NLA Discussion: What does Freire have to do with DC?

[Heide Wrigley]

I believe the reports that Debby D'Amico has written and the projects
she has been involved in deserve recognition and wider distribution.
Debby, can you let folks know how they can get  a hold of your papers?
And, for the benefit of the  newcomers who join the list every week,
perhaps David Rosen can post a quick reminder of how to catch up with Ed
Schwartz's work ?

Heide Spruck Wrigley
San Mateo 


> -----Original Message-----
> From:	DEBBYDAM at aol.com [SMTP:DEBBYDAM at aol.com]
> Sent:	Monday, September 21, 1998 2:10 PM
> To:	nla at world.std.com
> Subject:	NLA Discussion: What does Freire have to do with DC?
> 
> 
> Andres' example of Beth Sauerhaft's work on breast cancer and, I might
> add, her research partner in Massachusetts, Marcia Drew Hohn's work
> with
> action research teams of adult learners working on community health
> issues
> are well taken.  The fact that these projects were funded by the
> National
> Institute for Literacy under their Fellowship program shows that there
> is
> still room for such approaches within the framework of public funding.
> In
> my own fellowship report, I cite the example of the Community Women's
> Education Project in Philadelphia as an example of an adult education
> program that lives its politics despite the framework of welfare
> reform.
> I also discuss the politics of working within the constraints of
> funding
> and the current political context in my paper for Rutgers conference
> on
> welfare reform.  
> 
> As teachers who traveled to Brazil to meet with Freireian
> practitioners
> have discovered, one critical difference with putting that philosophy
> into
> practice here is the absence of mass political movements and
> consciousness. In Brazil and many other national contexts, such
> educational praxis grows out of an already existing movement.  I
> believe
> that is why our approaches in the US, like our national politics, so
> often stop at the boundary of the individual and individual
> empowerment.    
> A possible sign of hope is the work of Ed Schwartz, not a literacy
> practitioner but a housing activist, and the coalition of groups
> working
> to address aspects of welfare reform in Philadelphia.  The coalition
> includes literacy advocates and the importance of adult education is a
> central aspect of their demands. 
> 
> DEBBYDAM at aol.com
>