Is It Her Voice If She
Speaks Their Words?

A superintendent of education speaks to adult literacy practitioners about new literacy policy. He tells them they are to use a "learner-centered approach" and have as their objective the "empowerment" of learners. Everyone appears pleased. Some think that practitioners have finally made a lasting impression on the way boards of education will think about literacy, others feel challenged to do their literacy work in a more enhanced way. But some listen and feel disheartened.

We who work in the literacy movement as feminists and political activists are among the disheartened. We believe that this superintendent's words, although they sound progressive, do not represent the interests of literacy learners. This is because we analyze the problem of illiteracy by looking at the economic place literacy learners hold in our society. For the most part learners are under-educated and have very little socioeconomic privilege. This understanding of literacy learners' place with in society leads us to claim that learners' interests will only be represented if literacy practice reflects a commitment to a more equitable society. This locates our literacy work in a broader movement for social change. Although the superintendent talks about the empowerment of literacy learners. we know that his intention is different from ours. As a result we listen carefully to the meaning of his words.

We have learned from feminism that the same words can be used to describe two very different goals. For example. feminism is used to describe the goal of women climbing up the corporate ladder and it is also used to describe the goal of women creating collective working structures. While these goals were very different. the word feminism is used to mean both. For women interested in social change this has been a serious problem. One of the ways this problem has been addressed has been to refine our understanding of feminism through terms such as radical feminism. socialist feminism and liberal feminism.

Our experience as feminists helps us in refining our understanding of literacy practice. It helps us to understand that when the superintendent uses the term learner-centered he probably means literacy learners receiving individualized instruction. And that when we use the term learner-centered we mean literacy learners participating in a movement for social change. As it was for feminism, the disguising of this difference is problematic.