Living Literacy: Rethinking Development in Adulthood

Susan L. Lytle

Some considerations of Adult Literacywww.proliteracy.org

Lower literacy rates contribute to increased poverty rates

Increased risk of pregnancy rates and decreased future earnings

Portraying Adults:

Stigmatized as incomplete adults (376)

Negative stereotypes in public media (homelessness, addiction, poverty) do not match reality (379)

Reality:Often consistently productive workers, family members andcommunity leaders (379)

Issues and assumptions in Adult LiteracyHow society often views the functionally illiterate:

Reality:

Issues related to Adult Literacy

Literacy as skills/tasks:

Belief that adult learners are failed readers with specific deficits (381)Skills that are learned independently of a social context (381)

Literacy as Practices:

Focuses on the practices of the learner and their value system (381,382)

Dimensions of Literacy Development in AdulthoodBeliefs:Adults knowledge about language, literacy, teaching, and learning (386)

Practices:Adults range and variation of literacy-related activities in every day life (386)Processes:Adult learners repertoires of managing reading/writing tasks (386)

Plans:Adults long term/short term goals for their learning plan(s) (386)

Beliefs

Adult learners bring to literacy programs beliefsthat inform and sometimes constrain their own development (387)

These beliefs come from the adult learners life experiences and are key to making effecting changes in learning practices, processes, goals, and plans (387)

Practices

The adult learner should be considered the primary unit of observation and analysis (390)

Adult learners are often new to university life and/or come from culturally different backgrounds (391)

School-like literacy activities in family life may initiate a shift in roles (e.g., becoming more involved in their own childrens education) (392)

Processes

The step by step process of literacy transactions (392, 393)Think-aloud protocols may be useful in glimpsing the students thought process and aid the teacher in offering strategies for new or different learning (393)Documentation of processes benefits student and teacher alike, providing material for discussion and review in order to promote growth (394)

Plans

What adult learners specifically want to learn from the course and what their plans to achieve that goal are (394)

Providing a range of opportunities to the adult learner often broadens the adult learners goals (395)

Adult learners tend towards increasing independence in learning, as competence and confidence improves (395, 396)Summary

Educators will need to develop adult literacy programs that take into consideration the areas of culture, styles of learning, gender, race, and community in order to better understand and partner with the adult learner (401)

Adult literacy programs will need to be re-evaluated and current assumptions revised in order to reach the adult learner, who has become increasingly marginalized and alienated from the educational systems of mainstream culture (400,401)

How can I help?Get Involved!

ProLiteracy Education Network:Authentic Literacy Instruction

If you or someone you love is struggling with literacy issues, the below link can help:

LINCSLiteracy Information and Communication SystemWorks Cited

Lytle, Susan. "Living Literacy: Rethinking Development in Adulthood." Cushman, Ellen, et al. Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 376-401. Print.

ProLiteracy. www.proliteracy.org. 2014. webpage. 21 June 2014. .

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