[NLA] ideology and orientation

[Eileen Eckert]

Weighing in on the adult-child balance and ideological positions of 
potential NIFL advisory board members:

If people are willing to learn as well as to share their expertise, 
open-minded, and respectful of the needs of learners of all ages, they can 
probably serve well on the NIFL advisory board. Methods and specific goals 
of adults and children (and the programs that serve them) may differ, but 
however one defines the purpose of literacy, that definition will be fairly 
consistent across the lifespan, won't it? I mean, I don't think that 
children should learn by rote in order to "pass" a standardized tests while 
adults should learn in a constructivist manner in the context of their work, 
families, and communities--the individual "mental model" of literacy is more 
coherent than that.

The problem as I see it is this: progressive educators are usually willing 
to accommodate diverse points of view and unwilling to impose their views on 
others as the "right" answer; to some degree, we pride ourselves on 
open-mindedness. At the same time, those who hold a conservative, 
back-to-basic ideology are quite willing, and indeed see it as their 
responsibility, to impose their enlightened and absolutely correct views on 
those poor benighted souls and evil, selfish, pro-union, anti-accountability 
educators for the "greater good". (Remembering that sarcasm doesn't 
translate, let me make clear I am deliberately painting the extreme picture 
of a view I disagree with for the purposes of clearly showing the end of the 
continuum!) Because the ideology of some of the candidates is clearly 
conservative and because some are clearly willing to impose it on the field 
and <not> willing to listen and learn, it <is> important to consider 
ideology--and its relationship to power--now. Otherwise, we may find that 
the emphasis of NIFL is not only on children over adults, but that EFF and 
other such constructivist efforts are replaced with an all-ages show called 
phonics-first-and-only!
Eileen


>From: "Daphne Greenberg" <alcdgg at langate.gsu.edu>
>Reply-To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
>To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
>Subject: [NLA] response to Andres
>Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 12:27:58 -0400
>
>Andres,
>You wrote:
>"I don't care one bit if the board is composed of people with adult or 
>child, backgrounds, sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, 
>psychologists or whatever else. What I am concerned about is
>the ideological orientation of the board, and with their understanding of 
>sociocultural, socioeconomic, linguistic, health and immigration issues
>affecting  learners across the board."
>Are you saying that as long as the Board has an "appropriate" ideological 
>orientation and understanding of the various issues, it would be okay if 
>NIFL was advised ONLY by "child" people?
>I think that there are two issues here:
>1. We need to make sure that enough adult oriented people are on NIFL's 
>Board. I don't care if child oriented people are on it or not-in fact it 
>would probably help. BUT we do need the focus to be on adults and how child 
>knowledge can help and shape our adult knowledge.
>2. Once we agree that the focus of NIFL should include a heavy focus on 
>adults, we can argue ideologies and understandings.
>Daphne
>
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