Katrina and all,
I was looking over the discussion and noticed your comment about learners coming away from experiences with a sense of "ownership" of the material.  This I believe is very significant, but is difficult to create or hold the space for unless instructors are open to the negotiation process that occur in learning situations.  We do not all have the same context or frame of reference therefore learners are always negotiating "what's real" or applicable for them. Unfortunately the K-12 system doesn't facilitate this kind of process and many learners shut down because they just can't reconcile all of the inconsistencies. Down the road, many of these learners come into our programs and they continue to feel detached from material. 
 
The "learner biography" process gives learners the time and space to look at all of those earlier learning experiences, and to search for significant themes that have emerged from these experiences.  It is a very powerful process and having gone through this myself in graduate school, I know that the outcome can be quite significant.  I would be willing to be involved in a research project that could look more closely at this process for basic literacy learners if there is an opportunity to support this kind of research.  What do others think?
Esther

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