Reflections on Teaching Adult Students in Diverse Contexts

My general response to the material and coursework required for this class is very positive. To be more specific, I found the reading and classroom practices engaging and informative.  The fieldwork assignment was an excellent complement to both the surveyed literature and classroom practices in that my perspective, informed by the classwork, underwent a shift in the field. I was able to better understand what the teacher was doing in the Worker Center because I had exposure to the literacy theories and practices that he implemented in the classroom. In addition, I got to practice ethnographic writing -- a type of writing I rarely do.

     I found it challenging and extremely satisfying to attempt to capture ongoing events through on-site observation and writing. And, then to produce a more formal document based on notes, interviews, reflection back on my observations and field notes, and supplemented with critical theory provided by classroom documents.  I have rarely been as much a participant in my own writing. I am used to writing on all manner of things, but I am unaccustomed to being able to insert my own research into a document produced for school. Not a literacy narrative or analysis in which I provide perspective, but a research paper for which I have provided part of the information to be analyzed. It was an extremely satisfying experience and an experience I plan to duplicate in the not too distant future.

     I enjoyed participating in the class presentations and learning from my peers all of the really good work going on in adult education. It’s heartening to know that there are so many people giving their best effort toward goals related to social justice and the balance of inequalities that often begin in, and are reinforced by, the very field in which I’ve chosen to work: education.  

     I was especially pleased with the large part of the class dedicated to worker education and the educational opportunities that labor unions provide for their members. It was through those very avenues that many members of my own family got the education they would never have been able to pay for, who went on to instill the value of education and provide it for their own children. I’ll never forget my grandfather, Henry, saying something like…you can lose everything, or have it taken from you, everything except what you have learned…what you know. That’s true, I think. And, it’s good to know that there’s a lot that can’t be taken from me or lost.

     If I were asked to define humanity’s purpose, I would say that our purpose is to serve our fellow beings in the best way we can. Success for me isn’t related to material things, or to divine beings, it’s being able to offer help to another person. It doesn’t really need to be on a large scale for me…My father taught in really tough high schools where failure rates were high, people were poor, life was violent, and often short. He used to say…it’s about making a kid happy for one minute in a day that they wouldn’t have otherwise been happy…one minute…one person…or longer…or more….it’s all success to me. 

Response to “Breaking barriers with books: A fathers' book sharing program from prison"

     In “Breaking barriers with books: A fathers’ book sharing program from prison,” Margaret Genesio describes a program for incarcerated men that comprises three parts: instructional, parent/child meeting (family visit), and a parent support meeting led by the fathers that participate in the program.  The instructional component of the program consists of 10 hours of onsite learning in workshops that stress the father’s importance to his child with regard to educational attainment and literacy practices. The parent/child meetings allowed fathers and children to build memories with each other while practicing literacies and the support meeting was a place where fathers could share their experiences and brainstorm solutions to shared problems.

     I found this program especially heartening because of the high level of absentee fathers in current times. The correlation between single parent households and negative consequences for the children in those household is indisputable.  If this program had no other positive result than maintaining a connection between fathers and children, I would still consider it a success. However, judging by the high levels of participation, the long hours fathers spent writing in journals, creating extension activities, and experimenting new ways to enact the program practices, it seems to be effective on a number of other levels as well.  One could hope that programs such as this, if instituted widely, could reduce recidivism rates because fathers would have a greater likelihood of rejoining the family unit upon release.

Response to "Creating New Directions with Story: Narrating Life Experience as Story in Community Adult Education Contexts"

     Story telling seems an appropriate place to start the learning process for adults because it is likely a practice they already engage in.  The pervasiveness of story-telling connects all cultures together and identifies a common trait shared throughout humanity. Our stories are different, perhaps, but we all have them.  Perhaps the most important aspect of story-telling is that in telling and re-telling stories about life experiences, the story becomes an object available for analysis by the story-teller. The story-teller is then able to use perceive their own experience in a more analytic way which could lead to a better understanding of their “self” and their “self’s” relationship to the larger context of the world. It is a way of reflecting, from a distance, on events that you have lived.  That reflective process is integral to the kind of transformational learning that allows people to objectively view and, perhaps, alter the circumstances of their lives.

     Story-telling also has a way of evening the field between the members involved in the group. Students who might be reticent about participating in learning practices in the group for affective reasons, or because perceived unequal power dynamics make them seem vulnerable to judgement or ridicule, could become more comfortable and open to the learning environment once they have gotten to know the people in the group through stories.  The commonality among experiences of diverse groups of people never ceases to amaze me. Everyone has loved someone; lost someone; has a story about their mother, father or children; everyone is from somewhere and has stories connected to that place. Of course, story-telling as a learning event must be connected to the reflective process in order for it to be effective. It’s not really about the story; it’s about what you can learn from your story and how that learning relates to the learning experiences of other people in the group.

Response to "Older College Students as Tutors for Adult Learners in an Urban Literacy Program" by Daphne Ntiri

     The program described by Daphne Ntiri in “Older College Students as Tutors for Adult Learners in an Urban Literacy Program” is of great interest to me personally both because I was both an older college student and a tutor of adult learners. Of particular interest to me were the differences in “norms” between older and traditional college students. The article states that, “norms more characteristic of adults than traditional age college students include good class attendance, attentiveness, active class participation, motivation, completion of assignments, self-reliance and academic honesty” (49). This quote bears out my personal observations with regard to the older students I’ve encountered during my long and sometimes sporadic pursuit of post-graduate education.      I think that older students have experienced more obstacles with regard to attaining higher education and it is, therefore, perceived as something more valuable to us. In addition, because we have experienced difficulty in reaching standards we’ve set for ourselves we can better understand the experiences of adult learners generally. Perhaps, we offer a kind of support that traditional students can’t. We can say things like, “I hear you. I understand your situation. I know it’s hard, but you have to keep working. If I could do it, you can do it.” These things we say combined with the help we can provide offer both academic and emotional support for adult learners. Adult students might also feel more comfortable sharing their perceived inadequacies with tutors who have perceived inadequacies in themselves. Perhaps, they don’t feel judged as someone who has ever lacked anything except the opportunity to learn.

Response to Context-Based Adult Learning

     In “Context-based Adult Learning,” Catherine Hansman raises some interesting questions about how we really learn to teach. Despite pedagogical training that happens in schools or professional development that is provided by educational institutions, real learning –for both teachers and students—seems to occur in the classroom as we interact with each other. Students learn from teachers, although they are more likely to learn from other students in collaborative activities; teachers learn from students as we respond to unique needs and circumstances that arise in each classroom.

     Hansman asserts the primacy of social context as a site of learning. In addition, teachers in adult classrooms must design pedagogical approaches that are specific to our learners’ needs. We must pay “attention to interaction and intersection among people, tools, and context within a learning situation” (Hansman 44).  When I think of effective pedagogies for adults, I am never comfortable applying a needs-assessment model to the classroom where the teacher determines the needs of the students than designs lessons to address those needs.

     Adults know what they need; there’s no need for teachers of adults to assess needs, rather the goals of any particular class should be ascertained in collaboration with the students in that classroom. In other words, we need to talk to our students. If we want to know what they need, we have simply to ask. If goals are determined after this fashion, context already infused into the content of the class. Students determine their needs as they encounter situations and information they are unfamiliar with understanding and producing. As teachers of adults, our real job is to help students negotiate these circumstances as they arise.