[NLA] participation and resistance

Tue Aug 6 12:40:29 EDT 2002

Art and others,
Art said, "Whether we realize it or not, we emulate the education 
'processes' we received, and we attempt to utilize them on our students in 
like style, that's why I see K12 as self-perpetuating."

I agree and I disagree. Some of the education processes we absorb 
unconsciously, and they seep into our practice without our even knowing. 
<But,> I don't think this is total or inevitable. Through exploration and 
experience of very different practices (what Mezirow calls disconfirming 
experiences), through dialogue and sometimes confrontation with people with 
different perspectives, and through honest reflection on our own biases and 
assumptions and the origins and reasons for them, I think it is possible to 
construct "better" ways of teaching and learning--mindful practice. If we 
are doomed to re-create our own experiences, what's the point of learning or 
education? But, I also think that those of us who are most likely to 
reproduce the K-12 system without questioning it are not likely to initiate 
reflection and transformation without some trigger. That's one reason it's 
so important to have the experiences of those who have not been well-served 
by K-12 represented, and why we all lose out when research and policy are 
dominated by people who have been too long out of contact with the 
population served by the adult and family literacy system. Not that it's the 
job of those who haven't been well-served by K-12 to trigger everyone else's 
learning, but realistically, they are the ones most likely--through their 
sense of betrayal by "the system"--to not just let it slide. I think our 
notions of "safe" learning environments for students, and of "safe" working 
environments for teachers and administrators, are still too simplistic. 
Safety can protect us from change, even when learners (and "resisters") need 
us to change.

Responses to your other points later. About the participants in Ziegahn's 
and Quigley's research. From Ziegahn (1992): "Several layers of 'snowball' 
sampling (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982; Patton, 1990) occurred concurrently: 
community informats suggested either adults with low literacy skills who 
might be willing to talk with me or other informed community members who 
might have knowledge of such respondents. As the study progressed, 
low-literate respondents themselves suggested friends and relatives who also 
had difficulty with reading and writing as potential respondents"(p. 36). I 
think the other article is based on the same sample, but I can't tell for 
sure.

>From Quigley (1992): "ABE participants were asked to approach undereducated 
adults whom they knew refused to attend such programs and ask them to either 
call the interviewers or to gain the resisters' consent for the interviewers 
to contact them. Twenty such resisters voluntarily came forward to tell 
their stories" (p. 108).

>From the abstract of Quigely (1990): "Nonparticipation in literacy/ABE is a 
critical issue that can be illuminated by reproduction and resistance 
theory, This study attempts to do this by first analyzing the resistance to 
schooling of characters in ten works of literary fiction, then applying 
these findings to traditional literacy/ABE programs to determine if these 
'second chance' programs discourage the participation of some adults" 
(p.103).

I have mixed feelings about using fiction to theorize about real people, but 
hey, I'm just reporting the studies here--you decide whether they're worth 
anything.
Eileen

>From: Art LaChance <arthur at ellijay.com>
>Reply-To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
>To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
>Subject: Re: [NLA] participation and resistance
>Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2002 22:41:29 -0400
>
>Thank you Eileen,
>
>I think you hit it directly on the head with your interpretation of my 
>post.
>
>But more than that, we in adult lit are at a loss in
>terms of how do we deal with the potential student's philosophy that we, as 
>part
>of an 'educational' opportunity for them, will force 'values' that they 
>haven't
>'chosen'.  Which leads us directly to the next question: Where is the 
>societal
>'demand' that tells us that 'education' is important to survival in our 
>world?
>What happened to it?  I remember those days and it wasn't that long ago.
>
>Debbie stated quite clearly her program's primary concern, that of the
>realization of human potential via understanding the language of the
>environment, it's ours also.  For some reason this issue wasn't addressed 
>or
>solved in k12 ?  OK, for a few it was and still is, but we appear to be 
>leaving
>more and more behind.
>
>I respect Quigley, Ziegahn, and others who have approached this issue, but 
>their
>work was over ten years ago and this has gotten much worse over time.  Even
>though their assumptions appear on track, I wonder also where the data came
>from.  Was it from students who entered the various centers seeking 
>information,
>or was it from those who were recent dropouts and totally uninterested in
>education?  After time we tend to glaze over the real reasons we do 
>something,
>especially if possible answers to specific questions are made conveniently
>available, like a multiple-choice-answer based survey ??
>
>
>Art
>
>
>Art LaChance
>Gilmer Learning Center
>Ellijay, GA
>
>
>
>Eileen Eckert wrote:
>
> > This is in response to Art's comments from last week. Art LaChance asked 
>why
> > we insist on doing research on the 10% of adults who participate in 
>literacy
> > programs, while ignoring the 90% who don't. He said we need to look at 
>the
> > reasons kids are dropping out of high school and how adult literacy
> > practices that mirror K-12 perpetuate the problem of low literacy. I'm
> > paraphrasing here, and if I've gotten it wrong, Art, let me know.
> >
> > First, I went back through my files and found research articles from the
> > early 90s that do deal with nonparticipants. Here are some references:
> >
> > Quigley, B.A. (1990) Hidden logic: Reproduction and resistance in adult
> > literacy and adult basic education. Adult Education Quarterly, 40(2),
> > 103-115.
> >
> > Quigley, A. (1992) Looking back in anger: The influences of schooling on
> > illiterate adults. Journal of Education, 174(1), 104-121.
> >
> > Ziegahn, L. (1991) Beyond reciprocity: Exchange around literacy. Adult 
>Basic
> > Education, 1(2), 79-97.
> >
> > Ziegahn, L. (1992) Learning, literacy, and participation: Sorting out
> > priorities. Adult Education Quarterly, 43(1), 30-50.
> >
> > Looking back over the articles, I found that some nonparticipants view
> > learning, literacy, and schooling as distinct from each other. They are
> > learners, but they resist the imposition of values that they haven't 
>chosen
> > for themselves. Quigely (1992) asked adults why they did not participate 
>in
> > ABE or literacy programs, and he reported that, "Subjects were 
>experiencing
> > very real situational barriers, as mentioned, but the primary reasons 
>given
> > were based mainly on an unswerving belief that ABE or literacy would be 
>no
> > different and no better than school" (p. 108). He also wrote, "It is
> > significant that these subjects did not see the terms 
>'school,''education,'
> > and 'learning' as interchangeable, as is so often the case in the 
>literature
> > on adult literacy. Each term had a distinct meaning, with 'school' at 
>the
> > negative end of the spectrum and 'education' at the positive end" 
>(p.109).
> >
> > The research listed and quoted above can provide some insight to guide
> > conversations with the people who come to literacy programs, and with 
>those
> > we encounter who refuse to come.
> >
> > It seems to me that our accountability system maintains the power and
> > responsibility in the hands of programs and teachers (though it
> > simultaneously takes away much of their power, but this is already too 
>long
> > to get into that!). Learners are left only the choice of acquiescence or
> > resistance. However, Debbie Yoho wrote that her program's concern is
> > "nothing less than the realization of human potential, through the
> > incredible richness of the written word." This concern puts both tutor 
>and
> > students in positions to learn together through reading and dialogue. 
>How
> > different this is from the one-way relationships fostered by a 
>traditional
> > teacher/school-as-transmitter-of-knowledge "mental model."
> >
> > To others on the list: What is the mental model you use in practice? 
>What
> > seems to be the mental model(s) behind the "system"? How do these 
>interact,
> > and what is the impact on those who seek or resist participation? Can 
>policy
> > changes alone make a difference? If not, what else needs to happen?
> >
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