Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f4FGxjf10517; Tue, 15 May 2001 12:59:45 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 12:59:45 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <39.14bda0ca.2832b91e@aol.com> Errors-To: alcrsb@langate.gsu.edu Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AndresMuro@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:1446] My obscure posting yesterday and response to Mev X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Status: O Content-Length: 5595 Lines: 85 Mev: thanks for your response. The message that I posted was in reaction to the article that I saw in Focus on Basics, which I found very reactionary. Because of my frustration with it, I responded fairly quickly and did not stop to explain certain things. I don't know if the authors meant it to be reactionary, but the implications are, in my opinion, very bad. I will attempt to respond to your last questions while making my concerns about Reader and Strawn's article more explicit. My biggest reaction to the article is that it comes from a well respected literacist (reder), and it comes in a publication that is supposed to represent the latest in literacy instruction in the US (Focus on Basics) Regarding your questions, our students resist different things differently for different reasons. We try to build instruction about student centered topics, and this is the first thing that they resist. This is because they expect to participate in a very traditional instructional environment. However, if we keep on providing a traditional instructional environment, they get frustrated, bored, and they drop out. The issue for us is to balance the need for traditional pedagogies that students expect, as a result of the forces that shape "habitus", and the need for transformative pedagogies that lead to praxis. We experience resistance, both from students and teachers to everything, at t one point or another. The need for teachers who are always thinking about their students, and how to implement pedagogies that deal with their subjectivites is central to out instruction. By eliminating resistance from the equation, we are saying that students do not have different subjectivities and ,may respond different to curricula. Therefore, prescribed instructional materials can be used with this students. Andres >>> mev@winternet.com 05/15/01 07:11AM >>> Andres I know your message was intended as a stand alone conversation not connected to my questions but it was very interesting to me because it relates to the "hidden agenda" behind my questions and my research. I would like to use what you wrote about in a concrete way. As I talk with women learners in some of the contexts I've been in, it's fairly clear that among the ABE settings, few teachers have asked women what they WANT to read. Mostly, they read what is assigned by the teacher or by what information is on the test (GED). It seems this, too, mirrors what happens in K12 education esp. now that testing is so strongly emphasized. And this, of course, corresponds to educational and political powers that have a direct stake in making learners "responsible citizens" by getting them into the workforce, off welfare, or whatever but that doesn't necessarily foster leadership, democratic action or a critical thinking, or personal/political empowerment. When I bring easier-to-read books on women's issues into the room (suggestions that I've collected from talking to literacy workers) and show them to the women, sometimes it feels like I've dropped a bag of candy on the table! They become very interested in and engaged with them. I've "lost" a few books from the pile after some conversations. And it generates their listing of topics they would like to have additional access to. It seems like fundamental positions on participatory learning to me, that is, is it true that adults learn better when they see direct connections between their own lives and what they're "learning?" It seems that "dispositional barriers" correspond to theories of resistance -- "I won't learn" becomes a way (conscious or not) of resisting what they perceive as enlistment into their continued subjugated place in the status quo. So my interest in women-centered literacy materials does have strong political implications. From my years in bookselling, I know so many women who have been affected - emotionally, politically, and/or radically - by finding books that reflect their experiences. As some of you may know, I work in a feminist women's bookstore. Everyday I talk to women (and some men) who talk about how the materials in our store (books and magazines mostly) have helped them make sense of their lives. They come for the comfort of the space. Women have described being able to "breath better" in an atmosphere that clearly values women's work, feeling, thought, ideas. The sensation of "I'm not the only one" has profound meaning. This is an emerging theme as I talk with women learners too about their reading preferences. What would happen for women learners if they could find at their levels of reading more materials that addressed the everyday life experiences they're having? Would it have an impact on their "dispositions"? One of the things women learners say they like to read are true stories (even in fictional form) about day-to-day women like them. Would access to more materials like this act as mirrors and windows to give voice and encouragement of finding ways to understand their subordination as not merely a matter of their attitude but integrally related to social political structures as they exist? What are your experiences with women learners in terms of using women-centered materials? Does it affect their learning? What have you used that you found particularly effective in engaging women in their learning? Will having access to more basic reading level materials that touch on women's issues and concerns make a difference in women's engagement with reading and learning? Mev Mev Miller mev@winternet.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 18 2002 - 11:32:14 EST