In this case, it's a way for me to both preach about a participatory aprproach while also practicing it. Let me now go through these five questions, one by one. In I began my first direct experience in adult literacy work as a Peace Corps Volunteer serving as functional literacy advisor to the government of The Gambia, West Africa.
I had no real prior experience in literacy work but had been given the names of a few authors and publications to educate myself with. One of these authors was Paulo Freire and the publications were those of World Education a New York based technical assistance organization operating nonformal education programs in the Third World -- a; -"enter for International Education at the University of Massachu:,,.
It was through my reading of those and related publications that I began to find some words for what I wanted to do. I needed the technical know-how to put together village functional literacy programs in a country with no tradition of such a thing.
But I also needed some kind of theoretical framework within which to analyze the politics and culture of what I was trying to do. It turned out that most of my "education" came from the experience of living and working with the Gambian people, trying to introduce a new approach to education into both a neocolonial bureaugracy and a traditional culture, and constantly reflecting on that experience.
I came away from those three years with many questions and a desire to do more of this kind of work. I liked the "participatory" approach referred to in the texts I had read, and I was told by a graduate of t le University of Massachusetts program about the unique graduate program there.
In I enrolled at the Center for International Education and began two years learning from a very different kind of experience. While I did irnmerse myself in reading the literature on participatory approaches to basic education especially in the Third World -- I probably learned more from the experience of being a participant in a graduate program which was itself structured in a participatory way.
A year or two prior to my arrival, the Center had undergone a kind of coup d'etat. These committees made policies on how the Center was managed, what development projects to get involved in, who was admitted to the program, and the content of courses.
Courses themselves were generally run in a participatory format, with considerable responsibility in the hands of the graduate students themselves. At age 30, for the first time after many years of school, I felt free to take charge of my own education.
I had -- through experience -- learned the value and techniques of a participatory approach to adult learning. In short, I was a "convert. I had by that time shifted away from the notion of working in other countries and was focusing on literacy efforts in this country.
For my dissertation, I decided to examine how the principles of a participatory perspective were in fact being implemented in literacy efforts here. More specifically, I wanted to know what literacy efforts were doing to create new, more active roles for learners. I hoped that, by immersing myself in this question, I would personally be prepared to make a living doing the kind of literacy work I enjoyed. My dissertation was structured around a series of smaller research questions.
The first question, I believe, was "What is a 'participatory approach'? But what, exactly, does "to participate" mean in a literacy program context? This was one of those situations for which a literature review can come in handy. I came across a useful diagram in a reference on nonformal education and adapted it, creating a conceptual framework for understanding what this term "participate" means. I concluded that there is no one definition of "participation" but, rather, four levels of learner participation.
Learners cooperate with the rules, activities, and procedures developed by program staff. Learners are present physically or on paper in the program. A "participatory" approach aims at getting the learner to function as much as possible at the highest level of that ladder. But that provided me with only part of my definition. It was not enough to say that a participatory approach creates opportunities for learners to have high degrees of control, responsibility and reward vis-a-vis program activities.
I also needed to show why this was being done. Why are active roles important? What purposes are served by getting learners into such roles?
This time I dug back into my memory of a book written by an Indian adult educator, Lyra Srinivasan, and adapted some of her ideas. I came up with three purposes for creating more active roles for learners: 1 When learners are in active roles, learning is that much more efficient 2 By trying out more-active roles within the supportive environment of an adult education program, learners can enhance their personal development through building social skills, self-esteem, and so forth.
In practical terms, a participatory literacy program had the following characteristics: Characteristics of a Participatory Literacy Program Activities emphasize what learners already know. Learners participate actively, taking responsibility and control as much as possible.
Learners work as a team: respecting each other, supporting each other, building on each other's strengths. Learners identify problems and figure out how to solve them. They use "critical thinking" skills. Learners take risks and "stretch" themselves to try something new. The trainers serve as "facilitators" "guides" and "resource persons" for this process. My literature review dug up a wide range of writers who in one way or another supported such active roles for learners in the instructional process.
These thinkers included people from the whole language school of reading and writing education, the usual humanistic adult education thinkers, and the social change advocates like Paul Freire, Ira Shor, and others.
I also found support for the notion that program participants should take active roles in managing the program outside the classroom itself.
These supporters of "participatory management" came from the disciplines of community development, community organizing, and workplace democracy.
My dissertation also went beyond theoretical arguments to document actual people in the U. Published on February 17, Updates. In this understated way, she makes her wealth of experience and expertise evident. Street, who became an educator after working on Wall Street, harvests the flavors from a diversity of experiences and opportunities that she brings to the classroom.
Here are just a few examples. B, C and D states have varying levels of requirements. Utah has mandated a high school financial literacy course for more than a decade. The curriculum covers financial goal-setting, savings, investing and retirement planning.
The new law requires an online, end-of-course assessment in general financial literacy. It also funds professional development for teachers. This essential life skill can help prevent our young people from becoming locked in echo chambers or lured down rabbit holes by online extremism. If our students can bring that shared set of norms to our society more broadly, we might have a chance at renewing civility.
In these videos, Iowa educator Brian Winkel and two students talk about the importance of news literacy and its impact on them. Published on Jan 13, Updates. Published on Jan 7, Events. Calling all metro Atlanta educators! Published on Jan 5, Events.
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