International Adult Skills Surveys: Andragogical Issues in Linguistic Minority Communities

I have been working in the literacy field with francophone adults in a minority setting and in a variety of capacities for twenty years, and consider myself a reflective and critical practitioner. I strive to understand the world of adult education and skills development based on my practical experiences and observations from the field. This text is written from that perspective, based on principles of andragogy. Using inductive and deductive processes, I propose ideas and reflections on the concept of the evaluation of basic skills of adults living in linguistic minority communities in Canada. On the theoretical side, I use several key studies, including an analytical background paper written for The Centre for Literacy’s 2013 Summer Institute by Jean-Pierre Jeantheau, Chargé de mission national of the French Agence nationale de lutte contre l'illettrisme, on the subject of linguistic minority groups and international literacy assessments.