Notes:
Because adult learners bring their own values, skills, strengths, and experiences to every learning situation, it is important that literacy practitioners get to know learners before negotiating learning plans. Literacy service providers are responsible for developing intake and assessment models that fit their own community and program needs. These models focus on learners’ academic skills, previous employment and education histories, career goals and anticipated learning challenges. The means to obtain this information range from formal testing to informal interviewing. The more that is known about learners’ life and learning contexts, the easier it is to help learners choose appropriate themes for Benchmarks planning, and to design learner-appropriate lesson plans. (See Intake and Assessment Framework for Basic Education and Related Programs for Adults, Saskatchewan Learning, 2003, for an example of an intake and assessment model that can be adapted by different programs.)
Adults’ diverse life and learning contexts include cultural identities, family situations, and community interactions, as well as their prior learning and work experiences and current learning needs. Each of these elements may be expected to have varying levels of influence on adults’ literacy program participation at different times for different learners. Learners’ individual needs guide the selection of Literacy Benchmarks and learning outcomes, as well as the choices of learning themes and activities to achieve them.
Cultures evolve over time. For Saskatchewan First Nations and Métis learners, in particular, cultural ways of knowing are a vital component of literacy program participation. Aboriginal students often refer to loss of culture, and some First Nations and Métis people become uncomfortable when they are asked to identify their culture. Defining one’s culture is a complex but necessary prerequisite to appreciating and understanding others who are different. Ross (1992) explains, “Until you understand that your own culture dictates how you translate everything you see and hear, you will never be able to see or hear things in any other way” (p. 4). Literacy makes it possible to understand that we all originate from some place, some ancestral territory where our cultural heritage embraces traditions, rituals, and ceremonies that inform our identity. Honouring different cultures makes learning personally meaningful and supports learners in taking pride in their identity.
Learners come from families of all shapes and sizes. They may be married or single, or living with same or opposite-sex partners. They may be single parents, and their children may range from newborns to adults. Their younger children may live with them or with other family members, foster parents, or adoptive parents. Older learners may share their households with children and grandchildren. Learners from different cultures may live in families that have very different expectations than those typical of the mainstream culture. Regardless of a learner’s age, culture, or marital and parental status, family relationships are usually the basis for both motivating adults to embark on learning journeys and for setting up road blocks that impede adults’ completion of learning goals. Adult learners may need to tend to family members’ needs before their own academic needs. Literacy instructors can plan themes and lessons that help these adults to explore family-related topics of interest.