Both Jackie and Marty have made some interesting comments around student
involvement, critical thinking and professional development. 

 

Throughout my 38 years as an adult educator the clear focus for student
involvement has been on the choice that students make to become involved
in their community. While that may entail student leadership within the
classroom or the program, the leadership role that most students choose
is outside the classroom, in the larger community.  The adult education
classroom is the place for students to gain the skills to engage with
the institutions with which they have to interact.  One of those is the
adult education program in which they are enrolled but for most, the
institutions are the State TANF office, the local housing authority, the
city council, the neighborhood community council, the local school
board, the state legislature and the US Congress.  

 

Students have been the leaders in hundreds of campaigns to gain
additional resources for their adult education programs on the local,
state and federal levels. As active participants and leaders in these
campaigns they have contacted policy makers by letter, telephone and in
person. They have testified before legislative bodies, met with
legislative staff and lead the effort to include other students in this
work. A review of successful advocacy campaigns on the state and federal
levels indicates that 80% of the contacts come from adult education
students. A recent advocacy campaign for additional funding for adult
education in New Hampshire included 4,000 contacts from students with
the Governor and members of the state legislature.  

 

Involvement with this work can be part of a comprehensive strategy that
includes political literacy within the mission of the adult education
program, along with health literacy, economic literacy, math literacy,
English literacy, etc. The tactics, strategies and skills developed by
students to become successful in advocating for their adult education
programs are the same that students will use to get a stop sign on the
corner, an increase in the local school budget, a state law prohibiting
predatory lending practices on the part of financial institutions and to
influence the next state plan for adult education.

 

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 

 

 


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