[NLA] New NALD document

[George E. Demetrion]

The following document, "Motivation and the Adult New Reader:  Becoming
Literate at the Bob Steele Reading Center," is now available at:

http://www.nald.ca/FULLTEXT/George/Motivate/cover.htm

This is a fairly extensive study (179 pages) of a program I operated in
Hartford, CT from 1987-1994.  This teacher research project parallels and
extends upon my published essays.  It deals with a lot of the issues we
have been raising here over the years, while it also leaves a lot of
questions and gaps.  As I discuss in the essay, I view my methodology as
imaginistic rather than rigorous in the strict scientific sense, though I
would argue that there is a consistent logic running through the piece.

The following is from the preface,

George Demetrion
____________________________________________________________


I originally wrote Motivation and the Adult New Reader:  Becoming
Literate at the Bob Steele Reading Center in 1994.  Through the
intervening years I have made modest revisions in the text.  While
maintaining the overall structure of the original essay, this current
version is a substantial revision of the initial piece.  When I took on
the project the program's primary sources were limited to a single book
of student essays, one volume of a projected three-volume oral history
collection, and an instructional log and collection of brief interviews,
which are no longer extant.  Since that time, an additional collection of
student essays was completed as well as the three-volume oral history
collection that Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford (LVGH) undertook
in collaboration with Trinity College, funded through a Connecticut
Humanities Council grant.  In addition, my colleagues and I completed a
two-volume collection of interviews, titled Dialogues in Literacy that
specifically focused on the learning history of 19 students.  I
incorporated data from these sources into this revision.  I also freely
added sections from my published articles, particularly in Chapters One,
Three, Six, and Seven.
 
In this revision, I focus on four areas.  First, I incorporate more
extensive case presentation examples of student learning and motivation
throughout the study.  Second, I include tutor perspectives, particularly
in Chapter Seven.  Third, I seek to more systematically integrate the
work within the educational philosopher John Dewey's concept of  "growth"
and broader pragmatic theory of knowledge, which has informed my
published articles on adult literacy.  Fourth, I add a more formal
description of methodological issues in the latter sections of Chapter
Seven to strengthen the briefer, initial discussion in Chapter One. 
Stemming from my academic training in the discipline of history, I tend
to focus on the content of a study rather than give special attention to
methodology.  This is premised on the assumption that solid evidence,
which speaks for itself, is required in order to make a convincing case.