Letters Home from South Africa
with Betsy Alkenbrack
Rapporteur: Sandy Middleton
 Betsy
introduced the workshop by describing how she lived and worked in South
Africa from 1990 to 2001. Beginning in May 2000, from South Africa, she
began writing about her life and her work in "letters home" to
literacy practitioners on The Hub, the BC literacy electronic network.
These letters
were posted online for a year and published by Literacy
BC in an illustrated booklet.
Betsy found writing these letters a wonderful opportunity to reflect
and have an audience. She did not, at the time, think of them as a research
tool. However, she has subsequently thought about letter writing as an
alternative method of documenting practice.
The workshop began with an open discussion about using letters in research.
Discussion points included:
- Letters are personal, thoughtful and add an element of purposefulness
to writing. Having an audience and
"knowing" your audience facilitates
the process.
- Finding your voice and being concerned about the welfare of the reader
matter.
- Letters can be a way to have a private conversation.
- Email has changed what counts as letters. Email is used in different
aspects of research, e.g. to collect information, work though analysis
– it blurs the lines between these different activities.
Participants then had an opportunity to visit "stations" Betsy had set
up. Each described a different aspect of literacy in South Africa and
her experiences there. At each station, participants were asked to reflect
on what interested, excited, or disturbed them. They had the opportunity
to write their comments. The stations were:
 REFLECT (Regenerating Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community
Techniques): Combines ideas of Paulo Freire with Participatory Rural
Appraisal - Teachers and Teacher Education
- Voter Education
- Research and ABE Exams
- Learners
- Personal and Professional Stories
Finally,
participants competed to win a copy of Letters Home
by answering "skilltesting" questions about South Africa and Betsy's life
there!! |
