[NLA] NLA Discussion: Evidence-based education

[Awilderast@aol.com]

Friends:

I think I better make another point which comes up more in case studies than 
in other types.  This is the value of having a person known in the community 
run the literacy program, I am thinking grass roots.  The most effective 
teacher will know their community, will probably be part of their community, 
will undertand how people there make their living, what the churches are 
like, the schools, who knows who, the whole social network.  The two books by 
Purcell-Gates that I have mentioned previously--Now We Read, We See, We 
Speak, and Other People's Words, bring this point home.  From these two books 
might flow a more focused study about the importance of social networks in 
adult literacy...  These two books were influenced by Heath's MAMMOTH study 
of three literacies in three communities, Ways With Words.  There is another 
study, not read yet by me, about what happened to some of Heath's families 
when they moved from the South to a Northern housing project.  

The world that Nancy Hansen is describing, that she has shared with us on the 
list, is similar to these other worlds in their focus on face to face 
relations, families, school and commercial life.  Nancy, a former 
schoolteacher, hasn't just dropped into the community, she has raised her 
children there, she has taught children who now have their own children.  My 
guess:  she probably knows a ton of secrets about local families, potential 
tutors, hidden illiteracy.  Her local knowledge must be a tremendous resource 
in the literacy work she does, and her views on what is missing , or what she 
needs to do her job effectively, is just the data that researchers both need 
and find useful.  

Andrea
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