I am not sure I am responding in the appropriate form, so I am open to advice on how to use good form in responding on a listserv.
I am an ABE/GED instructor at Bellingham Technical College in Bellingham, WA. I am so grateful for your response, Steve, as it allows me to respond and go deeper into some thinking I have been doing on this topic recently myself. 
I have just finished attending the WRRCEA (Western Region Research Conference on the Education of Adults) in Bellingham, WA. I am once again reminded of the significance of adult education being rooted in social justice. I attended a session on the history of the Highlander Folk School where civil rights had its roots and now continues to do education using such current issues as globalization. I related to presenters at the conference how I have been thwarted in my teaching efforts over the years by such well meaning tutors as those who were upset about my using climate change in my class readings and those who threatened me over discussing the controversies of the onset of the Iraq war. The presenters expressed shock at why those well meaning folks were involved in adult education at all. It felt good to be reminded that adult education, by many, is seen as deeply rooted in social justice, in questioning the status quo and in using education not just to find a job but to make the world a better place.
The Carnegie Report on Education was mentioned by presenters and attendees alike. This report cites 5 principles that will help college students be successful in their studies and in life in general. They are: structure, challenge, intentionality, intensity and inquiry. In regards to the issues of social justice in education, I think the principle of challenge goes a long way in justifying using social justice in education. Challenge means giving students and instructors something they can sink their teeth into, something that has no easy black and white answers, something to chew on. Freire made popular the notion of teaching literacy skills by having students learn to read from the telling/writing of their own stories. And the stories of adults in ABE and ESL classes are ripe with social justice issues. This was such a threat to those in power that Freire was arrested and had to seek asylum outside of Brazil for a number of years. It is, even to this day and in the good old US of A that my tutor and others in my program were so upset with me for using current social justice issues to teach reading, writing and math. But the students loved it! Their own stories that developed as a result, went far and wide in the implications for this kind of study. It was reality for them and there had never been a place for them in the school system before.
I am inspired to read more validation for this as I read in this issue of the Catholic Worker commemorating the 20th  anniversary of the massacre at the Jesuit University in El Salvador, Universidad Centroamericana (UCA). This massacre was carried out by a US-trained commando unit that entered the university campus on November 16, 1989 and brutally murdered six Jesuits and 2 women who happened to be nearby. The following is a quote from the article in this issue of the Catholic Worker entitled November 1989 Remembered: “The Jesuits and their colleagues concluded that they could not limit their mission to teaching and innocuous research. So they steeply scaled tuition according to students' family income. More important, they sought countless ways to unmask the lies that justified the pervasive injustice and the continuing violence, and they made constructive proposals for a just peace and a more humane social order. As a university of Christian inspiration, they felt still more obligated to serve the truth in this way. That is what got them killed. For readers of a different time and place, we can translate the high standards the UCA set for itself as follows. First, the chief subject of study had to be reality itself. The “literature” of various fields is a means to understanding reality, above all the core issues of life-and -death, justice, grace vs. sin. Second, the university had to practically engage the suffering world it sought to understand, to serve and help transform. Third, it should take a principled stand on the crucial moral issues of the day—not just abortion, we might say today, but also war, lying in public and torture. To search for knowledge without this kind of commitment would not only unduly limit the university's mission; it would reflect a failure to appreciate how bad things were, not only in places like Central America, but in places like the US, as well. It would mean failing to overcome the distorted standard discourse which we take for common sense. It would mark a failure to address the prejudices and blind spots produced by our socialization into the middle-class society to which most of us university people belong. And this means it amount to a lack of academic rigor.”
Thank you for considering this!



-----Original Message-----
From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Steve Kaufmann
Sent: Tue 10/27/2009 9:23 AM
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [PD 4072] Re: Swinging the Sword of Literacy in Iraq
 
If the issue is literacy, it does not matter what the information is.
Learners should be encouraged to read and listen to the information that
they like, whether the Bible, Karl Marx or the sports page. It is not for
the literacy teacher to worry about the ideological orientation of the
learner, in my view.

Steve Kaufmann
604-922-8551
 <http://www.lingq.com/?referral=steve>
<http://www.lingq.com/?referral=steve>


--- @ WiseStamp Signature <http://www.wisestamp.com/email-install>. Get it
now <http://www.wisestamp.com/email-install>


On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 8:02 AM, Cynthia Peters
<cynthia_peters at worlded.org>wrote:


> It would be interesting to talk with teachers about how they address

> objectivity in the classroom. How do they come up with objective

> sources? Perhaps another way of looking at it is to remain skeptical of

> all sources and to look at many sources and to ask questions about where

> the sources comes from, what interests they might represent, and what

> outcomes they might be invested in, etc.

>

> For example, what constitutes "solid information"?

>

> Cynthia

> --

>

> Cynthia Peters

> Change Agent Editor

> World Education

> 44 Farnsworth Street

> Boston, MA  02210

>

> tel: 617-482-9485 ext. 3649

> fax: 617-482-0617

> email: cpeters at worlded.org

>

> Check out The Change Agent online at:

> www.nelrc.org/changeagent

>

>

> >>> On 10/26/2009 at 3:20 PM, in message

> <d0ed1c87b10017dc676f2abfe92dc2ea at ciesc.k12.in.us>, Bhofmeyer

> <bhofmeyer at ciesc.k12.in.us> wrote:

> > Cynthia,

> > You are correct to encourage critical thinking and evaluation skills

> in our

> > instruction of adult learners and in PD for instructors. Such skills

> will

> > benefit our learners in life and work. However, I believe that a

> critical

> > part of that instruction includes teaching them to consider all sides

> of an

> > issue and then to make up their own minds after having weighed the

> > information. To do so, we must be sure to offer - or provide

> resources for

> > them to discover -  solid information without prejudicing the

> information.

> > That may mean they reach conclusions contrary to our own. However, if

> we do

> > not approach topics with a good measure of objectivity we risk

> sacrificing

> > the very lesson we strive to teach.

> >

> > Barbara Hofmeyer

> > Professional  Development Consultant

> > Indiana Adult Education

> > Professional Development Project

> > bhofmeyer at ciesc.k12.in.us

> > 260-572-6296

> > FAX: 260-927-8720

> >

> >

> >

> > -----Original message-----

> > From: "Cynthia Peters" cynthia_peters at worlded.org

> > Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:11:04 -0400

> > To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov

> > Subject: [PD 4065] Re: Swinging the Sword of Literacy in Iraq

> >

> >> Tom's article reminds me of some key aspects of literacy, including

> the

> >> importance of understanding the context of events, of examining who

> is

> >> saying what and why, and of being able to think clearly about

> events

> >> despite the way that certain kinds of "talk" can obscure reality.

> >>

> >> Professional Development for adult ed. teachers should include a lot

> of

> >> support to teachers to figure out ways to help students not just

> learn

> >> to read but to penetrate people's words in context. Those of us who

> are

> >> teachers and who are already literate need to be supported to keep

> >> reminding ourselves about harsh realities because it's tempting to

> >> ignore them, especially since (as U.S. citizens) we have a large

> >> responsibility.

> >>

> >> For example, in reference to Tom's article below, if we are

> concerned

> >> about literacy in Iraq, perhaps one of the most important

> contributions

> >> U.S. citizens can make would be to examine our government's role

> there

> >> over the past several decades, which includes numerous illegal and

> >> immoral (not to mention useless and counterproductive) bombings,

> >> invasions, occupations, economic boycotts (which do not literally

> drop

> >> bombs on people but nonetheless cause 100s of thousands to die),

> etc.

> >>

> >> Another example: A close reading of the text reveals the Orwellian

> >> doublespeak of Army Spc. Tiffany Evans talking about how "...war

> and

> >> economic hardships have caused the education system to suffer

> >> significantly in the last two decades" -- as if the *source* of war

> and

> >> economic hardship were not directly linked to her, indeed, to all of

> us,

> >> as citizens of the country which launched an illegal pre-emptive

> war,

> >> and which before that had driven the country into the ground

> through

> >> absolutely vicious economic sanctions.

> >>

> >> I know there are many great professional development people out

> there

> >> who are supporting teachers (and by extension, students) to look

> deeply

> >> into texts and to provide pathways for all of us to use what we

> >> understand to be happening in the world as a check on what we read.

> I

> >> think we cannot underestimate the importance of that work!

> >>

> >> Cynthia

> >>

> >> --

> >>

> >>

> > ----------------------------------------------------

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>

> >

>

> http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Developme

>

> > nt

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-- 
Steve Kaufmann
www.lingq.com
604-922-8514

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