Changing Faces, a critical history of literacy, numeracy and ESOL from 1970 to 2000, maps "key policy moments" for adult literacy. We examined the policy discourses and how they have changed; including how the literacy "problem" is framed at different points and how learners, teachers, the learning process and institutional context are represented. The study identified the key issues and forces that have driven change in the field; brought together the perspectives of the main interest group; and created an archive to be used by future participants and researchers in the field.

We collected documents and conducted almost 200 oral history interviews: with decision-makers in government and national agencies; practitioners; and adults who left school with few or no educational qualifications, some of whom had identified basic skills needs. We investigated the interactions between these groups and identified how they have influenced the current central position of basic skills to the government's national learning agenda in England.

The adult literacy campaign in the 1970s led to the first conference on literacy on behalf of the British Association of Settlements, in 1973. Entitled 'Status: Illiterate, Prospects: Zero', the conference was attended by many people who are still active in the field, and now hold influential positions. We traced how far the ideas and practices of those working in the field as volunteers, tutors and organisers have become legitimised by developments in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the accreditation of training for volunteers and practitioners. Some strands of work, such as student writing and community publishing, have become "submerged" by later developments. Numeracy, ESOL and ICT were initially barely recognised, but have now become significant areas in their own right.

The National Child Development Survey cohort provided an adult learner perspective. A number of people within this cohort have either reported difficulty with literacy and numeracy, or have been tested as having difficulties, whether or not they have acknowledged this. As this group are all the same age, and were young adults at the time of the initial literacy campaign, we could ask about their own experiences of learning, and how far they are aware of, or have engaged with, learning activities to improve their basic skills.

Alongside the collection of archive material and documentary evidence from local and national policymaking, we have created a series of timelines across the three decades. These draw upon the specific events which we can date from public records, and the personal memories of our respondents. The media timeline, for example, focuses on campaigns to inform the public about basic skills issues. The original BBC 'On the Move' campaign is a starting point, and has important implications for our research.

As there was broad agreement about the outline of developments, we could identify four phases during this period:

1. Mid-1970s: Campaign led by a coalition of voluntary agencies with a powerful media partner, the BBC.
2. 1980s: Provision supported by local education authority (LEA) adult education services and voluntary organisations, with leadership, training and development funding from a national agency (Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit, later the Basic Skills Agency).
3. 1989-1998: Demise of much LEA funding; statutory status achieved for adult literacy and numeracy education through the more formalised further education system, dependent on competitive funding from a national body, the Further Education Funding Council.
4. 1998-present: Skills for Life policy steered by a new government strategy unit strongly controlled and regulated by the Cabinet Office. Collaborations through Local Strategic Partnerships replace the competitive approach created through the previous funding regime.

We examined the tensions that emerged as the field developed from the creative and informal structures of the 1970s to the more formal and systematic provision we have today. Some included the move from volunteerism to professionalisation for practitioners; pedagogical issues of working with a negotiated or a standardised curriculum; the "pull" between vocational aims, more open lifelong learning goals and alignment of adult literacy, language and numeracy with the formal education system; continued difficulties about how to name the field and its participants; and responses to the introduction of high stakes targets and an audit culture that are shaping what counts as "good practice" in the field.

As a fragmented and marginalised field for many years, adult literacy and numeracy provision has always been affected by structures designed for other areas of social policy. We have therefore examined emerging practice in relation to a much wider arena of social action, taking into account, for example, changes in vocational training and immigration policy.

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