Approaching Canadian adult literacy research as a community of practice: Implications and possibilities

Authors

  • Ralf St. Clair University of Glasgow

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v20i1.1117

Abstract

In recent years there has been significant interest in increasing educational research capacity in many countries and many fields, including Canadian adult literacy and numeracy education. This article asks what we can learn by taking a community of practice approach to research capacity, using as an illustration the work of the National Literacy Secretariat 1998-2003. Analysis brings forward a number of key recommendations useful to consider in discussions of educational research capacity. Implications are that communicative infrastructure is vital, social networks are key, current research needs to be better integrated with past research, and that increasing research capacity goes hand in hand with strengthening community.

Résumé

Depuis quelques années, un intérêt substantiel s’est développé dans différentes branches de recherche et dans de nombreux pays portant sur l’accroissement de la capacité pour la recherche éducationnelle. Cette tendance s’est également produite dans les domaines de l’alphabétisation et de la numératie des adultes au Canada. Cet article présente les leçons à tirer d’une approche basée sur les communautés de pratique, en prenant comme exemple le travail du Secrétariat national à l'alphabétisation. L’analyse présentée permet d’identifier des recommandations clés à considérer dans les discussions sur le développement de la capacité de recherche. Cette étude démontre que l’infrastructure de communication entre les membres de la communauté est primordiale, que les réseaux sociaux sont d’une importance clé, que les recherches actuelles auraient besoin d’être mieux intégrées aux précédentes, et que l’augmentation de la capacité de recherche va de pair avec le renforcement de la communauté elle-même.

Downloads

Published

2007-11-01

How to Cite

St. Clair, R. (2007). Approaching Canadian adult literacy research as a community of practice: Implications and possibilities. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 20(1), 50–67. https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v20i1.1117

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 1 (2007): Adult education in our country

Section

Articles

License

Authors of manuscripts accepted for publication will be required to assign copyright to the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education/L’Association canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation des adultes (CJSAE). CJSAE requests that, as the creator(s)/author(s) of the manuscript your are submitting assign certain rights to the manuscript to the CJSAE in exchange for undertaking to publish the article in print and electronic form and, in general, to pursue its dissemination throughout the world. The rights the CJSAE requests are:

  1. The right to publish the article in print and electronic form or in any other form it may choose that is in keeping with its role as a scholarly journal with the goal of disseminating the work as widely as possible;
  2. The right to be the sole publisher of the article for a period of 12 months;
  3. The right to make the article available to the public within a period of not more than 24 months, as determined by relevant journal staff of the CJSAE;
  4. The right to grant republication rights to itself or others in print, electronic, or any other form, with any revenues accrued to be shared equally between the author(s) and the journal;
  5. The right to administer permission to use portions of the article as requested by others, seeking recompense when the CJSAE sees it as warrented;
  6. The right to seek or take advantage of opportunities to have the article included in a database aimed at increasing awareness of it;
  7. As the author(s), the CJSAE wishes you to retain the right to republish the article, with acknowledgement of the CJSAE as the original publisher, in whole or in part, in any other pbulication of your own, including any anthology that you might edit with up to three others;
  8. As the author(s), the CJSAE withes you to retain the right to place the article on your personal Web page or that of your university or institution. The CJSAE askes that you include this notice: A fully edited, peer-reviewed version of this article was first published by the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, <Year>, <Volume>, <Issue>, <Page Numbers>.

BY AGREEING TO THE FOREGOING, YOU CONFIRM THAT THE MANUSCRIPT YOU ARE SUBMITTING HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE IN WHOLE OR IN PART, AND THAT NO AGREEMENT TO PUBLISH IS OUTSTANDING.

SHOULD THE ARTICLE CONTAIN MATERIAL WHICH REQUIRES WRITTEN PERMISSION FOR INCLUSION, YOU AGREE THAT IT IS YOUR OBLIGATION IN LAW TO IDENTIFY SUCH MATERIAL TO THE EDITOR OF THE CJSAE AND TO OBTAIN SUCH PERMISSION. THE CJSAE WILL NOT PAY ANY PERMISSION FEES. SHOULD THE CJSAE BE OF THE OPINION THAT SUCH PERMISSION IS NECESSARY, IT WILL REQUIRE YOU TO PURSUE SHUCH PERMISSSION PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.

AS AUTHOR(S), YOU WARRANT THAT THE ARTICLE BEING SUBMITTED IS ORIGINAL TO YOU.

Provided the foregoing terms are satisfactory, and that you are in agreement with them, please indicate your acceptance by checking the appropriate box and proceed with your submission.

This copyright agreement was extracted with permission from the "Best practices guide to scholarly journal publishing" (2007), produced by the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ).