The Center for Literacy
Literature Citations Timeline
Years 2004 - 2005
On this page, you will find important citations from the literature on accountability and adult literacy from the years 2004 to 2005. Each of the highlighted titles below is linked to the actual online document. For earlier and later years or for documents from the provinces, please follow the links below.
Provincial / Territorial Selections
2005
- Advisory Committee on Literacy and Essential Skills. (2005). Towards a fully literate Canada: Achieving national goals through a comprehensive pan-Canadian literacy strategy.
As the collective statement of leading literacy sector representatives in Canada, this report articulates a clear and well-supported vision for a proposed national literacy strategy. It recommends that the Government of Canada officially adopt the report’s vision statement, which asserts that all Canadians have the right to develop literacy and essential skills. [CE] - Aucoin, P., & Jarvis, M.D. (2005). Modernizing government accountability: A framework for reform.
The purpose of this document is to examine the basic architecture of accountability in the Canadian system of governance in light of changes in the practice of public administration, and to suggest possible ways of strengthening accountability. Building on the work of a previous report on Responsible Government, it examines existing mechanisms of accountability “…to promote democratic control, compliance and continuous improvement in the use of public authority and resources.” [Foreword] - Clark, I.D. & Swain, H. (2005). Distinguishing the real from the surreal in management reform: Suggestions for beleaguered administrators in the government of Canada. Canadian Public Administration, 48(4), 453-476.
This article explores the ethical and practical dilemmas faced by public servants who must comply with the “surreal” requirements of centrally imposed new management frameworks, while honouring their duty to manage people and public monies in a sensible way. It analyzes the practical limitations of conceptual frameworks associated with performance measurement, performance audit, modern comptrollership, and human resources development under current federal management improvement initiatives. The authors offer suggestions on how to improve management in departments, while dealing with the requirements of government-wide reforms based on “utopian frameworks”. [Authors/CE] - Coulombe, S., & Tremblay, J.F. (2005). Public investment in skills: Are Canadian governments doing enough? Commentary: The Education Papers, 217.
Canadians do not perform well on international tests of literacy and numeracy for adults, particularly when compared to other highly developed countries. There is a clear and significant relationship between investments in human capital and both long-run economic growth and long-run labour productivity. [Max Bell Foundation] - From the ground up: A research-in-practice approach to outcome-oriented program evaluation. (2005).
This paper presents a clear summary and rationale for a project to be conducted by RiPal-BC in partnership with Literacy BC. As a basic premise, the project recognizes the importance of outcome measurement in demonstrating program value, and proposes a series of dialogues designed to bring together different stakeholders, and allow critical reflection on their perceptions of ‘what and how to evaluate’ literacy outcomes. Outcomes of the dialogues will provide the critical foundation for pilot projects that will test different approaches to outcome-oriented evaluation, in order to inform the creation of a new accountability system for literacy education in BC. [CE] - Jackson, N.S. (2005). Adult literacy policy: Mind the gap. In Nina Bascia, Aliter Cumming, Amanda Datnow, Kenneth Leithwood and David Livingstone (Eds.), International Handbook of Educational Policy (pp. 763-778). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Jackson reviews the common experiences and perspectives reported by practitioners working under national policy and reporting frameworks in the United States, Australia, England, South Africa and Canada, and examines how and why these systems are considered to “mislead, exclude, narrow, reduce, and re-orient the needs and intentions of teachers and learners” (p. 763). She considers the place of texts in mediating different concepts and measures of literacy among governments and practitioners, and argues that these texts contribute to systemic “gaps” in policy and practice. These gaps subvert the systemic efforts to ensure accountability, by encouraging practitioners to distort results, or “game the numbers”, to fit the expectations of policy. [CE]
2004
- Abelson, J., & Gauvin, F. (2004). Transparency, trust and citizen engagement: What Canadians are saying about accountability.
This report presents the central themes and issues emerging from four broad-based, citizen dialogues on topics ranging from health care, the social contract, and management of nuclear waste. Concerns over the issue of accountability were not a stated topic of the dialogues, but consistently emerged as a clear indicator of reduced trust in government and others in positions of power. [CE] - Council of the Federation. (2004). Government initiatives promoting literacy best practices.
At the meeting of the Council of the Federation (COF) in Vancouver, British Columbia on February 23-24, 2004, Premiers agreed to ask their education and labour market ministers to share the most successful strategies and approaches to developing higher levels of literacy in the population. For this paper, provinces and territories have provided examples of government approaches that have been particularly successful or noteworthy. The examples reflect a flavour of the multi-faceted nature of literacy practice in Canada. [Introduction] - Phillips, S., & Levasseur, K. (2004). The snakes and ladders of accountability: Contradictions between contracting and collaboration for Canada’s voluntary sector. Canadian Public Administration, 4794), 451-474.
This article addresses the contradictory trends and effects produced by Canada’s uneasy transition from a contracting culture and accountability regime associated with “new public management”, towards more collaborative models of horizontal “governance”. It examines the negative impacts, on voluntary organizations, of measures attached to federal contribution agreements following the HRDC scandal of 2000; and questions whether the VSI Accord Between the Government of Canada and the Voluntary Sector, and accompanying Code of Good Practice on Funding might mitigate the effects of stringent accountability measures. [Authors/CE]
