Learning, literacy and identity: ‘I don’t think I’m a failure any more’

The impact of participation in adult literacy programmes on learners’ identities is examined through an interrogation of their past and current experiences and the assessment of the effect of particular pedagogies. The findings show how learners’ positive experiences in their programmes had caused them to re-evaluate their previous understandings and enabled the construction of new identities as people that are able to learn. These changes had come about through the challenging of negative discourses, the creation of new figured worlds and imagined futures and the use of a learning curriculum where learners’ experiences were utilised as positive resources

Research and student voice

This paper is written partly as a response to a critique from Sally Baker and her colleagues (2006) about an article that John Bamber and I published (Bamber and Tett, 2001) in 2001. Their critique was based on the grounds that we had developed our arguments in a way that depended ‘on an assumption about the\ud veracity of student participants [that] represents a solipsistic retreat into a state of analysis where things are the case because people say they are’ (p 175). Criticism is never comfortable but it did provoke me into thinking about the nature of evidence that is derived from interviews and focus groups with students. Does this imply, as Baker and colleagues argue, that this methodology inevitably means that researchers have ‘not taken a systematically sociologically informed analysis of the nature of institutions or society or the material obstacles to change but have instead relied on the subjective individualised realm of student experiences’ (p 175)? I will argue that this is an over-simplistic interpretation of data that are based on students’ voices and I will draw on findings from a variety of educational provision ranging from universities to informal literacy provision in community settings to examine the role of the researcher in listening to and reinterpreting the detail of people’s lives. There are of course many issues raised by data derived from using student voices as a method of enquiry so I will begin with the problems raised for research that is based on listening to, and interpreting from, interviews with students

Community-based education and learning

This chapter shows the contribution that community-based education can make to adults’ learning using a number of examples from practice in order to explore if participating in lifelong learning can contribute to a more equal society. It also examines the role that universities, in partnership with policy makers, practitioners and students, can play in promoting more democratic opportunities. Finally it discusses the role of professional development in enhancing critical engagement. It begins by asking what the term ‘community’ means in order to explore how different conceptualizations impact on practice in community-based educatio

Community-based learning and research: partnerships, power and learning

This paper discusses a learning and research partnership between a university and a community group that was studying the health issues in their community. It is based on a 'knowledge democracy' approach, where the importance of multiple ways of knowing is foregrounded. It uses a framework derived from Starhawk (1987) to explore how power might be shared and how difficult it can be to avoid exercising power in hidden, rather than overt, ways. It shows that all the participants in the programme eventually became part of a 'community of practice' through sharing power but also outlines the challenges to working in collaborative partnerships. It concludes that it is possible to intentionally link the values of democracy and action to the process of producing and using knowledge, but this requires considerable effort from all parties

Resisting ‘human capital’ ideology?

Human capital was defined by Gary Becker (1975) as ‘any stock of knowledge or characteristics the worker has (either innate or acquired) that contributes to his or her productivity’. This knowledge was regarded as a form of capital because it was seen as enabling workers to invest in a set of marketable skills through gaining credentials that would enable them to increase their earnings. This commodification of human beings as a form of capital goods has been much criticised (e.g. Rubenson, 2015) but nevertheless has gained largely uncritical currency. It has been taken up by many international organisations, especially the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) as a key driver of adult learning because ‘for individuals, investment in human capital provides an economic return, increasing both employment rates and earnings’ (OECD, 2001:3). When applied to literacy learning, this model of knowledge claims a universal relationship with economic development, individual prosperity and vocational achievement and this in turn leads to an assumption that skills-focused education is the most important. This perspective, which regards countries and their citizens as competitors in a global market place, then gets translated into measurable indicators such as those used in the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) (OECD, 2016). These powerful standards become taken for granted in our everyday practices, meaning that the focus of education is on the national productivity agendas that are in the interests of industry rather than ordinary people (Rizvi and Lingard, 2010). In addition the narrow domains of skills-focused knowledge perpetuated by these interests become accepted as normal and so are difficult to challenge (Gorur, 2014)

Edinburgh Recovery Activities (2020) Letters from Lockdown, PDF available from Concept website

A lot has been written about the impact of Covid19 but much of it relies on a ‘stock of ready narratives’ (Kehily, 1995 p. 28) that we draw on when we are telling stories about our lives. We both forge our individual narratives and take part in public narratives where the themes to be drawn on, the facts and circumstances that are considered important and the information that advances the story, can form an ideological straitjacket within which we conform. This means that the majority of narratives about the impact of the Covid19 pandemic emphasise the individual and not the structures within which we are embedded. The stories told are about how individual behaviour - mixing in crowds, not wearing masks, failing to socially distance - causes the spread of the virus but the alternative narrative - that living in poverty in poor housing increases the likelihood of catching the virus - is supressed. In my view, the great strength of this short collection is that the authors have broken out of this straitjacket and told stories that create new narratives about the experiences of lockdown that are not focused on individual behaviour alone

Parents as people. Problematising parental involvement programmes.

This paper describes four case studies of parental involvement programmes and examines: the factors that enable partners to collaborate effectively; how the role of \u27parent\u27 is constructed; the contribution that education can make to combating social exclusion

Acting against health inequalities through popular education. A Scottish case-study

This article investigates if health inequalities can be reduced using popular education (PE) methods. It argues that, although ill health may be experienced as a private trouble, it is embedded in broader social and political processes and should be seen as a public issue. It illuminates this concept of health by using student writings from the Health Issues in the Community (HIIC) project. These writings illustrate the impact of unemployment, lack of facilities, food poverty etc. on people’s physical and mental health and the action they have taken to challenge and reduce these inequalities. It is argued that PE contributes to human flourishing, but the educator must resist the power they have to steer students in particular directions. It concludes that whilst PE cannot abolish health inequalities, HIIC participants have taken small steps to change existing realities and so have challenged oppressive social relations. (DIPF/Orig.

Literacy, Learning and ‘Participatory Parity’

This paper investigates if participation in literacy programs contributes to alleviating social injustice using the lens of ‘participatory parity’ (Fraser, 2008). It argues that using this lens enables a focus on how social structures operate to deny social justice to some and so challenges an individual deficit approach to learners

Arts, Culture and Community Development (2021 Edited by Rosie Meade and Mae Shaw, Policy Press 272 pages ISBN 978-1447340515, £26.99

This book shows the many ways in which the arts provide the means and spaces of engagement for people to collectively 'make sense of, re-imagine, or seek to change the personal, cultural, social, economic, political or territorial conditions of their lives' (p. 1). To do so, academics and practitioners from six continents discuss and explore a range of aesthetic forms including song, music, muralism, theatre, dance, and circus arts based on examples from Finland, Lebanon, Latin America, China, Ireland, India, Sri Lanka and beyond. It comprises 13 chapters and an Afterword and is divided into two parts: 'making and sharing collective meanings' and 'negotiating policy and practice'. The first part captures how collective hopes, frustrations and fears are addressed through song, dance, etched on walls or conveyed through puppets and theatre leading to allegiances and memories that illustrate how 'community development is reflected in what is said, done, made, and created by people together' (p. 13). The second part is about the conditions of possibility for community-based arts and media, where the focus is on addressing the consequences of structural violence, inequality, and oppression. Here, the authors explore how cultural practices are conceptualised and negotiated in a wide range of countries and settings