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Project Plan Abstracts
Group 5 (2002-2004)
Project Titles
- Septima Clark: Unearthing the contributions of a Highlander, Lisa Baumgartner, U.S.A.
- The influence of context on teaching/learning transactions in tutor-based adult basic education, Alisa Belzer, U.S.A.
- An action science approach to creating and sustaining professional learning communities as a vehicle for a comprehensive school reform, Daniel Folkman, U.S.A.
- Fixin to fuss in the deep South: Organizing narratives of environmental adult educator/activists in Dixie, Robert Hill, U.S.A.
- Primary schooling opportunities for youth and adults in Cordoba Argentina, Maria Lorenzatti, Argentina
- The impact of participatory approaches in the planning of literacy education curriculum in Botswana, Tonic Maruatona, Botswana
- Popular education, a process of transforming teaching and learning in the University Adult Education Programmes: A case of IEMS Diploma Programme, Mantina Mohasi, Lesotho
- HIV/AIDS, patriarchy, and poverty: A study of cultural and economic constraints on women and HIV/aids prevention, Gabo Ntseane, Botswana
- Imagining the possibilities: Disability disclosure in adult education and training, Tonette Rocco, U.S.A.
- Political leaders, adult learners: Women of the Congressional Black Caucus, Elice Rogers, U.S.A.
- Learning processes and social practice of adults in Mexico City's marginal urban zones, Mercedes Ruiz, Mexico
Septima Clark: Unearthing the contributions of a Highlander
Myles Horton's name is synonymous with the Highlander Folk School, but he was also associated with the Citizenship School Program at Johns Island, South Carolina. Much of the readily available information on the Johns Island program is seen through Horton's eyes.
Although Septima Clark was integral to the implementation and success of the Johns Island Citizenship Program, her contributions to Highlander and to the file of adult education are less well known than those of her White contemporaries. Her educational philosophies and reflections are also not widely disseminated. Research in this area is needed because African American adult educators' lives and contributions to the field have received less attention than their White counterparts. This research will add depth to the existing information on Clark and will contribute to a more inclusive historical literature base that will better inform adult education theory and practice. This study will make contributions to the transformation learning literature by applying the theory to historical documents written over a lifetime.
Transformative learning theory is the major theoretical construct that guides the study. This study will use a narrative framework that preserves the words and perspectives of the individual. Autobiographical texts and archival data will be used to create a constructed narrative.
The purpose of this study is to examine, describe, and analyze Septima Clark's contributions to the field of adult education. The research questions include: 1) How is her narrative formed by the historical context, 2) What contributions did she make to the social justice efforts of Highlander? 3) How is this social justice agenda evidence throughout her life? 4) What adult education components/strategies did she use in her work?
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Alisa Belzer
U.S.A.
The influence of context on teaching/learning transactions in tutor-based adult basic education
Since the 1960's, when federal funding for adult basic education (ABE) was first legislated, programs have been staffed, in part, by paid instructors (sometimes, but not necessarily, teachers certified in some area of K-12 education). However, volunteer tutors in the field pre-date this development and continue to play an extremely significant instructional role. Nationally, 48% of the instructional staff in federally funded programs is volunteers (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, 1999). When literacy councils and community-based organizations that do not receive federal funding are included, it is evident that volunteer tutors are the majority of ABE instructors. Yet, there is little research on the nature of these teaching and learning transactions and what are the shaping factors that influence them in tutor-based adult basic education.
The specific research questions this study is designed to address are as follows:
- What is the nature of teaching/learning transactions in tutor-based adult literacy instruction?
What implicit and explicit assumptions about adult literacy, adult learning and reading and writing instruction seem evident in these transactions? - What is the relationship between the instructional context and instruction in one-to-one adult literacy tutoring?
- What do tutors and learners bring to the teaching/learning context in terms of expectations, background and training that shape their work together?
- What contextual (program and external) features shape their work together?
- What can looking across diverse program contexts tell us about the influence of context on the teaching/learning transaction in tutor-based adult literacy instruction?
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Daniel Folkman
U.S.A.
An action science approach to creating and sustaining professional learning communities as a vehicle for a comprehensive school reform
The purpose of the study is to document the learning process or patterns of reasoning-in-action that evolve among school, family and community stakeholders engaged in comprehensive school reform efforts. Action science theory and tools will be used to document patterns of reasoning at the individual, group and organizational levels. The goal is to identify individual, group and organizational routines that either inhibit or promote the creation of a learning culture within the school. The study will also include the role of the lead researcher as an adult educator and facilitator of the learning process and the impact, if any, he has had on the overall learning culture of the school. More broadly, this study represents a collaborative inquiry into comprehensive school reform among stakeholders whose involvement is essential to the change process.
The findings will document the tacit reasoning and interpersonal dynamics that together perpetuate low performing schools and explore whether action-learning technologies coupled with action science inquiry can make a significant contribution to transforming schools into learning organizations. The results of this study will contribute to the theory and practice of the adult educator as facilitator for social and organizational change in schools and their extended network of collaborating partners.
The following three questions will guide the study: (1) What are the patterns of reasoning-in-action at the individual, group and organizational level that evolve as a comprehensive school reform initiative unfolds? (2) What are the intervention skills and knowledge of the adult educator/facilitator that either promote and inhibit schools and their collaborating partners from becoming a learning organization? (3) What changes were made in school policies, structure, and professional staff as well as parent and community involvement? Did these changes contribute to the school becoming a learning organization and, if so, did an increase in student academic performances follow?
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Robert Hill
U.S.A.
Fixin to fuss in the deep South: Organizing narratives of environmental adult educator/activists in Dixie
The purpose of this qualitative research study is to gather the disparate voices of environmental adult educator/activists in the southeastern USA. Research such as this is needed because adult educators have paid inadequate attention to environmental adult education despite pressing environmental problems. In the South, raising oppositional voices has been described as fussin'. Anecdotal evidence suggests that citizen environmental fussin'Ñwhen it occursÑoften does not materialize into well-organized efforts and brings about limited social change. While grassroots leadership may be fixin' to educate fellow citizens about environmental hazards, few action-oriented organizations emerge in the non-Appalachian South. Environmental activism has relatively low levels of participation, and organizers face multiple barriers in their efforts to build collective resistance to pollution scenarios. This study will add to the adult education/community development literature by exploring the labors of environmental leaders who engage in contests for cultural authority and who struggle to build capacity in their hometowns. It will answer the primary questions: (1) What have been the experiences of environmental adult educator/activists in their bids to organize community education? (2) Why have grassroots regional environmental identities been slow to emerge in Dixie?
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Maria Lorenzatti
Argentina
Primary schooling opportunities for youth and adults in Cordoba Argentina
The purpose of this research project is to analyze the educational opportunities at the primary level for youth and adults in the educational system of C—rdoba (Argentina). The study's objectives are: to describe and analyze the sociopolitical and institutional dimensions and the dimensions of the teaching and learning space; and to derive proposals for action at the level of educational policies, the institutions, and the teaching and learning space. These dimensions permit the analysis of the role of the State in the subject of youth and adult education in a conceptual structure. It deals with analyzing how the set of laws, decrees, and actions engaged in by the governments are as much at the national as the provincial levels shaped in the Institutions, with their different histories and, at the same time, how they are visualized in the classroom space through the dialectic relationship between the educational triad: educator, student and knowledge. It is an analysis of technical-pedagogical questions which are contextualized in the institutional arena and in political decisions; that is, the political character of the education of youth and adults in the formal educational system is emphasized. The project is based on a qualitative research design, of analytical induction, and of dialectic and global understanding, and it is framed within the investigation "Study of the situation of adult education in a context of neoconservatism, adjustment policies, and poverty," directed by Dr. M.T. Sirvent. This project will permit reflection together with colleagues on the curricular proposal for this modality. The commitment is assumed to transfer the knowledge produced to the moments of decision-making on educational policy and fundamentally to the protagonists of the pedagogical practices of adults: teachers in the system and non-governmental organizations that implement actions in the field.
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Tonic Maruatona
Botswana
The impact of participatory approaches in the planning of literacy education curriculum in Botswana
The purpose of this study is to use participatory approaches to develop literacy education materials/curriculum in Ngamilad District and determine its impact on teachers and learners. Research in this area is essential because there is little known about curriculum development in literacy education in Botswana and other developing countries. Also the curriculum of the available program has largely been expert driven. Adding another perspective, such as participatory approach to curriculum development would enrich the theory and practice of literacy education in the country.
The result of the proposed project would enhance our understanding of the role of participatory approach to the practice of adult literacy, which is still at a formative stage in developing countries. The outcomes of the project will include basic documents, serving as a base for further inquiry into the place of participatory approaches in literacy education, and journal articles contributing to the curriculum development discourse in adult education. This research is driven by critical theory and political economy perspectives and will provide answers to the following questions: (1) How effective are participatory approaches in developing literacy materials, (2) How does participatory teaching and learning respond to the context of the learners, (3) What are the benefits and constraints of using participatory approaches in developing literacy curriculum in the Botswana context?
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Mantina Mohasi
Lesotho
Popular education, a process of transforming teaching and learning in the University Adult Education Programmes: A case of IEMS Diploma Programme
This study investigates popular education as a model of learning at Diploma level in adult education program of the Institute of Extra Mural Studies (IEMS). This Institute is an Extension arm of the National University of Lesotho. Lesotho is a small developing country that is completely surrounded by South Africa. Like any other developing country, Lesotho experiences problems of poverty, unemployment, and lack of enough schools that offer skill-based courses.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using popular education as a model of learning in the Diploma in adult education program at IEMS. Furthermore, the study intends to use the data to design popular education based curriculum and employ it in an experimental Diploma class. The research questions for the study are based on how do people in Lesotho conceptualize popular education, how popular education could be integrated into the curriculum to alleviate some of the country's problems of` leadership, conflict, poverty, unemployment and inequality.
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HIV/AIDS, patriarchy, and poverty: A study of cultural and economic constraints on women and HIV/aids prevention
This study analyzes the socio-economic and patriarchal cultural issues surrounding the vulnerability of women to HIV/Aids and their implications for AIDS prevention in Botswana. The results of this study will inform practice in the health field and in particular in relation to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Southern Africa. For example, knowing why women are likely to benefit from the prevention efforts is crucial for future effective intervention strategies in Botswana. Findings of this study will also advance our understanding of behavioral change learning in female adulthood. It is only through ongoing studies such as those of HIV that adult education research can be made more inclusive of all human experience, and help develop theories that are to illuminate experiences of women at the margins of our societies.
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Tonette Rocco
U.S.A.
Imagining the possibilities: Disability disclosure in adult education and training
Disability is rarely explored as a social construct, a political concern, or an experience that warrants a theoretical framework in adult education. When discussing multicultural issues, disabled people are not viewed as a minority group with shared experiences of discrimination and have few opportunities for education and employment. We should view delayed access to materials, entering buildings from separate entrances, or denying entrance into public buildings restricting participation in the social, civic, and political life of the community as segregation and discrimination.
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires adults to disclose information about the disability, provide requested documentation, and suggest accommodations (P.L. 101-336). The responsibility to disclose and seek accommodations rests solely on the disabled person. Our workplaces become places of risk for disabled people when considering whether to disclose or not and how much information is appropriate (Dyck, 1999). The way the disclosure is received, perceived, and acted on can make a difference in how the adult will approach a new learning or work situation, seek mentoring or other work relationships (Chelune, 1979). The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of disability disclosure on the work environment, work relationships, and the nature of work for disabled workers.
A qualitative study will be conducted that uses a model of relational development and decline in close relationships and self-disclosure as a framework for interview questions (Derlega, Metts, Petronio, & Margulis, 1993). This research has the potential to contribute to the knowledge base in adult education by adding a missing perspective to the discussion of power and privilegeÑthat of the disabled adult.
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Elice Rogers
U.S.A.
Political leaders, adult learners: Women of the Congressional Black Caucus
The purpose of this investigation is to extend current research on African American women political leaders. The proposed study seeks to identify learning experiences of African American women political leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus that were influential in adult leadership development. Such a study will afford us better knowledge of factors that influence African American women and adult development, and foster a greater understanding of the role that formal and non-formal education plays in the lives of diverse adult leaders and learners. These aspects are particularly important as we begin to assess the changing nature of the adult learning environment, economic change, social change, and technological change. Our increasingly diverse population calls for adult leadership cultivation at the margins. Globalization requires organizations, institutions, and other interlocking systems of government to enhance their ability to learn to collaborate and manage, a new diverse leadership (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999).
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Learning processes and social practice of adults in Mexico City's marginal urban zones
Adult education in Mexico has been the responsibility of the State and has been focused on offering literacy and basic education programs. These programs have had very little success, which is observed in the increase in the number of people left behind by the educational system, which currently includes 36 million people over the age of 15 who have not completed basic education. One of the causes of this failure is that its curricular design has been based on the basic education programs for children, that is, on an ignorance of the specific learning processes of the adults to whom these programs are directed. The research in this field is limited or nonexistent in Mexico.
The purpose of this project is to explore the learning process and social practices of adults who live in marginal zones of Mexico City. In particular, it is interested in examining three domains of learning connected with the social and cognitive development of adults: communicative practices, work skills, and civic participation and organization. The study will be of the qualitative type, supported by ethnographic methodology and discourse analysis.
This research seeks to document the social practices in the daily life of the adults, the learning that is produced through these practices, and their educational needs. It is hoped that the results of the research will serve for the design of programs and local educational projects that will eventually impact on policies at the national level.
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