ABSTRACT
This article focuses on an important learner—the adult with low literacy skills. Across the global enterprise of adult education, practitioners need to become more aware of the characteristics of this marginalized group of adults. Therefore, the intention of this article is to highlight the profile of this learner through the lens of different sociocul-tural theories to help guide decisions for effective teaching into the future. Learning contexts and adults with low literacy skills are two main themes in the scholarly literature. Drawing from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other country reports, Werquin (2010) suggests that the definition of learning context is subject to debate. However, formal education and informal learning may be considered the two extremities of a learning continuum, with nonformal learning situated somewhere in between, depending on national and local perspectives. In this overview, three learning contexts provide the backdrop to profile adult learners with low literacy skills, each through a theoretical lens that helps explain the teaching and learning process. The first profile—the adult basic education (ABE) learner in the formal setting—is viewed through a motivational framework for culturally responsive teaching and a social capital theory. The adult with low literacy as a lifelong learner engaging in informal learning is the second profile and is explored through social constructivism. The third relates to essential skills training of the adult worker as seen through social cognitive theory (Essential Skills Ontario, 2012).
