The EBSN’s Speakers' Corner on Adult Literacy: online discussion
Zsolt
Vincze
Welcome to the online discussion organised by the EBSN EPALE team celebrating the International Literacy Day!
On this page we organise ‘The Speakers’ Corner on Adult Literacy’ intended to be really open to everyone! To ensure this we are making this event multilingual: if you feel you want to contribute but do not feel comfortable enough writing in English, you can write in your own language. We will do our best to understand you with the help of Google translator!
Feel free to share your opinion on the questions below:
Q1: What is your main message to policy makers regarding Adult Literacy?
Q2: What do you think policy makers still don’t understand about Adult Literacy in Europe?
Q3: What are the main barriers stopping adults from achieving functional literacy?
The event will take place on this page Friday, September 7th, from 10.00 (CET) to 17:00 (CET). It will be moderated by the EBSN’s Secretary General, Graciela Sbertoli.
We look forward to reading your contributions!
**Please note that comments may be over several pages. Please refresh the page and scroll to the bottom to click through to comments on other pages.**
Comments
Spite of agreeing with
Spite of agreeing with priority on youth we (europeans knowledge agents) mustn´t neglect the fact of the so great percentage of cocitizens that have still illeterates in complete. And many more are being excluded on the socila media diemnsion, specially for the agressive effect of "fake news" (look to the article of gerhard Bisovisky about this respect on the blog). What can we do? To persevere on the budget of Erasmus + for Adult Education on a perspectivo of Lifelong Learning vision. Sorry for this so late intervention...
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Time over - but let's continue!
Dear all,
The time frame for this event was 10:00 to 17:00 CET - and that means the moderation of the discussion will end in about 4 minutes. But do go on writing if you haven't been able to log in before now! All messages are important, and they will all be collected as base for the EBSN's future work.
Thank you all for your contributions!
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Message from Satya Brink
Our colleague Satya (see LinkedIn profile here) has been trying to contribute to this event, but apparently something went wrong with the approval of her registration. She sent me her message by mail.
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So the question seems to be:
Are we talking to our policy makers in a language they understand? Are we giving them enough reasons to invest largely in literacy provision for adults?
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Strong focus on Youth
Those are all valid arguments. Arguments that have been made time and time again. As long as adult education is not seen as important as general education, I can't see how there will be a change.
Just look at the follow-up programme of Erasmus. Yes, adult mobility may make an appearance, but potentially tucked away in Key Action 2, NOT with the highly visible learner mobility elements under KA1. If even formal EU Programmes do not recognise the importance of adult education, and youth and higher ed are pushed so much to the fore (even in budget terms) adult education will continue to struggle for recognition, funding and arguing for the true impact that it makes.
Of course we should not be discouraged. If WE don't stand up and persist with promoting adult education, there is little chance anything will change. Therefore, we need to join up our voices, use platforms such as EPALE and continue tooting our horn. Until someone listens.
I'll come off my soapbox now.
Have a good weekend all and thanks for the input!
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Thank you so much, Christine!
I am so very thankful for all your contribution today! I deeply agree with you... We must have a good talk some day somewhere! :-) Have a splendid weekend!
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Concordo
Graciela, concordo com a sua perspetiva.
Na realidade, os processos de alfabetização digital são processos educativos que possibilitam uma abordagem mais horizontal e inclusiva aos seus destinatários, uma vez que estes não se concentram apenas na população iletrada/analfabeta. Podem coexistir, no mesmo espaço e tempo de aprendizagem digital, pessoas com diferentes níveis de escolaridade e isso é fundamental para desconstruir o estigma social e político da alfabetização.
A alfabetização digital, pela sua importância para a cidadania e pela sua dimensão educativa mais democrática e transversal, poderão constituir boas portas de entrada para os processos formais de educação, para todos os que deles poderão beneficiar.
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Obrigada, Nico!
Translation:
Graciela, I agree with your perspective.
In reality, digital literacy processes are educational processes that allow a more horizontal and inclusive approach to their target audience, since they are not only focused on the illiterate / illiterate population.People with different levels of schooling can coexist in the same space and time of digital learning and this is fundamental to deconstruct the social and political stigma of literacy.
Digital literacy, because of its importance for citizenship and its more democratic and cross-cutting educational dimension, can be a good gateway to formal education processes for all those who can benefit from them.
In reality, digital literacy processes are educational processes that allow a more horizontal and inclusive approach to their target audience, since they are not only focused on the illiterate / illiterate population.People with different levels of schooling can coexist in the same space and time of digital learning and this is fundamental to deconstruct the social and political stigma of literacy.
Digital literacy, because of its importance for citizenship and its more democratic and cross-cutting educational dimension, can be a good gateway to formal education processes for all those who can benefit from them.
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I'm so glad we agree, Nico!
From a very pragmatic point of view, digital skills training has an added advantage: many types of different stakeholders are interested in increasing the digital skills of the whole population. Our policy makers are beginning to understand that they cannot implement measures that depend on digital competence (digital banking, digital health information, digital municipalities...) without giving time and money to digital skills provision. This sounds extremely utilitarian - but it is true. Let us make sure we use this opportunity!
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Peace is bound to adult literacy
Adult Literacy – as in general education – does not seem to be of great importance for policy makers. The real challenge for Europe and the world is to see the necessity of a similar education level in all sectors of society and to act to give all an access to education. To speak about adult literacy is good but not enough. One should be aware that the lack of key competences implies fewer opportunities on the world of employment and consequently gives rise to discontent. Discontent is one of the main reasons for people joining right-wing extremist groups. And these groups are a danger for democracy and peace. Education is a warrant for solidarity and respect.
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Let's hope...
... that policy makers are actually beginning to understand the importance of adult literacy... Your own country seems to be establishing a good example, don't you think? Isn't the Literacy Decade working well?
Thank you very much for your input! We really appreciate it!
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Alfabetizar os alfabetizadores?
Os meus cumprimentos a todos/as!
1. Felicito a decisão de permitir que cada um possa escrever na respetiva língua materna;
2. A principal mensagem que quero deixar, aos decisores políticos, sobre a alfabetização de adultos consiste em afirmar que a alfabetização de um cidadão é um segmento essencial de qualquer sistema educativo, pelo que as políticas de alfabetização (de jovens ou de adultos) deveriam ser políticas públicas enquadradas no serviço público que garante o exercício do direito à educação, por parte de todos os cidadãos;
3. Uma das principais barreiras que impede os adultos de alcançar uma alfabetização funcional decorre do facto de as políticas e as práticas de alfabetização serem assumidas, pela sociedade, como um «remédio» que deve ser administrado a pessoas que têm um problema pessoal. Esta perceção social e política da alfabetização cria um estigma e afasta as pessoas dos percursos de aprendizagem que deveriam fazer parte da vida de qualquer um/a.
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Thank you, Nico! Lovely to be able to read you in Portuguese!
And here is the Google translation:
1. I welcome the decision to allow everyone to write in their mother tongue;
2. The main message I want to make to policy-makers about adult literacy is to say that literacy is a key part of any education system, and literacy policies (for young people or adults) should bebe public policies within the public service that guarantees the exercise of the right to education by all citizens;
3. One of the main barriers preventing adults from achieving functional literacy is that literacy policies and practices are taken over by society as a "remedy" that should be administered to people who have a personal problem.This social and political awareness of literacy creates a stigma and alienates people from the learning pathways that should be part of anyone's life.
1. I welcome the decision to allow everyone to write in their mother tongue;
2. The main message I want to make to policy-makers about adult literacy is to say that literacy is a key part of any education system, and literacy policies (for young people or adults) should bebe public policies within the public service that guarantees the exercise of the right to education by all citizens;
3. One of the main barriers preventing adults from achieving functional literacy is that literacy policies and practices are taken over by society as a "remedy" that should be administered to people who have a personal problem.This social and political awareness of literacy creates a stigma and alienates people from the learning pathways that should be part of anyone's life.
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A campaign against stigma!
Thank you so much for those two points, Nico! Yes, since basic education for children and youngsters is a state responsibility, it should be understood and accepted that literacy and basic skills for adults are also a state responsibility. And we will never achieve functional literacy for all adults if we keep thinking in terms of remedial education... Providing training in digital literacy, which should then include basic literacy training, might be a good way of avoiding the stigma. What do you think?
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Hello!
Cilvēki neiesaistās izglītībā, ja nejūt pēc tās vajadzību. Domāju, ka nav liels pieprasījums pēc lasītprasmes kursiem. Taču, ja lasītprasme būs vajadzīga kādam konkrētam mērķim, tas cilvēku motivēs. Latvijā tagad tiek īstenots digitālo aģentu projekts. Digitālie aģenti ir bibliotekāri, sociālie darbinieki un citi pašvaldību darbinieki, pie kuriem bieži nāk cilvēku, lai risinātu savas vajadzības. Projekta portālā ir publicētas dzīves situācijas, par kurām visbiežāk meklē atbildes. Situācijām ir pievienoti linki, kur var meklēt atbildes. Digitālais aģents palīdz pieaugušajam atrast linku, izlasīt tekstu un novērtēt tā lietderību. Domāju, ka šāds veids labi motivē un palīdz apgūt lasītprasmi.
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In a non-English language at last! :-)
Thanks a lot, Ingrida! This is exactly what we meant you could do today!
Here is the Google translation:
People do not engage in education if they do not feel the need for it.I think there is not much demand for reading courses.However, if reading literacy is needed for a particular purpose, it will motivate people.A digital agent project is now being implemented in Latvia.Digital agents are librarians, social workers and other local government employees who often come in to meet their needs.The project portal publishes the life situations most often searched for.There are links to situations where you can search for answers.A digital agent helps adults find the link, read the text and evaluate its usefulness.I think that this kind of motivation and literacy help.
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Digital literacy and functional literacy
Very good point, Ingrida. The need for digital literacy may be more acutely felt than the need for literacy... Those two are different issues, but can be combined to increase motivation. Let us know more about your experience in Latvia, please!
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To reach target groups
I support the idea, that it is very important for policy makers to find better ways and methods to reach the target group. In most cases adult education is focused on developing professional skills, requalification, third age and is funded by participants themselves. In order to motivate illiterate people to enter evening schools, adult education centres, and etc. the whole system of funding, social and psychological support should be created.
Social workers, social support services should have more measures to identify people who need basic education and direct them to the schools. Policy makers should create the possibility for extra funding or increasing the support for those who don't work, get the bigger allowances if they start studying. Currently, here in Lithuania, we have situation, when people come to study, to get basic education and they lose their allowences. It demotivates people with usually already low motivation.
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Integrated policy approach...
... is indeed a must. The situation you describe in Lithuania (learners losing their allowances when they engage in classes) happens in many other countries as well... The problem is that this is such a complex issue. Educational policy for adults needs to involve so many other areas of life!
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Support and Motivation
You are making some excellent points there around the support needed and maintaining motivation, Inga.
Engaging in learning at a later stage in life is challenging and can create lots of anxieties. Support on how to deal with that is definitely needed.
Engaging in education should never be punished, but sadly, particularly when it comes to social support and benefit payments, initiative and creativity gets punished (by withdrawing money). That's a terrible situation and as you say takes away any motivation and engagement.
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many variations about this topic
Hello everyone,
first of all- I am glad to be part of this conversation and I hope to hear other opinions, suggestions, and experiences related to adult literacy.
Now further I would like to share my vision about this topic because when I hear or read information that is connected with literacy I am first aware of what is meant by that and in what context it is taken, cause they may vary a lot.
Therefore, thinking about this question: Q1: What is your main message to policymakers regarding Adult Literacy?
I can say that my main message, which is meant not only for policymakers regarding Adult Literacy but all the people who are somehow involved, is that we need to understand what adult literacy is so that we can talk about the same thing.
Also, it is difficult to talk only about adult literacy as it can`t be separated from other skills and we shouldn`t only talk about it but take more action in improving it. Yes, there are many inspiring examples that can be found on the internet but they seem to be narrowly located and mostly there is no systematic approach to them.
We should take adult literacy more seriously and provide more support to improve it right now so that we can accomplish our goals and visions about the future society that we want to live in.
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Definitions...
... are important indeed, so that we know what we are talking about!
You may find this document useful. It was compiled within the ELINET project with the cooperation of several EBSN members.
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GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR THE USE OF TERMINOLOGY IN ADULT LITERACY
Thank You, these principles are useful as we can see that there are many cases when adults literacy complexity is underestimated.
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Functional literacy
The most effective way could be doing the research in State level about needs, barriers of starting eduaction and then development of systematical offfer of training, which is accesable to all persons, who need.
But we can do a lot of things also through different international Projects. Latvian Adult Education Association some years ago participated in Grundtvig Project and together with coleagues from other Countries exchange experiences about solving learning difficulties for persons with dyslexia problem. We involved also Ogre Secondary school in this project. This Project promote the work in this school with dyslexia children, they disseminated this experience also to other schools in Latvia. Also with small things we can do alot of good work.
Thanks to Graciela for her work in EBSN in promotion training of the basic sklills and development of functional literacy, possibility to Exchange experience in conferences about most effective ways of doing it.
Sarmīte Pīlāte
Director of Latvian Adult Education Association
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Lies paldies, Sarmite!
I know you have been doing wonderful work in your association. And yes, we really do need work to be done at national level, for the research needed to really understand the need, for the creation of adequate national structures and framework, and for the necessary resources. We can only hope the current efforts to follow up the Upskilling Pathways recommendations will show results in that direction! Proud to be cooperating with you!
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About barriers. A creative and intelligent combination.
When we talk about the barriers that we find in local action for greater and better adult education we have to make clear that if the initiatives do not meet the concrete needs, immediate interests and explicit motivations of adults, they will hardly success. But the mere satisfaction of individual interests and participations in wholly individualistic logics does not translate into real effectiveness, at the level of system and development. Punctual and isolated situations of participation and involvement can not be considered references to success. Adult education must take place in the permanent education register if it is to contribute to social development.
It is here that the introduction of collective goals and consequently a collaborative approach between the participants that makes them live dynamics of self-organization and that establishes a link between the individual interests and the collective interests of the community.
The citizen approach to adult education with citizenship courses is often confused. Nothing more wrong. What matters is to co-construct, with the potential adults involved in the local initiatives, that creative and intelligent combination between the individual and the community.
Overcome the barriers. This fundamental approach would be, in athletics, a 110m race, the first, the one that athletes face right after the starting signal.
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An amibitious goal...
Obrigada, Carlos. A creative combination between individual and community... Yes, the challenge is how to make sure we meet all the individual needs in a provision that can develop the whole community. Often a very difficult goal to attain. Adult learners are a very heterogeneous target group! But I think we should refer back to the Conference Declaration from Berlin - at least it is a step in the right direction, if policy makers listen to our message!
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Permanent education
yes because the main goal of local teams in adult education cannot be the educative action itself but the way (the bridge) to permanent education. Effectiveness, in that case, must be measured by the social impact in terms of permanent education and future engagement in education...
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Identifying the good results
Absolutely. I have actually seen very recently something along these lines in a project about Literacy for Roma people. The partnership had identified other ways of measuring success than simply measuring the literacy level. This is so important! Re-engaging in learning, increase of self-esteem, opening up of opportunities... Those are important results, alongside the literacy itself!
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The more important results
Fostering a desire for continued learning and breaking down barriers of perception (this isn't for me) are probably the more important results in such contexts.
I think measuring of effects needs to be adjusted to each particular target group. Sometimes impact measures are focused on the wrong thing and have no meaning to the actual achievement.
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This is the project...
... I was referring to. RomABC. (Link) Check the framework for intended results. Interesting!
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The bridge
I absolutely agree with you , Carlos, that "the main goal of local teams in adult education cannot be the educative action itself but the way (the bridge) to permanent education."
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Citizen's Curriculum
Hi Carlos,
Have you heard of the Citizen's Curriculum? It's a tool that has been trialled in England. I know of communities in Scotland where the local community are setting their budgets (ie. have to make decisions where the money goes which also means which policy areas are potentially gettting less money).
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Hi Christine, yes...Participatory Local Budget
Thanks Christine. yes ..it´s in the same approach to the Participatory Local Budget that means local inhabitants can propose local initiatives, have debates and vote at the end between those witch have been selected for the votation (electronic votation). It´s an interesting democratic exercise and can be a nice basis for learning and active citizenship.
In my action in this area i´m fighting for two changes:
- all the proposals must be - mandatory - connected with sustainable development;
- after the votation the selected projects must be co-managed in a participated process with local community. It´s not only a question of money; it´s a citizenship learning process about collective interests.
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Excellent combination...
... of learning and democratic development! Let us know more about your work in this area, Carlos!
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Awesome!
Yes, absolutely. If people can own the process of creating the budget, then they should also own the implementation. I think ownership of the whole process is at the heart of involving people permanently and more sustainably - in the longrun creating greater cohesion. The difficulty will just be to bring People on board who would generally stand outside this democratic process. It tends to be people who are more open to such processes who participate - and that's just one side of the medal.
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adults literacy
The main message to policymakers regarding adults literacy should be an urgent s.o.s. for help to the pure countries and refugees who definitely are suffering more and have no chances for adults basic education, regarding the rest of the world people should have access to education even in very small villages
Policymakers sometimes do not understand that adults literacy is more difficult for women in most cases due to lack of free time as they are obliged to work due to money problems as they have to support their families working at home and having a job which actually does not give them the chance to have free time for themselves
Adults who have low salaries and are working hard might have benefited from a system where they could have even one free hour per day which could be used at their working premises for literacy, once they get the basic skills then it could be easier to continue .literacy will give the chance for a better job and a better life
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Thank you, Irini!
An urgent SOS. I like that! You are very right. We will gather all your input and include it in our future messages. Prakaló!
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Great points
Hi Irini,
those are great points. Is anything like this done in Cyprus or even tried out? Or do you maybe know of projects where this has been implemented?
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And what about in Germany, Christine? :-)
We were very impressed with all the German presentations during our Berlin conference in June. What do you think German stakeholders are still missing?
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Visibility
Graciela,
There are many, fabulous projects and from the government level some great initiatives (Alphabetisierungs-Dekade). But the big issues are a) visibility of the achievements of adult education in General and of those projects, which partially has to do with public perception and b) access to and by the groups who would most benefit from support.
We had some great discussions at the AEWB conference in Hannover about how particularly refugee and migrant groups, but also German natives who could benefit from literacy support, can be engaged better. This is an area that many projects struggle with.
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Excellent points!
Thank you, Christine! The Hannover conference sounds very interesting. Do you know if the results from there have been summarized anywhere?
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Not yet
At this stage, I can only refer you to the conference Information (https://www.aewb-nds.de/themen/migration-integration/fachtag-migration-…). I am assuming that shortly a summary will be available. I attended the creative Workshop and the Workshop with Madhu Singh, where the discussion around how to include communities took place.
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Q1
Q1: What is your main message to policy makers regarding Adult Literacy?
In many institutions, learning from adults has not yet arrived. There is therefore little money and not many initiatives for literacy and numeracy learning. In Germany, the adult education centers are predominantly active in this area. That's why my organization (Volkshochschule Schrobenhausen) also tried to get money for projects. Thankfully, we received a grant for an Erasmus + project that focuses on adult numeracy. If you are interested, you can view the results at www.math-games.eu. I would therefore call on political decision-makers to devote more money to adult education, as the EU does with Erasmus +.
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Danke, Roland!
Yes, there never seems to be enough money. Thank you for your message! Your link to the Numeracy page is also noted. Very interesting indeed. Thanks!
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Q2: What do you think policy makers still don’t understand about
Q2: What do you think policy makers still don’t understand about Adult Literacy in Europe?
I think there’s a lot that policy makers in Europe don't understand about literacy. One thing I have focused on recently is the need to understand supply and demand in adult literacy. This is the conclusion to a recent presentation:
For us to be able to design attractive and motivating learning opportunities we need to better understand the literacy requirements of active engagement in society. Such learning should support adults in engaging in the literacy practices that are important to them, those that they need to meet the demands of their literate environment.
In this we need to pay more attention to the demand side, the literate environment that we all create and participate in. The family, workplace and civic society are just three domains in which adults interact with a distinct literate environment. We should learn from adults’ literate environment to offer them support and motivation to engage in more literate practices.
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Examples of good practice?
Excellent point, David, thanks.
To all our readers: feel free to post links about examples of good practice regarding this issue!
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LITERACY