[AAACE-NLA] Re: Journals and magazines

[tsticht at znet.com]

Andrea: There are many online resources that you can consult to keep up with
what is going on in adult literacy education. In the U.S. you can look at
Proliteracy Worldwide's web site (www.proliteracy.org), the National
Institute for Literacy web site (www.nifl.gov) with its many Discussion
Lists and lincs to different regions of the nation, and the U.S. Department
of Education (www.ed.gov), Office of Adult and Vocational Education
(OVAE)Office of Adult Education and Literacy. Of course, the National
Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL)
(www.ncsall.net) also contains lots of information in research reports and
the journal Focus on Basics.

In Canada the National Adult Literacy Database web site (www.nald.ca) is the
premier online site for information on what is going on across Canada. The
New Zealand Literacy Portal maintained by Workbase (www.workbase.org.nz) 
provides access to hundreds of reports from various nations regarding
aspects of adult language, literacy, and numeracy education. Similarly, the
UNESCO literacy portal gives lincs to many reports about adult literacy
education (www.unesco.org). In the UK the National Institute for Adult
Continuing Education (www.niace.org.uk) and the National Research and
Development Center for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (www.nrdc.org.uk).

The International Reading Association (www.reading.org) publishes the
journal Adolescent and Adult Literacy.

A problem I have found with all this is that there is an overwhelming number
of reports, articles, newsletters, etc and trying to keep up with it all is
impossible for me, and I suspect this is true for most others in the adult
literacy field, too.

To help myself and others I developed a workshop called Adult Literacy
Education in Industrialized Nations that covers a whole lot of the current
activities in research, practice, and policy in several nations (see
below). I recently (Oct. 22) completed giving the one day workshop back
east close to your area. It was in Vermont at the beautiful Equinox hotel
and resort in Manchester Village. The foliage was magnificent. As a
consequence of that workshop I have received an invite to speak next March
in Connecticut. This way I can learn what is going on in different places
and provide a summary of the most recent important activities going on in
adult literacy education for those folks who cannot spend a lot of time
surfing the web, downloading, and synthesizing lots of the thousands of
reports out in cyperspace!

I hope this is helpful for you in your quest to keep up with what is going
on in adult literacy education.

Tom Sticht

Adult Literacy Education in Industrialized Nations
A Workshop with Tom Sticht

This one day, six hour, information-packed workshop typically runs from
around 9am to 3:30pm with breaks in the morning and afternoon and a half
hour lunch period. The presentation is extensively illustrated with photos
and graphics. It is divided into four Parts:

Part 1: Issues relating to the scale of need and participation in adult
provision. International comparisons of adult literacy. How many adults do
governments say need language, literacy, and numeracy (LLN) education?  How
many adults think they need LLN education?  Why the differences between
government and adult's perception of LLN skills? How many adults actually
engage in LLN? Why don't more adults with poor LLN seek education? What is
being done to increase participation in LLN provision, especially by the
hardest-to-reach adults?

Part 2 	 Major Program Thrust #1: Integrated, Embedded, Contextualized LLN
Provision to Increase Participation, Retention, and Progression.  A review
of professional wisdom, scientific research, and case studies in Australia,
Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States for
teaching LLN within the functional contexts of adult learner's  work,
social, family, and political lives.

Part 3 	Understanding Systems of LLN Provision: Australia, Canada, Ireland,
New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States. Case Study on increasing
participation in the United Kingdom (England): From the Right to Read To The
Skills for Life Strategy: A Personal Perspective. Policies and initiatives 
to improve participation, retention, persistence, progression, and
achievement. Improving accountability by emphasizing multiple returns to
investments in LLN provision: getting "Double Duty Dollars" and  "More
Power for the Pound".

Part 4 	Major Program Thrust #2: Preventing literacy problems in the next
generation. Promoting the intergenerational transfer of  literacy from
parents to their progeny. IQ, brain science, and adult literacy:  debunking
myths that hold adult literacy education back. Understanding the role of
parent's education, language and literacy  development on the subsequent
language and literacy development of their children. Moving from a lifelong
 (one life cycle) to a multiple life cycles policy for education and
learning of adults and children.