[NLA] Government Misinformation - Summing Up

[Catherine B. King]

Hello Andrea:

You say:  "I think Tom was questioning the exact
meaning of words on the website and doing some
critical analysis--What is potential?  How do we know
it when we see it?  What does it mean to increase it?
And so on.  I think these are reasonable questions for
anyone to ask, we are all members of the public
whether we work in literacy or not.  Yes, I know that it is
your point that this statement is a way of conversing
with a larger audience."

Yes, these are indeed reasonable questions, etc., but
from the note Tom wrote (below), he's not asking what they
are.  He's inferring we cannot even get there because there
is no know methodology.   Any use of these terms, then--
with the assumption that you, or I or the general public, may
have some qualified idea about what they mean in general
discourse, is "misinformation."

To your call for further reasonable exploration, then, it seems
by his note that, rather than "doing critical analysis," he is
closing the issue because we don't have a method to know
what they mean.  I take from this that he, as well as the NCSL
researchers, are assuming that because the field of statistics
cannot approach these meanings in principle, any reference
to them from organizations, and certainly any mixing them
with statistical information, must be and remain
"misinformation."

If my understanding is true, then the inference is that the entire
field of common discourse and understanding that you are
referring to, as well as the fields that **would and do** explore
such meanings critically, like the reflective discourses in
psychology, philosophy, sociology, etc., are not valid research
components of educational research and offer no valid
methodologies.

But perhaps I am not reading Tom's note correctly.  Here it is
again:

"I asked rhetorically, Why is this statement misinformation?
Then I answered, Because there is no known methodology
for determining what the skills and education needed to
succeed in family, work, and community life across the
nation are [recall from Research Note #1 that the NALS
researchers had made this point themselves] . It is even
more difficult to identify what it means to 'succeed' in family,
work, and community life."

The big oversight of the NALS researchers and Tom's own
statement is that we, as you suggest, (1) ask reasonable
questions about what those mean (that's the methodology,
but it is not statistical method); further, (2) we dialogue with
those whose lives are to be affected by our programs about
what such things as "success" mean and (3) we put forth
our findings to the community of researchers, theoreticians,
practitioners, etc., in an ongoing, developmental, and
collaborative effort to understand further the changing
meanings of such commonly used terms.

But apparently the method you, and many others, suggest
is not "scientific" and critical enough?

Regards,

Catherine King

----- Original Message -----
From: <AWilder106 at aol.com>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 6:49 AM
Subject: Re: [NLA] Government Misinformation - Summing Up


> Hi Catherine,
>
> I think Tom was questionning the exact meaning of words on the website and
> doing some critical analysis--What is potential?  How do we know it when
we
> see it?  What does it mean to increase it?  And so on.  I think these are
> reasonable questions for anyone to ask, we are all members of the public
> whether we work in literacy or not.  Yes, I know that it is your point
that
> this statement is a way of conversing with a larger audience.
>
> What I think is more important, operationally, is NCSALL's willingness to
> reach out to the public to share research findings, and to offer FOB at
> $8/yr.  This is a way of turning words into behaviors.
>
> I know that literacy can change lives because I have interviewed people
whose
> lives have been changed by literacy and this is how they have expressed
> themselves.
>
> About EFF--I do question the words in which it is described, but like I
said,
> people who use it seem to like it, and I think that is interesting and
worth
> investigating.  One administrator sent me some literature, and that by
itself
> seems to show a positive feeling. I just mentally toss my concerns into a
> grey area as something to look at further.  Maybe it is a program that
gives
> structure in a sea of possibilities re adult literacy teaching and goals.
>
> Andrea
>
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