[NLA] building policy vision

[sissy kegley]

Eileen,
I can appreciate your inquiry. 
Personally, my response would be that advocacy cannot be sustained or
effective without the bigger picture. I suppose that goes for the range
of adult ed & literacy & many other issues as well.

As far as adult education and advocacy is concerned, I see 2 things:
One is, as someone intensively involved with
'on-the-job-learning-as-we-go' advocacy, I CRAVE more insight on the
themes and principles underlying policy issues in adult education,
across the board.

Secondly, I get the sense (but I do not have the whole picture) that the
folks who do represent the leadership in terms of advocacy in adult
education, are so stretched and limited (and, undoubtedly, frustrated)
by the continuous need to 'put out fires' that there's seldom the
opportunity to engage in bigger-policy-issue planning. 

Granted, I'm not part of any group of behind-the-scenes strategizing;
I'm speaking as an individual who, for lack of a better image, feels a
bit like the little rubber ball bouncing around the pinball machine
randomly crashing into local-then-state-then-national-on-and-on advocacy
issues.

I assume part of this is the result of the economy crashing at all
three, local state and national, levels.

Speaking of that, I would think the Chisman report could be a starting
point in a discussion about identifying unifying themes and principles.

Sissy Kegley
skegley at us.net
301-588-4333


-----Original Message-----
From: nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of Eileen Eckert
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 11:16 AM
To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [NLA] building policy vision

The original question was: When you advocate for literacy policy, or
make 
policy decisions yourself, is there a big picture? Are there some
unifying 
themes or underlying principles that make specific policies complement
each 
other? What are they, and how do they work?



(For the record, in answer to Tom and Andrea:
I presented one hypothetical situation (out of many possible situations)
in 
which policy <creates> an either/or issue. I did this to highlight the 
potential for well-meaning policies to create conflicts in which expert 
judgment at the local level is overridden by bureaucracy. I think this
is 
more likely to happen when policy around each issue is created in 
isolation--hence, my big picture question.

Are all teachers who emphasize phonemic awareness cold fish? Of course
not! 
I picked two cases of discussions we've had and deliberately created a
case 
where policy goals (for meeting the needs of low-level readers and for 
meeting the needs of people with PTSD) <could> conflict. Is it possible
for 
a teacher who emphasizes phonemic awareness to be a cold fish? I think
so. 
But if you want to continue this line of discussion, which isn't about 
policy advocacy, let's do it off-list, OK?)





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