Working with issues of violence asks us to become more aware of the ways we have been wounded and the ways we contribute to the wounding, and take steps to heal and challenge the injustices. (Morrish et al., 2002: 8)
Take on the Challenge: A Sourcebook from the Women, Violence, and Adult Education Project provides an analysis of the effects of violence on learning, tools for programs and examples of how ideas were put into practice in a variety of adult education contexts: corrections, ABE, GED, native language literacy, ESOL, welfare-to-work, and homeless shelter programs.
In the chapter, “Understanding Violence,” a few points were made that can be applied to our study. First that there are five areas of violence (domestic violence, experiencing or witnessing abuse as a child, violence in public spaces, workplace violence and state violence such as war, police or welfare violence). All of these are applicable to our target group — keeping in mind that the “workplace” is the street. The notion of “state violence” can be linked to the violence of poverty and the systematic harassment many of our learners experience in the welfare system. Morrish, Horsman an Hofer (2002) give examples of how institutions allow and support violence: courts that give a suspended sentence to abusive husbands; welfare limitations that prevent a woman from leaving her abusive partner, welfare rules that force women to take low-paying jobs that do not provide enough for her to pay for transportation, childcare or safe accommodation. Violence is everywhere, taking many different forms that are often intertwined. When someone experiences one form of violence, she/he becomes more vulnerable to other forms, and "each additional violence has increased impact and deepens the first violation." (p. 10)
Educators need to be aware of the impacts of violence on learning, and some of our research participants have mentioned this. Take on the Challenge describes hidden impacts of trauma, such as having an “all or nothing” approach to learning and relationships, not being present in the classroom (spacing out, being reluctant to participate), living in crisis mode, being unsure about who to trust or how to set boundaries, and having trouble with, or being reluctant to, set goals. One aspect of working with people who have experienced abuse is to know how to react to disclosure. An important contribution of this sourcebook is that it gives guidelines for understanding and dealing with these issues and for setting up a support structure to help practitioners.