I just finished reading Janks chapter 4. I've always known that there is so much more that we say with what we say, and it was really interesting to see how it has been broken down by Janks. Sometimes I 'read' against the text of a news program, because I feel that there is so little neutrality. I studied marketing many years ago, and remember some of this, although it was not so clearly explained. When I read advertising, I tend to try to figure out who the target reader is after I've read it. I notice that a lot of what I read isn't directed at me, so I'm neither estranged or engaged by some texts. Infantilization is something I'm becoming more aware of in reading texts, because advertising does so much of it (at least it appears that way to me). My writing class has also helped me recognize what I'm saying with my words. Choosing the right word to convey meaning can have a profound effect on the reader. Photoshopping has become a verb, as the Janks indicates. In teaching Photoshop, I show students what they can achieve by taking an image and conveying more with it than the original image indicates. Like Photoshop, analyzing text tends to make you look critically at much more of what we read. The illustrations in the chapter show the effect photoshopping can have on an image. After reading Janks, it becomes harder to take reading at face value.

The Big "A"

The "a-ha" moment I had in the last class was about the assumptions in those conversations. It is very interesting and eye-opening to see what the deep assumptions imbedded in those communications and how they affect the content and forms of literacy.

To my understanding, the assumption of a conversation is slight different from the assumption we usually talk about. For example, in my TA class, we talks about the assumptions of different ethical reasoning lenses. The assumption of utilitarianism is that it is ethical to promote the greatest benefit for the majority while the assumption of libertinism is that it is ethical to ensure of freedom of each individual. The different assumptions of “ethical” lead to different criteria of the right behaviors in those theories. However, according to our discussion in last class, when we are discussing ethical principles, we share the assumption that there are ethical principles. The reorganization of the topic is the deepest assumption that allows people participate in the conversation. If someone has no idea what ethics is what ethical lenses are, it is impossible for him to understand the conversation and offer his opinion.

I find this point genius because it points out that what tranquilizes a person is not holding an opposite opinion as a minority, but having no knowledge about the topic. It might be difficult to be the minority in a debate, where your idea is rejected or challenged by others. You may feel stressful in those situations and struggle to defend your stand. However, it is much more frustrating when you have no clue about the topic at all and are not able to form your own opinion on it. When you are the minority, you can, at lease, get involved, understand others’ word and think consciously. But when you are ignorant about the assumption of the topic, you may feel stupid because you cannot understand what others’ are saying and cannot reason for yourself, which is extremely disempowering. In this situation, you are automatically expelled from the conversation.  

Realizing how much power is associated with the assumption of the topic, I believe it is of primary importance to inform each participant with the topic in advance when facilitating and encouraging a conversation. It is significant to make sure that each person is listening and speaking during the conversation, but the foundation of that is the each one’s acknowledgement of the basic assumption, the topic. If the person does not know the topic, there is no way for him to take or offer anything no matter how intelligent he is.  One example is the class I taught last Thursday. In the beginning of the class, I planned a discussion about the readings of ethical reasoning under my assumption that all of them should have done the reading and known the topic. However, the classroom was awkwardly quiet. I thought it was because they did not understand my question or that they were afraid what they thought were not correct. So I rephrased the question, and ensured them that there was no single correct answer and I just wanted to get them to talk about the reading. However, when one student admitted that she did not do the reading, I realized that I was not going to get the conversation going if most of them were ignorant about the topic. To fulfill the goal of the class, I changed my instructional plan and allowed sometime for them to read the articles and discuss them in small groups. After familiarizing themselves with the topic, they became much more involved in the conversation and had much to offer to the topic.

Based on what have been discussed, one significant issue deserves our attention as adult literacy educators is that, instead of just teaching people how to think, we are responsible to show people what to think. Exposing learners to problems may be the most empowering thing we can do for them. Once they recognize the topic and share the assumption, they will be able to conduct the conversation and develop their thinking. This also ties with our class project beautifully, which is to disclose, but not to fix. Once we reveal the issue and provide people a chance to talk, they will be able to figure things out based on their experience and knowledge.

Critical Discourse Analysis Close to Home

Hi All: this Washington Post article was brought to my attention as a good piece of text for us to critically analyze. I'd be pretty upset if my child were enrolled in one of the failing schools about to be taken over by the state, then again, I would probably remove him and enroll him in private school. That not being an option for the real world students in these failing Virginia schools, I agree the status quo is unacceptable. Consider that my attempt at transparency.

 I think the issue here is state government intervening in local government jurisdiction. There is also a historical context of big government intervention in education, with "separate but equal" school systems for black and white children. Then there was forced integration. Don't y'all have that famous "Remember the Titans" school here in VA? In grew up in suburban Detroit; our "forced integration" issue was city kids being bussed out to the suburban schools. I remember how upset my parents were, I remember neighbors moving "further out" to get away from "inner-city Detroit." I was a little too young (sheltered?) to fully understand all the fears and concerns.

The issue of state take-over of failing schools as outlined in the article below seems like a 2013 version of some of the issues I described above. Won't we be creating a government bureaucracy to oversee a "separate but equal" school system of the 6 failing schools? This action was modeled on something similar in Louisiana, called the Recovery School District. Geez, the name alone will probably destine it to fail. I don't think that program has proven itself a success. Honestly, did the Gov come up with this plan on his own or is he getting his education advice and guidance from VDOE? Who, exactly, are the stakeholders in this plan?

Back to the schools, what about the teachers and students at the 6 schools in question? They've already been labeled "failures." I haven't followed this issue to know if the parents, teachers, or students have been given a voice in the process, though it seems to have been ongoing. Is it "common sense" that we want our children to have a fair and equal (what are the Constitutional words?) education? Even though I don't know the details of this issue, I feel like I'm "joining the bandwagon" that something must be done. Beyond that, I'm at a loss.

That's all I have for CDA so I'm turning this over to you, colleagues. Thanks for listening, and help me out here! Susan

Governor’s bill to allow Va. to take over chronically failing schools wins final approval

RICHMOND, Va. — Legislation pushed by Gov. Bob McDonnell to allow the state to take over chronically failing schools received final General Assembly approval Wednesday.

The House of Delegates voted 64-34 to pass the bill, a major component of the Republican governor’s education reform agenda. The Senate previously passed the measure on a tie-breaking vote by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling. It now goes to McDonnell for his signature.

The legislation will take effect only if the state budget — now the subject of negotiations — includes the $600,000 McDonnell proposed to get the program started.

Louisiana’s statewide Recovery School District served as the model for McDonnell’s proposal to create an Opportunity Education Institution to take control of failing schools. The Virginia legislation establishes an 11-member board to try to turn around schools that repeatedly fail to meet accreditation standards.

Six schools currently meet the criteria for state takeover, but none will be transferred until after the 2013-2014 school year.

Proponents of the legislation said those few schools have been allowed to fail for too long, shortchanging students who are entitled to a quality education.

“With today’s vote in the House, Virginia sends a message that the status quo is not acceptable in chronically failing schools,” McDonnell said in a statement. “We have laid out a clear path to turn around those schools and provide the students who attend them with the world-class educational opportunities they deserve.”

Del. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax, complained that parents and other residents would be excluded from efforts to improve the schools.

“This bill is an outrageous intrusion into local governance,” she said. “Six schools being taken over with this process is six too many.”

Organizations representing Virginia teachers, school board and administrators opposed the bill.

Del. Greg Habeeb, R-Salem, said student performance has improved in Louisiana’s Recovery School District. Several legislators visited that state last year for a firsthand look at the program, which Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal touted at a news conference with McDonnell earlier this month. Jindal said 77 percent of students in New Orleans were attending failing schools in 2005. That’s been reduced to 29 percent, he said.

However, New Orleans schools run by the Recovery School District still have a D grade on average while those outside of New Orleans received an F in the latest round of grades released in October. Sixty-eight of the 80 schools overseen by Louisiana’s statewide system are in New Orleans.

The Senate, meanwhile, voted 32-7 to pass a competing plan to deal with failing schools without a state takeover. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Kenneth Alexander of Norfolk, would require intensified efforts by state and local school officials to turn around failing schools.

“This gets at the same problem without turning the school system upside down,” said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax.

Republican opponents of the bill argued that it wouldn’t do much that can’t already be done.

Alexander’s bill also hinges on funding and faces an uncertain fate in the heavily GOP House.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Push and America's Perfect Storm

Last week I finally developed the nerve to pick up the book "Push" and began the adventure of Precious' life.   With the readings of the previous week now stirring my thoughts, I consider this provocative story as I reflect on my feelings of "America's Perfect Storm".  While understanding that our current economic crisis is attributed to a variety of reasons, I had not considered the possible effects that education may have on the current and future situation.  Education obviously prepares us for the working world, enabling us to read and understand society so that we may be successful in its mix.  I so believe in the possibilities that education can provide, I am a tremendous advocate of the education for my own children and have (obviously) ventured out to continue my own.  But to consider "as better-educated individuals leave the workforce they will be replaced by those who, on average, have lower levels of education and skill." (p.4) was a very new perspective for me.  I often find myself surprised at how much more my own children are capable of doing than I was at their age.  Granted there is some loss of ability due to our dependence on things such as computers (we didn't have spell check when I was in school!), but to view them as less intelligent?  I struggle to agree with the theories in the article.  Their arguments are well articulated and supported by various data, so when faced with such text I do have a difficult time not considering it.  My own experiences with my children and their current education affects my opinion, but I suppose I should consider whether or not their opportunities are truly the norm.  Thinking back to fictional account of Precious' life, I feel my frustration returning.  How could someone treat a child the way that her parents do?  How can you not want to support their dreams and aspirations?  Too consistently belittle them and not offer or seek help knowing that they are struggling with their reading, such an important aspect of their education in its entirety.  The feeling that is expressed so vividly through Precious's tears when her teacher asks her so simply "are you in the right class?" My heart bleed for her and her unjust life.  I only hope that she becomes the heroine that I know she can, so this part I suppose is "to be continued"….As I ponder however her obvious desire to get the education that she should, I consider conversations that I've had with friends who are or were teachers in various public school systems.  The sad stories that they told of children with parents that do not care about them or their struggles with school.  My friends efforts to help them as much as they could, despite.  But what about after they left their classrooms?  Did someone take them under their wing then?  How many other children in our society are really living a life like those described in the pages of that little red book?  It's difficult sometimes to step out of our own realities and consider the reality known to others.  Perhaps the reality of so many that really are affecting our educational abilities as a country, as described in APS.  Conceivably our fate may be traveling the road detailed in America's Perfect Storm.  I for one however hope that there are some holes in their theories.  But for now, slightly outside of my own reality, I wonder how capable I could be in helping to change our path.

Remaining Neutral

        As I continue to gather my thoughts on the 1-2-3 project I view my artifact as more powerful every day.  I am not a fan of my artifact.  It removes my instructional assistant from my classroom and it brings me little information of use (more on this in the project), but its power seems to grow as I analyze my own feelings and try to project how other faculty members may view it.  Since it is put into circulation with my name on it, it appears as if I support this artifact when in truth I feel very differently about it.

        So as it grows in power I wonder how I will be able to project a neutral stance as I begin the interview process.  Will I be able to not tell others what to think of this form?  As proved in class with some dramatics I do not want others to tell me what to think when they present me with written words.  Yet, here I sit, convinced that I will be projecting my own resistance to my artifact when trying to remain neutral.  Will I be capable of interpreting and prying another’s experience with my artifact from them without influencing their words?  Since my artifact may be viewed as legal documentation will they read me as policing their use of the artifact due to my own positioning? 

       These reflections make me realize that disclosing my purpose, if not my own position, may help the faculty I am choosing to interview.  Although I still say I enjoyed the reading of the Urban Hotel chapter because the position of Judy Hunter was not explained, I weigh the value of disclosing my own purpose.  My ultimate purpose might be to eliminate the artifact, or re-design the artifact, but I am challenged by finding a way to make the interviewees more receptive to answering my questions without "bashing" the artifact.  Will I find a way to place myself in their position, define my purpose and remain neutral?  It will be my goal, though my learning curve may well be more curvy depending on the answers I receive.

Learning to read and write

The literacy campaign article this week was really interesting and kind of scary. It was a reminder to me that our country is one of the only societies in which modern day man is taught to read as a way not just to adopt a religious or political perspective, but to name their world. Naming the world is a new term to me, and I think about it a lot. To me the world has always been the world. People see the world differently, but naming the world carries so much more cultural information. Reading about how different groups learn to name their world and the consequences makes me wonder if I've named my world or just lived in it. I have some really interesting discussions with a friend who walks with me every morning (at 5:45 : ) We talk about my readings, and sometimes I share them with her. Talking about things I've learned or we've discussed helps me put them into the proper place in my own database and explaining things sometimes helps me clarify concepts and vocabulary in my own mind. But getting back to Arnove & Graff, I think one would have to look backward in history to be able to clearly see the purpose of a literacy campaign. I'm so impressed at the people who have been able to research and clarify these literacy campaigns. It reminds me that I have such a long way to go.

Conducting Interviews

I've conducted interviews before, and listening to other people's experiences interviewing a classmate was really interesting. We had some of the same questions, and the interviewer heard much more than the answers. I've been thinking about structured, semi-structured, and unstructured questions for my case study. The feedback on the interviews is helping me create better questions. It's going to be difficult for me to have interviews with some of the stakeholders, at least face to face. I won't be going with a single organization or entity, and my questions have to be tied together to bring about the answers to the literacy question I'm trying to ask. Susan Gale, you are very perceptive when it comes to interpreting answers. Even when I was the one being interviewed, Lisa brought out a point that I need to be reminded of. Eye contact. There is sometimes a cultural overtone to it. I remember reading about students having trouble in a California school because the teacher thought the children were being deceptive and evasive. It was brought to her attention that in some cultures making eye contact with a figure of authority is disrespectful, and the children had been properly raised in the eyes of their parents. Dr. Muth is correct in indicating that we need to be very aware of non-verbal communication, especially as the interviewer. An interviewee's body can sometimes provide the comfort level the person is feeling with the questions. I know it takes a lot of practice to become a good interviewer. In addition to your questions, we talked about having to be aware of any biases you bring to the table. Yes, you rehearse your questions before your interview, but you also, in my opinion, have to rehearse your body language. My thoughts for today : )

Mass Literacy Campaign

 March for Immigration Reform 

A friend shared this "text" with me on Facebook, and I thought I would take a stab at some critical  discourse analysis.  I'm not really sure how to begin, or if I'm on the right track.  Your thoughts and feedback are welcomed and appreciated!  For the sake of transparency, I am pro-immigration/ pro-citizenship.

On the surface, this text is part of a mass media campaign for an April 10th march for immigration reform in Washington, D.C.  The purpose is social change, social justice.  I see a family and the English words "all in for immigration reform."  The march seems to be a wholesome, worthy cause.  The text initially appears to be a grassroots, community level effort, rather than a top down, government sponsored campaign.  I wondered about the date, April 10th, and whether there was some significance to it.  Other than being the 100th day of the year,  I could not make a connection. 

The black and white drawing seems race-neutral, although I immediately thought it to be a Latino family. I think there is  a stereotype that immigration is about Latinos.  I need to remind myself that not all immigrants are from Latin America.  

Then again, we heard so much about the "Latino vote" after the last election.  What stakeholders are pursuing the Latino vote?   I visited the website listed on the text and found a long list of sponsors, including  Casa de Maryland, and labor unions 32BJ and SEIU.  32BJ is a local affiliate of SEIU, a union with, according to its website,  2.1 million members.  Wow, that's a stakeholder with a lot to gain from the resulting legalized workforce of "11 million for citizenship." What other stakeholders are involved in the A10 event? 

 I read this paragraph on the Casa de Maryland website:

On April 10th, we will make our voices heard loud and clear that we expect Congress to fix our broken immigration system in 2013. We will educate, march, rally, pray and knock on the doors of Congress until President Obama signs commonsense immigration reform that includes a realistic path to citizenship. 

For too long, our communities have suffered under a defective and outdated immigration system that stifles our economic growth, makes political scapegoats out of immigrants, and tears families apart. The time is now for justice. The time is now for citizenship!


Does the "commonsense" referred to in this paragraph imply that immigration reform is an issue involving all Americans?  For it or against it, each one of us is affected?   Going back to our class discussion, and use of the words common sense in discourse analysis,  I'm not sure who is excluded.  Who is not part of the immigration discussion?  Then again, I guess the purpose of a mass literacy campaign is to get everyone involved, one way or another.  

The web site asks people to register for the event by providing name, address, and email.  I wonder what kind of marketing and solicitation organizations that data will be sold to. 

This is my final opinion:  I think there are big stakeholders on both sides of the issue who have a lot to gain from a huge turnout on April 10. SEIU has a lot to gain.  It's not that I think labor unions are bad.  I think the local 32BJ would have "Maria's" best interests at heart, but, with 2.1 million members, I think SEIU's stakehold is much larger than the individual's welfare.  Both Republicans and Democrats have a lot to gain;  the Latino vote changed the course of the 2012 election.  Each party wants to win votes and blame the other for not fixing immigration.

Everyone seems to be courting the Latino vote.  When I look back at the text, I'm not sure anyone  has that family's best interest in mind.  I think this immigrant population is being exploited by both sides of the reform issue.  I think there are stakeholders who benefit from the status quo: a good controversy makes good publicity for groups pro and con.   I also wonder who is looking out for the non-Latino folks.   Maybe Asian and African immigrant populations aren't large enough to warrant a mass literacy campaign by labor unions and politicians.  Maybe I have it all wrong.  I hope I do.  I want the A10 march to help that family.

Thanks and let me know how you read it!  Susan





 

The Change Agent

This is my adult literacy public service announcement for the week.  Who knew that today was Social Justice Day?  I love to share The Change Agent with adult literacy learners.  As you can probably guess, I learned about this publication from a certain professor here at VCU.

Published by the New England Literacy Resource Center, it's worth a look.  The manager of NELRC may post on our blog later this month.  She has a connection to Belfiore et al. from Reading Work.  It's a small world, indeed.

 Thank you.  Susan

What makes a job "good"? The latest issue of The Change Agent explores our experiences of work.

New Issue: Good Jobs, Not Just Any Jobs

Our Spring issue is at the printers and will soon be landing in your mailbox. If you're an online subscriber you can view it online now! Here's a peak at what's inside:

Learn about a wide range of jobs that people have done and their reactions to them, from a day care chef ( Mister Larry the Daycare Chef, pp 16), to a crane operator ( Soaring Skyward with Heavy Lifts, pp 8), to a social worker helping abandoned children ( My Fulfilling Job as a Social Worker, pp. 18). 

Read about students' aspirations for future jobs and the steps they are taking to get there in What Inspires me to Become an Architect (pp. 22) and My Ideal Job, Keeping Mexican Culture Alive Through Dance (pp. 23)

In Have a Criminal Record? You Can Still Find a Pathway to a Career (pp. 30-31) Lashon Amado addresses issues faced by ex-offenders looking for work.

Other articles address ways in which people have pushed for better working conditions or wages, such as Car Wash Workers Organize (pp. 37) by Carlos Linerez and Rocio Valerio. 

And don't miss the exellent list of resources to explore, compiled by Yssa Santos on page 33! 

Many articles will also be available in audio format on our website soon, so stay tuned!

Once you get your issue, tell us what you think by e-mail, or on Twitter or Facebook. If you didn't get your copy by March 15th, call (617-482-9485) or e-mail us to check on the status of your subscription. Or if you're not a subscriber, subscribe online. 

Happy Social Justice Day! International Day of Social Justice: February 20th  Did you know that today, Febraury 20th is the International Day of Social Justice? What does social justice mean to you? To your students? Equality, human rights, and equal access to opportunity to all? In the upcoming issue of The Change Agent, as in all our issues, we offer a way to bring these topics into your classroom, not only because they're interesting, but because being able to understand and communicate about these issues empowers each of us to make meaningful change for ourselves and our communities. In Good Jobs, Not Just Any Jobs, find articles and discussions about minimum wage, pay discrimination, and economic rights. To inspire you to use your Change Agents in the classroom in new ways, try our book, Through the Lens of Social Justice: Using The Change Agent in the Classroom. Purchase the book by the end of February and get it 50% off! (regular price $18) (The book is the last item listed on the subscription page).

Call for Articles Theme: Technology It's time to start writing again! Our new Call for Articles  is now available. The theme for our Fall issue will be Technology. Do you have a story to tell about the effects of technology on eduction? Send it to us by May 3rd to be considered for publication.

From the Archive Immigration (Issue #23) and Climate Change (Issue #27) Two themes that keep coming up in the news a lot lately are immigration and climate change. Are you looking for accessible background materials on these topics to supplement current news articles? If so, check out Issues 23 and 27 of The Change Agent. Both issues are out of print, but can be read and downloaded on our website. The online content is password protected, but if you are a subscriber, you should have the username and password. If you're subscription is not up to date, or you did not select to have online access, please contact us by phone (617-385-3740) or by e-mail to renew or upgrade your subscription.

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Problem-posing

One of the "questioning the texts" items asked us what the difference between Wallerstein's (and Freire's) problem-posing curriculum and our 1-2-3 project.

The problem-posing curriculum does not assume neutrality. The interaction between the educator and the student does not occur in a vacuum, but we co-participate in the learning process. The purpose of the educational process is to engage in a dialogue that will promote critical thinking and lead to the participant's awareness of the possibility of change. The tools of problem-posing are listening, dialogue, and action. The "curriculum" will evolve from these processes.  

Considering this, I think some of the difference relates to positionality - where I am - what role I play, or would play, in either situation. However, it is not as straightforward as it might seem at first. For the project, I feel I must assume neutrality. I need to put myself in the place of an observer - which is related to listening, and certainly, I plan to engage in a dialogue that will help me understand how the literacy event I have chosen to study is understood in the workplace (it gets a little messy here because we are talking about my co-workers - my workplace). I can feel the tension, because I have an opinion about the phenomena I want to study and the 1-2-3 project is not about me. The project will be about revealing the tensions surrounding the literacy event and looking at those through the lenses of critical theory, trying to identify what causes resistance to the literacy event, and how meaning is construed from artifacts that codify the event. My goal will be to look at the event from the edges and not place myself into the process.  The project will stop short of the final problem-posing step of "action."

In the project, I will be a researcher rather than an educator. While there is some overlap in research tools such as observing and interviewing with listening and discourse analysis/dialogue, the difference will be that for the 1-2-3 project I want to explore and discover (reveal) literacy practices in a given workplace. My neutral stance will help me to question critically what I am seeing and hearing. In the problem-posing model, I am an educator involved in "arousing consciousness and critical awareness among the students about the need for and possibility of change." I am learning with the students and our respective values and experiences interact in a social exchange that creates learning. I think, too, that in the 1-2-3 project to a certain degree, I will "name" the world. Whereas in problem-posing, the students name their world. Although I have tried to lay out these things logically, I am very aware of the tension between the two roles and realize keeping them separate will be difficult. 

The Power of the Pen and Those That Read It

Last semester I began graduate studies eager to uncover how much I still had yet to discover and learn.   I knew there was so much more to what drove a person to want to learn and how they took in the information that they sought.  I am still, and may forever be, uncovering the layers of the onion known as education.  My most recent "ah has" have absolutely come from the readings and discussions found on Tuesday nights in Adult 650.  Collectively I am discovering a layer that is so much more complex and powerful than I could even begin to imagine.  As the newly discovered (for me) and now revered Paulo Freire mentions in the video posted last week, "Literacy is a fundamental chapter of education as a whole." A "chapter" or layer I believe that is truly underestimated in its power. The words on a page can be used as a vehicle to get a message, skill, or ideology across.  But literacy can also go much further than just the text in one's hands.  What is the individual(s) true understanding of what they read?  Was it the message intended?  Or was it something else entirely?  What experiences and prior learnings do they attribute to what they have read and how they understand it, or even feel about it?  What then do they do with that comprehension? Perhaps these considerations and more were the reasons behind so many efforts historically to oppress individuals and their opportunities for literacy.   As Arnove and Graff cite in their article, "One basic reason for doubting the resolve of political and educational leaders in many countries is that widespread possession of literacy by a populace may lead to unpredictable, contradictory, and conflictive consequence."  Literacy can after all standardize language, expose cultures and perspectives, spread the religious word, and even promote continuous economic growth of a nation.  Literacy efforts can be paused by the limitations of support as resources are instead attributed to war; or literacy can be the key to what begins a war among us.  So while many may not yet truly understand the power that literacy can wield, perhaps sharing another quote from our readings this week may assist in putting it in perspective "literacy…(is) not just the process of learning the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, but a contribution to the liberation of man and to his full development.  Thus conceived, literacy creates the conditions for the acquisition of a critical consciousness of the contradictions of society in which man lives and of its aims; it also stimulates initiative and his participation in the creation of projects capable of acting upon the world, of transforming it, and of defining the aims of an authentic human development." (Arnove and Graff, 598)  Literacy can truly be power and empowerment.

Practicing and studying problem posing curriculum

Today, two new ESOL students joined my class.  We are a small group (5) of intermediate/advanced level speakers that meet on Saturday afternoons in a computer lab.  I never know in what direction our class discussions will go.  We have the Internet at our fingertips, the possibilities are endless.   Everyone agreed to read and discuss stories about famous Americans.  In the absence of special requests, I chose Rosa Parks in honor of  Black History Month.  Just as I had hoped, discussion about Rosa Parks generated the word discrimination.  We talked about this word at length, and then I heard the word immigration.  We decided to watch YouTube of President Obama's call for immigration reform.  However, we stayed on the surface. We didn't get personal.

This group is working through the process of getting acquainted.  We need a foundation before we can begin digging deeper.  Asking too many questions would have been rude.  It's too soon to reveal personal stories.  We will take it one step at a time, bringing in "important things" (realia, codes, artifacts).  Week by week, we will dig deeper.  We will read and write our stories.  We will position ourselves on the edge of taking action.  I have no idea what we will do or where we will end up.  One time, students created skits and performed them for other classes.  Another time, students spoke about perseverance, sharing successes and failures with fellow learners.  I am the facilitator at this stage.  I make the arrangements so that "action" can take place.  This is what I was doing before I had a name and label for it.  I didn't know what to call it, I didn't know what the heck I was doing  Then I took my own action.  I began to study.  Now I see that one label for what I do is problem posing/critical pedagogy.    

It was because I felt so strongly about this methodology that I knew I needed to study and learn more.  Taking literacy to the streets (my bold way of describing it) doesn't exactly translate well to a grant proposal.  I need to describe pedagogy and show how what I do brings positive outcomes for my program.  That's how I ended up in Oliver Hall. 

To me, an important difference between study and practice is our positioning.  I am a subject in the practice on Saturday afternoons.  I am physically part of the process.  If we consider our sociocultural model, I am positioned somewhere in the muck around the inner culture of learners, trying to connect with them, trying to show  how action will put them on a path out, or to a bigger circle?   OK, getting a little too metaphorical and hokey.   I will be describing this in detail in my study.

When I sit at my computer to blog and write a papers, I am in a different position. I am not "in" the model, or in sync with any practice.  I am a detached researcher (ha ha), an object on the outside looking in.  Even though my ADLT 650 1-2-3 project includes my practice, my work environment, my colleagues, I am standing back and looking through a lens.  I am not in sync or practicing, I am studying now.  To me, there is a big distinction between the two, though I probably need to do a better job of describing it.   But then again, that's why I'm studying.  I'm somewhere in my own inner circle looking for a path.

Thanks for reading my post!  Susan

       

What Muppets Do

“(Kids) don’t remember what you try to teach them.  They remember what you are.”  Jim Henson, It’s Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider

So who are we?  Are we teachers or counselors?  This question jumped off our list to me immediately.  This question was me and my job in special education.  I was hired as a teacher and I am paid to teach.  So what do I do?  I teach, I counsel and I counsel some more, some days I even counsel more.  The teaching becomes secondary in my field as I try to help students find their feet in the world.  I walk into the classroom of my first period each day, where a young man with Autism sits near the door, and the first skill of the day is just saying “Good Morning.”  When he started to reply, saying “Good Morning” back, I kept it that simple for a week before I added, “How are you today?”  We’re working our way toward more.  If I was only interested in teaching I would just head to my desk and dig out the lesson plan for the day, but my lesson already started and it wasn’t on paper either.

Looking at our generative list I went to Freire for the Classroom and looked at page 40 as noted.  Having read the chapter a week before I had highlighted two things on the page, one of which was the sentence about the nurturing process, the second thing I’d highlighted was “the teacher can step back from the discussions as student project their experiences”.  We need to nurture and sometimes that means stepping back and listening.  We can learn as much from our students as they can learn from us and always what we learn from them should be used in our plans to make us better teachers.  If we can offer a transfer of power in the classroom we can offer life lessons that are much influential than the basic skills.  In the “Open Letter to Bahamian Men” the students were given the power to transform their lives because someone did more than teach, they counseled and they listened.  Presenting information in class isn’t teaching, but presenting opportunities for learning allows students to internalize and lower their own defenses.  As the students take more responsibility in their learning, they grew to trust in themselves.  Do we just want the student to be neutral sponges that just absorb what we spout?  No!  We should work to reveal a student’s “hidden voice” according to Wallerstein so that we can uncover the blocks to learning.  If we can discover the blocks, break them down, or climb over them, we’ve done much more than teach.

When Kermit sings “It’s not easy being green” he is accepting himself and saying it wasn’t easy but here I am.  Jim Henson was both a teacher and a counselor to multiple generations, disguised in red fur or green felt.  He once said, “I cannot say why I am good at what I do, but I can say I work very hard at it...Perhaps one thing that has helped me in achieving my goals is that I sincerely believe in what I do, and get great pleasure from it. I feel very fortunate because I can do what I love to do". 

Although I personally don’t go home every day and think, “Wow I loved my job today” because some days it wears me out; I can go home each day and say “It’s not an easy job, but I lived my beliefs and values today because I did more than teach.”

TESOL, Immigration Reform, & Literacy Practice

TESOL Welcomes President's Call for Expanding Education, Immigration Reform Date: 13 February 2013 In his 2013 State of the Union Address, President Obama highlighted the vital role that education plays in supporting the U.S. economy. The initiatives outlined in his speech—advancing pre-K education and secondary schools—hold promise, but they will not be fully effective unless they take into account the needs of the fastest growing population of student in U.S. schools: English learners. As President Obama noted, pre-K education has been proven to benefit young learners, and it especially benefits English learners, who are often in need of such services. Expanding the benefit to millions of young learners is overdue. However, the proposed reforms for Pre-K and high school must include resources to support educators and meet the unique needs of English learners. Without expanding the number of trained ESL and bilingual educators and providing training for all educators who work with English learners, these reform efforts will fall short of serving many of the students who could most benefit from them. While most English learners in U.S. schools are born in this country, many of their parents are not, including many who are undocumented. TESOL International Association supports President Obama’s call for comprehensive immigration reform. Many of the reform proposals include learning English among the steps along the path to citizenship for immigrants, and TESOL International Association and its members stand ready to work with the President and Congress to provide these services to those adult English learners who wish to pursue them. The current system for providing English language and civics education, however, is at capacity, with waiting lists in many locations. Immigration reform will likely result in an increased demand for these services. Expanding the current system to meet this demand will be very difficult without additional resources. Immigrant integration is a critical component of comprehensive immigration reform. TESOL International Association therefore strongly urges the President and Congress to include resources for immigration integration, especially English language education, in their proposals. These efforts will help build strong communities that continue the long U.S. tradition of respect for cultural and linguistic diversity.

I found the President's SOTU speech very encouraging, especially on immigration reform!  I predict immigration and citizenship issues will be the TESOL trend for the foreseeable future.  Virginia DOE Office of Adult Education and Literacy published their 5 year strategic plan that specifically addressed English literacy and civics education.  Civics education has 4 components: history, government, citizenship-naturalization, and civic engagement.  The civic engagement component is a broader umbrella that accommodates the kind of critical pedagogy we have approached in ADLT 650.  There is a need for English language learners (ELLs) to use their voice on this issue.  To realize any kind of reform, people need to engage society on this issue.  This is an example of taking literacy into practice, why literacy is action.  This is why I was about to jump out of my seat last Tuesday night!  Anyway, my program just received it's EL/Civics grant, enough to take us through another 6 months.  We operate on the brink, one step at a time.  But, this is what we live for!  This is why, at least in my humble opinion, literacy doesn't belong in the classroom, it belongs out on the streets (Internet, TV, mass media).  If you have  non native speakers/ELLs in any of your programs or work environments, please engage them in conversation on this issue.  Ask for their opinions, what changes they want to see, or how important reform is to them.   I hope it's an important issue for you, too. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this post.   Susan Wa

Respond to Susan Watson's Respond

This was supposed to be my respond to Susan's wonderful comments and questions about my last post. However, it appears to be much longer than I expected, and much more ideas are integrated here. So I decide to post in case any of you may also be interested  :)

Thank you for your questions, Susan. They are amazingly inspiring and lead me to deeper thinking.

Situation in China has begin to transform now, despite how subtle it is, and the internet plays a crucial role in it. Unlike the decades ago, the individuals who are willing to change unionize online via weibo (Chinese twitter) now. They support and defend each other's voice by paying attention and reposting. When an individual's voice is echoed by millions of people online, it became much harder for the government to tranquilize it.

One recent example is the sex video of corrupted officers. An ordinary journalist posted one piece of sex video of an Chongqing (a big city) officer online, which drew attention from millions of people. The Journalist claimed that he had clips of many other important officers, which nerved Chongqing government so much that 10 high-level officers had been dismissed because of "their corrupted personal life" . However, the journalists said none of the dismissed was in his video. The police in Chongqing was irritated, and wanted to arrest the journalist secretly. The journalist updated on weibo every hour to confirm that he was still free and alive. He said if he stopped posting, it meant he was in danger. Due to the intensive attention online, he is still free and have access to his lawyer now.

Chinese netizens shoulder a historically significant responsibility to save the country and change the country by expressing themselves online despite how hard it is. Compared with the printed media and official media, the internet is fresh and flexible. Although many words are sensored, there are strategies to deal with the situation. For example, people may write something in words as capture the screen as pictures. The picture may not be immediately detected and blocked online, so that they could be available online. Also, people use words of similar pronunciations or metaphors to replace the censored words. (It could be a very interesting to research about the online literacy undre strick censorship.) Although there are always risks for the posters to be detected, tranquilized and even secretly arrested, the people are not giving up to fight again the unfairness.

I feel grateful that I have the access to different voices, although I am not one hundred sure if they are always right. However, what matters is that my deep rooted concepts are challenged and shackled. I do not necessarily embrace all the American notions, but I embrace the new possibilities, in other word, open my mind to new ways of thinking. Marxism believes that everything created by human beings is rooted in what they have been exposed to. Sometimes people cannot figure things out because they are so locked within their own way of thinking and ignorant of other's ideas. One of the contribution I could make is to suggest other ways to look at the problems. I do not have to write a book of articulate my opinion, but just ask questions. I have tried this with one of my friend. When I kept asked questions about one social issue, and follow-up questions about the assumptions embedded in his answers, what we got from the conversation was amazing. If I, as well as those who want to make a difference, keep asking questions and challenging peoples assumptions, we will discover the power in the mass.

I am also thinking about the culture shock I may encounter if I go back to work. I know for sure it won't be easy. If I choose to be a teacher, I doubt to what degree I could practice the learner-centered philosophy.  If I am a teacher, which is the authority in the teacher-student relationship, I will have to challenge my colleague and superiors to let go their domination in classroom and empower the students.   It might be great to both students and teachers in the long term, but I am not sure if we are ready for this yet.

There are so many questions need to be answered. Despite how sophisticated, object and insightful I wish I could be, the answers I provide here is just based on my personal experience and the reflection I could have at my current cognitive level. I hope you enjoyed reading it and I will appreciate your comments and questions :)

Coming Apart

I'm reading a book by Charles Murray called "Coming Apart: The State of White America". It's rather disturbing that the author makes points about the coming apart of what he calls "The America Project". It looks at how America is different from other countries, often comparing it to European countries. In the first part of the book, he offers statistics that show how so many things are happening in our society that are detrimental to our social well being. Things that we think about, but he has the numbers to back them up. In the next part, he compares two fictional towns, one lower class and one new upper class. It's a little like Freakenomics, a book that looks at things we see in a new way. He talks about the four foundations that created what is great about America and how we're losing them. I haven't finished the book yet, but he does have a theory of how our problems can be solved and we can become the America of before. So far, he's hoping that when we see what has happened to the welfare states (countries) of Europe, that we will see that it is not a societal model that can survive in America. I don't know that we can rescue ourselves at this point, but the book gives hope if the right/enough people read it and take it seriously. There is a section on education and how it affects the different societies. What he says makes sense, but if you say some of these things without the numbers to back it up, you would sound like an ultraconservative. He has the numbers. He talks about college students and how they end up living the lives they do, and how their children have an advantage from being the children of these adults. He says bluntly that the children with the most successful lives are those raised by two biological married parents. He shows that children of single mothers who have not graduated from high school do not have a very good chance of success in life, and that those that do succeed are the exception rather than the rule. This was one of the books Dr. Muth showed us in class, and it's very interesting. If anyone else is interested in reading it, I'd enjoy a discussion of its contents afterward.

Posting and sharing

I read the blog several times a week and post what some would consider to be short responses, but generative posts are a little harder for me. I'm learning more about how I view what I do, and it's odd that  I think about things a lot but don't talk that much about them. It gives me pause that I think so much but don't feel confident enough to share. . . everyone else in the room seems so much more accomplished than me. Baring my soul here a bit, but it's supposed to be good for you.

Paulo Freire Interview

Everyone has probably seen this interview, but I thought it was worth posting on our blog. He addresses some of the topics we have been working through. It was made in 1996.

Scaffolding

I've been doing a little bit of reading on the zone of proximal development and came across the term "scaffolding". The example of the word (credited to Wood, et al.) used a tennis player trying to learn to use her forearm to hit. Not applicable to what I do, but something that gave me pause. It's really an appropriate word, because the person using the scaffold has some skills, but needs a temporary support in order to accomplish a task.

In my classes I am the 'more knowledgeable other', but I'm not the only one. Each student acts as a support to the person next to them. I purposely seat students next to each other (I have the ability to set my labs up with workstations as I think best) so they can look at each other's screens if they're stuck. It's gratifying to me (although I'm not sure why) when I see a student reach over to another student's screen and tap on something to show the user where a particular command or button is.

I've always thought of myself as a trainer, not a teacher. But all of the readings have me thinking that I am much more of a teacher than I have been giving myself credit for. I'm not pinning any laurels, but I'm doing more than simply teaching someone to do their job. I'm giving them the tools to go further with their skills. My role as a more knowledgeable other feels good.

Education and social Change

As some of you know, last Saturday was the New Year Day in the Lunar calendar, which was also the first day of the Spring Festival in China. 2013 is the year of snake. Happy New year! Wish you all the best in the snake year :)

(This is a special stamp of the snake year)

Wei, the girl who I literally grow up with, visited me from China during the weekend, and we shared a lot about our life in the past half an year, a lot of which was about the difference of education we are receiving now.

Wei is a first-year master student in dermatology in a famous medical school in China. She told me that she loved her major, but she hated some of her classes, including English. I was surprised because I know she is good at English and she enjoys learning it. I asked why, and she gave me two examples to explain her disappointment of her English course. 

First, she said there was not sophistication in the content of her English class. She believed that at the graduate school level, they should analyze the culture and ideas behind the lines in class. However, they were still working on the spelling and meaning of specific words. Second, the evaluation of the class did not motivate her to learn the language, but to recite the text book. In the final test, the instructor chose one text in their book, took several words out of it, and ask students to fill the blanks with those exact words. Although worked harder in many ways, Wei got the same result as others who did nothing more than reciting the text. 

Her experience made me ponder what is the root of this phenomenon.  Why are students in China constantly encouraged to recite the right answer from elementary school to graduate school? After reading the material about Freire, I think the reason lies in how education is supposed to serve the society. 

In China, currently, the purpose of education is to maintain a steady society and to solidify the established governmental control. In other words, education dependents on and serve the government.  Compared with western countries who pursue freedom, the goal of Chinese government is to construct a steady and harmonious society. The only way to achieve the so-called harmony is to eliminate different voices and form a total consensus among the people, and the only way to do that is to eliminate critical thinking from the people's mind through education. 

It is part of human nature to be curious. Little children always ask questions about anything new to them and anything they do not fully understand. They always want to know why things are like this and why it is not like that. They are critical and creative about the answers they get and keep asking more follow-up questions. However, the ability of asking questions is not favorable to maintain a steady society. If all the people question the social hierarchy and the unfairness, and explore new possibilities, it will be way harder to maintain the regime.  Therefore, to shut people's mouths and their minds, students are not encouraged to ask questions or make comments in class. The first criteria of a good class performance is to be quiet and receptive. Students are trained not to think, but to remember. They are told the facts, the values, and the right way to behave. They learn everything, but to think critically about their experience, the society, and how to change the society into a more free and equal place.

I think this kind of education, to some degree, dehumanizes human beings. The very first difference between human and other creatures and objects is that humans can think at a meta-cognitive level. In other words, humans are able to think about the way they think. People should be taught to self-evaluate their thinking process, detect their assumptions and consider multiple perspectives. Unfortunately, in many Chinese schools and universities, students are only taught to remember the right answer from the authority, to do specific jobs, and to function like a machine. They learn to be obedient and be grateful for what the government provides them.  They stops thinking critically about the situation they are stuck in and become satisfied with the current social rules, although they deserve much more that what they actually get. 

Now I begin to understand why I never read Freire in my university, why Google is censored, and why Facebook is banned in China. Any source that encourage different voices and new way of thinking about the social order is forbidden. However, I do not think this situation is going to last long. As said in an old Chinese saying, the people's voice is like a gigantic river, and no one will be able to block it off. Words of freedom are being spread. Numerous students who have studies in developed countries are bring ideas back to our homeland. As one of them,  I hope to help catalyze social changes through education.

Is It a Bad Thing to Be in the "Back of the House"?

In class last week, there was some discussion surrounding the hotel's attempts at a skills fair and an offering during the event for free salon services (hair, makeup, and/or nails).  During the discussion I could not decide whether or not this offering was truly just an attraction.   Something to interest them in attending the fair or even perhaps the managements' effort at a "thank you"?  I debated this considerably, reflecting on so many pieces and parts of Hunter's account of the hotel and its norms.  Could some possibly consider it in a completely different way?  Would those that are not currently part of the staff that primarily interface with the guests possibly take offense to a gesture so seemingly innocent?  Not to beat an already dead horse (we did spend a little time on this last week), but I couldn't help but reflect back on this briefly as I considered the office location of the housekeeping staff as described on page 145.  The office was located in the middle of the basement, a placement Hunter portrayed as "marginalizing" comparing it even to the "back of the house."  A concept that in some ways carries a connotation of unimportance and labor that should remain behind the scenes or hidden.  But, I would be remiss to not also consider the positives that she goes on to describe as well.    In this world that they are in, the members of the front desk staff are held to very high standards regarding appearance and overall presentation of self.  Their communications were scripted, their pose was perfect and their behavior had to always be "just so".  Such high expectations even went beyond the boundaries of their work space as the Guest Service Agents were not even allowed to eat in the restaurants or the cafe (once training had concluded) citing an issue "around limited accessibility to the ideal hotel world" as cited on page 147.  Considering all of these restrictions and boundaries, I cannot help but think that the "back of the house" location was really a given opportunity for the housekeeping staff to relax.  How jealous I would have been of their ability to escape from the constraints of the hotel's standards on behavior and appearance, even if just for a moment.  Acknowledging that the Guest Service Agents and others surely had lunch or break rooms for similar use, I can only imagine that the location was probably not far from their work area.  As such, I can't imagine much opportunity to cut loose or really enjoy one's time away for fear that someone may over hear.  The basement location however, as Hunter mentions, offered a safe place for the housekeeping staff to "joke and laugh, to make noise, and even to speak sharply to each other."  Some may argue that the location was still demeaning in its placement, off the beaten path and out of the way of the public.  But I can't help but wonder if one should even go beyond the perception of "the back of the house" and think instead of the opportunity that it presented to hard working staff.  While the promise of conforming with a new hair cut or dress may offer opportunity for some to move "up".  I for one tend to wonder if they passed up the free salon services for a different reason.  For those that prefer freedom to conformity, let me stay down in the basement.

Working with Adults

I teach adults; working with adults is, in my opinion, more difficult than working with children or adolescents. I have taught Sunday School, coached sports, and led Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts. When you work with children (I will use this word to cover both children and adolescents), there is a definite distinction between the leader of the class and the students. When working with adults, there's a different dynamic. The students know they need to be there, but they're not in the habit of taking instruction from a stranger. People are sometimes better computer learners because there's not the interaction between adults requiring social skills. I have to balance what I need to teach them against getting them to accept me as a teacher. I have five minutes at 8:00 a.m. to make these people trust me. I have to give them confidence that they can learn and make them comfortable enough to take instruction from me. When reading Belfiore, I was struck by how the researchers interacted with the employees. In most cases, the researchers learned, rather than taught. Teaching software requires the ability to teach software, not a redundant statement. I know teachers who couldn't teach software, and software users who couldn't teach it. This class is reminding me of why I enjoy my job.

The Role of the Workplace Educator

As I have been reading, I find that I am having an issue with workplace educators as they have been presented in Reading Work. So, I asked myself, why? I dug into last week's generative word list and the questions for reflecting on the text. Positionality kept tapping on my frontal cerebral lobe. Socialization - ah, cognitive skills associated with socialization is what happens there.  Maybe I am on to something, maybe not.

I think I am trying to address my relationship to the work-site (my work-site) for the upcoming assignment. I am looking at how these researchers have positioned themselves within the workplaces they are studying. I like how Folinsbee positioned herself as a "trainee" - a non-expert and how that helped her to develop a trust-based relationship in which workers' openly shared their perspectives and work lives. I also note how she discusses the contradictions between what the workers' are told and what actually happens on a typical workday. Hmm, managers' viewpoints - takes me back to Hunter and the Urban Hotel. I review pages 112 and following, where the director's expectations for the front office staff's buy-in - willingness - to embrace the corporate image, from clothing, to attitude, to "going the extra mile" are detailed. I consider how this undercuts the very notion of autonomy that is required for empowerment. I end up considering maybe it's the executive level that needs some workplace education on diversity, empowerment, and the garbled messages they are communicating.  Which, incidentally, does lead me back to my point - the role of the workplace educator in today's culture. This is what I am struggling with, and I realize it is directly related to the changes technology has brought to the work environment -my work environment, particularly.

Looking around at the employees in my office, I see a wide range of individuals whose education ranges from doctoral degrees to high school degrees and every stop-over in-between. I ask myself, how does education - learning job skills - happen here?  The common denominator here is computer literacy. It is required for the PhD to renew her Human Subject Certification, the fiscal technician certification to access financial databases, and the office manager's training on "What to do if a Shooter comes to the door."  This is not the same work environment I knew just 10 years ago - where appropriate groups of employees attended "work place diversity" training and everyone had to show up for the annual OSHA videos (that were always the same). Fifteen years prior to that, I gathered volunteers to "teach" interview skills and decoding court documents for skills required in that program. Today, face-to-face educating for proficiencies required in my current work environment are limited.  

Robert Gephart, (2002) writes about the "brave new workplace" in the electronic age saying, "...the use of computer mediated information systems and telecommunications leads to changes in the modern organization...decentralization of work systems occurs; there is a diffusion of power and decision making." Further, he points out that "responsibility, authority, and accountability devolve downward' and an opaque line between management and the managed is blurred as employees lose sight of who has the power. This aptly describes my workplace. I may be a manager, but frequently my power is trumped by those who are "certified" to log-on to critical sites to which I do not have access. Indeed, if I worried about having access to the multiple systems (and keeping up training requirements to do so) I would never time to "manage" anything.

So here I am, thinking about "positioning" myself ....


Gephart, R. (2002) Introduction to the brave new workplace: Organizational behavior in the electronic age. Journal of Organizational Behavior   23 (4) June 2002. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4093810

Exile: the space between?

The alternate title for this post is "Ignorance is bliss."  Are there things I  don't want to know?  I don't want to know what the kitchen of my favorite restaurant looks like, and I don't want to know exactly what my teenager says about me to his friends.  Once I know these things, I can't go back to my state of ignorant bliss.  I flew first class from Tokyo to Dulles one time; I will never be happy in coach class again!    There is a big price for learning certain things, at least for me.  OK, restaurants and air travel are trivial, but my teenager's true thoughts would be another matter.  I choose not to learn that information because I'm afraid of the price I'd pay.  Of course, I know ahead of time there is a price, and I have a choice in the matter.  I choose ignorance (I'm a coward).

On the other hand, what if I didn't know what price education might extract?  Perhaps I would listen to the teacher who coaxes out my stifled, inner voice.  Maybe I would take a risk and allow myself to learn.  I recently read Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez,  an autobiographical account of the author's journey to find his public, English-speaking voice in middle-class 1960s-70s America.  When he was 8, Rodriguez's Mexican born parents put him in private school to learn English and receive a good education.  The theme of Rodriguez's learning journey is the huge price he and his family "paid" for education: loss of  Spanish, private family connections, inner (ignorant?) home voice.  When I look at this story using a sociocultural lens, I see how Rodriguez's education moved him out of his inner (cultural) circle into public, gringo (social) domain.  Furthermore, once "there," he could not "go back home" as he put it.  His life was changed by education.  He is forever part of the public, and the price was loss of family bonds and innocence.  He accepts this, he chose this, and his eloquent account of education's "price" is worth a read. 

Are we adult literacy educators--elite do-gooders-- really helping our learners when we show them the way out of their inner culture to the larger social without some kind of warning of what's ahead?  (Actually, I think they already have an intuition about this.  My question shows ignorance on my part.).  Ultimately, it's a personal decision to learn.  It's a freedom to assume the "cost"  and take the risk of learning.  It's a freedom to decline it, too, as long as you realize what path you are choosing.  There I go again, elite do-gooder, making assumptions for others. 

I see the cost of education as being a kind of Freirian exile between the inner and outer, private and public
At times in one's fight for justice, one neglects seeking a more rigorous knowledge of human beings.  One may underestimate the power of the dominant, ignore the deep-seated presence of the oppressor in the oppressed, and end up in exile.  Exile is a space-time dimension that one has not chosen, and where one arrives marked by rage, fears, suffering, early longing, love, broken hope, and also by a certain shy hope one that signals return  There is also the wish and the need to remake oneself remake one's broken dream  (Freire, Pedagogy of the Heart, p. 66).

I'm looking ahead to Fiore and Elsasser's (Elsa Auerbach's, my own program's) generative literacy curricula and wonder what form of exile we may be imposing on learners.  There I go again.  It's not my (our) decision to make; students make their decisions when they walk into the classrooms.   Still,  I don't know if I wish this exile on anyone; it's lonely out here.

Why not smile?

    It takes 37 muscles to frown.  And 22 muscles to smile.  Why not smile?

According to snopes.com this is undetermined.  There is quite a list on the website offering a variety of answers, all of which favor smiling.  The Urban Hotel mandated smiling.  Being trained to smile, captured on film smiling, posted on a wall smiling, is it so wrong to expect an employee to smile?  I worked in retail for years before I career switched.  Smiling was essential.  Sincerity was also essential, and somehow softening the purpose of a mirror by the basement door with a comic didn’t ring genuine with me.

In this week’s reading we learned that all group learning ultimately reflects someone’s original beliefs and values.  Someone in the hierarchy at Urban Hotel created their core values.  By posting the smiling shots on the wall was the Urban Hotel offering social validation to their employees?  Or if caught frowning would an employee be excommunicated?  I found it interesting to reflect back on the Urban Hotel after reading the three levels of culture.  In one statement from the culture chapter the U.S. organizations are described as “espousing teamwork while actually rewarding individual competitiveness” and Hewlett Packard is given as an example.  The Urban Hotel staff was the opposite; the employees gave away services when they agreed, not independently, as if they feared their choices weren’t going to be validated.  The ‘safety if groups theory’ seemed stronger, were they seeking stability and meaning?  This enforced my original belief that these employees were being molded. 

I feel like I’m all over the place in this post, but then my mind circled around to the video we watched of Chimamanda Adichie and her story.  Is the story of the American organization one that claims to be team oriented, but is actually competitive?  I admit I would have skipped the manicure to take a second chance on being quizzed at the company fair to get my name tossed in box twice toward that dinner out.  And I would have smiled while doing it.  Yet there is more to my story too…

Dialogue, social and cultural

When reading Chapter 6 of Reading Work, I was impressed by the idea that adult educators should share their work and thoughts in an ongoing dialogue to bridge adult education with the real work and life, to see more value in those practice and to enrich the understanding of adult literacy (Belfior, Defoe, Folinsbee, Hunter & Jackson, 2004). It reminds me of what I learnt last semester about dialogue. it is a form of learning where each one listen to others opinions and further develop their own idea based on them. Sharing one’s researching experience in a dialogue allows the researcher to bring his own perspective and background into a big conversation. He may bet valuable feedback to further refine his work. Also, his insight may be inspiration to others.

In class, we talked about the first paragraph of chapter 1, where the author described every detail he noticed on his way entering the factory. At first, I thought it seemed to be too descriptive for an academic research paper. However, just as Dr. Muth said, “No observation is too small to write down.” The reader will judge for themselves. Again, it is sharing not just what the researcher think matter, but also other relevant data he collected. Some data may be meaningless from one angle, but incredibly valuable from another. As Dr. Hurst said, our own experience is one of the most valuable data. In a research, to record and share all the data is not only a way to present the whole story and reduce bias, but also a way to leave an open conversation and inspire more thoughts from the readers.

Since talking about sharing ideas and thoughts, I have a question about the relationship of social and cultural. Based on Dr. Muth’s explanation that social is the shared external while cultural is the shared internal, I wonder if culture is, to some degree, evolved from social. I think examples can be seen in all kinds of organizations. In my elementary school and high school, just like other schools in China, all the students are required to do the morning exercise. It is the shared external enforced by the school rules. After years, the music and the steps of the exercise has been internalized and become the shared internal of my generation. now, although we don not do it anymore, we still feel that the exercise is a part of us, a part of our generation and a part of the culture of Chinese schools. In terms of adult literacy research and dialogue, when researchers share their works and experience in a dialogue, some ideas and thoughts become the shared external. When they shared external accumulates and then in internalized, it transforms into the shared internal, the culture, among the researchers.

I wonder how do you think of this idea, and how do you think of the relationship between the two :)