Prioritizing the Learners in Adult Education
Written by Ned Zimmerman-Bence, Co-Founder of GogyUp
National Adult Education and Family Literacy (AEFL) Week was established in 2009 by then-Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO), then-Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) to build awareness of an often ignored but critically important "sector" of the American education system and a vital engine for our nation's prosperity.
Like our partners and other advocates across the country, we are both celebrating the progress adult learners make on their own and with their educators while also using this opportunity to promote the role adult education and family literacy plays in expanding prosperity and family economic security for all.
Why School?
AEFL week also presents an opportunity to revisit a question so eloquently asked by the seminal adult educator and author Mike Rose: "Why School?"
Social institutions are required to address a mixed, sometimes competing, set of interests. Adult Education (AE) and public education as a whole are no exception - from the unique, personal goals of the individual student and the expectations of the learner's family to the legislative mandates. Then there are the added interests of the educator, the organization that employs the educator, and even outside influences including funders, local employers, etc. Each of these interests have a distinct answer to the questions of "why school". Often the largest or most stable funding source has the loudest voice and gets the answer that serves its interests heard over the other voices (i.e., the other interests).
Source: U.S. Department of Education
The federal government provides the critical financial and technical foundation on which so many systems rely upon. It therefore has the loudest voice. But that voice's "answer" does not necessarily align with the goals of the adult learner. Since the 1990's, the federal government has required funding to be focused almost exclusively on college and career readiness (CCR) and workforce development. At first glance, those are entirely legitimate and worthy requirements. Yet when only 5 to 10% of U.S. adults have access to the Adult Education they need, the limited funding and the exclusive requirements create a "too little, too short" environment for adult learners to achieve their individual goals.
The loudest voice won't have the answer with the most impact. That belongs to the adult learner. After all, it is the adult learner who makes the conscious choice to engage with the system, who must overcome numerous barriers to achieve specific, personal goals and objectives. It is through facilitating the achievement of those goals that AE meets its purpose: assisting each adult learner in obtaining the skills and knowledge necessary to improve their own life and the lives connected to that learner. Those goals often exceed CCR outcomes and encompass far larger objectives. It is through the adult learner that the additional skills and knowledge gained will have an impact in the workplace and for the learner's family and immediate surrounding community.
AEFL week is therefore a week to consider what AE is and why it exists.
Shifting to Life-Wide Learning
Stephen Reder's framework for "life-wide" and lifelong learning policy formation and funding is an approach for thinking about the AE system our nation needs. It is a framework that puts the voice of the adult learner at the center of the question "why school".
Life-wide and lifelong learning recognizes that learning takes place across one's lifespan and in a variety of environments: at work, at home, and in a formal education setting. A shift to life-wide learning would recognize that adults pursue learning for needs and goals beyond CCR. While learning goals outside of CCR might not fall under the criteria for federal funding (sometimes the only funding available to an AE program), they are no less practical and essential - whether they are to better understand health issues, help assist their children with schoolwork, engage with the financial system, or improve their ability to critically evaluate information overall.
The increased awareness brought by celebrating AEFL week will hopefully continue to raise the importance of Adult Education and Family Literacy and facilitate increased funding for AE programming. Yet increased funding isn't the only way to begin to hear more of the voice of the adult learner instead of solely listening to the voice of the funder.
The Role of Technology
Technology, especially near-ubiquitous access to data networks through smartphones, creates additional opportunities for the adult learner to pursue life-wide learning. In keeping with GogyUp's beliefs and mission, technology should not become a substitute or replacement for on-site, person to person instruction. Rather technology can provide the motivated learner "more" and amplify the life-wide learning possible in formal adult education.
For example, the GogyUp Reader provides a working learner with an "in-pocket" tutor for immediate help understanding workplace training and other critical information that would otherwise be inaccessible for 1 in 6 U.S. working-age adults. The GogyUp Reader can also provide on-demand instruction in phonics using the very documents individuals need to understand for their work.
Our partnerships with organizations that focus on AE and workforce development, such as Cara Collective and CLUES, illustrate how GogyUp can expand opportunities for adults to engage with programming that meet their individual goals and objectives. This October, we are excited to launch an evaluation of how GogyUp Reader can impact health literacy through an SBIR grant with the National Institute for Nursing Research and our partners at the University of Minnesota: School of Public Health, School of Medicine, and Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC).
In-the-moment reading assistance for workplace training, citizenship classes, and increased health literacy are all use cases for how technology can support a renewed focus on life-wide learning and amplify the impact of the nation's Adult Education and Family Literacy programs.
We hope you join us in celebrating the impact these programs have on our country, the achievements of adult learners, and the legislators and policymakers who ensure the system continues.
