[NLA] Searching for adult litercy experts

[George E. Demetrion]

Tom and others:

A quick response for now.  Maybe something more later.

a)  Adult literacy scholarship includes research in the strong empirical,
scientific sense, but it is broader than that stemming from various
scholarly traditions in the humanities and social sciences as well as in
the more "rigorous" scientific relams. The more fundamental issue of
whether or the extent to which adult literacy scholarship belongs in the
realm of cultural studies or in the empirical scientific research
tradition is a weighty matter in itself that has not been adequately
grappled with.  As I've posted on this topic,  I won't belabor the point
here except to note that very much rides on defining the forms of
scholarship including their relative priority upon which to ground
academic work on adult literacy.  This involve issues of epistemology
(theories of learning and related sources of evidence).  There's more
involved than merely the facts, including that of their relative
significance as determined by whom or what.

Also, while far from complete or adequate, let's not ignore the depth of
scholarship that does exist and the value in draing on that as a take-off
point for additional investigation.  Let me suggest two threads here:

b) The existing ethnographic studies on adult literacy.  I recommend that
this body of work or some reasonably comprehenive sub-set thereof be
reviewed synoptically to get a handle on what the literature in this
sub-set of research has illuminated about adult literacy; what remains
incomplete,and  then based on such a study, identify additional
research(able) topics to help fill the gap.  This without being overly
concerned about precise research methodology in the acknowledgement that
20th century social science scholarship reflects an array of research
traditions which assign different valencies to different types of
evidence.  Recall Catherine's recent postings on the work of Donna
Mertens in her discussion of the strengths and limitations of various
research traditions.  Given the fact of reasonable pluralism in the
diversity of legitimate research traditions, perhaps there should be more
of a focus on content and overall coherence of any individual piece of
scholarship rather than an undue focus on methodology unless there's a
real problem there, keeping in mind that different scholars are going to
see things differently.

I'm going to take a pass at this point of substantively discussing the
thirteenth chapter to Nicholas Rescher's important book, Philosophical
Reasoning:  A Study in the Methodology of Philosophizing (2001).
Blackwell, except to note that in that chapter titled Systematization as
an Instrument of Inquiry, in focusing on a " coherence epistemology of
truth," he draws out the importance of "fit" and "attunement" as the best
we are likely to find through research. He's not making the argument that
coherence in itself is a worthy aim of philosophical reasoning, but
"coherence with the data of experience."  I refrain from further
discussion of the book, but in a forthcoming  work Rescher  to the
qualitative research model of Sharan B. Merriam, Case Study Research in
education:  A Qualitative Approach as well as to the pragmatic logic of
John Dewey in the quest of what he refers to as "warranted assertability.
 

Perhaps through these research traditions and others lies some reasonable
methodological grounds upon which to base ethnographic research on adult
literacy. The broader issue, far from resolved, is the potential role of
such ethnography in the overall role of contributing to our collective
knowledge of the field of adult literacy, along with the companion issue
of legitimacy on who or what determines the relative importance of this
form of empirical research.  At the very least, this proposed synoptic
overview of the ethnographic literature might help in working through
that issue, enabling the field to take a few steps forward.

To take this a bit further, but without elaboration here, what is viewed
as legitimate research not only depends upon the facts, but the
epistemologies that seek to give the facts their significance.  In short,
I contend that  the issue of interpretation is unavoidable and is
implicit in all social science research traditions.

This was a long-winded way of suggesting one way of moving forward would
be through a synoptic overview of the ethnographic literature on adult
literacy which would build on what already exists and sharpen the focus
for additional research.   I accept your concern that perhaps very few
would read such a review and that's an important issue, though separate
from the need for the study itself as a means of helping to move our
collective understanding of our very emergent field forward even just a
bit.

c)  A similar kind of synoptic overview of all of  the major trends in
adult literacy scholarship over the past 30 years with a corresponding
focus on strengths and limitations and areas of needed further
investigation. The point here is not to throw the baby out with the bath
water, but to have a critical and close look at what the scholarship
shows (and doesn't) as a reasonably coherent way of moving forward.

Of course, one could argue that none of this is needed and point simply
to the gaps, though I think the more comprehensive approach would build
on this critical historical overview of both the ethnograpic and overall
scholarship in the field.  I'm not talking about history for its own sake
here, though that's valid on its own limited terms.  Rather, I'm trying
to get at the importance of a critical historical review as a means of
better grappling with the issues that the field currently faces and
building on the repository of knowledge as part of the investigation
itself into the ongoing issues that confront the field.

In drawing out these points I'm in general agreement that such research
is not necessarily the most important work to which the field needs to
attend.  Though I do maintain that working through these issues is an
important part of the overall work of establishing the intellectual
integrity of adult literacy studies and in contributing to the broad pool
of knowledge that may be useful to both practitioners and policy
advocates.  

George Demetrion
sophocles5 at juno.com


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