The Politics of Consumer Education Materials Used in Adult Literacy Classrooms

Abstract

This study examined the consumer education texts used in adult literacy programs to determine how they portray adult literacy learners as consumers and how they depict the consumer market in which learners operate. It was concluded that the hidden curriculum of the texts promotes several ideologies that are disrespectful of adult learners and that work to maintain or reproduce current class inequalities through placing blame for financial failure on learners and ignoring larger social, political, and economic contexts.