[NLA] What is literacy?

[Gina Cooke]

Bravo to Daphne for articulating what I now know I'm not the only one to be thinking.

For those of us who have come to adult literacy with some K-12 background, the debate around skills-based versus context-based learning is a familiar one. The research behind the National Reading Panel's recommendations research is not new -- much of it is 10-15 years old, long pre-dating Bush's political career -- and it's not just about phonemic awareness. Getting familiar with Reid Lyon's work was, in my estimation, one of the smarter things this administration has done (though I'm not a fan of the standardized testing aspect that GW has added).

I, too, would like to see the kind of research that the NICHD has done and that the NRP has reviewed -- but in an adult context -- inform the work of NIFL. One thing that the NRP is doing successfully right now is getting that K-12 research out, in the hopes of influencing both policy and practice. It's been much harder for me in my own research to identify and review studies on adult literacy.

Thanks to Daphne too for providing a link explaining some of that research -- how do we make this information more available to folks like me -- who come from a children's ed background, but would like to get the latest and greatest on adult ed?

How do we continue to help map a course for NIFL -- a balanced course, as Daphne suggests -- without fomenting further discord or demonizing valuable K-12 research? Since many of us work with family and youth literacy initiatives as well as adult, perhaps we need to consider how all of these areas can inform each other.

Gina Cooke
Literacy Program Consultant
The Discovery Alliance
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Daphne Greenberg 
  To: nla at lists.literacytent.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 2:43 PM
  Subject: [NLA] What is literacy?


  It seems like some listserv members are potentially entering into debate about the nature of literacy-a debate that has been going on in the k-12 world for a very long time.  I know that I am in the minority, but I just don't get it. I am a very big proponent of skills based instruction AND literacy for literacy sake AND literacy for social action. My interest lies primarily with adults who read below the 5th grade levels (yes, I agree that grade equivalency is not appropriate with adults, but for right now I lack a better term).  To become independent readers, they desperately need to learn things like spelling sound correspondences, word reading strategies, etc. However, they also need to enjoy good literature being read to them, the experience of the great satisfaction that one feels when one writes a piece of work (whatever it may be), the opportunity to learn to read by sight words that are functionally important to them, etc. It really amounts to the goal of the learner. If he or she wants to learn how to become an independent lifelong learner, then yes skills are important. If that is not a goal, then they are not as important. 
  Therefore, I think that adult learning policies need to reflect both. As I have mentioned before, I am upset that it appears that only child specialists are being nominated to the NIFL board. I mentioned as a possible solution, that researchers similar to the ones nominated should be selected-ones that do similar kinds of research, but with adults. I should have also added that the nominees, as far as I can tell, are focused on a very skilled based approach, and therefore, we should ALSO (not instead) suggest individuals who encourage and represent other definitions of literacies, ones that respect and honor the importance of literature, context, gender, orientation, and race issues. 
  It would be great, in my opinion, if the NIFL Board could consist of individuals who represent the adult literacy field-learners, practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and people with different viewpoints-skills based, wholistic, etc. I guess what I am really saying is that I would ideally like to see the NIFL Board represent the BALANCE which I think is critical to any good literacy instructional approach.
  Daphne

  Daphne Greenberg
  Associate Director
  Center for the Study of Adult Literacy
  Georgia State University
  University Plaza
  Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
  phone: 404-651-0127
  fax:404-651-4901
  dgreenberg at gsu.edu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.literacytent.org/pipermail/nla-nifl-archive/attachments/20020130/e900eb46/attachment.htm