Opposing views: an analysis of resistance to adult literacy and basic education

Traditional ABE and literacy programmes attract less than 5% of the estimated 28,000,000 illiterate adults in North America. If such high non‐participation is seen in a new conceptual framework of resistance theory, the field becomes challenged to see itself critically and to find new learner‐grounded directions for the future. The study discussed here utilized the theories of resistance and reproduction from the New Sociology of Education as a theoretical framework and literary fiction to examine the phenomena of resistance to schooling. The findings are applied to adult basic and literacy programmes in North America with suggestions for future research and changes in practice.