Two articles?

Perhaps the problem, all along, has been that I've been trying to do too much in the "carry" article. Perhaps I should be writing two articles:

1. Literacy Narratives and Adult Learners

What are the themes that emerge from the stories?

Gender (Patsy, Lois, Jennifer, Heather vs. john, brad, goran)

Class (Brad vs. Jennifer and John and Heather)

Language (Goran)

Organizing Structures:

Sohn uses "confident and tentative" as key terms to describe her students stories (or is it the students themselves?):

For purposes of this study, confident designates confidence in writing, ability to handle assignments, and success in grades; tentative suggests an uncertain approach to writing, discomfort with writing assignments, and generally lower grades.

Sohn also suggests that her students literacy stories contain several key themes:" the influences of family, pre- and public school, and religion" (5).

I think another important framing device here can come from the 2003 NCES Study, "Work First, Study Second," in which the authors divide the students into two types:

• Students Who Work
• Employees Who Study

I think, although I'm not sure of this, that these two groups had different kinds of stories. I think my only students who work, though, were Heather and Goran.

2. Workplace Literacy and Adult Learners

Start with data from NCES 2003 study which situates adult students as concerned with work, engaged in work, and enrolled for reasons of work.

Workplace vs. Professional Literacy (overview)

a. Work Stories

b. Workplace Stories

c. Workplace genre stories

Here, again, I think that the students-who-work vs. employees-who-study distinction is an important one as the two groups did very different kinds of work.