Necessary Changes: Professional Involvement in Adult Literacy Programs

Abstract

Adult literacy programs have achieved recent prominence as studies documenting huge numbers of illiterates in the United States provoke national anxiety. In this article, Francis Kazemek first critiques demeaning attitudes toward adult literacy learners implicit in the practices of major literacy programs, and then examines underlying assumptions about the nature of literacy in the light of recent sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic studies on actual literacy practices. He argues that among the challenges facing adult literacy professionals is the responsibility to confront political and institutional barriers to effective literacy education. In conclusion, he offers an alternative, holistic methodology based on dialogic and socially oriented instructional strategies, and which responds to gender-based and cultural differences in ways of learning.

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