Adult literacy, the discourse of deficit and social inclusion

1. Adult literacy, the discourse of deficit and social inclusion Lyn Tett, University of Edinburgh

2. Methodology • Two-phase study interviewing literacy learners from 9 geographical areas of Scotland near the beginning of their programmes and then again a year later using a structured questionnaire (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/03/20102141/0) • Paper draws on analysis of qualitative data from 200 learners. • It focuses on the impact that participation had on people’s personal, work, family and community lives.

3. Adult Literacy and the discourse of deficit • Being literate is seen as significant as a means of human capital development and as a key to unlocking the benefits of globalisation. • At the individual level being literate is equated with success in life and having access to the goods and trappings that are valued highly in society. • Literacy is treated as if it was a set of unproblematic information-processing cognitive skills independent of context. • Literacy skills are seen as neutral and objective within a discourse that takes no account of the ways in which they are used in specific communities.

4. Adult Literacy and the discourse of deficit • Policy discourses position literacy learners as people with deficiencies that have an adverse impact on the nation’s economic development. • Describe adults’ literacy in terms of children’s reading ages. • Experiences of school ‘failure’ are internalised and seen as an individual problem. • Natural attitudes of policy makers, the media etc perpetuate the discourse of deficit.

5. Developing a different discourse • Respondents reported a negative sense of themselves as learners as a result of their school experiences. • People need to have a positive educational experience where their issues and concerns are valued and their everyday literacy activities are drawn on. • Tutors should draw on the technologies of reading and writing, the functions of these activities and the social meanings carried by them.

6. A social practice approach to learning • Learners are diverse in their learning preferences and in how these are expressed through different technologies. • Literacy is employed for a purpose and in a particular context. • Literacy is a communal resource integral to the social interactions, relationships in which it is used and developed. • So reading and writing are complex activities that integrate feelings, values, routines, skills, understandings, and activities and depend on a great deal of contextual (i.e. social) knowledge and intention.

7. Impact of participation • Learners reported increased self-confidence as a key to opening up a wide range of other changes. • These included psychological changes such as increased self-esteem and a sense of their greater potential, ability and achievements. • Changes in skills led to the confidence to do things such as talking, filling in forms, using computers

8. Impact of participation • Changes in the range of activities that learners were able to undertake were reported including starting new leisure activities and not being afraid of meeting new people. • Literacy learning had an impact on relationships and activities within the family especially between parents and children. • There was also an impact on people’s ability to gain and retain employment. • Finally people reported that they had higher educational aspirations.

9. Conclusion • Adults with low literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed, living on low incomes insocio-economically-excluded geographical areas, experiencing poor health and early morbidity so literacy is a social justice issue. • Social justice requires an approach that goes beyond providing opportunities to making provision that prioritises equality of outcomes. • This would involve emphasising learners’ strengths rather than their weaknesses through an accessible and appropriate curriculum that is delivered by tutors who take learners’ backgrounds into account.

10. Conclusion (cont) • People need to be engaged in reflexively thinking about the social construction of their knowledge so that the experiences and stories that have been excluded can be included. • It involves rejecting individually-based, deficit views of learners and instead focusing on people’s ability to do what they want in their lives. • It is about education that moves away from inequitable, individualized, deficit models of learning and brings about change in understanding both self and society that leads on to a more democratic, equitable life and hence to greater social justice.