It Must Be Told: Stories of Hope, Dreams, and Possibility From The Open Book

• In Event: The GED and Literacy Programs as Counterspaces to Schooling? Operationalizing What We Know

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to document, through participants’ voices, the history of The Open Book - a Freirian inspired adult literacy program in NYC, in order to support other programs towards a sustainable dialogue centered on fostering democratic spaces and pockets of resistance within their own agencies.
Theoretical Framework
The Open Book at its core represented a critique of the dominant ideology. In honoring this, critical theory is the theoretical lens in which this project was grounded. Brookfield (2005) states that we can discern how the ethic of capitalism pushes people into dehumanizing ways of living that perpetuate economic, racial, and gender oppression. Through a problem-posing approach, learners can learn to co-construct their reality in social exchange with others. Ultimately, students are invited to be knowledge creators and change agents in their communities (Heaney, 2000). Freire (1970) unequivocally states the solution is not to integrate people into the structure of oppression but to transform that structure so they can become beings for themselves.

Research Design
Participants in this project consisted of 16 people with a range of perspectives and who had been critical elements in the program’s history/community (the program director, students -who became assistant teachers-, counselors, and instructors. There was a range in socio-economic status and race (African American, Afro-Caribbean, Caucasian, and Hispanic). The primary source of data collection was ten 2-3 hour tape-recorded small group interviews with many participants being interviewed more than once. I also had access to articles and other artifacts written by program staff and students. During transcribing/coding, I simultaneously generated a number of themes and sub-themes. I also noted repeated concepts. Afterwards, I developed a mind-map with major categories which emerged. Those were the basis for my chapters which comprised of vignettes told by co-constructors of this story in their voices. To ensure validity I triangulated using documents and other artifacts from the program, group interviews, relevant literature, and other practitioners in the literacy community in NYC.
Findings/Conclusions
1. With few exceptions, students’ voices aren’t reflected in any major decision-making (hiring, curricula, etc.) which ensures their voices remain invisible.
2. Literacy policy in this country is dictated by the interests of capitalism. The main purpose of publicly funded adult literacy programs to place students in fast employment, which ensures the perpetuation of a human underclass, and directly contradicts education being a process as well as a basic human right for everyone.
Significance of this Study
1. Connecting adult literacy to community organizing and other social justice struggles/causes in order to foster collective change and make transparent whose interests are served by current policy is critical.
2. In order to for adult literacy to be consistent with democracy space must be made to include/listen to students’ voices at every level of program decision-making and policy.

Author

• Dianne Ramdeholl, Empire State College