Learning and identity in literacy programs

This paper argues that identity is only relatively stable and is created and re-created in interactions between the individual and the social world that they inhabit and that learning is developed through social relationships. Through a study of adult literacy learners, it shows that people are not passive but they are constrained by the socio-cultural structures within which they act. It demonstrates that negative experiences of schooling impact on learning identities but participating in programs where students’ abilities and achievements are recognised by both their peers and tutors is crucial in changing negative views of their competence as learners.