Understanding and enabling marketplace literacy in subsistence contexts: The development of a consumer and entrepreneurial literacy educational program in South India

To function in the economic realm, two important resources that individuals need are finances and know-how. Whereas there has been considerable attention on microfinancing, we describe an educational program that focuses on enabling generic skills about the marketplace and complements these important efforts. We conducted research aimed at understanding lives and marketplaces in subsistence contexts in urban and rural parts of a state in South India. We used the research as a basis for developing a consumer and entrepreneurial literacy educational program. This program uses the “know-why”, or an understanding of marketplaces, as a basis for the know-how of being an informed buyer or seller. Despite the difficulties with abstract thinking that low-literate individuals experience, we enable deeper understanding of marketplaces by leveraging the social skills that participants bring to the program and relating educational content back to their lived experiences. Such understanding can enable individuals to place themselves on a path to lifelong learning. Implications of this work for research and practice in non-formal education are discussed.     

Approaches to costing adult literacy programmes,especially in Africa

Background

This study was originally prepared for the African Inter-Ministerial Conference on Literacy (September 2007) with the objective of analysing the costs of successful adult literacy programmes run both by government ministries, as well as international and national non-governmental organisations.

Objectives

This study aims to increase the evidence base available on costs by examining adult literacy programme costs in the context of operational details and budgeting processes. It was intended to add to the limited amount of data currently available, and to provide broad recommendations regarding the calculation of costs.

Methodology

In addition to estimates relating to costing currently available in the published literature, details of nine successful adult literacy programmes were obtained through a combination of web-searches, documentation received from organisers in response to an open-ended e-mail questionnaire and telephone calls. These are described, together with a presentation of their cost structure and our calculation of their unit costs. Particular attention was paid to ‘hidden’ costs in terms of central or provincial government costs, to contributions by NGOs and other partners and to in-kind contributions in examining the new empirical data.

Findings

Information from this study suggests that a realistic estimate of the costs of making an adult literate would be a minimum of US$100, the maximum estimate currently stated in LIFE documents. Despite an up to fivefold variation in unit costs with little obvious reason for this, the large diversity in modalities, objectives and target audience of the programmes explains much of the wide range in unit costs remarked upon by other authors.

Conclusions

We believe that it would be premature for any country to pre-define the appropriate costing structures, and what is an allowable range of unit costs, based on this information. Recommendations are made for what factors should be taken into account when calculating unit costs. Each country should consider making an inventory of the large scale programmes that exist or are being developed as a preliminary step to deciding whether or not it is appropriate to impose a costing framework or proposing a specific range of unit costs. However, there is a demonstrable need for more general agreement about the components that should be considered in any costing of an adult literacy programme.

Significance

This study contributes to the evidence base for developing a framework for analysing and allocating the costs of non-formal adult education projects in a manner to facilitate future planning.     

Evidence,Evaluation and the ‘Tyranny of Effect Size’: a proposal to more accurately measure programme impacts in adult and family literacy

As literacy grows in importance, policymakers’ demands for programme quality grow, too. Evidence on the effectiveness of adult and family literacy programmes is limited at best: research gaps abound, and programme evaluations are more often than not based on flawed theories of programme impact. In the absence of robust evidence on the full range of short- and long-term programme impacts, it is difficult to accurately measure intervention effectiveness. Too frequently, researchers and policymakers focus only on short-term, easily measured outcomes, creating a ‘tyranny of effect size’ that may systematically underestimate impact while simultaneously distorting practice. However, the answer does not lie in turning away from quantitative research. Doing so will consign adult and family literacy to the margins of public policy, when they should be in the mainstream. Longitudinal research from Turkey and the US suggests a need for revised, more subtle theories of how adult literacy and family literacy programmes work, and the diverse ways they benefit participants. By working together more closely and intelligently, researchers, policymakers and practitioners can develop evaluation strategies that more accurately measure programme effects. The key is combining methodological rigour with fully fleshed out theories of literacy development and programme impact.     

Effects of a positive youth development approach to literacy through young adult literature in the secondary remedial reading class: an action research study

The purpose of this action research study was to determine if a bibliotological approach to literacy with at-risk students met the educational expectations of a remedial reading course while simultaneously accelerating literacy practices and promoting positive youth development. Twenty-four tenth grade students enrolled in a remedial reading course in the southwestern USA participated in a nine-week instructional design that utilized young adult literature as a medium through which to practice literacy skills and strategies while exploring positive youth development simultaneously. Measurement protocols included diagnostic assessments of reading, surveys, Likert-scale inventories, and journals as a way of eliciting students’ voices. Data was analyzed through paired t-tests, Bonferroni Correlation, and typological and inductive coding. Through this approach, all students experienced an increase in self-efficacy, which led to positive youth development and growth in literacy proficiency and practices. Suggestions for future research include the study of this approach in multiple remedial contexts, with multiple young adult texts, and for greater lengths of time. Additionally, a follow-up inquiry to determine potential lasting impact is warranted.     

The relationship between home literacy practices and developmental trajectories of emergent literacy and conventional literacy skills for Korean children

Previous studies with English-speaking families in the North American context demonstrated that home literacy practices have positive influences on children’s literacy acquisition. The present study expands previous studies by examining how home literacy practices are related to growth trajectories of emergent literacy skills (i.e., vocabulary, letter-name knowledge, and phonological awareness) and conventional literacy skills (i.e., word reading, pseudoword reading, and spelling), and by using data from Korean children and families (N = 192). The study revealed two dimensions of home literacy practices, home reading and parent teaching. Frequent reading at home was positively associated with children’s emergent literacy skills as well as conventional literacy skills in Korean. However, children whose parents reported more frequent teaching tended to have low scores in their phonological awareness, vocabulary, word reading and pseudoword reading after accounting for home reading. These results suggest a bidirectional relationship between home literacy practices, parent teaching in particular, and children’s literacy skills such that parents adjust their teaching in response to their child’s literacy acquisition. Furthermore, cultural variation in views on parent teaching may explain these results.

Building knowledge,building community: reflecting on the value of a national research programme in adult literacy

In 2003 the National Literacy Secretariat (NLS) of Canada, at that time a branch of the Department of Human Resources and Development Canada, decided to review its research function. This article discusses some of the questions the review raised for the field. Many of these issues are to do with the management of knowledge – what research gets funded, to be performed by whom, and with what kind of approach – whereas others are concerned with the meaning of the research function itself, and what it can contribute to a field of practice such as adult literacy.     

Biological constraints on literacy acquisition

This paper investigates some of the biological constraints that shape the process of literacy acquisition. It explores the possibility of isolating processing components of reading which correspond to computational units of equivalent size in the neural architecture. After reviewing and evaluating the current approaches to the biology of literacy acquisition, the paper considers three interconnected topics: (a) developmental dissociations, (b) early stages of literacy acquisition (in a transparent orthography), and (c) effects of remedial intervention for children with reading disorders. Developmental dissociations between reading and severe mental retardation, motor impairment, congenital anarthria and inaccuracy in phonemic awareness tasks reveal the functional independence of the reading processes. The early stages of literacy acquisition in a transparent orthography show a very steep increase in word and non-word reading accuracy; a speed that could hardly be accounted for by unconstrained learning. Finally, rehabilitation treatments of reading disorders either produce no specific effects, or marginal improvements in reading accuracy, which fade away in the long term. Concurrently, these data suggest that the process of literacy acquisition is largely constrained by a specific biological architecture which mimics the functional properties of a modular system. It is speculated that the core component of reading is a metaphonological parser, designed to perform automatic cross-modal associations between visual and sublexical units, according to the paradigms set up by any orthographic system. The phylogenetic implications of the specificity hypothesis are discussed.     

Reading Island Voices: issues around the primacy of speech and the privileging of literacy,from a Hebridean viewpoint1

ABSTRACT

Divergent views on the relative value or status of spoken and written language skills may contribute to a disconnect between lay community members and language professionals, activists, or academics, and conflicted approaches to language support, teaching and/or revitalisation. Taking the bilingual Outer Hebrides as a case study, an online language capture and curation project is described which attempts to engage with these issues, acknowledging an important place for Reading Aloud in the range of strategies employed.     

North American adult literacy programs and Latin American immigrants: how critical pedagogy can help nonprofit literacy programming in the United States

As nonprofit adult literacy programs are often the only options for low-income Latin American immigrants in North America, problems accompanying these programs affect the ability of immigrants to benefit from them. North American nonprofit adult literacy programs often struggle due to the difficulties inherent in using volunteer instructors (often from different cultural backgrounds than participants) who use curricula that often do not reflect students’ communities of origin. Hence, the outcomes of these programs can be problematic. One potential way to ameliorate these difficulties is found in the critical framework of Paulo Freire, wherein curricula are student-generated. The primary argument in this review essay is that trained community instructors (or Freirean-trained outsiders) – using Freire's model of instruction and curriculum development, working under a demand for true accountability for results from organizational administrators – could improve existent benign North American adult literacy programs into more empowering social resources for Latin American immigrant communities in the United States. The possibilities for such improvement are explored through analysis of positive and negative case studies within the larger literature on adult literacy.     

The literacy achievement of Norwegian minority students

The article presents the literacy achievement of Norwegian minority students, their reading habits, and their enjoyment of reading based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000 study. Aspects of their family background and attitudes towards school are related to literacy achievement results. A comparison between Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany shows that the achievement gap between majority and minority students is larger in Denmark and Germany than in Norway and Sweden. A more detailed presentation of the Norwegian reading results shows that 35% of the Norwegian minority students perform at a level indicating that they are able to read in a technical sense, but they are unlikely to be able to use reading as an independent tool in acquiring knowledge and skills. The minority students' responses to questions about socio‐economic family background, reading habits, learning strategies and school motivation give a complex picture of their situation in Norwegian schools. The results indicate that there is some potential for equalising differences between minority students and majority students.     

Adults who learn differently: Help through a volunteer literacy program

In adult literacy programs today, well-intentioned but inadequately prepared volunteer tutors are being matched with learning disabled adult students without the benefit of receiving training from experts in the field of language/learning disabilities. The collaboration of adult literacy providers and learning specialists is obviously the most resourceful, yet most untried, solution to a problem that is plaguing volunteer-based programs across the country: meeting the needs of learning disabled adults. One adult literacy program—READ/San Diego of the San Diego Public Library—recognized that its volunteer tutors needed training in special instructional methods to teach adults who evidence learning disabilities. Accordingly, the program’s administrator obtained the services of specialists to develop a learning disabilities tutor-training module. This article (1) presents an overview of preservice volunteer training at READ/San Diego; (2) discusses informal assessment procedures that help identify possible language/learning disabilities in adults and provide valuable information for instructional planning; and (3) describes selected multisensory teaching techniques designed especially for adults who “learn differently.”     

Salvadoran campesinos/as’ literacy practices and perceptions of the benefits of literacy: A longitudinal study with former literacy participants

This article uses data from longitudinal, ethnographic research to examine how, six years after attending literacy classes, 12 adults in rural El Salvador used literacy, their perceptions of the temporary and longer-term psychosocial and economic benefits of literacy education, and their memories of literacy classes. The findings support prior research highlighting the unpredictable consequences of literacy education. Although some personal changes were ephemeral, learners nevertheless identified long-term psychosocial and interpersonal benefits, which they attributed mainly to the rituals of social interaction they practiced in literacy classes. These findings underscore the social dimensions of literacy education.     

Reading aloud in Lewisham: an exploration of adult reading‐aloud practices

This paper analyses initial findings of a qualitative pilot study of the reading‐aloud practices of 17 adults in the London Borough of Lewisham. Although the dominant contemporary image of reading is that of a silent activity and within literacy provision it is frequently assumed that reading aloud is not a ‘natural’ ‘real life’ adult practice, anecdote suggests that adults do indeed read aloud, but these practices are overwhelmingly undocumented. This study is the first stage in developing a better understanding of contemporary adult reading‐aloud practices. Semi‐structured interviews were used to ask adults whether, what, where, how and why they read aloud. Initial findings reveal the ubiquitous nature of reading aloud in adult life, across a range of life domains (spiritual life, family life, work and learning) and for different self‐selected purposes (to memorise, to understand, to write and for fellowship). Initial findings reinforce the importance of expanding our definitions and conceptualisations of reading to recognise the diversity and changing nature of real life practices, and suggest implications for our understanding of the role of reading in adult life, for literacy education and for future research.     

Maternal mediation in book reading, home literacy environment, and children’s emergent literacy: a comparison between two social groups

The researchers addressed two questions: (1) Does maternal reading mediation and family home literacy environment (HLE) relate to children’s emergent literacy (EL) level? and (2) Do the relationships among these variables differ as a function of socioeconomic strata (SES) level. A total of 94 5–6-year-old children, 47 from low SES (LSES) and 47 from high (HSES) families, and their mothers participated. Mother–child interactions while reading an unfamiliar book were videotaped and their verbal expressions were coded for extracting maternal mediation level. Children’s independent EL level was assessed prior to the interaction. Compared with the LSES group, HSES children showed higher EL levels and their homes had a richer literacy environment. Maternal mediation level differed by SES: LSES mothers paraphrased text more often; HSES mothers’ higher mediation level included a discussion of the written system and making connections beyond the text. In the HSES group, maternal mediation level and HLE related to children’s EL; no such relationships appeared in the LSES group. Results are discussed in terms of children’s socio-economic background and their reading experiences. Implications for researchers and educational practices about the relationships between children’s literacy development, SES, HLE, and parental mediation are discussed.     

The comparative ethnography of educational projects: youth and adult literacy programmes in Brazil

This article elaborates the concept of educational projects, a term that signifies consistent constellations of institutions, financial resources, social actors, ideologies, theories of knowledge and attendant pedagogies that shape local cultural practices of schooling. The article demonstrates the utility of the concept of educational projects for comparative and international educational studies by examining competing educational projects in Brazilian literacy programmes for youth and adults. In conclusion, the article argues that the concept of educational projects provides a theoretically rich comparative tool for the field of comparative and international education.     

影响成人学习动机的因素分析

员工培训已经成为企业保持核心竞争力的重要职能,受训人员学习动机是影响企业培训效果的关键因素.本文分析了影响成人学习动机的若干因素,指出取得良好的培训效果必须针对成人学习的特点,努力调动受训人员的学习动机.     

Two plus four dimensions of critical literacy

This paper presents a critical analysis of the four dimensions of critical literacy (FDCL), a framework widely known among the scholars and practitioners in the field of critical literacy. It begins with a literature review of critical literacy. Then each dimension of FDCL is described in detail through the use of a children’s book. In addition, the limitations of FDCL are discussed. Finally, this paper proposes that certain features of Jurgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action be appropriated to complement what is lacking in FDCL.     

Reading aloud: A way for parents to support their children's growth in literacy

Parents can form a vital link to literacy and later school success by encouraging literacy and language modeling in their daily communication with children. This article describes a study in Head Start classrooms in Florida and North Carolina where teachers used a book lending system and high quality books which they shared with children and families. Strategies for teachers to assist parents in providing support for emergent literacy are given. Ways to help families see the importance of their practices and encourage the use of these ideas as part of their daily routines are shared.