[NLA] Re: here it is

[Janet Isserlis]

Tom Sticht recently alluded to the cross-post below from the NIFL 
women and literacy list.  I'd be grateful to him, and/or others, for 
clarification -- it seems that Dr. Sticht is juxtaposing one 
conversation about research with another separate discussion about 
issues of interest to subscribers of another list.

Dr. Sticht's remarks seem uncharacteristically mean-spirited; quite 
unlike other comments he has made when revealing evidence or 
observations to the readers of the NLA list.

Clearly, many of us feel that literacy writ large encompasses issues 
of identity, power, and language.  I don't think this juxtaposing of 
one conversation with another makes sense.

I'd be grateful for clarification.

thank you

Janet Isserlis


>Recently Dr. M. C. Smith mentioned some people whom he thinks is doing
>"cutting edge" research. One of these was Dr.Daphne Greenberg, a recent
>recipient of one of the five NIFL/NICHD/USED grants to study adult
>reading. On the Women and Literacy (Womenlit) discussion list sponsored by
>the National Institute for Literacy I recently came across a couple of the
>"cutting edge" questions that Dr. Greenberg is struggling with. I left the
>list after reading the questions and a couple of responses to the
>questions posted by others, one of which reported the definite "fact" that
>10 percent of the population of adults is gay,  puzzled as to what
>particular issues in adult literacy education these questions were aimed
>to resolve. I also wondered how this work might be used to approach the
>Bush administration and new Republican-lead Congress to advocate for the
>field of adult literacy education. I wonder if others have any insights as
>to how this might be done.
>Tom Sticht
>
>On  the Womenlit list Dr. Greenberg said:
>
>Quote:"As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, from time to time I will
>pose questions that I am struggling with while I am doing my research.
>Here are two questions:
>
>1. Do you prefer the term learner or student? Do you prefer the term
>teacher or instructor? If you have a preference, why? I am
>struggling with the words that we use, but I don't know enough to
>know why I am struggling. What do we imply when we use the word
>learner vs. student? What do we imply when we use the word teacher
>vs. instructor? Are there other terms that are even better?
>
>2. I would like to make sure that the reading materials that we
>offer to our learners/students are as diverse as possible. How do I
>ensure this? For example, if I want to include books with characters
>who have diverse orientations-what proportion of the books should
>this be? Also, does anyone know of appropriate books that cover LGBT
>[lesbian, gay,bisexual,transgendered] issues/characters that are written
>between the 2nd and 7th grade reading levels (Mev, I know that you have
>supplied lists, but are any of the books that you have mentioned written
>below the 7th grade reading level)?
>
>Any thoughts ideas about any of the above?
>Daphne" End Quote.
>
>
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