Policy documents in the UK prioritise human capital over social capital outcomes in adult literacy programmes (e.g. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2014; Scottish Government, 2012) and thus reflect the dominant OECD discourse that links literacy ‘directly with economic development, individual prosperity and vocational achievement’ (Hamilton, 2012: 170). In addition the powerful standards perpetuated through international assessments such as PIAAC have become become taken for granted in our everyday practices. This means that the focus is on the national productivity agendas that are in the interests of industry and the state (Rizvi and Lingard, 2010). In addition the narrow domains of knowledge perpetuated by these interests become accepted as the way things are and so are not easy to challenge (Gorur, 2014). This discourse tends to drive a curriculum that prioritises narrow employment skills-focused learning that neither respect learners’ own goals nor value their life experiences. This paper examines how these policies are implemented at the local level through research with experienced literacies practitioners on their perception of the opportunities and constraints offered through the focus on employability. We found that many practitioners resisted a narrow deficit focus through a shared ideological commitment to a ‘funds of knowledge’ perspective (González, Moll & Amanti, 2005). This commitment arose from their views that the purpose of literacy was about developing the whole person thus focusing on a ‘learning’, rather than a, ‘teaching’ curriculum (Lave & Wenger, 1991). However, how outcomes are measured can distort the curriculum especially when external funding prioritises narrow employability skills. We will show how, despite these constraints, many practitioners have found creative ways of resisting this dominant discourse and asserted their agency to support the development of powerful literacies that are based in rich and meaningful practices.

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