Flowers of argument and engagement? Reconsidering critical perspectives on adult education and literate practices

This paper takes up an existing discussion around critical perspectives on adult education, in particular how empowerment and emancipation have been understood. Previously in this journal, concern has been raised with traditional understandings of critical adult education. The problem is that these tend to assume that learners require assistance from experts, be they teachers or researchers, in order to gain understanding of how they are oppressed. The purpose of this paper is to present a deeper engagement with this concern through an examination of how both empowering and emancipatory adult education have been understood and practised. The demarcation is examined in the context of the historical development of critical understandings and practices associated with adult literacies learning, as a significant field of adult education where the idea of empowerment and emancipation has been theorised. The ideas and practices associated with empowering literacies are defended as ways for learners to gain positions from which to speak and be heard, as well as support participation in work, community and family life. Informed by the ideas of Jacques Rancière, there is also acknowledgement that societal inequalities are increasing, necessitating a need to consider how adult education might encourage political transformation and emancipation

Reconsidering emancipatory education: Staging a conversation between Paulo Freire and Jacques Rancière

In this essay Sarah Galloway considers emancipation as a purpose for education through examining the theories of Paulo Freire and Jacques Ranci` ere. Both theorists are concerned with the prospect of distinguishing between education that might socialize people into what is taken to be an inherently oppressive society and education with emancipation as its purpose. Galloway reconstructs the theories in parallel, examining the assumptions made, the processes of oppression described, and the movements to emancipation depicted. In so doing, she argues that that the two theorists hold a common model for theorizing oppression and emancipation as educational processes, distinguished by the differing assumptions they each make about humanity, but that their theories ultimately have opposing implications for educational practices. Galloway further maintains that Freire and Ranci`ere raise similar educational problems and concerns, both theorizing that the character of the relations among teachers, students, and educational materials is crucial to an emancipatory education. Galloway's approach allows discussion of some of the criticisms that have been raised historically about Freire's theory and how these might be addressed to some degree by Ranciere's work. Taking the two theories together, she argues that the possibility for an emancipatory education cannot be ignored if education is to be considered as more than merely a process of passing down the skills and knowledge necessary in order to socialize people into current society

School climate : a review of literature

The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature and research on school climate to determine how school climate affects achievement, social, emotional and behavioral development, school safety, and school attendance and completion. Reviewing these outcomes for students leads the author to address principles for school climate measurement and improvement, as presented in the school climate literature. The measurement and improvement programs are reviewed in the context of school psychologists contributing to climate interventions

Recognition for Adult Educators (REAL) Competency Framework Scotland

The REAL Competency Framework, allows adult educators in Scotland, for the first time, to map their skills, knowledge and competencies against the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework at levels 7 to 10This document is part of a suite of materials which are outputs from the REAL Project for Adult Educators, a pan-European funded project which created professional development tools for adult educators across Europe. See http://realrpl.eu

Social Practices or Functional Skills? Rehabilitation or Rights? An Analysis of Scottish Prison Learning Contracts

This paper critically examines some of the research arising from prison contexts internationally, questioning the notion that adult learning might serve the purpose of rehabilitation or encouraging desistance from crime. These discussions are utilised to inform a strategy for conducting a high-level documentary analysis of historical and current commercial contracts, held between colleges of further education and the Scottish Prison Service, for the delivery of prisoner education in Scotland. Here I suggest that leadership from the further education sector and the prison service in Scotland have made use of favourable national adult learning policies, co-creating commercial contracts that might take forward a social practice approach to prison learning. However, I also question the educational basis for both the commercial contracting of adult learning and the notion that adult learning should encourage desistance from criminality

BIODEGRADATION OF HEXAHYDRO-1,3,5-TRINITRO-1,3,5-TRIAZINE (RDX) USING PHOTOSYNTHETIC BACTERIA

Hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) is an emerging contaminant according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). RDX was introduced as a secondary explosive during World War II. It is still used in many explosive such as hand grenades. RDX enters the environment mostly through the manufacturing process or from the use of explosives. RDX is a suspected carcinogen and can also affect the nervous system of humans. Therefore, RDX has become a chemical of concern across many United States military bases and open and closed manufacturing plants. The goal of this research was to evaluate the biodegradation of RDX via two phototrophic bacteria: Rhodobacter sphaeroides ATCC® 17023™ and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The ability to degrade RDX via a phototrophic bacteria could make remediation more passive. A passive remediation option could be an easier and more cost effective way to remediate RDX. Biodegradation of RDX has been successful with other bacteria, but Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 was studied because it is robust and grows well in aerobic environments. The specific objectives for this research were to: 1. Determine if electron acceptors nitrate (1 mM), sulfate (10 mM), and perchlorate (1 mM) influence R. sphaeroides’ ability to degrade RDX under ideal conditions (growth conditions with succinate as electron donor). 2. Determine if R. sphaeroides can degrade RDX with oxygen present. The work conducted showed that: 1. Adding electron acceptors to incubations with R. sphaeroides, electron donor, and RDX while in the presence of light did not significantly change the time required to degrade RDX. After 49 hours RDX was degraded 100% in samples with no electron acceptor and with perchlorate, 99% in samples with sulfate, and 94% in samples with nitrate. 2. Exposing R. sphaeroides to air drastically inhibited the degradation of RDX. After 19 days, 40% of RDX still remained in the samples. The same samples in anaerobic conditions degraded RDX in only 49 hours. 3. BG-11 media degraded RDX significantly under a cool-white fluorescent light. 4. Synechocystis’s growth was affected when BG-11 nutrient stock concentration was degraded. 5. Synechocystis completely degraded RDX with and without an electron shuttle and in anaerobic environments and in the presence of air. 6. Synechocystis reduced RDX more efficiently when placed in incubations with growth media as opposed to being placed in incubations with HEPES buffer. RDX degradation via a bacteria, Synechocystis, in aerobic conditions has not been published. The work conducted showed that RDX can be degraded by Synechocystis and R. sphaeroides (in the presence of air and electron acceptors). However, more research needs to be conducted. Reduction of RDX by R. sphaeroides in field conditions needs to be examined. Also, the mechanisms of Synechocystis that degrade RDX need to be furthered studied. 3. Determine if Synechocystis can degrade RDX and if so, under what conditions

Distinguishing between empowerment and emancipation in the context of adult literacies education: Understanding power and enacting equality

This thesis considers a theoretical tradition which is concerned with how adult literacies education might not always serve to socialise students into existing society, instead encouraging possibilities for desirable alternatives to it. Without this possibility, adult literacies education might only be understood as a socialising machine that slots students into society as it stands and where the role of research is to describe its operation. My research describes a long-standing refusal by educators, researchers and students to accept this possibility and my thesis continues this tradition. Through the analysis and interplay of the work of Pierre Bourdieu, James Paul Gee, Paulo Freire, Jacques Rancière, I distinguish between empowerment and emancipation in the context of literacies education. I set out the assumptions that Bourdieu and Gee make, how they understand power, identity, discourse and oppression, and what this means for the practice of an empowering adult literacies education. I also present assumptions made by Freire and Rancière, how they understand equality and oppression, and how an emancipatory literacies education might be understood and practiced. In particular, I describe how education for ‘empowerment’ encourages practices underpinned by the assumption that ideological processes prevent students from understanding how oppression is manifested. In contrast, I describe how an emancipatory education implies enacting educational relationships that are not reliant on this assumption, whilst exerting a social response to societal oppression. I make three claims. Firstly, that the idea of an emancipatory literacies education has come to be neglected or conflated with the idea that literacies education might empower, which has come to hold great sway. In so doing, I critique Freire’s work whilst reclaiming it as an emancipatory project. Secondly, that the educational practices associated with adult literacies for empowerment can be understood to encourage the socialisation of students into society as it stands. This emphasises the importance of distinguishing between empowerment and emancipation in the context of adult literacies education. Finally, that emancipation is a notion that must continue to be questioned and explored if educators, students and academics are to take responsibility for the practice of adult literacies education and its consequences. An emancipatory literacies education cannot be reliant upon the assumption that discourse is inherently ideological. Instead, it is predicated upon teachers and students assuming that emancipation is possible and acting on that assumption

Adult literacies in Scotland: is social practice being buried alive?

This paper summarises what is meant by a ‘social practice' approach to literacy learning and associated policy development in the UK. I then present and critique the ‘midway report' relating to progress with Scotland's adult literacies strategy for 2020 and how this informed the design of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests aimed at obtaining more robust data relating to the capacity of adult literacies education in Scotland. Whilst the resulting data was incomplete, it indicated strongly that there has been a significant decline in learner and tutor numbers across a wide range of Scottish Councils, raising two questions. In Scottish Councils that have protected adult literacies learning from austerity, what strategies were employed and could they inform leaderships in other Councils? Secondly, have significant falls in the delivery of adult literacies learning impacted a decline in expertise relating to social practice approaches, with consequences for programme quality

Letter from Sarah [Muir Galloway] to [John Muir], 1910 Sep 9.

Pacific Grove, Calif.,Sept. 9, 1910.Dear brother John:Your letter was received yesterday, and I was glad to hear from you, also to tell you that I still keep gaining in strength and hope soon to be as well as usual.Joanna will likely have written telling you of our brother Dan\u27s great sorrow and loss. It is good that she happens to be there. She and the girls can take care of little Marial and make the home as confortable as possible for a time at least. Mary, also, was there for a little time.All of the folks here are well, as usual. Ette is so much better for some time now. Mrs. Westlake is also here at present. Kenneth has gone back to Los Angeles. The school would commence this week again.You will have heard how Helen is getting on. I have not heard from her yet. I must write to her soon. You were gone a long time before I left the Valley. I suppose you will be very busy with your writing as usual. I had a good visit with Wanda and her family before leaving, as well as the others of the clan. I hope you keep well. I wonder if we will see you here again some day, when you can make a longer stay than last time. I know we will all be glad.Affectionately your sister,Sarah [Muir Galloway]0487