[NLA] CAAL Mini-Survey of Research in Adult Education & Literacy

[Gail Spangenberg]

Colleagues,

Recent postings by Tom Sticht, Kathleen Bombach, and others prompt me 
to follow-up on a little "research on research" project CAAL 
attempted a few months back. 

We asked several dozen adult literacy professionals to help us get a 
sense of the current research base in adult literacy.  Specifically, 
we invited them to answer this question:  What 5-10 research studies 
ever produced on any aspect of adult literacy do you find most useful 
for purposes of guiding policy, management and/or practice?  We 
wanted to see if we could make a judgment about whether there is a 
basic canon of research on literacy comparable to what exists in 
other fields/disciplines.  Is there a must-read list of research 
materials, we asked, and of what does it consist?  We specified that 
we were looking for studies based on original, primary research that 
meet generally accepted standards for the highest professional 
quality.  We said that the research should be discrete, completed 
(not in process), and have been made widely available.

Fifteen persons provided us with well-considered and usable title 
lists, usually along with a brief statement about why they consider 
the works useful.  These titles are listed in the attached document 
(in pdf format).  It is interesting to note that of the 73 titles 
listed, only 3 are listed more than once.  Items 18 and 45 were given 
twice each.  Item 41, the National Adult Literacy Survey of 1992, was 
given by five people -- and its international and state-level 
counterparts were cited as well.  An array of people sent us long 
lists but no clues as to what they considered the most important 
items.  Others referred us to websites or to their own organization's 
list of publications.  A few responded by saying they were informed 
by work from various sources in general: for example, Jeanne Chall, 
Steve Reder, Sylvia Scribner, Catherine Snow, Tom Sticht, Richard 
Venezky, and some of the University-based research centers. 

Although few conclusions can be drawn from CAAL's limited findings, 
people currently thinking about this subject might find the list of 
titles worth contemplating.  Among other things, it suggests that the 
field of adult education and literacy is informed by a research base 
that extends well beyond the field itself into other more scientific 
disciplines.  Moreover, considering that the array of titles given 
comes from only 15 individuals -- working in quite different contexts 
and states -- the list is, in a sense, remarkable. It's exciting to 
imagine what might be learned about the real research base underlying 
work in adult education and literacy field if a survey of this sort 
could be done on a significantly large sampling of people and then 
subjected to some thoughtful analysis according to the use made of 
the material. 
-- 
Gail Spangenberg
President
Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy
1221 Avenue of the Americas - 50th Floor
New York, NY 10020
212-512-2362, fax 212-512-2610
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