socially relevant literacy practices. In the scope of the analysis of the role and impact of adult participation in RVCC processes, with respect to literacy practices, the aims of this text are, on the one hand, to show how the involvement in formal learning situations acts in the transformation of the literate identities of individuals, driving changes in the way they use, access and value texts and, secondly, to characterize some factors that enhance or not the continuation of such literacy practices after the completion of the process. From the combination of data collected by questionnaire and interview, we characterize the learning trajectories and the literacy narratives of two adults from Braga, Portugal, which, in 2012, completed the Basic Level of the RVCC process. We will describe the specificities of the adults reading and writing practices, particularly regarding the whats, the whys and wherefores, and under what circumstances they read and write, and will keep reading and writing, throughout their lives. Among the key findings, it is possible to conclude about the diversification and specialization of textual worlds of these adults as well as very particular views on their learning biographies. In any of the cases, the frequency of these education processes contributes, in effect, to add to the adults’ identity kits the traits and values that literate communities give to reading and writing.