LOOKING BACK IN ANGER: THE INFLUENCES OF SCHOOLING ON ILLITERATE ADULTS

One of the most obvious among these (bridges that have been burned in adult education) is the little-used bridge between the fields of adult and public school education. Although this is a frequent observation in the adult education literature, little has actually been done on either side of the learning gap to address this concern.

Yet there is a mounting debate in the adult literacy field concerning how undereducated adults should be taught -- a debate which sometimes seems to be conducted in a vacuum. On one hand, the field of adult literacy carries a legacy of "remedial education" and a strong tradition of deficit theory from social policy to certain pedagogical assumptions in classrooms and curricula which deny adult needs and blunt adult capacity for agency (Fingeret, 1983; Quigley, 1991). As a result, literacy has been repeatedly criticized for treating adult learners as you would children, "except more politely" (Mezirow, 1978, p. 8).

This group (adult literacy reform groups) argues that issues of gender, race, culture, and class structure must be more fully explored at theoretical and research levels within adult literacy and must become integral aspects of adult learning and change (e.g., Heaney, in press; Luttrell, in press; O'Brien, 1979; Quigley, 1990; Thompson, 1980).

Mainstream adult literacy education takes an almost ahistorical stance in ignoring the early formative years of the learner in most of its literature and much of its daily classroom practice (Mezirow, Darkenwald, & Knox, 1975). Adult literacy could, therefore, be greatly assisted by research which speaks to the early years of learners and the nature of schooling on both psychological and sociological levels.

The research to be discussed here examined the issue of why so many adults decide not to participate in traditional Adult Basic Education (ABE) and adult literacy programs.

In this recent study, we unexpectedly found that memories of earlier schooling were a powerful factor affecting undereducated adults' decision not to participate.

The interviews continually gravitated back to early schooling as the primary de-motivating factor. Subjects were influenced -- in some cases haunted --by the memories of their prior schooling experiences. These associations clearly impeded their stated interest in returning to a formal educational program.

Prior Schooling and "Compartmentalization"

Subjects were experiencing very real situational barriers, as mentioned, but the primary reasons given were based mainly on an unswerving belief that ABE or literacy would be no different and no better than school. Herein lies the first important finding in the study.

It is significant to note that these subjects did not see the terms "school," "education," and "learning" as interchangeable, as is so often the case in the literature on adult literacy. Each term had a distinct meaning, with "school" at the negative end of the spectrum and "education" at the positive end.

The four investigation areas were: (1) teachers, (2) peers, (3) course content, and (4) school environment. While in the eyes of these subjects' teachers their difficulty in mastering the course content may be interpreted as a major reason why these subjects "failed," the subjects themselves never blamed the course material in the interviews. Most considered this the "best part" of school, or "fun." The single point where subject content was identified as problematic was when it was perceived as racist, particularly where it was culturally biased against Blacks or when Black culture was omitted. In general, the subjects saw themselves as having been pushed out of school, rather than having failed school. It is also noteworthy that all subjects stated they felt "different" in school. Both men and women said they wanted to be part of a group which cared about them; others said they did not want to be considered "square." But they all said they hadn't felt as if they "fit" in school.

A second major finding lay beneath the various reactions to the image of schooling.  Not all reacted to school with moral and political indignation, as many resistance theorists would advocate. Adults in this study suggested three general categories of resistance: (1) personal/emotive, grounded in trauma and critique of oppressive individuals and their actions; (2) ideological/cultural, grounded in an understanding and critique of macro-systems and dominant ideologies; and (3) age-based, rejecting schooling and its knowledge as irrelevant to their current needs.

Personal/Emotive Resisters

For personal/emotive resisters, teachers and peers (respectively) were the most significant variables in the decision to quit school.

Comments/observations from study subjects:

     -felt betrayed by individuals within systems

     -saw themselves as scapegoats for one-on-one discrimination and oppression

     -now live with a deep resentment toward certain teachers and peers

     -saw school as too big with too many channels and lacking personal attention

     -perceived lack of consideration, attention, and empathy from particular individuals

Memories of one or two concerned teachers were just not enough for these resisters to overcome their feelings of personal alienation and oppression.

Asked what sort of literacy program might be acceptable for these personal resisters to ever consider pursuing the education they now adamantly claim they want, only a major breakthrough in trust held any hope for program success.

This bond of trust denied in school was more important to personal resisters than any reference to technologies, school access, or classroom methodologies -- issues which typically dominate the adult literacy literature.

Ideological/Cultural Resisters

Like group one, the ideological-cultural resisters were indelibly affected by past schooling.

For the Blacks in this group, school was recalled as a white man's world.

The view of schooling as racist included the curriculum -- or omissions in the curriculum.

Subjects in this second group frequently named teachers and peers, but for reasons different from those given by the personal resisters. Teachers, they felt, "had a certain life-style. They don't understand that other people have grown up differently" (Donna).

Future programs must contain a high degree of learner input into the content and structure.

Age-Based Resisters

For subjects over the age of 50, literacy and adult basic education was a matter of little concern or significance.

Learning has taken place without school.

Education is of vital importance at an abstract level; personal learning is necessary for one's continued growth and survival; school is an absolute good, but for the next generation or someone else.

The Next Generation

More significant, perhaps, neither of these groups (first two resisters) ever lost its belief in the value of education. The third major finding of the study challenges the well-worn argument in the education literature (e.g., Lewis, 1966; Parsons, 1959) that generational values of undereducated adults are passed inexorably to their children.

Subjects adamantly asserted that education is of real importance and they all said they would do whatever was possible to see that their children completed school.

Their children were their single educational hope.

Implications and Conclusions

To penetrate the hegemony of schooling within adult literacy and basic education, it is becoming increasingly apparent (Clarke, 1984; Cunningham, 1989; Ilsley, 1989) that the voice of the nonparticipant must be heard.

Such models can be created in adult literacy but not without those most affected by the decisions – the learners themselves.

If there is to be improved solidarity across the educational age lines for research and practice, one obvious bridge is the nature of schooling itself. The psychological long-term impact of schooling was shown to be more profound in this study than formerly appreciated in the literacy literature. The sociological and cultural implications of the types of resistance require further investigation and provide implications for new models for learning and teaching decision-making and processes. However, the concept of struggle is key, both in terms of subjects' voice and the advocacy required if failing systems are to be more adequately informed and radically changed.

Title:  Looking back in anger: The influences of schooling on illiterate adults.

Subject(s):  ADULT education -- Social aspects

Source: Journal of Education, 1992, Vol. 174 Issue 1, p104, 18p

Author(s): Quigley, Allan

Abstract: Examines the issue of why so many adults decide not to participate in

                traditional Adult Basic Education (ABE) and adult literacy programs. Profile of

                the subjects interviewed; Reasons for nonparticipation; Suggestions for 

                improving adult literacy programs.

AN:  9307285024

ISSN: 0022-0574              

Full Text Word Count: 8161

Database:  Academic Search Premier