MY BACKGROUND AND PRESUPPOSITIONS

In addition to introducing some of the defining elements of this study, it is also important to position myself in relation to the study by describing my work experience in the field of adult literacy education, accompanied by a brief discussion of my personal views of knowing and the construction of knowledge.

I was a teacher of adult literacy students for ten years and I'm currently in an administrative role at the program in which this study was conducted. I have worked in programs that followed both a school–based model and a community–based model of delivery. (These delivery models will be outlined in the next chapter.) In my current role, I interview, assess, and counsel new students, guide teachers in the ongoing assessment of students, support teachers' curriculum planning, and work with program managers to plan, develop and modify program delivery.

For the past two years, our program has been immersed in an ongoing process of acknowledging and sorting through tensions between the demands of the funder, the needs and goals of the students, and the views of the instructors. We have begun to recognize and address the needs, experiences, and cultural contexts of our students and not simply their skill with text. Our perceptions of progress are shifting away from an exclusively skills–based measure of literacy to the development of other measures that focus on learning in a variety of different domains. Finally, we are learning that literacy learning must be purposeful to the student and be transparently linked to a context outside the classroom. This research is an opportunity for me to connect our program’s struggles and ongoing development to theoretical ideas.

In addition to my work experience, this research has also been shaped by my evolving conceptual ideas about how we come to know and understand what we know. Shaping many of the methodological considerations of the study is my ontological belief that people construct their own view of reality. I believe, as stated by Lincoln and Guba (2000), that the idea of reality is "derived from community consensus regarding what is 'real', what is useful, and what has meaning (especially meaning for action and further steps)" (p. 167). This belief has led me to use a qualitative approach that will place the meaning–making of the research participants at the fore; it is their stories, and their ideas that will be brought to light in order to gain deeper understanding. Working with this overarching belief is my epistemological stance, or the nature of my relationship as researcher with the research and research participants. This study is concerned with understanding learning amongst adult literacy students, a group that is marginalized not only based on education but also based on ethnicity, disability, social welfare dependence, and race. Being on the fringes of a dominant white, middle–class, educated and able–bodied society has shaped their reality. This has not become a footnote in the research but has been considered and addressed throughout various stages of the research process. The research questions are being used to help guide alternative ways of viewing adult literacy education. The thoughts, opinions, and actions of a marginalized group are being used to gain insights into adult literacy learning. In addition, I have been forced to examine my own assumptions about learning and adult literacy students. Finally, I want to use this research to make changes in our program and the educational lives of our students.