Freire (1970) contrasted this emancipatory approach to literacy instruction to the banking approach of traditional, school-based education in which knowledge was poured into empty vessels. For him, literacy meant not only decoding of text but also a critical understanding of the world related to that text. Freire's teachings have been endorsed by numerous critical theorists who see literacy as a means of encouraging a critical understanding of existing power relationships (Collins, 1991; Giroux, 1991; Mitchell & Weiler, 1991). In the critical literacy perspective, "reading and writing become enhanced methods for exploring the democratic self and its formation through ideological exposure to knowledge and power relations" (Agnello, 2001, p. 24). In a recent 27 evaluation of the Adult Education Initiative (AEI) in Umeå, Segerholm (2001) questioned whether students were learning to think critically.

Freire provided a philosophy for literacy education but did not provide specific methodology. There is a growing body of literature about ways of adopting Freirian pedagogy to the classroom and adult literacy programs (Coggins, 1973; Creighton, 1997). However issues of accountability and measurement present obstacles to its more general acceptance especially at a time when the "cult of efficiency" pervades public discourse (Stein, 2001). How, for example, could program effectiveness be evaluated or outcomes measured if learners were free to direct their own learning?

As shown above, literacy has been defined in a variety of ways and clearly the demands for literacy have changed over time and place. The way in which literacy is understood determines how it will be measured.

Measuring Literacy

Given the definitional issues raised above, it is not surprising that the question of how to measure or assess literacy skills has bedeviled researchers and commentators. Grade level completion has frequently been used as a proxy for literacy levels. For example, a study of literacy provision in Saskatchewan used the Grade 9 completion rates in census data to profile literacy needs in the province (Hindle, 1990). In Canada, a Grade 8 education sufficed when the economy was largely an agricultural and resourcebased economy; whereas today a Grade 12 education is currently considered as a minimal credential for employment in Canada. In Sweden, there are nine years of compulsory schooling, grundskolan (see http://www.skolverket.se/english/system/swedish.shtml).