Adult and Lifelong Education for Poverty Reduction: A Critical Analysis of Contexts and Conditions

Poverty reduction is deeply implicated in structures of politics, economy, culture, and technology, from the global down to local levels. Irrespective of the particular political ideology of a nation and of the specific strategy of mobilization, adult and life-long education can and must play a significant role in reducing poverty, including preventing its inception. Yet the adult-education sector does not seem to be ready for this challenge. The present study argues that the re-education of adult educators is a dire necessity for effective poverty reduction. It also maintains that adult educators must be re-socialized in terms of their potential new roles as intellectual-activists. Only so can they work successfully towards introducing systems of adult and life-long education that are truly comprehensive and genuinely commensurate with the goals of poverty reduction.

---

Zusammenfassung ERWACHSENENBILDUNG UND LEBENSLANGE BILDUNG FüR DIE VERMINDERUNG VON ARMUT: EINE KRITISCHE ANALYSE VON ZUSAMMENH?NGEN UND BEDINGUNGEN – Die Verminderung von Armut ist tief verankert in den Strukturen von Politik, Wirtschaft, Kultur und Technologie, von der globalen bis hinab zur lokalen Ebene. Ungeachtet der jeweiligen politischen Ideologie einer Nation und der spezifischen Strategie zur Mobilisierung kann und muss die Erwachsenenbildung und die lebenslange Bildung eine bedeutende Rolle dabei spielen, die Armut zu vermindern, was mit einschlie?t, ihrer Entstehung vorzubeugen. Dennoch scheint der Sektor der Erwachsenenbildung für diese Herausforderung nicht gerüstet zu sein. Die vorliegende Untersuchung legt dar, dass die Neuausbildung der Erwachsenenbildner eine unbedingte Notwendigkeit für eine wirksame Verminderung der Armut darstellt. Sie stellt auch fest, Erwachsenenbildner auf ihre m?gliche neue Rolle als Bildungsaktivisten neu vorbereitet werden müssen. Nur so k?nnen sie erfolgreich darauf hinarbeiten, Systeme von Erwachsenenbildung und lebenslanger Bildung einzuführen, die wirklich umfassend sind und den Zielen der Verminderung von Armut tats?chlich entsprechen.

---

Resumen EDUCACIóN DE LAS PERSONAS ADULTAS Y DURANTE TODA LA VIDA PARA LA REDUCCIóN DE LA POBREZA: UN ANáLISIS CRíTICO DE CONTEXTOS Y CONDICIONES – La reducción de la pobreza está profundamente implicada en las estructuras de la política, la economía, la cultura y la tecnología en todos los niveles, partiendo desde niveles globales y bajando hasta los niveles locales. Independientemente de la ideología política particular de cada nación o de la estrategia específica de movilización, la educación de las personas adultas y durante toda la vida puede y debe desempe?ar un papel importante en la reducción de la pobreza e incluso en la prevención de sus comienzos. Sin embargo, el sector de la educación de las personas adultas aún no parece estar preparado para enfrentar estos retos. Este trabajo sostiene que la reeducación de los educadores adultos es imperiosamente necesaria para lograr una reducción eficaz de la pobreza. También sostiene que los educadores adultos deben ser resocializados en cuanto a sus potenciales nuevos roles como activistas intelectuales. Solamente de esa manera podrán trabajar con éxito para implantar sistemas de educación de personas adultas y durante toda la vida que sean realmente completos y que, efectivamente, cumplan con los objetivos de reducción de la pobreza.

---

Résumé éDUCATION DES ADULTES ET TOUT AU LONG DE LA VIE EN FAVEUR D’UNE RE′DUCTION DE LA PAUVRETé : UNE ANALYSE CRITIQUE DES CONTEXTES ET DES CONDITIONS – La réduction de la pauvreté est profondément impliquée dans les structures de la politique, de l’économie, de la culture et de la technologie, du niveau global jusqu’aux niveaux locaux. Indépendamment de l’idéologie politique particulière d’une nation et de la stratégie spécifique de mobilisation, l’éducation des adultes et tout au long de la vie peut et doit jouer un r?le significatif dans la réduction de la pauvreté, y compris en empêchant son commencement. Cependant, le secteur de l’éducation des adultes ne semble pas être prêt pour ce défi. L’étude présente soutient que la rééducation des éducateurs d’adultes est une dure nécessité pour la réduction effective de la pauvreté. Elle maintient également que les éducateurs d’adultes doivent être resocialisés en termes de leurs nouveaux r?les potentiels en tant qu’activistes intellectuels. C’est seulement ainsi qu’ils peuvent travailler avec succès afin d’introduire des systèmes d’éducation des adultes et tout au long de la vie qui soient vraiment complets et véritablement adaptés aux objectifs de la réduction de la pauvreté.

     

Deaf teacher candidates in hearing classrooms: a unique teacher preparation program

An undergraduate teacher education program at Gallaudet University prepares deaf students in "regular" education. This includes a required full-time internship with hearing students (assisted by sign language interpreters). Graduates then continue in a master's degree program in deaf education, thus acquiring dual certification. Several studies indicate that these deaf candidates progress through the same developmental stages as hearing candidates and that they develop high expectations for deaf learners. Issues related to implementing such a program are discussed.     

Serial rapid naming skills in children with reading disabilities

This study compared the performance of children with reading disability (RD) and normal reading achievement (NRA) on tasks of serial rapid naming, verbal fluency, letter-based word retrieval, and articulatory speed. The groups, composed of children at two discrete age levels, one younger and one older, were matched for age, gender, and neighborhood school. Analyses of the on-line measurement of the children’s serial rapid naming indicated that the children with RD had significantly larger reaction times and production durations than their NRA peers despite similar levels of accuracy. They also performed significantly worse on the categorical verbal fluency task, the letter-based word retrieval task, and the test of articulatory speed. The findings suggest that both access and post-access processes, such as oral-motor inefficiency that extends the duration of word production, may be implicated in the slower serial rapid naming that has typified many samples of children with RD. This work was supported in part by Basil O’Connor Research Grant 5-340 from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, a Scholarly and Creative Activity Award and sabbatical leave from California State University, Long Beach and grant #DCO 1904-01 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the NIH to the first author.     

Cross-cultural differences in maternal perceptions of cries of low- and high-risk infants

The tape-recorded cries of low- and high-risk newborn infants were rated by 150 inner-city Anglo-American, Black-American, and Cuban-American mothers during the hospital lying-in period following childbirth. Half of each cultural group was primiparous and half was multiparous. The mothers rated the cries along 4 perceptual and 6 caregiving response scale items. Reliable differences were found between low- and high-risk infant cries on all perceptual responses with the effects of culture and parental experience affecting the degree of differences. Generally, Anglo-American mothers found the cries more distressing, urgent, arousing, and sick sounding than Black-American mothers, while Cuban-American mothers showed similarities to both Black- and Anglo-American mothers depending on the scale items. The ratings on the caregiving response scale items paralleled cultural differences found on the perception scale items and previous reports of the mother-infant interaction patterns of other Anglo-, Black-, and Cuban-American samples. The results are discussed as being important in developing nonethnocentric views of the functional significance of the behaviors of the infant at risk, yet as providing evidence of the cross-cultural significance of the cry sound of the infant at risk.     

Help‐Seeking and Non‐Help‐Seeking Students' Perceptions of Own and Peers' Mental Health Functioning

Help‐seeking (HS) students and non‐help‐seeking (NHS) students were compared on their perceptions of (a) their own level of mental health functioning and (b) the average level of mental health functioning of their (NHS or HS) peers. Results showed that NHS students' perceptions of HS students' self‐ratings were similar to HS students' self‐ratings of functioning but that HS students underestimated the level of functioning of their NHS peers. Implications of the findings for campus outreach and future research are discussed.     

Investigating the Relations Among Pre-Service Teachers’ Teaching/Learning Beliefs and Educational Technology Integration Competencies: a Structural Equation Modeling Study

Journal of Science Education and Technology - With the rapid developments in technology, training of pre-service teachers in terms of technology integration has become a crucial issue for all...     

Samples of stimuli,responses, and reinforcers: Effect of incongruent sample type,serial position,and mode of presentation

In two matching-to-sample experiments, pigeons’ performance with samples of stimuli (red and green), number of responses (1 and 20), and reinforcers (food and no food) was assessed. Samples of red, 20 responses, and food were associated with the red comparison stimulus, and samples of green, 1 response, and no food were associated with the green comparison stimulus. On interference trials, three sample types were presented on each trial, and two of the samples (congruent) were associated with the correct comparison and the third sample (incongruent), with the incorrect comparison. Performance on interference trials was compared with that on control trials in which either two (Experiment 1) or three (Experiment 2) congruent samples were presented. It was found that presentation of an incongruent sample reduced matching accuracy markedly, and about equally, whether samples were presented successively or in compound. Although the type of sample that was incongruent was without effect, matching accuracy declined strongly as the recency of the incongruent sample increased. Serial position of the incongruent sample also influenced the shape of the retention function on interference trials. Presentation of the incongruent sample either first or second resulted in accuracy decreasing across the retention interval, whereas presentation of the incongruent sample last in the input sequence resulted in increasing accuracy across the retention interval. The theoretical implications of the findings are considered.