In the new information age dialogue and dialogic projects are increasingly becoming a social requirement. La Tertulia Literaria is a learning experience in which adults with non-academic background read Joyce, among other classics, crossing cultural barriers and transforming the horizons of their lives and environments

Puigvert, Lidia `

Soler, Marta

Sorde, Tere

English

Kansas State University

Kansas State University Libraries New Prairie Press Adult Education Research Conference 2000 Conference Proceedings (Vancouver, BC, Canada) La Tertulia: A Dialogic Model of Adult Basic Education in the New Information Age Lidia `. Puigvert Universitat de Barcelona, Spain Tere Sorde Universitat de Barcelona, Spain Marta Soler Harvard University, USA Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/aerc  Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Administration Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License Recommended Citation Puigvert, Lidia `.; Sorde, Tere; and Soler, Marta (2000). "La Tertulia: A Dialogic Model of Adult Basic Education in the New Information Age," Adult Education Research Conference. https://newprairiepress.org/aerc/2000/papers/70 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Adult Education Research Conference by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact cads@k-state.edu. La Tertulia: A Dialogic Model of Adult Basic Educationin the New Information AgeLídia Puigvert, Universitat de Barcelona, SpainTere Sordé, Universitat de Barcelona, SpainandMarta Soler, Harvard University, USAAbstract: In the new information age dialogue and dialogic projects are increasingly becoming a so-cial requirement. La Tertulia Literaria  is a learning experience in which adults with non-academicbackground read Joyce, among other classics, crossing cultural barriers and transforming the hori-zons of their lives and environments.Participants’ Experience in La Tertulia“I was illiterate until I turned 40. Then, when windsof change came for the common people, I was eagerto learn to read and write, to be able to read all theauthors I had heard people talking about. Then, Ibecame so keen on reading that I have already readall the Spanish poets and many foreign ones, and Iam very proud of this reading, because I have cometo read the Quixote, by Cervantes, who I considerto be the master of masters.”These words were spoken by Juan, a participantin La Tertulia Literaria ,i which is a type of readingcircle held in several schools for adults in Spain.These reading circles target adult literacy learnerswith no academic background (that is, those whoattend adult basic education) and they focus onreading classic literature. Through this experience,adults who have never read a book come to read,discuss, and enjoy classic books by authors such asFranz Kafka, James Joyce, Émile Zola, and Fede-rico García Lorca.La Tertulia Literaria promotes an exceptionallearning process for adult literacy learners. Usually,low literate, working-class people have been ex-cluded from the great written works, although manyof these works actually talk about the lives of com-mon people. In La Tertulia, however, many partic i-pants have had the opportunity to demonstrate thatthey not only can read the classics, but they alsolike to do it. Thus, adult learners like Juan havelearned to read and write motivated by reading theclassics and participating in the discussions with thegroup, rather than reading with more traditionalmaterials and activities adapted to low literate adultlearners.A woman who takes part in La Tertulia told usthat the first time her son her reading a book hesaid, “Mama, how come you are reading thisbook?”. She had just started attending the literarycircle and that book was Metamorphosis by FranzKafka. People with a college degree do not thinkthat popular people can participate of the “highculture” they have access to, and that is why thismother had never dreamed she would be able toreach such literature works until she met people likeher in this literary circle.La Tertulia Literaria is defined by three maincharacteristics: a) the program targets adult learnerswith low literacy skills, b) the readings are univer-sal literature classics, and c) the process is based ondialogic learning. In this way, La Tertulia Literariaand its approach to learning challenges many as-sumptions held in the field of adult literacy.La Tertulia Literaria  is an example of a programin which adults who begin with limited readingskills demonstrate that they do not have limitedknowledge or intellectual capacity for learning, re-flection, and discussion. In this program adults alsodemonstrate they are highly motivated to accessingdomains often considered to be “for the educated”or “for the elite.”  By participating in this readingcircle, many adult learners have become literate andvoracious readers of the classics. In addition, someparticipants told us that they started voicing theiropinions and becoming more active in domains oftheir lives other than education, thus experiencing awider transformation.Dialogic learning transform the relationshipsamong people and between them and their envi-ronments (Flecha, 2000). Many depart from ex-cluding situations, as working class, low schooledand/or women, and many end up doing profoundchanges in their family, work, and personal rela-tionships. In La Tertulia, they do not subscribe tothe idea that “we live in a oppressing system thatdetermines our lives”, an idea that do not allow todream in the possibility of changing their lives. In-stead, they find new meanings through sharingwords. Today, some participants have even becomeleaders in community organizations or in socialmovements. In this sense, a member of FACEPA,the Spanish federation of participants’ associations,told us:“Some of us who learned to read in La Tertuliaare now involved in cultural organizations, strug-gling for an education based on democratic andegalitarian values. The concern about social andeducational issues has increased in our lives be-cause we have recognized the role of education andthe importance in the process of personal and so-cial development.”Dialogic Learning Model in a Changing SocietyLa Tertulia represents a clear example of a dialogiclearning model. Dialogic learning is not a new con-cept but it is newly more important for the field ofadult education. Recent societal changes are in-creasing the presence and need for dialogue and, asa result, dialogic pedagogies are becoming key inthe learning experience of those adults who havebeen historically excluded from education and cul-ture.At the doors of the twenty-first century, most in-dustrialized countries are witnessing many changesin how society is organized and how people func-tion in it. Theories and analyses about thesechanges are suggesting that the former organizationof the industrial society, highly bureaucratized andcontrolled by traditional authorities, is disappearingand giving rise to an information society, with in-creased pluralism, flexibility, and risk (Beck, 1992;Castells, 1996; Giddens, 1994; Habermas, 1998).Within the framework of this new society, dialogueis increasingly part of many people’s reality, as weneed to discuss issues and come to decisions withthe people with whom we share our lives or ourcommunities. For example, in the personal arena, itis no longer clear “whether one should get marriedor live together, whether one should raise a childinside or outside the family, . . . or whether oneshould do any of those things before, after or whileconcentrating on one’s career” (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 1995, p.15). These decisions requiretrue communication among people who come toagreements in their relationships through dialogue.Moreover, within the communities, citizens are de-manding to see their voices represented in decision-making bodies. Consider, for example, members ofa parents’ association running for the first time inschool board elections in central Harlem, NY, or anadult learners’ federation presenting a participants’Bill of Rights for discussion at a national parliamentin Spain.In the new information society we are experi-encing many changes that affect education, and it isnecessary to address these changes with new solu-tions. In this paper we argue that new solutions arepossible only through a process which disallows theimposition of already held beliefs and which allowsfor open, equal dialogue between all the participantsin a given social situation. One of the consequencesof the current dialogic tendency in society is a dia-logic turn within social and educational sciences(Beck, 1992; Freire, 1997, 1998; Habermas, 1984),which are increasingly proposing transformativesolutions grounded in communication and inter-subjectivity. The latest theoretical developments gobeyond former approaches that are no longer viableto struggle against current social and cultural ine-quality in the new information age.Education in the New Information AgeThe information age is characterized by the tech-nological revolution of communication and mediain a historical moment in which capitalism is re-structured by means of globalization and increasedflexibility of society. The process of social dualiza-tion is becoming more polarized, with a wideninggap between those who have access and controlover the networks (i.e. the wealthier minority) andthose excluded from them (i.e. the poorer majority).Within this framework, education is becoming akey as it provides knowledge and tools that help toaccess these networks and flows of information(Flecha, 1999). Thus, adult education is increas-ingly a key for many people to tear down walls thatexclude them from social participation.Although the information age provokes newmarginalization and exclusion at the global level,the rise of a network society  opens new possibilitiesfor dialogue between people and for social trans-formation. Castells (1996) contends that this societyis “increasingly structured around a bipolar oppos i-tion between the Net and the Self” (p. 3) because,with the new technology and communicationmeans, individuals can contact each other and con-struct alternative projects outside the control andmediation of the institutions. Thus, social networksare rising and overcoming former social hierarchies.Globalization, detraditionalization, and in-creased flexibility of society have created situationsand spaces in which individuals and groups need tomake decisions in their lifeworlds and/or with thesystems. While society pushes us to individuallybecome autonomous, it also allows us to go throughthis process in communication with others, on thebasis of social solidarity, orienting our actions to-wards equality and democracy. The new informa-tion age comes along with new challenges andrequirements that can only ensure a transformativeand egalitarian process if they are addressed dia-logically. In fact, current social analyses are show-ing that people are already choosing dialogue inmany spheres of our social lives. People are de-manding and choosing dialogic procedures in thepolitical arena, in personal life, within socialmovements and civic organizations, and evenwithin the organizational structure of large corpora-tions. New social solutions, then, are attending to bedialogic.As part of the growing dialogic tendency, thefield of adult education is also witnessing a growingdemand for participatory approaches, not just frompractitioners but also from participants (SánchezAroca, 1999). As a result of this demand, moreschools have student councils and student repre-sentatives on their boards; more schools includeformer students and people from the community astutors and volunteers who collaboratively teachtheir peers; communication and association betweendiverse participants’ movements has increased; andmembers of cultural centers and civic organizationssearch for grants to create their own educationalprograms in order to address the needs of the peoplein their communities. Dialogue, therefore, and itsimplications for both educational politics and theteaching-learning process, is a fact to be taken veryseriously today.Dialogic Learning in La TertuliaGiven that increased dialogue is part of the currentsocial landscape in Western societies, we argue thatthe field of adult education needs to provide an-swers to people’s changing lives, and address theircurrent educational requirements according to thisdialogic tendency. In fact, many adult educators arealready aware of such a mission. Proposals such asthe Freirean pedagogy have promoted dialogic the-ory and practice for many years, and we could evensay that, within the larger field of education, theywere the first to link dialogic learning and rigorousteaching with democratic participation and socialjustice. Answering to new social challenges, it istoday’s educators’ ethical duty (Freire, 1998) tocontinue fostering dialogic pedagogies and to an-nounce that they are not a project from the past butthe most updated project, given current societalchanges. Furthermore, it is also an educators’ taskto counter postmodern discourses that deny the pos-sibility of learning under such dialogic principlesand which limit transformative high quality adultlearning and spread fatalism in our field (Freire,1997).La Tertulia  is a pedagogical model that pro-motes literacy development on the basis of dialogiclearning principles. In the book Sharing Words,Theory and Practice of Dialogic Learning, RamónFlecha (2000) explains the dialogic learning processthat takes place in this literary circle, drawing fromboth his personal experience in La Tertulia and acommunicative critical theory approach. In thisway, and by narrating participants’ stories, he ex-plains dialogic learning in seven principles: egali-tarian dialogue, cultural intelligence,transformation, instrumental dimension, creation ofmeaning, solidarity, and equality of differences. Wecould summarize Flecha’s principles of dialogiclearning as follows:1. Egalitarian dialogue: All the contributionsmust be equally listened and considered. No opin-ion can be imposed as the only possible one, it isnot important whether it comes from a person whohas been attending La Tertulia for a long time orwho just joined the group.2. Cultural intelligence: Everybody has cul-tural intelligence, regardless of their educational orcultural background. All the participants havelearned many things in very different ways and theirknowledge and abilities can be transferred from onecontext to another. Everybody is able to participatein an egalitarian dialogue and to expand theirlearning through communication along theirlifespan.3. Transformation: Learning through egalitar-ian dialogue has led to transformations in the livesof many people. Participants’ self esteem haschanged and so have their relationships with others.By reading, dialoguing and reflecting together theyovercome barriers that have been traditionally ex-cluding them from education and social participa-tion.4. Instrumental dimension: When participantsread and comment a book, they also talk about thehistory and social conditions of that period. Manyask their relatives or look up information in the en-cyclopedia to share it afterwards with the rest of thegroup. Unlike common held assumptions, dialogismincreases the learning of academic and instrumentalknowledge and abilities.5. Creation of meaning: The loss of meaningprognosticated by Weber can be overcome. Al-though the spread feeling that we live in a systemthat determines our lives, participants in La Tertuliahave demonstrated that through dialogic learning,the meaning arises because people relate to eachother, decide together what they want to learn, andwhat they want to research when participants bythemselves decide what they want to investigateand to learn.6. Solidarity: La Tertulia is open to everybodyand there are no economic or academic barriers tobe able to participate in it. There are even partic i-pants who just learned to read. The group alwaysgive priority to the participation of people with thelower educational levels. In this way, a cooperativelearning experience among all the participants isreached. If we believe in egalitarian educationalpractices, they can only be based on solidarian rela-tionships that promote solidarity.7. Equality of differences: All the participantsin La Tertulia are equal and different. One of themost important principles is the equality among allthe people, which means that everybody has theright to live differently.ConclusionDialogic learning is increasingly more important inthe new information age, and particularly importantto promote education to those people traditionallyexcluded. For this reason, the experience of LaTertulia Literaria , is now becoming known andspreading across adult learning and cultural centers.It has demonstrated to be not only a way to promotereading but also, by breaking with cultural barriersof the elite, a way to open possibilities for adultlearners to further their education and transformtheir lives and their communities.ReferencesBeck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new mod-ernity. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Beck, U., & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (1995). The nor-mal caos of love. Cambridge: Polity Press.Castells, M. (1996). The information age: Economy,society and culture. Vol. I: The rise of networksociety. Cambridge: Blackwell.FACEPA (1999). Declaration of rights of adults ineducation. European Commission DGXII, Soc-rates Program.Flecha, R. (2000). Sharing words: Theory andpractice of dialogic learning. Landham, MD:Rowman & Littlefield.Flecha, R. (1999). The new educational inequalities.In M. Castells, R. Flecha, P. Freire, H. Giroux, D.Macedo, & P. Willis. (1999). Critical education inthe new information age. Lanham, MD: Rowman& Littlefield.Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the heart. New York:Continuum.Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, de-mocracy and civic courage. Lanham, MD:Rowman & Littlefield.Giddens, A. (1994). Beyond left and right: The ru-ture of radical politics. Stanford. CA: StanfordUniversity Press.Habermas, J. (1998). The inclusion of the other:Studies in political theory. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press.Habermas, J. (1987). The theory of communicativeaction: Lifeworld and system – A critique offunctionalist reason. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Habermas, J. (1984). The theory of communicativeaction:  Reason and the rationalization of soci-ety. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Sánchez Aroca, M. (1999). La Verneda-Sant Martí:A school where people dare to dream. HarvardEducational Review, 69 (3), 320-335.                                                                i The Spanish word “tertulia” means a group of peoplegathering together to have a conversation. Traditionally,every evening, people used to grab a chair from theirhome and gather with other people in the street. Theyused  to talk about their journeys, about other people, totell stories, and discuss life. Now, many people do thesame but in cafeterias or in the community center.Tertulias have always been popular among the common                                                                                                       people. La Tertulia Literaria  is thus a group of non-academic people gathering around issues of literature,which could be translated by “literary circle”. However,in this paper, we will keep the Spanish term “tertulialiteraria” because, on the one hand, it refers to theSpanish gathering tradition in popular culture, and on theother hand, unlike many literary circles held by scholarsor intellectuals, La Tertulia Literaria is a literary circlewhere common people discuss about literature.

La Tertulia: A Dialogic Model of Adult Basic Education in the New Information Age

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La Tertulia: A Dialogic Model of Adult Basic Education in the New Information Age

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