[NLA] Philosophical Naivete--Evidence and the Personal

[Andres Muro]

Andrea, I think not. Our field is broad and complex and, while we may be able to give politicians an intro course about our field, we won't be able to teach many of the complex issues that shape our field and our work. Our field is like any other field. We can tell politicians about literacy just as much as an engineer can tell politicians about engineering and doctors can tell them about medicine, an so on. Furthermore, it is not our task to teach politician about our field, nor is the task of doctors to teach them about medicine. For that, they need to go to school. When politicians need to make decisions about engineering, or medicine, or law, they surround themselves with experts in those fields, I presume. The same should be true of literacy. 

Moreover, I do not think that our task is to teach adults how to write or read better. It is more complex and dynamic than that. It is about creating spaces so that adults can use language to fully participate in all aspects of life in various contexts. 

Let me try to illustrate with an example that I use in my health and literacy workshops. 

Suppose that you are teaching a GED class and your goal is to get your students to pass. However, you may have some students who may have propensity for diabetes or, undiagnosed diabetes, and they may not know how to access treatment. If you only focus on GED you may get them to pass, however, that may be irrelevant in the log run, since they may die, go blind, or loose a leg. What do you do?

The example above applies to Hispanics since their propensity for diabetes is very high. However, if you are serving Asians, or pacific islanders in your classes, diabetes may not be the illness of choice to address. Therefore, cultural context begins to shape the way you may construct the class.

Moreover, since you mentioned Jenny Horseman, lets introduce another variable, domestic trauma. You know that some of your students may be victims of domestic trauma. How do you address this?  

I can continue to introduce variables tied to age, gender, ethnicity, geographical location, immigration status and so on and so for, that shape the nature of our everyday work. However, how do we measure success in our field?

De we account for the fact that your students acknowledged their propensity for diabetes and changed their eating habits, or are getting treatment. Do we acknowledge that they may have chosen to move to the shelter for battered women to escape an abusive situation? Moreover, are these students capable of making use of language to address a significant issue in their lives? Does this translate into passing the GED? If they started to get treatment for a disease but did not complete the class, is this a success or a failure?

Let me give you one example. Several years ago we had a class and we invited the shelter for battered women to present. Two years latter a student returned to the program who had dropped out years before. She informed her teacher that she was a victim of domestic abuse and that she had moved to the shelter as a result of the presentation that we had. She had gotten her life in order and she was returning to school to continue with her studies.

Is this a success story? Should literacy programs encourage this type of work? How do we document this? Most traditional programs do not have assessment systems to document this. Can you think of some kind of a system that can document changes in quality of life when they manifest themselves? What about if they do not manifest themselves? Is the role of literacy to explore issues of social justice with our students, since many are victims of social injustice? 

I can go on with endless numbers of examples. I think that to try to decide what is the best way to do literacy is kind of like trying to decide the best way to build buildings, or the best way to cure illness. There are no simple answers to these questions. 

Andres










>>> Awilderast at aol.com 04/06/02 07:21AM >>>
I think we should be able to teach politicians about our field, specifically 
about techniques that are useful in teaching adults to read and write better. 
 We say we're teachers, right?

Andrea
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