Adult Literacy: A Handbook for Development Workers - Softcover

Fordham, Paul; Holland, Deryn; Millican, Juliet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0855983159 ISBN 13: 9780855983154

Verlag: OXFAM PUB, 1995

Inhaltsangabe

This is a book for development workers who have no formal training in adult education who have to respond - as planners, trainers or teachers - to requests for literacy skills. It sets out to deepen their understanding of literacy and its importance in the process of development and change. Using examples from many countries, the authors give practical guidance, in clear language, for all stages of literacy action from planning to assessment. Besides reading, they cover the skills involved in writing, calculating and interpreting visual images. They suggest ways of using materials that are already available and how to develop new ones designed for specific situations. Authors give practical guidance in clear language for all stages of literacy action from planning to assessment.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Paul Fordham was Director of Adult Education at the Univerisity of Southampton for 18 years, and is now Honorary Professor in the International Centre for Education in Development at the University of Warwick. His publications include Learning Networks: Non-Formal Education on a Housing Estate (with Poulton and Randle), Participation, Learning, and Change; and Co-operating for Literacy

Deryn Holland is Assistant Education Officer (Staff Development), Buckinghamshire County Council. She works locally and internationally as a trainer, researcher, and writer in adult education and literacy. Her publications include The Progress Profile (Adult Literacy Basic Skills Unit) and Developing Literacy and Numeracy: An intermediate Pack for Trainers (The Open University)

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Adult Literacy

A Handbook for Development Workers

By Paul Fordham, Deryn Holland, Juliet Millican

Oxfam Publishing

Copyright © 1995 Voluntary Service Overseas
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-85598-315-4

Contents

A note from the publishers, iv, 
About the authors, iv, 
Acknowledgements, v, 
Foreword, vi, 
Preface: The purpose of this book, ix, 
Part One: Literacy and Development, 
1 The case for literacy, 3, 
Part Two: Planning for Literacy, 
2 Recognising and assessing needs, 17, 
3 Looking at literacies and establishing aims, 33, 
4 Getting organised: some practical issues, 40, 
Part Three: Exploring Teaching and Learning, 
5 Some methods for teaching literacy, 53, 
6 Learning numbers and reading images, 73, 
7 Planning a session, 85, 
8 Selecting and training literacy workers, 97, 
9 Assessing progress and evaluating impact, 106, 
Part Four: Materials for Literacy, 
10 'Special' materials, 127, 
11 'Ordinary' materials, 138, 
Part Five: Continuing with Literacy, 
12 Developing a literate society, 149, 
Postscript, 157, 
Glossary, 160, 
Notes, 162, 
Further reading, 164, 
Index, 166, 

CHAPTER 1

The case for literacy

People often assume that there are absolute states of being literate or illiterate. This idea leads to the belief that a person who is illiterate can be led through a series of simple steps (with a few tests along the way), leading from one absolute state to another. After that, the previous lack of knowledge and skills which prevented him or her from being productively involved in development will have disappeared, and as a newly literate person he or she will become a fully functioning and knowledgeable member of the community.

This notion was always a myth, but it persists, and can be seen in statements or slogans which talk about the 'eradication' of illiteracy, as though it were a disease like smallpox. The myth is promoted by those who have been formally educated (like all the readers and writers of this book), who tend to deny the wisdom and competence of the unschooled. Many people assume that, once the skills of reading and writing are acquired, lives will be transformed.

We probably all know cases of successful non-literate people. For example, Paul Fordham's paternal great-grandmother was a competent dressmaker, raised four children, all of whom went to school, and died in 1917 at the age of 89. She was certainly illiterate at the time of her marriage in 1856, and it seems likely that she remained so. She grew up just before the start of mass literacy in Britain.

In the modern world, there seems little doubt that it is always better to be able to read and to write than not to have these skills. Acquiring them can and should transform people's lives; but the timing has to be right, and the process must take account of the learners' social context. These issues are examined in later parts of this chapter and in Part Two.

One of the advantages of learning to be literate is the increase in confidence which it brings, both to individuals and to their communities. In the aftermath of the Tanzanian literacy campaign of the 1970s, Yusuf Kassam analysed eight conversations with newly literate people. They all emphasised the sense of self-confidence which they had gained. One person recorded: 'Now that I have become literate, I feel that before I was carrying a small lantern, but now a pressure lamp has been brought tome ... I don't feel inferior.'

In the same analysis, one learner recorded how, as a non-literate person, he had been 'made to work like a plough'. He described the sense of personal liberation brought by literacy: it was as though 'the rope that had been twisted around me was untied, and so naturally I felt happy'. He went on to say: 'We can defend our rights; we can't be forced to do anything against our own wishes; we can't be cheated.' Increased confidence often has social and political significance, besides the personal benefits which it brings.

Testimonies collected more recently in Bolivia echo those from Tanzania. Women learners in a shanty town outside La Paz explained that they went to classes 'So we won't be cheated' ... 'So that we won't have to say that we don't know how to sign our names '... 'Some can help our children with their homework' ... 'So we'll know who to vote for'.

Motivation for literacy

Evaluations of literacy programmes often report that learners lack motivation or that the number of drop-outs is large. A reporter from the current Indian national programme (National Literacy Mission) recorded in one of the 'low-performing districts' (Himachel Pradesh) that, while about 26 per cent of the community had enrolled, more than one third had dropped out before the end of the course. Official attitudes were supportive; slogans on bus windscreens declared: Now there will be no more illiterates. But the intended learners did not read the slogans, and, in spite of the high degree of motivation among the professional staff, 'There is a general dearth of volunteer teachers at the grassroots level, and village-level committees are practically defunct.' The writer calls for 're-planning, based on thorough soul-searching'.

Such disappointment is common, and not just in India. The history of many of the world's large-scale literacy schemes has been one of failure. The 1967-72 Experimental World Literacy Programme (EWLP), sponsored by UNESCO, is just one example. Only in Tanzania, with strong and persistent political leadership, was the EWLP a success. A dynamic movement for political change lies behind other large-scale success stories, in most cases after revolutionary change (as in the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Nicaragua).

The preface to this book stated that the planning and implementation of literacy projects requires firm decisions on four key questions:

• Who needs literacy?

• What do they need it for?

• What kind of literacy do they need?

• How will the programme be planned and implemented?

In all the successful large-scale cases there was clear agreement:

• Literacy was for everybody.

• The purposes were both political (consolidating revolutionary gains) and economic (providing an educated work-force for the new command economies).

• All was to be done via the national language and a clearly structured, hierarchical organisation.

In the later 1990s, development workers are more likely to be concerned with local initiatives and less with the transformation of whole societies than they were twenty or thirty years ago. Literacy can be a transforming experience, both for individuals and for societies. But the timing of its introduction has to be carefully considered, and any programme has to be firmly embedded in its time and place. In the words of Om Shrivastava, working in adult education in India, when is the 'magic moment' for literacy? When and how can good motivation be assumed or generated?

When to introduce literacy

To understand the right timing for a literacy programme, we need to understand how and where literacy will support other aspects of development. This is the most important question for field workers when deciding on timing. Whether or not the 'magic moment' has arrived may well depend on how literacy skills are likely to affect other aspects of development.

There are few societies where literacy does not bring more...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: OXFAM PUB
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1995
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0855983159
• ISBN 13: 9780855983154
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 170
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar