[NLA] What is advocacy, who are policy-makers?

Thu Aug 15 09:56:00 EDT 2002

"I look at adult literacy public policy advocacy as community organizing
which leads to positive social change for adult learners/new
readers/students and for the adult literacy/basic/secondary education and
ESOL field."

David,
Thank you for rooting your definition of advocacy in community organizing!
Too often, "professional" public policy advocates think that working with
policymakers is our primary task.  It is my experience that we are most
effective when we keep our community organizing hats on and focus on
mobilizing, educating and building strong constituent leadership who cannot
be ignored by policymakers.
Margery Freeman
----- Original Message -----
From: "David J. Rosen" <DJRosen at theworld.com>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: [NLA] What is advocacy, who are policy-makers?


> Debbie, and others,
>
> I look at adult literacy public policy advocacy as community organizing
> which leads to positive social change for adult learners/new
> readers/students and for the adult literacy/basic/secondary education
> and ESOL field.  (Sorry about all the qualifiers but we don't have the
> words we need in our field to make it clear who is included.)
>
> _Community_ could mean a local neighborhood, city, or town, or it could
> mean a community of learners, practitioners, and other advocates at a
> state or national level.
>
> This kind of advocacy might result in guaranteed services for adults,
> without long waits.  It might result in the improvement of education
> quality (for examples: higher intensity of instruction, preparation or
> training of teachers, lower teacher turnover, regular access to high
> quality counseling services, child care for children of students while
> they are in class, assessment for learning disabilities, etc.) These
> changes would, in most cases, require advocacy to legislators,
> governors, mayors, city councils, and other policy makers for more money.
>
>
> Adult literacy public policy advocacy might also result in a change of a
> law, for example, as in California a few years ago when a law which
> allowed businesses to fire adult workers who couldn't read or write well
> (instead of providing them with opportunities to improve their literacy
> skills) was changed by adult learner and practitioner advocates.
> Advocacy might include suits against state agencies which do not assess
> clients for learning disabilities, such as the Office of Civil Rights
> action against the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance.
>
> I wouldn't call this "lobbying."  That term suggests to me paid
> consultants who buttonhole legislators in the capitol or state house to
> advocate for a cause.  Perhaps that is sometimes part of advocacy, but
> in a marginalized field like ours it is a relatively small part.
>
> Discussion is sometimes very useful in the pursuit of advocacy.  I think
> the discussion which took place on this list about what to do about the
> NIFL Board has been useful and very much within the intended focus of
> this list.  But I don't think advocacy will necessarily result in a
> consensus on any electronic list.  I would be surprised if it did.  It's
> hard enough to get consensus in a room!  But the NLA list is certainly a
> good place to air views about adult literacy public policy issues -- and
> in the airing of views opinions, and what we advocate for -- and how --
> may change.
>
> As you are aware, there are a number of other fine electronic lists
> whose discussion focuses on instructional approaches.  This list has a
> different focus -- on policy.  Should instruction inform policy?
> Certainly.  And if someone wanted to argue against a proposed (or
> actual) policy because it hurt good instruction, or that from an
> instructional point of view a policy does not or cannot work, that
> certainly seems to me to be appropriate for this list.  But if the
> discussion drifts -- as it sometimes does -- to a discussion of
> instructional practice, outside the context of public policy advocacy, I
> discourage that because there are several other good forums for those
> discussions to take place.  And just to be clear, I like those
> discussions.  I participate in them on other lists.
>
>   Some might argue (they have in fact) that the NLA list sometimes
> drifts to theory, research, and philosophy.  Discussions have taken
> place here about whether that is consistent with the purposes of the NLA
> list.  There is no NLA reader consensus on that, but several NLA list
> members have argued passionately that philosophy and research are
> related to public policy advocacy, and there doesn't seem to be another
> list with these as a focus (other than the NIFL-FOB list, of course,
> whose focus is research.)  As the NLA list moderator I have leaned
> toward including these kinds of messages, although I am aware that some
> readers gnash their teeth when they see them.
>
> So, Debbie, as the founder and moderator of the NLA list, I can assure
> you that its focus is adult literacy public policy advocacy. Reaching
> and educating legislators and other policy makers about the needs of
> adult learners and the field, and improving the field, are the mission
> of the list.
>
> I should also say that how I defined this in the beginning has broadened
> a little over the years as a result of periodic evaluations of the list.
>
> David J. Rosen
> NLA List Moderator
>
> Debbie Yoho wrote:
>
> > Sometimes I get the idea on this list that the term "advocacy" is used
as a
> > euphemism for "lobbying", and that "policy-makers" means "politicians."
So
> > I ask sincerely, and I hope without any hint of any kind of unintended
> > "attitude", what is meant by the terms "advocacy", "policy" and
> > "policymakers" for the purposes of our list?  Specifically, does
"advocacy"
> > include discussion that may be part of a search for a concensus among
> > practitioners about why and how we do the things we do?  In short, as we
> > "advocate" for this or that to one another, is this part of the purpose
for
> > the list?  Also, sometimes I wonder if there is an unspoken double
standard
> > when offering comments about instructional approaches and their
application
> > to "policy".    Extensive offerings about sophisticated research reports
> > seems relevant; comments directly from classroom experience may be
received
> > as "drifting" from discussion about "policy" and "advocacy".
> >
> > I post these questions to encourage reflection about the listserv as a
> > communications forum, and frankly, to suggest a need for deeper
awareness
> > of our individual points of reference.
> >
> >
> > Deborah W. Yoho
> > Co-moderator, NIFL-Health  and
> > Executive Director
> > Greater Columbia Literacy Council
> > 2728 Devine Street,  Columbia, SC  29205
> > 803-765-2555   Fax  803-779-8417   dwyoho at earthlink.net
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
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