Technology, first step in acquiring and/or creating literacy?

It was interesting how Belfiore (2004), at the beginning of chapter 1, focused on how she observed that print was taking on a more predominant role at the Triple Z company: printed info, posters, bulletin boards, job postings, notices about holiday and plant closure dates, etc.  A decade later, many companies (and people) are opting for the 'paperless' route, relying mainly on the digital format of those same texts.

In essence, the info, job postings, and notices are still available, just not in hard copy/ printed format.  With technology on an ever-growing trend, it is necessary to be literate in the use of technology in order to access the 'actual' literacy content that is needed to educate the adult learner.

I am hesitant to use the chicken-or-the-egg notion, but in this case, which do we teach first? Technology, so people can access the literacy, or literacy, so people learn how to access the technology?

Today, toddlers are being exposed to technology way before any 'alphabet-type' literacy is unveiled; they are even learning literacy through the technology, and though literacy for a toddler can mean the act of learning to read and write, via technology it is also determining how they create meaning. Therefore, if literacy is a way for people to assimilate to a culture and/or way of life, how different will adult literacy in the workplace be in 15-20 years when these toddlers become adults?

For now, technology is a tool that educators are using to facilitate learning. However, can it also serve to cripple literacy?  Amy Casper, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, in her editorial for this month's issue described how she tried to buy a cup of coffee at a Technology convention in Las Vegas and she was unable to purchase it because the 'system was down'.  She was amazed that not even cash could get her to enjoy her favorite drink. This experience prompted her to write her piece and suggested to me that a similar scenario could disrupt the access to literacy. How many of us want to create meaning in a written format, and then have to post it on a blog, which you had to learn how to make, or be invited to access one via email?  

In essence, though the idea may have already been written some place else (on paper, really? People still use that? Yes, yes they do.), the way of communicating that meaning is now being formatted through technology.  Therefore, in today's world, could technology be a first step in acquiring and/or creating literacy?

Triple Z and me

(...And this is why I title my blogs "Adult ___, Reflection ___."')

I really enjoyed the case studies in the text. They were a great introduction to the work and discussions that will surely be a part of this class.

As I read them, I was reminded of one of the struggles that I remember when I worked in HR for a nurse's association.

Shortly before I started, all the nurses, who worked very hard and made less they would have at a hospital, had to switch their documentation from paper to computer. Most of them continually had trouble using laptops--it was a lot more to lug around and the computers seemed to have problems quite frequently. One of the important measures of nurse's work was productivity (I was in charge of the productivity reports so I hadt o hear about this from all sides).  The directors were always concerned about those numbers, especially when they went down, which happened when computers were introduced. There was so much resistance to computer documentation, and the directors perceived it as not understanding 1. How to use a computer correctly 2. the extra time it took to fill out the form and 3. the benefits. This was very similar to the differences between the management of Triple Z and the employees. "If only they understood what this form meant." All of the nurses did understand, and in many cases, their problem with it could be solved with better communication and a reward system. 

Everyone in my office said, "they will learn the system and accept it." This is true. But what is also true is that there were other underlying issues at work here: management issues, the extra burden on staff to train nurses in a new system and the lack of pay equity compared to other jobs in the area. I don't know if these issues were ever addressed, as I was only there 18 months. The people mandating the changes were more concerned with the compliance aspect of everything than the overall people problems that plagued the agency. It seems like at Triple Z, management liked the younger newer employees better because they didn't speak up as much--this paperwork was a part of their job all along. But they never addressed the real issues--Rosa meeting with her supervisor and creating a new checklist, for example--and made the old guard employees feel belittled and out of place.

Photo from here.

Resistance-positive or negative?

Many would argue that when the word resistance is spoken or associated with a topic, the audience almost immediately begins to assume a negative context.   To resist, after all, is to express opposition through action or words.  But is resistance to a process or request, especially in the workplace, truly someones unwillingness to comply?  Or can it also be an opportunity for process improvement?  I reflect first on a personal story that was shared during Adult Learning last semester by our own Dr. Muth.  If memory serves, he had set about the task of assisting a particular adult student to learn to read and write. Beginning with processes that had worked for him in the past, he was challenged this time with consistent resistance from the student.  The student was not interested in learning as it was presented, and had no issue voicing his opposition at each attempt.  Dr. Muth at a point took a final step back and approached the student instead with a question: "tell me what you want to write and/or read about".   From that point on, tried and true processes and approaches were not forgotten or set aside, but instead adapted to meet the needs of the individual learner.  A learner that found his educational way by finally letting go of his resistance and instead investing himself in learning lead by his own voice.

Considering this approach, I found myself aggressively underling sections while taking in the first chapter of Reading Work.  In several places I noted resistance that was prevalent and yet those in supervisory positions often sought to criticize (sometimes publicly) and punish as opposed to really seeking to understand.  So much seemed to lie within the workers' accounts as to WHY they didn't feel they needed to comply.  Perspectives that even seemed to lend genuine reasons that the processes could be reviewed and/or improved to meet the needs of both parties.  Perspectives, it seems, that were often ignored.

As educators, do we really seek to ask someone to conform to the norm?  Or do we instead seek to help them understand and build upon their own perspectives and knowledge?  Resistance can be frustrating, especially when the need will not go away.  But considering the why behind the resistance at times can help to effectively overcome it.

Resistance

As I read the two chapters in Belfiore, I had to smile over the descriptions of the way employees resisted the efforts to get them to document processes and conform to best practices as dictated by a "form" drawn up by an "expert" who had probably never spent an hour in their shoes - on the floor of a busy, loud, and hectic production facility. While I am a novice in the field/discipline of education - and therefore largely illiterate of various education theories -  I do have a frame of reference from managerial literature. I was just exiting with my MBA when "Six Sigma" managerial practices were hitting their stride. One of the things that continues to amaze me is that in the overheated frenzy to produce control over every aspect of production, thereby ensuring the greatest possible margin of profit, we forget we are working with human beings. 

In case you are not familiar with Six Sigma, a few of its key premises are:

• Continuous efforts to achieve stable and predictable process results (i.e., reduce process variation) of vital importance to business success 
• Manufacturing and business processes have characteristics that can be measured, analyzed, improved and controlled.
• Achieving sustained quality improvement requires commitment from the entire organization, particularly from top-level management.

I particularly like the second bullet - it communicates clearly that total automation would be the ideal production scenario, in lieu of that, human beings must be made to conform to machines as much as is possible. 

As a counterpoint to the managerial approaches seen in the private sector, theories on the management of public bureaucracies have acknowledged the power of the "street-level" bureaucrat. Street level bureaucrat, coined by Michael Lipsky, refers to the power of persons who actually implement policy and procedures to thwart the effectiveness of the policy. (I think of the person behind the counter at the DMV, or the one on the phone who transfers you continually while you are trying to find an answer for a utility charge.)

The point being that these individuals are able to "resist" the red-tape and loss of control in their day-to-day jobs by simply not moving, or not moving very fast. Private sector employees may have more to fear if they resist this loss of autonomy, so their resistance may be more subtle. Nevertheless, it is there. It seems to me that the problems of resistance in each environment have to do with need for persons to feel, well like humans, valued, I guess.    

So, what does this have to do with literacy? As we swing from one end of the pendulum to the other in the struggle over power relationships within work environments (public and private) and theories about how and why they occur, can't we just sit down and listen to one another, and maybe even ourselves? I really puzzled over the closing paragraphs of chapter two (pg 100) in Belfiore. Even for a workplace educator, fear overrides efficacy.  

Socio-cultural literacy

One thing I've heard in class and readings is socio-cultural literacy. It's something I'm familiar with but haven't seen it with this name. My son is high functioning autistic, and is relatively illiterate socio-culturally. Aspergians don't pick up on non-verbal clues or social cues. This makes it very difficult for them to be involved in a Discourse. David was in a private school which was very accepting of his disability, but he still wishes he could repeat upper school with the skills he's learned over the last fifteen years. Socio-cultural literacy doesn't just affect those with disabilities. Learning a Discourse takes time and help.

WorkKeys is more than Basic Skills

You must sort clothes in a dry cleaning establishment according to the customer's instructions. According to the form shown, how should this customer's shirt be treated? 1. Dryclean it, add light starch, and fold it. 2. Dryclean it, add light starch, and place it on a hanger. 3. Launder it with no starch and place it on a hanger. 4. Launder it with light starch and place it on a hanger. 5. Launder it with medium starch and fold it. (This is a level 3 question out of 6 possible levels.)

    According to Paul Jurmo, “workers need not just the basic skills, but the ability to work in teams, solve problems, track down information, and behave responsibly.”  The sample question above has been borrowed from the ACT WorkKeys website.  Since I have been working with students on the WorkKeys assessments discussed in my classroom, I wanted to place this assessment in the decontextualized approach as a tool that evaluated basic skills when discussed in our class.  Dr. Muth challenged me to see it as having functional context also. 

    As a high school teacher of students with special education needs, I am hyper-focused daily on the assessing of basic skills with the ultimate goal of graduation in mind.  The testing for standards of learning is the end goal for that diploma, whether we agree to disagree or not, basic skills is what we are told to teach.  The SOLs have tested the basic skills of public school students for approximately fifteen years now.  In the last two years the state of Virginia has been changing the testing format, getting away from the multiple choice, one correct answer style that the students have been trained to master.  These previous versions have often challenged students with disabilities.  The newer multiple answer, fill in the blank, process multi-step types of questions are now true stumbling blocks as these students have not been ‘trained’ to test in this format.  As a result alternative assessments have been used to meet the requirements of a diploma.  The ACT WorkKeys falls in this category.

   The transition coordinator in Chesterfield County was looking for teachers who were willing to use the WorkKeys format with students with disabilities for two reasons.  One, these tests replace the newer difficult SOLs required toward graduation, but secondly if the student can pass three of these assessments they can earn a NCRC ("ACT's National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) is a portable credential that demonstrates achievement and a certain level of workplace employability skills in Applied Mathematics, and Locating Information, and Reading for Information.").  Since I have been trained to view the SOL test as the ‘end all’ goal, I was excited to offer students this opportunity in my classroom as the NCRC was just a bonus.  From my viewpoint I was still hyper-focused on those SOL requirements, hence the WorkKeys became a basic skills test and decontextualized from my perspective.

   This week I watched over the shoulder of some of my students as they worked on the practice problems on the AZTEC program which prepares the students for final assessment in WorkKeys.  Yes, these problems address basic skills; there are multiplication problems, division problems and questions about verbs, subjects and objects.  However, the reading and writing questions in particular are focused on real-life common sense skills needed for success in the workforce.  For example:  Write a “how to” list for greeting a customer in a restaurant or write a “how to” list for closing a store for the night.  This evaluates the basic skills and the “workplace literacy” as described by Jurmo.  If you are an employer isn’t what you want your employee to know as basic as “how to greet a customer”?   As an employer you want them to understand the basics of your business, yes add up the bill for the customer, but before the employee can add up the bill and demonstrate the basic skill, they must get the customer to order a product.  Isn’t that truly basic if you want make money?  Perhaps our definition of basic skills is too narrow.

    The NCRC will allow my students, who are workplace bound, the ability to inform a hiring authority that they have the basic skills necessary for success in job-related training.  When walking into certain hiring authorities they will not be led to a computer to test and prove their abilities, instead the NCRC is documentation that they already have the skills needed.  This saves time for the hiring authority as it takes the guesswork out of the hiring process.  The NCRC will demonstrate that my student has basic skills, common sense and it discloses their employee potential.  It is easy to see now that the WorkKeys has both decontextualized context and functional context.

Language Is Power

Looking at “literacy, culture, membership” in the generative words list, there is one sentence flashing into my mind: “Language Is Power.” It is the slogan of the most influential language training school in China, where I was a student, and then a teacher.

Language is a big part of literacy both in daily life and working communities. As mentioned in Belfiore’s work, it is important to use the right language at the right situation for the right purpose. To some extent, being able to do this is a symbol of power, the power one needs to maintain and even promote his position in a certain community. Having the power of language, one will be recognized as a member of the group by others as well as himself. In the contrary, the lack of the power will hurt the sense of belonging.

As a non-native speaker of English in the United States, the English proficiency is my power to survive in this foreign land . The language enables me to find an apartment, communicate with my neighbors and do grocery shopping by myself. I go to an American church, talk with others, make new friends and feel belonged to the group. Without the language, I would have to rely on someone else to fulfill these basic tasks. Therefore, the language also contributes to my self-confidence and sense of independence. It helps satisfies my basic needs as a human being and allows me to pursue higher goals.

As language is always an embodiment of the culture behind it, the English competence serves as a path leading to the marvelous western culture. Being able to read in English, I enjoy the access privilege to great thoughts and entertainment that are originally generated in English. One may argue that those who do not speak English may also appreciate them via translation. However, there are so many cultural elements that are untranslatable. They just lose the meaning when striped from the original language and cultural background. That is why the greatest poems of Tang Dynasty make no sense when translated in English. Also, translations bear the personal bias of the translator inevitably. The real meaning of the original work, both the denotation and connotation, will be modified by the translator’s personal ideas with or without intention. Therefore, when one reads translated version, he is highly vulnerable of receiving wrong messages, and being misled and manipulated. Being able to read the original version protects me from these risks and entitles me with the uncolored cultural perspective and a boarder freedom of mind.

Besides English in general, the specific vocabularies and phrases I learned at the Writing Center stand as vivid examples of how literacy in work enhances the sense of belonging and membership of the group. Before working at the Writing Center, I had little professional training in academic English writing. I didn’t have the language to talk about writing and I didn’t consider myself as someone who could help others with their writing. During the time working there, I learned the language in this field, such as global revision, local revision, claim, evidence, reasoning, structure, organization, reader-based approach, writer-based approach, unpacking ideas, etc.. Therefore, when talking about writing, I can, at lease, sound professional and knowledgeable, which boosts me confidence and help me explain the writing process much clearer. Now I identify myself as a member of the writing consultants, which is particularly special among Chinese students here, and feel much more comfortable sharing my ideas and advise about others’ writing pieces.

To sum up, language is powerful in various layers. It is decisive in one’s personal and professional life. Sharing a language means sharing the culture it embedded in and the membership of the speakers’ community.

A dark, ugly genre

Anonymous note left in restroom stall

This Reddit / Yahoo news article about a poignant note left in a women's restroom inspired me to write this week's blog post about literacy genre.  I hope I'm not being too crude writing about women's restrooms, but literacy is happening in there.  I have seen it, read it, and felt it.   When I look at this unlikely genre through the lens of social practice theory, I see powerful text that has even deeper meaning because of its setting.  In Reading Work (Belfiore et al., 2004) Judy Hunter describes literacy as a social practice where people create special meanings from text connected to a particular social setting.  Hunter adds that literacy is more than words on the page, it is the meaning of words and their use.  Literacy is "activities around texts that involve values, attitudes, feelings and social relationships" (p. 247).  Literacy activity in the restroom is discourse between women who scratch and scribe crude messages of abuse, addiction, and depression on the walls for others to read.  Maybe this is the only place where ugly truths can surface; maybe this is the only place dark secrets can be put into words.  Maybe this is a place where we must face ourselves, literally and metaphorically.   Sometimes, a sympathetic response is added to the discourse, other times a nasty, cruel jab is penned alongside.   There is a darker, private understanding of these awful words: they aren't fit for any other place.  Their meaning is entwined with the social setting.  If taken out of context, these messages would probably be described as rude defacement of property.  When we learn where they were written, it can change how we feel about them.  Maybe we understand, maybe we were part of this discourse at one point, too.

It is because this note was found in a restroom stall that it caught my attention.  If it were taken out of the restroom--out of its genre--its deeper meaning would be lost.  Yes, the note is a worthy gesture of humanity in and of itself, however, its meaning becomes more profound when put into its literacy genre.  The meaning goes beyond words on the paper.  This note is an answer, a response to cries for help.  It is one piece of a larger literacy activity found in a genre of dark secrets and ugly truths. 

I will close with the words from the note

To the girl who was raped: You are so strong. I cannot fathom the pain you must have gone through. The fact that you have the bravery to write it (even on a bathroom wall) gives me hope.

To the girl with eating disorders: I promise you, although I don't know you, you are beautiful, you deserve your health. You deserve freedom from that hell.
To the girl with the alcoholic father: I am so sorry for the agony it must cause. Again, such courage is remarkable you must be such a strong person to see such pain.
To the girl whose father died: Missing them never goes away. The ache of their absence never goes away. But the love they had, the memories you share surely must last. I am sure, out of the bottom of my heart, the people who have left you in this world are exceptionally proud of the person you are.
Everytime (sic) I see these walls, these confessions, I feel so blessed to know I have the priviledge (sic) of seeing them. Your moments, these secrets, are all precious even though they are sad. To all of you (including those I did not mention, and those who have not yet written)
-You are worthy.
-You are strong.
-You are brave.
-You are loved.
-Somebody cares.

Written below that, somebody penned a quick response: "To the person who wrote this, thank you."