Hi Steve--

Much of the curricula that teachers / administrators have talked  
about on these lists for a long time (years) revolve around VOICE,  
that is, learning how to speak up to further your own goals.  When  
adults enter a public education system, they need voice, often, to  
get the accommodations they are guaranteed by law.  So that is one  
thread.

Another thread goes back to progressive education and John Dewey and  
the testing of assumptions by asking questions then going out into  
the community to get information, empirically.

Andrea

On Jul 18, 2008, at 2:18 PM, Steve Kaufmann wrote:


> Since you are interested in having your basic assumptions  

> challenged, let me state my reaction to what I am reading here.My  

> involvement in public education is that of a former pupil, and  

> parent and grandparent of children who have attended or do attend  

> public school.

>

> I find it quite unacceptable that teachers of math or English feel  

> they have the right to mobilize learners to lobby politicians. In  

> my experience with Adult ESL, for example, and this was borne out  

> by the recent study I saw from the Center for Applied Linguistics,  

> instructional hours have less impact on immigrant language  

> improvement than what these immigrants do outside of the classroom.  

> Instructional hours are a small part of the solution.

>

> That is also true with literacy learning where only a small  

> percentage of people struggling with low literacy actually attend  

> instructional classes. So if the goal is to have an impact in these  

> areas, you should be looking at what to do beyond more funding for  

> your own sector. Educators are in an obvious conflict of interest  

> in "mobilizing" their students to lobby for more funding for their  

> own jobs.

>

> I also feel that converting maths or language teaching into social  

> activism courses is a distortion of premise under which tax-payer  

> funding is allocated to teaching those subjects.

>

> I have challenged some of the assumptions here, but would be very  

> interested to see my assumptions challenged.

>

> Steve

>

> On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 9:19 AM, Ellison, Art  

> <AEllison at ed.state.nh.us> wrote:

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Professional development for adult educators can be built around  

> this concept of student advocacy. That includes a commitment at the  

> state or local level to helping teachers to find or develop the  

> materials that are needed in this area and to insure that all staff  

> hired by local programs understand and agree to the concept of  

> student advocacy. In New Hampshire we have a long term commitment  

> to working with the Right Question Project, Cambridge, Ma which  

> trains adult education staff in using the questioning process for  

> students to gain the skills that they need to influence their world.

>

>

> Art Ellison, Policy Committee Chair, National Council of State  

> Directors of Adult Education

>

>   It sets math problems in the context of current issues around  

> race, gender and class."

>

> Adult Education for Social Justice: News, Issues and Ideas is a  

> biannual publication that "helps teachers incorporate social  

> justice content into their curriculum".

>

>

>

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> -- 

> Steve Kaufmann

> www.lingq.com

> 1-604-922-8514

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