Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h3HHulU11645; Thu, 17 Apr 2003 13:56:47 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 13:56:47 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3EA91B13@webmail.utk.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: jataylor <jataylor@utk.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:219] Response to welfare reform and online discussion X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: WebMail (Hydra) SMTP v3.61.08 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Status: O Content-Length: 4477 Lines: 66 (Debby asked I forward this to the list...Thanks, Jackie) I want take this time to respond to a question posed by the list on welfare reform, in relation to the topical discussion of articles in the latest issue of FOB. Before doing so, I want to thank the respondents to the list for a stimulating discussion of what happens in the classroom around deeply entrenched beliefs about race, class, gender and sexual orientation. I have not jumped into the conversation because it seemed it was in the hands of those who know best about what happens in classrooms--practitioners who work in them. While I have been working in the field for almost 15 years, my work has involved research, administration and policy, and I always bow to the daily experience of teachers and learners in such discussions. However, I think that research contributes a kind of overview that can be missing in the particulars of any one classroom, and can also provide the summary data and arguments it takes to challenge policies. I also want to say that the notion of "isms" is not one I am comfortable with---I see all these issues as distinct but interconnected and feel that this terms somewhat equalizes and trivializes serious forms of social inequality that have real material and deep ideological consequences and historical roots. My article in FOB is a tiny snippet, just the beginning really, of a much longer literature review on the impact of race, class, gender and sexual orientation on adult education as a field. I hope that those interested will take the time to read the longer article. On the topic of adult education and its role in welfare to work initiatives, I also did a literature review, in 1997 for the National Institute for Literacy as a Literacy Leader Fellow. I discussed the political and practical implications of that review in the context of welfare reform in NCSALL Report # 10 "The Impact of Welfare Reform on Adult Literacy Education: Conference Papers and Themes from Small Group Sessions." Combining that work with what I learned doing this last review article for the Annual Review of Adult Learning and Literacy (forthcoming this spring), I would say that the single lesson is that practitioners who want to challenge and transform inequality, in their students' lives as well as in society, need to offer both the tricks and background knowledge of their own journey through education and employment and a critical understanding of how and why it is different for their students. They need to teach in a way that helps learners to not only succeed in the current system, but also to question it and to understand how that questioning repositions them politically. That all sounds like jargon, but I give examples of practitioners who do this every day in the articles referred to above. The YES! program described how it does this as well. In welfare to work programs, this can be difficult, but reading and writing around the theme of work, interviewing workers in learners' families and communities, bringing in articles or inviting speakers to class who can address workers' rights, discussing the erosion of union benefits and its impact on working families (www.workingforamerica.org), the website of the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute has short, timely pieces about work and the economy and if you get on their email list they will send these to you), and openly acknowledging the obstacles to work and to fair treatment at work that result from discrimination based on gender, race, class and sexual orientation can equip workers to understand what they are facing and to think, talk and write about it. To do these things, teachers have to challenge the myth that workers do not have jobs only because they have low literacy, don't speak English, don't have a degree or are wearing the wrong clothes. At the same time, learners need to understand the role that the these characteristics do play in the labor market, and to work on what is in their control as individuals. Teachers can offer their own cultural knowledge on how to do that. To go into specific strategies for doing these things would make this long response longer, but I suggest that practitioners explore issues of Change Agent 8 and 9, available on line, as a start. For more references, see the bibliographies of the longer articles mentioned above. Thank you for inviting me to participate. DD
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