scholarly journals Researching Literacy and Numeracy Costs and Benefits: What is possible

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
Robyn Hartley ◽  
Jackie Horne
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Literacy Survey ◽  
International Adult Literacy Survey ◽  
Work Done

Assessing the social and economic benefits of investing in adult literacy and numeracy and the costs of poor adult literacy and numeracy, is largely uncharted territory in Australia. Some interest was evident in the late 1980s leading up to International Literacy Year, 1990 (for example, Miltenyi 1989, Singh 1989, Hartley 1989); however, there has been little work done in the area since then, with the exception of recent studies concerned with financial literacy costs and benefits (Commonwealth Bank Foundation 2005). Assessing the benefits (returns) of workplace training in general has received some attention (for example Moy and McDonald 2000), although the role of literacy and numeracy is often implied rather than explored in any detail. In contrast, there is a considerable body of relevant research emanating from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and some European countries. The release of data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) in the 1990s contributed to some of this research, as did policy developments for example, in the United Kingdom. The much greater use of IALS data in some other countries compared with Australia, seems to be related to a combination of factors in the overall policy and research environment for adult literacy and numeracy in each country.

Translation in Health Literacy Research

2020 ◽  
pp. 409-430
Author(s):  
Xuewei Chen ◽  
Sandra Acosta
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Functional Health ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Literacy Survey ◽  
European Health ◽  
Immigrant And Refugee ◽  
Literacy Research

This chapter reviews the translation process for six health literacy instruments: Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA), European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q), All Aspects of Health Literacy Scale, Newest Vital Sign, and Functional, Communicative and Critical Health Literacy. Some instruments, developed in the United States and the United Kingdom, targeted English-speaking populations only. Later, researchers translated several into the languages of immigrant and refugee groups with limited English proficiency. For example, the TOFHLA was translated and adapted to target Korean and Vietnamese Americans. Some instruments were translated and employed for conducting health literacy research worldwide. One example is the HLS-EU-Q for health literacy research conducted in Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Taiwan, and Vietnam. This chapter describes how health literacy instruments were translated into various languages and revised to account for cultural and health system differences across countries and population groups.

scholarly journals Trends in Educational and Skill Mismatch in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 395
Author(s):  
Dong-Hoon Shin ◽  
David Bills
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Adult Literacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Skill Mismatch ◽  
Worker Characteristics ◽  
Literacy Survey ◽  
Trends Over Time ◽  
International Adult Literacy Survey

We examined trends in the incidence and correlates of educational and skill mismatch in the United States. We focused on trends over time in the associations between various types of mismatch and a range of factors including contextual conditions. We explored whether contextual conditions at the transitional period from school to jobs increase or decrease the probability of mismatch and whether such relationships persist throughout the working career. Our central questions were how the incidence of and relationship between educational and skill mismatch in the U.S. changed between 1994, 2003, and 2012 and how this differed by age, gender, immigration status, educational attainment, and occupation. We used three cross-sectional surveys that had not previously been implemented for such an effort. These were the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) in 1994, the Adult Literacy and Life-skills (ALL) survey in 2003, and the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in 2012. Repeated cross-sectional data provided us with substantial analytic leverage. Our findings point toward the key role of occupational or positional factors rather than individual worker characteristics as being most implicated in trends in mismatch. We describe the importance of our results for labor market theories.

Strike Ballots, Democracy, and Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Breen Creighton ◽  
Catrina Denvir ◽  
Richard Johnstone ◽  
Shae McCrystal ◽  
Alice Orchiston
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Labour Organisation ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Strike Activity ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Worked Example ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Democratic Rights ◽  
The Right

The purpose of the research upon which this book is based was empirically to investigate whether the ballot requirements in the Fair Work Act do indeed impose a significant obstacle to the taking of industrial action, and whether those provisions are indeed impelled by a legitimate ‘democratic imperative’. The book starts from the proposition that virtually all national legal systems, and international law, recognise the right to strike as a fundamental human right. It acknowledges, however, that in no case is this recognition without qualification. Amongst the most common qualifications is a requirement that to be lawful strike action must first be approved by a ballot of workers concerned. Often, these requirements are said to be necessary to protect the democratic rights of the workers concerned: this is the so-called ‘democratic imperative’. In order to evaluate the true purpose and effect of ballot requirements the book draws upon the detailed empirical study of the operation of the Australian legislative provisions noted above; a comparative analysis of law and practice in a broad range of countries, with special reference to Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States; and the jurisprudence of the supervisory bodies of the International Labour Organisation. It finds that in many instances ballot requirements – especially those relating to quorum – are more concerned with curtailing strike activity than with constructively responding to the democratic imperative. Frequently, they also proceed from a distorted perception of what ‘democracy’ could and should entail in an industrial context. Paradoxically, the study also finds that in some contexts ballot requirements can provide additional bargaining leverage for unions. Overall, however, the study confirms our hypothesis that the principal purpose of ballot requirements – especially in Australia and the United Kingdom – is to curtail strike activity rather than to vindicate the democratic imperative, other than on the basis of a highly attenuated reading of that term. We believe that the end-result constitutes an important study of the practical operation of a complex set of legal rules, and one which exposes the dichotomy between the ostensible and real objectives underpinning the adoption of those rules. It also furnishes a worked example of multi-methods empirical, comparative and doctrinal legal research in law, which we hope will inspire similar approaches to other areas of labour law.

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