Chairpersons: Aydin Durgunoglu (email, Expert Page) and Tiziana Mascia: email, Expert Page)

Because of economic, social and cultural forces, a considerable number of individuals across the world have their education interrupted.  Even some individuals who had completed their education may no longer be able to meet the new demands of their societies.  All of these individuals can benefit from lifelong learning initiatives to participate more fully in their societies.  There are also others, recent immigrants, who are trying to learn the language and culture of their host countries.  Yet another include disadvantaged children who are developing literacy in their second or third language(s).  These topics are closely interwoven with broader sociocultural contexts, including social justice, equality and multiculturalism.  All of these groups are of interest for our Thematic Working Group (TWG), as our members develop, evaluate and implement literacy and empowerment programs for these individuals.  TWG members, in addition to working with the immigrant and multilingual individuals directly, also work with their families, teachers and other stakeholders. Our ultimate goal is to address the challenges faced by these disadvantaged groups through the following types of collaborations:

1. Research: To identify, compile and share important new research data as well as research gaps in our field, initiate joint research projects among members and add to the reports already published by ELINET (country reports and frame of reference for the country reports).
2. Good Practices: To foster the exchange of good practices among members, and to update and disseminate the existing good practice examples.
3. Policy Advocacy: To advocate for European literacy policy development on national and global levels and to issue thematic policy papers on relevant topics from the ELINET European Declaration of the Right to Literacy.
4. Communication and Networking: To foster communications among our members, organize European annual literacy conferences (in cooperation with existing networks), create networking opportunities.