The Psychometric Properties of the Developmental Reading Assessment

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the technical adequacy of the Developmental Reading Assessment (Beaver & Carter, 2004). Internal consistency analysis, factor analysis, and linear regression analyses were used to test whether the DRA is a statistically reliable measuring of reading comprehension for Grades 7 and 8 students. Correlational analyses, decision consistency analyses, and a focus group of experienced Intermediate (Grades 7 and 8) teachers examined whether there is evidence that the results from the DRA provide valid interpretations regarding students’ reading skills and comprehension. Results indicated that, as currently scored, internal consistency is low and skewness of distribution is high. Factor analyses did not replicate those cited by the DRA developers to prove construct validity. Two-way contingency analyses determined that decision consistency did not vary greatly between the DRA, EQAO, scores and report card marks. Views expressed during the focus group echoed many of the challenges to validity found in the statistical analysis. The teachers found that the DRA was somewhat useful, as there were limited alternative reading assessments available for the classroom, but did not endorse it strongly. The study found little evidence that the DRA provides valid interpretations regarding Intermediate students’ reading skills. Indicated changes to the structure and administration procedures of the DRA may ameliorate some of these issues.

Financial media, globalisation, and China’s economic integration: comparing narrative construction of the Economist and Caijing

In June 2015, legal frameworks of the Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank were signed by its 57 founding members. Proposed and initiated by China, this multilateral development bank is considered to be an Asian counterpart to break the monopoly of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In October 2015, China’s Central Bank announced a benchmark interest rate cut to combat the economic slowdown. The easing policy coincides with the European Central Bank’s announcement of doubts over US Fed’s commitment to raise interest rates. Global stock markets responded positively to China’s move, with the exception of the indexes from Wall Street (Bland, 2015; Elliott, 2015). In the meantime, China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ (or New Silk Road Economic Belt) became atopic of discourse in relation to its growing global economy, as China pledged $40 billion to trade and infrastructure projects (Bermingham, 2015). The foreign policy aims to reinforce the economic belt from western China through Central Asia towards Europe, as well as to construct maritime trading routes from coastal China through the South China Sea (Summers, 2015). In 2012, The Economist launched a new China section, to reveal the complexity of the‘meteoric rise’ of China. John Micklethwait, who was then the chief editor of the magazine, said that China’s emergence as a global power justified giving it a section of its own(Roush, 2012). In July 2015, Hu Shuli, the former chief editor of Caijing, announced the launch of a think tank and financial data service division called Caixin Insight Group, which encompasses the new Caixin China Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). Incooperation with with Markit Group, a principal global provider of PMI, the index soon became a widely cited economic indicator. One anecdote from November’s Caixin shows how much has changed: in a high-profile dialogue between Hu Shuli and Kevin Rudd, Hu insisted on asking questions in English; interestingly, the former Prime Minister of Australia insisted on replying in Chinese. These recent developments point to one thing: the economic ascent of China and its increasing influence on the power play between economics and politics in world markets. China has begun to take a more active role in rule making and enforcement under neoliberal frameworks. However, due to the country’s size and the scale of its economy in comparison to other countries, China’s version of globalisation has unique characteristics. The ‘Capitalist-socialist’ paradox is vital to China’s market-oriented transformation. In order to comprehend how such unique features are articulated and understood, there are several questions worth investigating in the realms of media and communication studies,such as how China’s neoliberal restructuring is portrayed and perceived by different types of interested parties, and how these portrayals are de-contextualised and re-contextualised in global or Anglo-American narratives. Therefore, based on a combination of the themes of globalisation, financial media and China’s economic integration, this thesis attempts to explore how financial media construct the narratives of China’s economic globalisation through the deployment of comparative and multi-disciplinary approaches. Two outstanding elite financial magazines, Britain’s The Economist, which has a global readership and influence, and Caijing, China’s leading financial magazine, are chosen as case studies to exemplify differing media discourses, representing, respectively, Anglo-American and Chinese socio-economic and political backgrounds, as well as their own journalistic cultures. This thesis tries to answer the questions of how and why China’s neoliberal restructuring is constructed from a globally-oriented perspective. The construction primarily involves people who are influential in business and policymaking. Hence, the analysis falls into the paradigm of elite-elite communication, which is an important but relatively less developed perspective in studying China and its globalisation. The comparing of characteristics of narrative construction are the result of the textual analysis of articles published over a ten-year period (mid-1998 to mid-2008). The corpus of samples come from the two media outlets’ coverage of three selected events:China becoming a member of the World Trade Organization, its outward direct investment, and the listing of stocks of Chinese companies in overseas exchanges, which are mutually exclusive in sample collection and collectively exhaustive in the inclusion of articles regarding China’s economic globalisation. The findings help to understand that, despite language, socio-economic and political differences, elite financial media with globally-oriented readerships share similar methods of and approaches to agenda setting, the evaluation of news prominence, the selection of frame, and the advocacy of deeply rooted neoliberal ideas. The comparison of their distinctive features reflects the different phases of building up the sense of identity in their readers as global elites, as well as the different economic interests that are aligned with the corresponding readerships. However, textual analysis is only relevant in terms of exploring how the narratives are constructed and the elements they include; textual analysis alone prevents us from seeing the obstacles and the constrains of the journalistic practices of construction. Therefore, this thesis provides a brief discussion of interviews with practitioners from the two media, in order to understand how similar or different narratives are manifested and perceived, how the concept of neoliberalism deviates from and is justified in the Chinese context, and how and for what purpose deviations arise from Western to Chinese contexts. The thesis also contributes to defining financial media in the domain of elite communication. The relevant and closely interlocking concepts of globalisation, elitism and neoliberalism are discussed, and are used as a theoretical bedrock in the analysis of texts and contexts. It is important to address the agenda-setting and ideological role of elite financial media, because of its narrative formula of infusing business facts with opinions,which is important in constructing the global elite identity as well as influencing neoliberal policy-making. On the other hand, ‘journalistic professionalism’ has been redefined, in that the elite identity is shared by the content producer, reader and the actors in the news stories emerging from the much-compressed news cycle. The professionalism of elite financial media requires a dual definition, that of being professional in the understanding of business facts and statistics, and that of being professional in the making sense of stories by deploying economic logic.

THE EFFECT OF PURPOSEFUL MATHEMATICS DISCOURSE IN THE CLASSROOM ON STUDENTS’ MATHEMATICS LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF PROBLEM SOLVING

This study examines how one secondary school teacher’s use of purposeful oral mathematics language impacted her students’ language use and overall communication in written solutions while working with word problems in a grade nine academic mathematics class. Mathematics is often described as a distinct language. As with all languages, students must develop a sense for oral language before developing social practices such as listening, respecting others ideas, and writing. Effective writing is often seen by students that have strong oral language skills. Classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and collected student work served as evidence to demonstrate the nature of both the teacher’s and the students’ use of oral mathematical language in the classroom, as well as the effect the discourse and language use had on students’ individual written solutions while working on word problems. Inductive coding for themes revealed that the teacher’s purposeful use of oral mathematical language had a positive impact on students’ written solutions. The teacher’s development of a mathematical discourse community created a space for the students to explore mathematical language and concepts that facilitated a deeper level of conceptual understanding of the learned material. The teacher’s oral language appeared to transfer into students written work albeit not with the same complexity of use of the teacher’s oral expression of the mathematical register. Students that learn mathematical language and concepts better appear to have a growth mindset, feel they have ownership over their learning, use reorganizational strategies, and help develop a discourse community.

designing + (dis)assembling disputes: an ethnography of disputes & lawyers in the construction industry

The UK construction industry is notorious for the sheer amount of disputes which are likely to arise on each building and engineering project. Despite numerous creative attempts at “dispute avoidance” and “dispute resolution”, this industry is still plagued with these costly disputes. Whilst both academic literature and professional practices have investigated the causes of disputes and the mechanisms for avoidance/resolution of these disputes, neither has studied in any detail the nature of the construction disputes and why they develop as they do once a construction lawyer is engaged. Accordingly, this research explores the question of what influences the outcome of a construction dispute and to what extent do construction lawyers control or direct this outcome? The research approach was ethnographic. Fieldwork took place at a leading construction law firm in London over 18 months. The primary focus was participant observation in all of the firm’s activities. In addition, a database was compiled from the firm’s files and archives, thus providing information for quantitative analysis. The basis of the theoretical framework, and indeed the research method, was the Actor‐Network Theory (ANT). As such, this research viewed a dispute as a set of associations – an entity which takes form and acquires its attributes as a result of its relations with other entities. This viewpoint is aligned with relational contract theories, which in turn provides a unified platform for exploring the disputes. The research investigated the entities and events which appeared to influence the dispute’s identity, shape and outcome. With regard to a dispute’s trajectory, the research took as its starting point that a dispute follows the transformation of “naming, blaming, claiming…”, as identified by Felstiner, Abel and Sarat in 1980. The research found that construction disputes generally materialise and develop prior to any one of the parties approaching a lawyer. Once the lawyer is engaged, we see the reverse of the trajectory “naming, blaming, claiming…” this being: “claiming, blaming, naming…” The lawyers’ role is to identify or name (or rename) the dispute in the best possible light for their client in order to achieve the desired outcome – the development of which is akin to the design process. The transformation of a dispute and the reverse trajectory is by no means linear, but rather, iterative and spatial as it requires alliances, dependencies and contingencies to assemble and take the shape it does. The research concludes that construction disputes are rarely ever completely “resolved” as such. Whilst an independent third party may hand down a judgment, or the parties may reach a settlement agreement, this state is only temporal. Some construction disputes dissipate whist others reach a state of hibernation for a period of time only to pick up momentum and energy some years later. Accordingly, this research suggests that the concept of “dispute resolution” does not exist in the UK construction industry. The ultimate goal should be for parties to reach this ultimate and perpetual state of equilibrium as quickly and as cost effectively as possible: “dispute dissolution”, the slowing down of the dispute’s momentum. Rather than focusing on the design and assemblage of the dispute, the lawyers’ role therein is, or should be, to assist with the “disassembling” of the dispute.

The Material Dynamics of a London-French Blog: A Multimodal Reading of Migrant Habitus

Through a fine-grained reading of a London-French blog, this article aims to shed light on the lived experience of the French community in London. The ethnosemiotic conceptual framework brings together ethnographic and semiotic schools of thought, focusing in particular on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Gunther Kress’s multimodal social semiotic analytical model. Habitus is broken down into its material manifestations of habitat, habit and habituation, all displayed in the blog and revealing of the blogger’s identity and positioning within the migration setting. As all modes are considered to be of equal semiotic potential, equivalent emphasis is placed on the multiple modes of meaning-making present in the blog, such as layout, colour, typography and language. By examining the dynamic relationships between blogger and audience, subjectivity and objectivity, on-line and on-land habitus, and intermodal dynamics themselves, through the prism of multimodality, hidden facets of the blogger’s cultural identity and sense of community belonging within the diasporic context begin to materialise.

Clear hero and dark hero in the cinematographic narration

The role of the hero is changing, slightly irregular, but it’s purpose is constant. The line that separates good from evil is frequently so thin that sometimes the main hero can act in a negative way, casting doubts about his own nature in the pursuit of good. This paper aims to inquire into the character’s heroic condition showing two variations of this archetype in the context of postmodern cinema: the “clear hero”, and the “dark hero”. The former keeps the most traditional values of the hero, while the latter provides a dimension which distinguishes it from the previous one: his experience executing evil as a part of his process to heroici­ty. Postmodernity implies an ambivalence in the character’s identity which can be comparable to the hero’s role, and to his way of making good. The “clear hero” does not imply negative features in the active nature of the hero, whilst the “dark hero” does include them. Through the protagonists of Gladiator (Scott, 2000) and Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005) are offered both heroic perspectives based on a selection of their principal ac­tions which have been subjected to analysis according to some parameters: behavior, implication, and cause. The decisive action will also be signalized, according to the narration’s teleonomy in reason of the favorable or unfavorable sense for the hero. Finally, each character will be observed from its archetype. By analyzing their actions from these perspectives, we observe the clear hero and the dark hero as affordable categories for the heroic role.

From labelling to social aid for immigrants in the 21st Century

Migration is as old as humanity, but since the 1990s migration flows in Western Europe have led to societies that are not just multicultural but so-called «super-diverse». As a result, Western towns now have very complex social structures, with amongst others large amounts of small immigrant communities that are in constant change. In this paper we argue that for social workers to be able to offer adequate professional help to non-native residents in town, they will need balanced view of ‘culture’ and of the role culture plays in social aid. Culture is never static, but is continually changing. By teaching social workers about how to look at cultural backgrounds of immigrant groups and about the limitations of then role that culture plays in communication, they will be better equipped to provide adequate aid and will contribute to making various groups grow towards each other and to avoid people thinking in terms of ‘out-group-homogeneity’. Nowadays, inclusion is a priority in social work that almost every social worker supports. Social workers should have an open attitude to allow them to approach every individual as a unique person. They will see the other person as the person they are, and not as a part of a specific cultural group. Knowledge about the others makes them see the cultural heterogeneity in every group. The social sector, though, must be aware not to fall into the trap of the ‘inclusion mania’! This will cause the social deprivation of a particular group to be forgotten. An inclusive policy requires an inclusive society. Otherwise, this could result in even more deprivation of other groups, already discriminated against. Emancipation of deprived people demands a certain target-group policymaking. Categorized aid will raise efficiency of working with immigrants and of acknowledging the cultural identity of the non-natives group. It will also create the possibility to work on fighting social deprivation, in which most immigrants can be found.

Rightful Resistance in the Colombian conflict. A theoretical reflection based on a Peace Community

This article considers the opportunities of civilians to peacefully resist violent conflicts or civil wars. The argument developed here is based on a field-based research on the peace community San José de Apartadó in Colombia. The analytical and theoretical framework, which delimits the use of the term ‘resistance’ in this article, builds on the conceptual considerations of Hollander and Einwohner (2004) and on the theoretical concept of ‘rightful resistance’ developed by O’Brien (1996). Beginning with a conflict-analytical classification of the case study, we will describe the long-term socio-historical processes and the organizational experiences of the civilian population, which favoured the emergence of this resistance initiative. The analytical approach to the dimensions and aims of the resistance of this peace community leads to the differentiation of O`Brian’s concept of ‘rightful resistance’.

Examples of “land stewarship” in Brazil. The “Projecto Sempre Viva” (Mucugê-Bahia)

In recent years the concept of "Land Stewardship" has gained a great importance. In short, it means that local entities and individuals can protect enclave of high ecological and cultural value. This vision has been effective in some places in the world with success. For example, the “Projeto Sempre Viva”, created in the town of Mucugê, a place located in one of Brazil´s most renowned Natural Protected Areas: the Chapada Diamantina (State of Bahia). We had looked over the available information about this project on the Internet, as well as a personal visit that was made to the site to know it and to have the possibility to talk to their managers. On this basis, it has been reached to the conclusion that this project, born to protect a Sempre Viva´s endemic species in danger of extinction, has turned into an important site for tourism and environmental education, completed with the preservation of the cultural identity of this region which is linked to diamond mining.

Collectively coping with contact: The role of intragroup support in dealing with the challenges of intergroup mixing in residential contexts

The social identity approach to stress has shown how intragroup support processes shape individuals' responses to stress across health care, workplace, and community settings. However, the issue of how these 'social cure' processes can help cope with the stress of intergroup contact has yet to be explored. This is particularly important given the pivotal role of intergroup threat and anxiety in the experience of contact as well as the effect of contact on extending the boundaries of group inclusion. This study applies this perspective to a real-life instance of residential contact in a divided society. Semi-structured interviews with 14 Catholic and 13 Protestant new residents of increasingly mixed areas of Belfast city, Northern Ireland, were thematically analysed. Results highlight that transitioning to mixed communities was fraught with intergroup anxiety, especially for those coming from 'single identity' areas. Help from existing residents, especially when offered by members of other religious denominations, signalled a 'mixed community ethos' to new residents, which facilitated adopting and sharing this identity. This shared identity then enabled them to deal with unexpected intergroup threats and provided resilience to future sectarian division. New residents who did not adopt this shared identity remained isolated, fearful, and prone to negative contact.

Advertising Colonial Romance and Imperial Masculinity: The Promotion of Philip Meadows Taylor's Novels in Britain

The comments of Charles Kegan Paul, the Victorian publisher who was involved in publishing the novels of the nineteenth-century British-Indian author Philip Meadows Taylor as single volume reprints in the 1880s, are illuminating. They are indicative of the publisher's position with regard to publishing - that there was often no correlation between commercial success and the artistic merit of a work. According to Kegan Paul, a substandard or mediocre text would be commercially successful as long it met a perceived want on the part of the public. In effect, the ruminations of the publisher suggests that a firm desirous of acquiring commercial success for a work should be an astute judge of the pre-existing wants of consumers within the market. Yet Theodor Adorno, writing in the mid-twentieth century, offers an entirely distinctive perspective to Kegan Paul's observations, arguing that there is nothing foreordained about consumer demand for certain cultural tropes or productions. They in fact are driven by an industry that preempts and conditions the possible reactions of the consumer. Both Kegan Paul's and Adorno's insights are illuminating when it comes to addressing the key issues explored in this essay. Kegan Paul's comments allude to the ways in which the publisher's promotion of Philip Meadows Taylor's fictional depictions of India and its peoples were to a large extent driven in the mid- to late-nineteenth century by their expectations of what metropolitan readers desired at any given time, whereas Adorno's insights reveal the ways in which British-Indian narratives and the public identity of their authors were not assured in advance, but were, to a large extent, engineered by the publishing industry and the literary marketplace.

Target language use : An empirical study of the target language use in the Swedish 4-6 grade classroom

A consistent use of the target language during English lessons is beneficial for pupils’ linguistic development, but also challenging for both teachers and pupils. The main purpose for pupils to learn English is to be able to use it in communication, which requires that they develop the ability to comprehend input, produce output and use language strategies. Several researchers claim that a consistent use of the target language is necessary in order to develop these abilities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the target language use during English lessons in Swedish grades 4-6, and what pupils’ opinions regarding target language use are. The methods used to collect data consisted of a pupil questionnaire with 42 respondents and an observation of two teachers’ English lessons during a week’s time. The results from the observations show that the teachers use plenty of target language during lessons, but the first language as well to explain things that pupils might experience difficult to understand otherwise. The results from the questionnaire mainly show that the pupils seem to enjoy English and like to both speak and hear the target language during lessons. The main input comes from listening to a CD with dialogues and exercises in the textbook and the workbook, and from the teacher speaking. The results also show that a majority of the pupils use the target language in their spare time. A conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the TL should be used to a large extent in order to support pupils’ linguistic development. However, teachers may sometimes need to use L1 in order to facilitate understanding of the things that many pupils find difficult, for example grammar. Suggestions for further research in this area include similar studies conducted on a larger scale.

To speak or not to speak English during English lessons : A literature study on language use in the elementary classroom

There are different views regarding which language should be used in the second language classroom. Therefore, the aim of this literature review is to find out if the teachers’ choice of language use in the classroom can affect the students’ motivation to speak English and if there are other factors that can affect the teachers’ choice of language use. This study is based on six different sources who all have investigated the use of the first language and/or the target language in schools in different parts of the world. The results of this study show that both the use of the first language and the target language can affect the students’ motivation to speak English. The results also show that there are many different factors that can affect the teachers’ choice of language in the classroom, apart from motivation. These factors include the use of the first or the target language to ensure comprehension, encourage communication, create and maintain relationships between teachers and students, keep up a good classroom climate, and to uphold discipline. There are arguments both for using the first language and the second language in the second language classroom and it is difficult to determine which language is the best to use. However, what can be determined is that it is the teachers’ responsibility to decide and to have a reason for choosing one language or the other.

Avaliação do Grau de Fidelidade entre a Identidade e a Imagem do Instituto Superior Miguel Torga

O presente trabalho trata de medir a distância entre a Identidade e a Imagem Corporativa do Instituto Superior Miguel Torga. Para este efeito, desenvolveu-se um instrumento que compara os níveis de adequação da instituição a um conjunto de dez adjetivos avaliados sob o ponto de vista da Direção (Identidade) e do ponto de vista dos professores, alunos e funcionários(Imagem). Esta metodologia de investigação teve como base (VILAR, 2006) o pensamento seguido pela corporate identity em que a perspetiva visual aparece com o propósito de melhorar a visibilidade e identificação da organização para uma posição em que é entendido como instrumental na comunicação e da sua estratégia. Neste sentido desenvolvemos um instrumento, questionário composto por dez adjetivos e três logótipos, com o objetivo de avaliar a distância entre Identidade e Imagem por categorias profissionais. / The present thesis is to measure the distance between the Identity and Corporate Image of the Instituto Superior Miguel Torga. for this purpose, we developed a tool that compares the level of adequacy of the institution to a set of ten adjectives assessed from the point of view of the Director (Identity) and the point of view of teachers, students and staff (Image). This research methodology was based on(VILAR, 2006) followed the thought that the corporate identity visual perspective appears in order to improve visibility and identification of the organization to a position where it is seen as instrumental in the communication and its strategy. With this in mind we developed an instrument, a questionnaire composed of ten adjectives and three logos, with the objective of evaluating the distance between Identity and Image by occupational categories.

O Combate ao Analfabetismo em Angola desde o Acordo de Paz (2002): alfabetização e os seus constrangimentos no meio rural

Esta investigação debruça-se sobre a análise do Combate ao Analfabetismo em Angola e o processo de alfabetização levado a cabo pelo Estado e os Parceiros Sociais no meio rural, desde o Acordo de paz em 2002, e especificamente, sobre dos Programas, Estratégias e Planos de Alfabetização do Estado, no contexto do Sistema de Educação, preconizados nesse período. Em Angola a maior parte das ações de alfabetização são asseguradas pelos parceiros sociais do Estado, pelo que procedemos à identificação das Organizações, Associações Nacionais e Organizações Internacionais em processos de Alfabetização e aos Métodos de Alfabetização associados ao Plano Estratégico para a Revitalização da Alfabetização (2012). Os constrangimentos ao processo de alfabetização no meio rural foram analisados em três vertentes: do acesso à educação e alfabetização de jovens e adultos; dos professores e alfabetizadores, sua formação, recrutamento e fixação, e o da utilização da Língua Oficial e das Línguas Nacionais. A investigação teve por base uma metodologia do tipo qualitativo assente na recolha e análise bibliográfica e documental, constituindo um estudo interpretativo fruto de uma Revisão Bibliográfica Narrativa. A gratuitidade, a equidade e a qualidade do ensino em Angola, enquanto objetivos primordiais dos principais documentos reitores do Sistema de Educação, não estão a ser asseguradas ou cumpridas com a amplitude e a eficácia pretendidas. Não obstante as estratégias, os programas e os planos de alfabetização concebidos após 2002, a sua implementação não tem conseguido materializar-se enquanto instrumento facilitador de uma “segunda oportunidade” educativa para jovens e adultos analfabetos. Perpetuam-se problemas no acesso ao ensino no meio rural, particularmente no que respeita à gratuidade, aos fracos apoios e incentivos financeiros do Estado e à insuficiente aplicação de políticas de ação social escolar. Persistem também a escassez de professores e alfabetizadores, as suas dificuldades de caracter formativo e profissional, a limitação de recursos de que dispõem e de incentivos que os levem a fixar-se. A utilização das línguas maternas não se efetiva no processo ensino-aprendizagem, onde a sua pertinência é maior devido à identidade bantu das populações. Estes constrangimentos repercutem-se no insucesso escolar dos alunos e no aumento das taxas de abandono/desistência e comprometem o direito à educação. Apesar do esforço nacional, a afetação de recursos do orçamento destinado ao sector da educação, ao combate ao analfabetismo e à alfabetização de jovens e adultos é ainda inferior a metade do recomendado internacionalmente nesta área. / This study focuses on the analysis of the struggle against Illiteracy in Angola and on the literacy process undertaken by the State and the Social Partners in the rural areas, since the Peace Agreement in 2002, and specifically on the Programs, Strategies and Plans of Literacy of the State in the context of the Education System proclaimed on that period. In Angola most literacy actions are ensured by the social partners of the State, therefore we proceed to identify the Organizations, National Associations and International Organizations in processes of Literacy and the Methods of Literacy associated to the Strategic Plan for the Revitalization of Literacy(2012). The constraints on the process of literacy in rural areas were analyzed in three strands: the access to education and literacy for young people and adults; the teachers and literacy teachers, their school formation, recruitment and fixation, and the use of the Official Language and the National Languages. The study used a qualitative methodology based on bibliographic and documentary collection and analysis, constituting an interpretative study, which is the result of a bibliographic narrative review. Free, equal and quality education in Angola as primary objectives of the main guiding documents of the Education System, are not being provided or accomplished with the scope and effectiveness required. Despite the Strategies, the Programs and the Literacy Plans designed after 2002, its implementation has not been able to be materialized as a facilitator of a "second chance" education for young people and adult illiterates. Problems remain in the access to education in rural areas, particularly, as far as free education, weak support and financial incentives from the State and inadequate implementation of the policies of school social work are concerned. The shortage of teachers and literacy teachers, the difficulties related to their training and their profession, the limited resources available and incentives that lead them to settle down also persist. The use of the mother tongues is not effective in the teaching-learning process, where its pertinence is greater due to the bantu identity of the populations. These constraints have repercussions on the students' school failure and on the abandonment rates increase and compromise the right to education. Despite the national effort, the allocation of budget resources intended for the education sector, to fight illiteracy and to improve young people and adults’ literacy, is still less than half of the recommended internationally in this area.