Adult Literacy Education Research Articles

Barriers to Access in Public Adult Literacy Education

This qualitative research article explores barriers experienced by a group of African American and Latinx adults who sought to enroll and stay enrolled in a publicly funded literacy class and how these barriers were related to policy. Barriers included (a) an inadequate number and type of available classes, (b) a lack of community awareness of classes, and (c) institutional procedures that determined class eligibility. Barriers were created as practitioners attempted to comply with government accountability policy and funding requirements. These findings provoke questions about whether accountability policies promote inequitable access to public adult literacy services for racially minoritized adults.

Immigrants Learning English in a Time of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

This is the accepted manuscript version of an article published in Adult Literacy Education.

Using PIAAC data to learn more about the literacy practices of adults

ABSTRACTThe present article connects a secondary analysis of quantitative data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) with the theoretical approach of ‘literacy practices’ and related research results from the so-called New Literacy Studies (NLS) tradition, which follows a cultural practices paradigm.According to the literacy as social practice approach, the analysis of adults’ literacy and numeracy practices could provide relevant policy information about how to address target groups in adult literacy and basic education. Thus, a Latent Class Analysis was carried out with the German PIAAC dataset in order to differentiate the adult population by their uses of literacy, numeracy and ICT.As a result of this procedure, three subgroups of adults can be distinguished by the frequency in which they use selected skill-related activities. Surprisingly, an adult’s individual literacy level does not clearly predict group membership. A further interesting result is that participants in one of the groups seem to compensate for the few chances they have to use their skills at work by using them more often in their everyday life. Both results contribute to the need to draw a more differentiated picture of adults with lower literacy skills.

The Landscape of Mindfulness and Meditation in Adult Education: A Partial Prescription (and Critique) for Lifelong Learning and Well‐Being

AbstractThis chapter provides an overview and critique of the mindfulness and meditation literature in popular culture, adult education and health care, and provides discussion based on both experience and the literature for teaching and learning for well‐being.

Reflections on the Adult Education Professoriate in Canada

Drawing on an autoethnographic approach, we offer a retrospective and current reflection on the Adult Education Professoriate within the Canadian university system. Through our autographic texts as professors within the field of adult education, as well as a review of relevant adult education literature, we consider the historical and current societal and academic trends that informed the growth and associated struggles in this academic program over the past six decades, including the launch of the Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education. Reflecting on lessons from the past, we argue that we need to remain vigilant as professors within Canadian universities and realize that the programs we promote and offer will only thrive if we continue to survive as a valued and visible field of scholarship and practice. We further assert that our survival is contingent upon ramping up our engagement with and educating of colleagues from other disciplines, as well as work and learning contexts.

Inside Out Literacies

Since 1997, adult literacy education has been of increasing interest to UK policy makers amid perceptions/claims of a causal relationship between attainment in literacy and positive economic participation, social inclusion, and life chance transformation. However, research in the field of literacy studies suggests that many prisoners who identify as beginner readers, report feeling alienated by formal education failing to take sufficient account of the social identities learners bring to their learning or how they want to use literacy to bring about change in their lives. This has resulted in deficit models of the prisoner as learner that impose ‘spoiled educational identities' and fail to engage prisoners as active, agentic participants in their learning. In this article, the authors draw on data produced in the qualitative phase of a year-long study across the English prison estate of Shannon Trust's prison-based reading plan, to explore alternative approaches to prison literacy education that challenge the traditions of formal education and put learner identity and aspiration at the heart of the beginner reader learning process. The qualitative phase of the project involved twelve focus groups across eight prison settings and included 20 learner, and 37 mentor participants engaged in the Shannon Trust peer-reading programme. The authors listen closely to the voices of learners and mentors describing their experiences of peer to peer learning and plug in Anita Wilson's concepts of educentricity and third space literacies to read participants' experiences of formal and informal literacy education. They make use of this analysis to identify and describe a ‘grounded pedagogy' approach that pays attention to learning as social practice and enables prisoners to re-imagine themselves both as learners and social actors and to begin to connect their learning to self-directed desistence identity building. The authors conclude with a consideration of the implications of this work for prison literacy teaching and the potential role of grounded pedagogy ideas in the development of more provocative approaches to prison teacher education.

Program Planning Model: A Theoretical Guide for Designing Online Distance Education Courses

Planning a university-based distance education was once considered a marginalized practice in higher education institutions (HEIs). However, many changes have since taken place in HEIs, not only from procedural and technological aspects, but also involving structural and cultural systemic changes in the existing organizational and educational practices. Universities are now expected to deliver courses not only in traditional face-to-face format, but to also inculcate various forms of distance and flexible learning as part of their course delivery to the students. Understanding context is an important aspect in program planning. By assessing the current context of distance education practice in higher education, this paper seeks to propose a program planning model as a theoretical guide for supporting the development of a successful learning design for distance learners, particularly for undergraduate courses. The first part of this paper discussed a selected program planning model from the adult education literature. The second part of this paper elaborates each of the planning component as supported the distance education literature. This paper concludes with a proposed skeletal model, specifically for designing online courses at the end.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation

Actualizing Sustainable Development Goal‐11 in rural Nigeria: The role of Adult Literacy Education and Tourism Development

AbstractSustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 17 goal agenda are aimed at improving on the strengths of the Millennium Development Goals. Actualization of SDGs by 2030 has dominated debates among policy makers and developers. This study investigated the position of Adult Literacy Education and Tourism Development to the actualization of SDG‐11 in rural Nigeria by 2030. SDG‐11 focuses on ensuring sustainable cities and communities by 2030. Methodically, Yaro Yamane formula was used in downsizing the huge study population, to 399 rural adults. There was also a key informant interviews on 21 Adult Literacy Education facilitators and 18 Tourism Development experts who were conveniently and purposively sampled. Result of the study revealed that Adult Literacy Education and Tourism Development instruments among others will to a greater extent contribute to the actualization of SDG‐11 in rural Nigeria by 2030. The study has opened up another direction in sustainability studies by way of investigating various development instruments and their contributions towards actualizing the expected goals of SDGs by 2030 in many nations.

Mediation

Mediation

“My choice was not to become a tradesman, my choice was to go to uni”

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the first-year university experience as an agent for the (re)learning and (re)making of masculine identity as it intersects with other categories of identity. Historically, male students from working-class backgrounds have often struggled with identity issues and many leave school early for vocational employment where their masculinity is reinforced and validated. A small percentage, however, re-enrol in higher education later in life. This paper explores how “Deo”, a tradesperson who became a university student, reconstructed his identity during this transition.Design/methodology/approachThe primary methodology for this case study is semi-structured interviews.FindingsDeo articulated his transition in terms of “change” and “transformation”, in which a theme of risk was central. He also drew attention to cultural practices that regulate hierarchies of masculinity as they intersect with the identities of age, sexuality, ethnicity and socio-economic status within his work and study.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focusses on one student’s experience in an Australian public university, so findings may not be generalisable. However, single stories are an important means of illustrating the intersection of shared socio-cultural practices.Originality/valueWithin adult education literature there is limited engagement with intersecting cultural narratives that shape experiences, inequalities and barriers in learners’ lives. Deo’s story gives voice to socio-cultural narratives around masculinity, age, ethnicity, sexuality and socio-economic status, highlighting their central significance to learning, being and belonging.

Education, religious trust, and ethnicity: The case of Senegal

Although the relationship between religious attachment and education has received much attention, few studies have examined it in the African context. Using data from a survey of 1,484 rural Senegalese citizens and Afrobarometer survey data, this article examines the relationship between different types of education (adult literacy education, Koranic education and formal education), ethnicity, and trust in religious leaders and institutions in the West African and overwhelmingly Muslim setting of Senegal. The results indicate that adult literacy education (ALE) generally has a negative effect on religious trust while the effects of formal education and Koranic education appear more variable. Ethnicity is also strongly linked to religious trust and appears to mediate the effects of education on religious trust.

Wellbeing effects from family literacy education: An ecological study

This paper describes a study that used community psychology theories to investigate family-focused literacy education programmes, evaluations of which usually focus solely on skills gains and their economic advantage. Specifically, the study drew on an ecological systems-based, culturally adaptive framework for personal, relational and collective wellbeing bringing much-needed new thinking to how family-focused adult literacy education might be theorised and practiced. The study traced the experiences of 19 adult participants in four family-focused literacy programmes in different communities in New Zealand over 18 months. Participant accounts from 79 key informant interviews, 12 classroom observations and programme documentation were scrutinized using latent theoretical thematic analysis which drew on broad perspectives of literacy, ecological systems theory, network theory and integrative theories of wellbeing. The study found that the programmes shared common principles and practices that prioritised holistic wellbeing whilst valuing literacy enhancement. It showed that participants experienced positive literacy, social and wellbeing-related outcomes. Programme effects were found to be interconnected and to flow on to other parts of participants’ lives and to their families and communities. We demonstrate community psychology’s critical contribution to a fuller understanding of family-focused literacy education.

Influence of Adult Literacy Education on the Environmental Behaviours of Women

The study assessed the influence of adult literacy education on the environmental attitudes and behaviours of women in Edo State. A sample size of 253 respondents were selected using both census sampling to select the 15 adult literacy centers in the state and simple random sampling by balloting to choose the sample for the study. The instrument for the study had a reliability of 0.75 for the attitude subscale and 0.83 for the behaviours subscale. It was observed from the study that the majority of the respondents (57.3%) had a positive attitude towards the environment and their response revealed that they rarely partake in most pro-environmental behaviours. There was a weak positive relationship observed between the respondents’ environmental attitude and their environmental behaviour. Hence the researchers recommended that more emphasis should be placed on implementing adult environmental education in each of the adult literacy centers in Edo State.

Linking Literacy and Community Development: A Case Study of Women in New Orleans

This paper examines the impact of a family literacy program in New Orleans , developed in response to lowliteracy levels, high drop-out rates, and a corresponding lack of resident participation in communitydevelopment efforts in the area. The program, Toyota Families for Learning (TFFL), worked to transcenddisciplinary barriers by linking adult literacy education and community development through a communitybasedapproach to adult literacy. TFFL continuously evolved to serve as a catalyst for transformation in thelives of the women it served, their families, and their communities. The experiences of the women in thisstudy were explored in relation to the following indicators of community building: (1) developing the abilityto express personal experiences and observed phenomena, (2) constructing one's own knowledge, (3) settingand following through on goals, (4) building a positive community environment, and (5) developing a visionof the community. Qualitative data in the form of literacy narratives informed this inquiry. The narrativeswere triangulated with field notes and focus group data collected over a six-year period commencing in1992. The findings of this research indicate that literacy programs can be structured to successfully build thecapacity of participants to engage in community development processes.

Public Servant Schools in Canada: A Concept for Reconciliation

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has called on federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments of Canada to educate public servants about the history and legacy of Indian residential schools and related topics, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This article advances this call to action by conceptualizing “public servant schools” as government organizations that provide learning opportunities to public servants. The Canadian adult education literature, however, is largely silent on this topic, even though numerous examples can be found across branches and levels of governments within Canada. Drawing on material acquired through the Access to Information Act, this article breathes life into this topic by documenting the Canada School of Public Service and elements of its curriculum related to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Elizabeth Cleveland Morriss (1877–1960), Leader of the Literacy and Adult Elementary Education Movement in North Carolina

Abstract Elizabeth Cleveland Morriss was a progressive adult education reformer and one of several founders of statewide evening school programs for adult literacy and adult elementary education. T...

Southern-European signposts for critical popular adult education: Italy, Portugal and Spain

This paper focuses on three Southern European countries, Italy, Portugal and Spain, to explore examples of projects that provide signposts for a critical popular education that contributes to an ongoing democratic process – one whereby citizens are developed as social actors and members of a collectivity rather than simply passive producers/consumers. This approach would serve as an alternative to the traditional ‘top-down’ and current hegemonic economy-oriented discourses. In so doing, the paper seeks to redress an imbalance in the English language adult education and learning literature that often overlooks alternative discourses to the mainstream on and from this part of the world.

Complicating Access: Digital Inequality and Adult Learning in a Public Access Computing Space

AbstractAccess is often defined in digital inclusion policy as the potential, if not the means, to access an Internet connection. This simple or ‘laissez-faire’ approach to digital access excludes many of the adults who are also the constituents of adult literacy education programs, suggesting the need for adult educators to attend closely to the entanglements of digital equity and adult learning. Combining methods of critical policy analysis with participant observation of adults’ experiences of digital access and learning in a public setting, the study identifies tensions between public sites for computing learning and the privatization of access, between ‘basic skills’ and critical pedagogies of production, and between the ‘model users’ for whom digital policies and the Internet are designed and the actual experiences of those who are on the margins of access. These trouble spots provoke new challenges and possibilities for a reinvigoration of public computing as new sites for adult learning.

Reflections on Patricia Cranton's work as mentor and friend

Scholar, mentor, and humanist, Patricia Cranton touched the lives of numerous scholars and students, and leaves a formidable legacy to the field of education. Her passing in early 2016 left a significant gap in many lives and an important legacy in the adult education literature. This article provides an account of Patricia Cranton's influential contributions to the field of Education from the perspective of an international colleague and friend. It reveals aspects of mentoring and contributions to lifelong and lifewide learning. The article brings to the fore the wisdom she imparted through her publications in addition to noting some of the awards of highest order Patricia Cranton received during her life time.