Erickson, Paul R. Passports to Paradise: the Stru
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 418 238 CE 076 132 AUTHOR Sticht, Thomas G.; McDonald, Barbara A.; Erickson, Paul R. TITLE Passports to Paradise: The Struggle To Teach and To Learn on the Margins of Adult Education. INSTITUTION San Diego Consortium for Workforce Education and Lifelong Learning, CA. PUB DATE 1998-01-00 NOTE 125p. AVAILABLE FROM Applied Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Inc., 2062 Valley View Blvd., El Cajon, CA 92019-2059 ($20). PUB TYPE Reports Research (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC05 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adult Basic Education; *Adult Literacy; Basic Skills; Cultural Differences; Educational Improvement; Educational Policy; English (Second Language); Inner City; *Literacy Education; National Programs; Needs Assessment; Participation; *Participatory Research; Program Effectiveness; Social Bias; *Subcultures; Teacher Researchers; *Urban Education IDENTIFIERS California (San Diego) ABSTRACT This report provides a 5-year perspective on the adult literacy education (ALE) system in the inner city of San Diego, California. Chapter 1 introduces the research. Chapters 2-5 in part 1,"The Struggle To Learn," contain the following: information about the difficulties of determining how many adults might benefit from basic skill education; introduction of the practice of having adult literacy students perform as researchers to discover barriers to and ways to increase participation in ALE; what happens after adults decide to go back to school; and how various instructional factors affect learning and the transfer of learning to the home and community. Chapters 6-8 in part 2,"The Struggle To Teach," include the following: reports by two teacher researchers on hardships of teaching and learning and insights of 17 teachers about the educational system; a teacher researcher's experiences in trying to change instruction in an English as a second language class and how the dynamics of students' lives and classroom turbulence affected her work; and challenges to teaching posed by diversity in a classroom due to cultural factors and different language and literacy skill levels. Chapters 9-11 in part 3,"The Struggle To Be Better," cover the following: activities federal policy makers and officials have undertaken to try to improve the ALE system nationally; activities in California to improve the ALE system; and rebuttals to news stories about the low intellectual abilities of disadvantaged youth and adults. (YLB) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************************************** 4.',V,Nr4r4Tr'or.vtr.` : . ---------The Struggle to Teach to Learn on the'- , Margins of Adult Education \. January1998 San Diego- Consortium for Workforge VVEL L,Education &lifelong Learning PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office ofducational Research and Improvement DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL EDUC6Nf1ONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION HAS BEEN GRANTED BY et' CENTER (ERIC) his document has been reproduced as t Ar1.141,7 received from the person or organization wttott,rti originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. 0 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent INFORMATION CENTER official OERI position or policy. BEST COPY AVAILABLE Passports to Paradise The Struggle to Teach and To Learn on the Margins of Adult Education Thomas G. Sticht Barbara A. McDonald Paul R. Erickson January 1998 CWELLSan Diego Consortium for Workforce Education and Lifelong Learning, Inc. 3 © 1998, Applied Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences, Inc. For additional copies of this report send a check for $20.00 made out to the ABCS to: The Applied Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences, Inc. 2062 Valley View Blvd. El Cajon, CA 92019-2059 tel/fax (619) 444-9595 Table of Contents Acknowledgments iv Executive Summary v Chapter 1 Marginally Literate Adults and Their Struggle 1 for Educational Passports to Paradise Part 1 The Struggle to Learn Chapter 2 How Many of San Diego's Adults 9 Need Literacy Education? Chapter 3 Overcoming Barriers to Participate 19 in Adult Literacy Education Chapter 4 Getting to School and Completing 30 a Semester is Tough Chapter 5 ESL Students May Learn Some 41 But Transfer Little Part 2 The Struggle to Teach Chapter 6 Teachers and Students Share Thoughts 51 on the Hardships of Teaching and Learning Chapter 7 One Teacher's Experience in the 63 Open Entry/Open Exit Classroom Chapter 8 Grappling With Diversity 73 Part 3 The Struggle to Be Better Chapter 9 Striving at the National Level to Make 84 the Adult Literacy Education System Better Chapter 10 The Struggle to Improve Adult 94 Literacy Education in California Chapter 11 Adult Literacy Education: The Marginalized 104 Education System We Should Care More About Acknowledgments The San Diego Consortium for Workforce Education and Lifelong Learning (CWELL) and its Action Research Center (ARC) resulted in large part from recommendations of the California Workforce Literacy Task Force in 1990. The Executive Director of that Task Force was Donald Woodside, Consultant to State Senator Ralph Dills. Don participated in CWELL conferences, he advised on legislative and other matters throughout the project and he reviewed and commented on this report. For all his words of wisdom and acts of encouragement we thank Don very much. At the San Diego Community College, the person most responsible for bringing the idea of the CWELL and Action Research Center to the attention of college officials was William Armstrong, Director of Institutional Research and Planning. Throughout the five years of the CWELL project Bill has offered advice, helped in getting through the details of working in the college district, participated in several research projects with CWELL ARC staff, and he has reviewed and offered advice on this report. Bill's work on behalf of the CWELL Action Research Center and its projects is deeply appreciated. We are indebted to Mr. Augustine Gallego, Chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, Mr. Rodgers T. Smith, President of the Division of Continuing Education in the San Diego Community College District; Dean Jim Smith and Associate Dean Fran Lee of the Educational Cultural Center; Dean Marc Cuellar, of the Cesar Chavez Center; and Associate Dean Eileen Benswi of the Centre City Skills Center. Special thanks are offered to Dean Barbara Penn, Associate Dean William Grimes, and other administrators, faculty and staff of the Mid City Center for their support of the CWELL ARC located in the Mid City Continuing Education Center. We are grateful to these outstanding leaders and their staffs for their support of and contributions to the work of the San Diego CWELL ARC. We are very appreciative of the department chairs, resource persons, and the many teachers in the San Diego Community College District, Division of Continuing Education. They have shared generously their thoughts and hopes for adult literacy education in San Diego. We are especially grateful to the teachers who served as CWELL ARC Teacher Researchers. The works of six of these Teacher Researchers, Lynn Francis Bundy, Rosa Teresa Limon, Lovanne Ma lo, Wes Popham, Judy Quinton, and Marina Zamora Vera are featured in the present report. Special recognition and appreciation goes to the hundreds of adult students who contributed to the work of the CWELL ARC either as Adult Student Researchers, members of focus groups, journal writers, survey respondents or in the many casual conversations held with CWELL ARC staff over the five years of the CWELL project. The voices of many of these students are heard in the present report as they recount the struggle to learn that they and thousands of other adult students have made seeking educational passports to Paradise. The researchers of the CWELL Action Research Center (ARC) have included Dr. Thomas Sticht, CWELL Project Coordinator and Senior Technical Advisor, Dr. Barbara McDonald, Director of the CWELL ARC, Paul Erickson and Carolyn Huie Hofstetter, both of whom worked as graduate research assistants from the San Diego State University. Staff members included Laura Fernandez and Gloria Martinez. The authors would like to thank each of these associates for their dedication and many insightful contributions to the work of the CWELL ARC. The San Diego Consortium for Workforce Education and Lifelong Learning (CWELL) has been supported in part by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund, and the National Institute for Literacy. We are grateful to these organizations for their generous support. The San Diego Consortium for Workforce Education and Lifelong Learning (CWELL) is comprised of the Applied Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences, Inc.; the San Diego State University, College of Education, Department of Educational Technology; and the San Diego Community College District, Division of Continuing Education. Any errors of omission or commission in the report are the responsibility of the authors. The ideas and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and they do not necessarily reflect the official positions, opinions or policies of members of the San Diego CWELL, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund, or the National Institute for Literacy. 6 vi Executive Summary "Just another beautiful day in Paradise!" That's the