[AAACE-NLA] Adult Literacy at the US Social Forum

Thu Jun 21 18:31:26 EDT 2007

Hey all,

Regarding Adult Education at the USSF, here is some information you
certainly find useful:

"We started talking about planning an informal gathering/encuentro at the
U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta because:

           -we struggle with similar questions about how to
teach/facilitate adult literacy in a way that is consistent with and
contributes to our vision of social justice;

           -we don't often get a chance to connect and learn from each
other, and we know there are other like-minded teacher/facilitators out
there who we don't know;

           -we want to connect with and learn from other adult literacy
teachers/facilitators specifically in the context of a larger movement for
social justice.

Who we are:

Ujju Aggarwal and Priscilla González, adult English literacy workshop
facilitators at the Center for Immigrant Families, a collectively-run
organization of low-income immigrant women of color and community members in
Manhattan Valley (Uptown NYC).

Sarah Eisenstein, Adult Basic Education (Pre-GED) teacher at LaGuardia
Community College Adult Learning Center.

Ways we hope you'll be involved:

           1)Participate in the Adult Literacy Meeting / Encuentro at the
U.S. Social Forum (http://www.ussf2007.org/ ) for info & logistics about the
Social Forum).  It will be an informal gathering, so please email us at
sarah.eisenstein at gmail.com if you want to come so we can make sure to get
you the exact time and place.

2)Join a conference call on Tuesday, June 5th at 2pm Eastern Standard Time
to help plan the Meeting/Encuentro;If you are planning to be on the
conference call, please join the listserve (see #3)

Conference call info:

Dial in number:

1-641-297-5500

Access code:

53722

3)Join the Adult Literacy Meeting/Encuentro listserv to let us know who you
are and why you are interested in participating in the encuentro and/or
listserv.  You can join the listserve by sending an email to
adultliteracy-subscribe at lists.riseup.net.

4)Forward the info on to other like-minded adult literacy folks.

We have a vision of adult literacy work that is collective, transformative,
and part of a broader movement for social justice.  We've struggled with the
following issues and would like to reflect with other literacy
practitioners:

Ø      How can we balance our vision of adult literacy work with the
immediate and individual needs of students/participants for results, such as
GED and citizenship as well as participants' expectations of language
learning that are often based on more traditional forms of
assessment/learning and concrete needs?

Ø      How do we approach issues of adult literacy learning from a
foundation that recognizes the context of oppression and injustice, which
shapes the very nature of adult literacy learning in the U.S.?

Ø      How do we create a model that addresses privilege and power - such as
race, class, gender - both thematically as a class and in our specific roles
as participants/literacy promoters/teachers in a way that builds a
transformative learning community of which we are all a part - and in a way
that does not further perpetuate power dynamics?

Ø      How do we clearly identify what will be "taught", based on skills
that we bring as adult literacy promoters/teachers and what will be
collectively learned and explored together through a popular education
approach?  How do we intentionally and methodologically promote the skills
that participants themselves can share in the process of learning?

The above questions are not exhaustive.  We invite others to add to this
list."

On 6/21/07, Kathleen de la Peña McCook <kmccook at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>
>
> I am going to the US Social Forum in Atlanta. There are some fine
> programs on adult literacy in the program. Anyone going?
>
> Here is the website:
> https://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/353
>
> Example:
>
> The Grassroots Literacy Coalition and its sister organization
> Students of Adult Literacy United are dedicated to leadership
> development, advocacy and organizing in the fight for literacy in New
> York City. For the past three years we have worked to support
> independent adult student organizing to end illiteracy and to demand
> dramatically expanded programs to serve the communities of poor and
> working people in NYC.
>
>
> ========
> Kathleen de la Peña McCook
> "An Injury to One is an Injury to All"
> http://www.cas.usf.edu/lis/mccook/
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>

-- 
Alicia Pantoja
Education Director
English for Action
P.O. Box 29405
Providence, RI  02909
401.421.3181
www.englishforaction.org

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless
means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral." -Paulo Freire, Pedagogy
of Freedom

"laughable laughter is cataclysmic"
"there are two kinds of laughter, and we lack the words to distinguish them"
"circle dancing is magic"
"a man [woman!] posessed by peace never stops laughing"

-kundera, the book of laughter and
                    forgetting.
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