Adult Learners, Autobiography, And Educational Planning: Reflections on Pedagogy, Andragogy, and Power

Adult students were rarely mentioned during my study of composition theory and pedagogy as a graduate student at the State University of New York at Albany. While there, I became familiar with the writing process movement and a follower of James MOffett and Peter Elbow. I discovered Janet Emig's research into the composing process, Nancy Sommers' work on revision, Mina Shaughnessy's portrait of error, Linda Flower and John Hayes' cognitive schemas, the rhetorics of E.D. Hirsch and James Kinneavy. Most important, for me, were James Britton and his colleagues' study of audience and William Perry's scheme of intellectual and ethical development. In essence, I was introduced to writing theories and pedagogies developed by theorists and practitioners who focused on students eighteen or younger, and I developed course syllabi and writing tasks with their concepts as the background for my teaching. Adult and returning students figured infrequently within the graduate curriculum. (56-57)

My students are my contemporaries: their average age is thirty-seven. Some are older than I am; few are younger. These studetns are returning to college after years in the work force or in th ehome; many have considerable work experience; some hold major corporate responsibilities. A decade ago, Lynn Troyka offered a generic description that is still valid: returning students are older, are often the first generation to go on to college, are often parents. Most have full-time jobs and many are women now returning to the academy. (253). While K. Patricia Cross reminds us of the hazards of generic descriptions, because of the diversity at work within this broad category, my own experience suggests that the majority have had some contact with the academy after high school (many have completed a series of courses but have not been able to complete degree requirements) and have long looked for a way to continue their studies that offers the least interference with their daily lives. Increasing numbers of women among my students (many of whom are single parents with primary responsibility for their chidlren's welfare) are unable to take time out to go to class once or twice a week. (57)

...prior learning is especially important when working with students who have already accumulated some thirty years of learning. As a group, these students are interested in finding connections between their past experience and the lessons to be gained by entering the academy...Most adult learners, in fact, seek out and find material within their studies that can be transported back to their home or work environments to help them make better sense of of the experiences they face. (60)

How, then, do we work with adult students? What can we offer them as a strategy for breaking out of traditional student roles? How do we break our own pedagogical bonds? (60)

Yet for all our careful focus on Jane's initiation into the discourse of the academy and into the disciplinary approach to her program (notions based on Perry's developmental scheme), she wavered in her attention to the demands of discipline-based academic writing. Her work in Educational Planning was strong because of the focus on her own voice; her contract studies in comparative democratic systems undertaken in tandem with Educational Planning was more problematic because she was asked to conform to the conventions of political science. She disliked reading and rebelled against the demands for analysis. At the halfway point of her contract, it was clear that Jane would not complete her work. Although she talked about completing it, she had effectively halted her work, and she soon announced her intention to drop the contract, saying she would come back once she was more settled. That was one year ago. I have not heard from her since. (66)

Brandt (Writing for a Living: Literacy and the Knowledge Economy)

Writing for a Living: Literacy and the Knowledge Economy

I'm intrigued by the metaphor Brandt uses, "the manufacturing of texts"--this might serve as a useful framing device as I attempt to set up my chapter on adult students and workplace writing. This might also be useful as a framing device for the second part of my article on adult students, as a transitional piece into the section...So, the question is, where are these writers in the production chain? Is this the metaphor that I want to use? Maybe...works for Joe, Charlene and Patrice, Tony...

Key Terms in the Metaphor (literacy work as production)

• manufacturing writing
• production line
• instrument of production
• quality control
• machines
• literacy as human skill
• inputs

All of the people I interviewed either produced texts as a primary service for their company (securities dealer, scientist, underwriter, lawyer, magazine editor, mortgage broker, accountant, marketing director, educational materials designer, and Web designer) or pro- duced texts as a means of internal communication and coordination (regional development director and software manager). In fact, those in the former group also wrote at times for internal coordination, and those in the latter group at times produced texts as services. (173)

The 12 reported writing in many genres, including e-mail, press releases, product line brochures, Web copy, direct mail writing, busi- ness plans, marketing plans, annual reports, health manuals, con- tracts, instructional books, letters, proposals, policies and procedures, software documentation, style guides, articles, business rules, per- sonnel evaluations, pamphlets, employee agreements, loan packages, legal briefs, trial preparation notes, business valuations, and speeches. Nearly all wrote in multiple genres in the course of a work week. Three of them were responsible at various times for hiring and supervising other writers. Almost everyone read the writing of other employees and had their writing reviewed by others. (173)

Furthermore, 8 reported experience with teaching in connection with their work, whether that was teaching other employees something about writing, giving in-house or conference presentations on their innovations, or teaching, as the mortgage lender put it, “to drum up business.” (174)

Workplace writers can be likened to complex pieces of machin- ery that turn raw materials (both concrete and abstract) into func- tional, transactional, and valuable form, often with great expenditures of emotional, psychological, and technical effort. (176)

I think that this quote nicely captures the role of writing in Joe's experience:

In the interviews, it came embedded in writers’ accounts of having to trans- late one form of knowledge into another, write texts that would be embedded in a larger activity, ghostwrite or otherwise write (and read) on behalf of abstract or multisourced and sometimes competing interests, bring the significance of raw facts into a particular context, reduce text (often reported as being concise), and walk in other peo- ple’s shoes either to gain experience needed to write or as a form of audience analysis. (176)

The following is particularly useful for thinking about the role of writing in Jennifer's work (Brandt has written about ghostwriting elsewhere--I might want to consult that article):

Ghostwriting was another example of direct mediational work, in which individuals wrote on behalf of, and often in the persona of, other individuals, usually superiors, sometimes from previously pre- pared drafts and sometimes from scratch. “I do a lot of writing for other people,” said development director Pam Collins. “It’s difficult to put yourself, you almost have to think like they think. Okay, this is a medical director writing this letter. How would a medical director write this letter?” Karen McWhorley, a young, law-school educated, self-described “geek,” writes for the signature of her firm’s president, who also happens to be her father. As she explained,

He’s just an old country boy, coffee pot’s always on type. There are a lot of people who are familiar with that type of personality, and they’re comfortable with it. When [my father] is writing to new customers or past customers, it’s part of his charm, so that has to come through. Do I use his style? No. But I make sure his personality comes out. (177)

These testimonies illuminate how literacy as a human skill is recruited as an instrument of production in the knowledge economy. If machines amalgamate and transform material inputs into products for transaction, these workplace writers undertake similar processes but with much more abstract and intangible inputs. Through intense mediation, founded on processes of reading and writing, they bring coherence and shape (in the form of texts) to the disparate processes, interests, histories, goals, and needs of an organization. That this manufacturing process occurs as mental and scribal activity, that pro- duction relies so closely on the consciousness, language, values, and judgment of individual writers, is something to notice. (179)

Mediation and synthesis, always at the core of composition and its technologies, are principal processes by which the powers of literacy are now being put under the control of economic production. (180)

People who write for a living find their work defined by the deepening role of codified knowledge in economic productivity and the deepening role of texts in economic exchange and competition. In the knowledge economy, manufacturing writing comes to the center of organizational concern. Great expenditures of time, money, space, and human effort are now devoted to the management of communi- cation and the production and maintenance of textual quality. (180)

There is a section in this article where Brandt talks about "Writing and Regulation" and initially, I thought there was nothing there for me--but there is a lot. First, Brad, as EMT, is one of those who has to worry about "professional licensing organizations" (180)--whatever the organization is that oversees the credentialing of EMTs. When I read this passage, I am thinking of Brad and his work as Educating and Training Coordinator (and it's interesting to think about the creation of such a position, in the first place, as responding to increasing need to keep up with licensing and credentialing on the part of ACME):

For a great many of these writers, regulations pertaining to their industries were in a constant state of change, requiring ongoing work on their part, ranging from researching the changes to interpreting their significance to communicating that significance to others to rewriting texts to maintain compliance. (181)

It's also interesting to think about Brad's work teaching new EMTs to become writers of run-reports. There is this passage:

Furthermore, 8 reported experience with teaching in connection with their work, whether that was teaching other employees something about writing, giving in-house or conference presentations on their innovations, or teaching, as the mortgage lender put it, “to drum up business.” (174)

We can then think about the role of Patsy and Charlene's writing in the textual production process of documenting compliance with state and federal mainstreaming.

BRANDT IS GIVING ME THE LANGUAGE TO MAKE THESE CASE STUDIES OF PROFESSIONAL WRITING MUCH MORE ENGAGING...

I came across this passage, spoken by a guy in the financial industry:

As you study for the exams for this profession, you understand what the regulations are, and you adapt your writing skills to them. (182)

What Brad is doing is obviously something different, but I see an important parallel here and understand something about what he's up to in a new way. Brad doesn't have to take an exam to understand how to write a good run-report, his experience is his study and his experience has taught him a good deal about what can happen to/with a run-report. So, he is sharing the accumulated knowledge he has gained over the course of many years in the field to understand the enabling and constraining aspects of the run-report. He has a sense of the audiences for this document and the places this document might end up. (a cool phrase here from Brandt: "felt the direct gaze of...")

And suddenly, I find his position incredibly noteworthy--regulation/litigation, etc. have increased to the point where ACME has deemed it necessary to hire someone to ensure: a) that their providers are up to date on the latest license and credential changes and b) that their providers understand how to produce effective run-reports and the significance of the document. This speaks volumes about the issues of regulation and litigation and helps me see what Brad is doing in a new and perhaps more significant way...

I NOW SEE THIS CHAPTER COMING TOGETHER AS A SERIES OF CASES ORGANIZED AROUND BRANDT'S NOTION OF MANUFACTURING TEXTS AND ISSUES OF MEDIATION ADN REGULATION.

To sum up, federal regulatory agencies or their surrogates have direct influence on the manufacturing of texts in a number of different fields in ways that can create work for writers; control their language; engage them in direct surveillance, either as objects or agents; and influence their sense of efficacy. Along with elements of mediation, the influence of regulation coursing through the composition process is a mark of contemporary workplace writing for many individuals. (184)

There is a connection here to be made with at least Tony, Jon, Patrice:

As pivotal producers in the knowledge economy, members of the writing class generally find their literacy and overall efficacy a site of ongoing investment by their employers. Except for those who were self-employed, everyone I interviewed had attended work-related training, ranging from sev- eral weeks at special institutes to day-long in-house classes. In addi- tion, several pursued self-education via career-related reading during leisure hours. (187)

The section in this article called "Demands for Change"--is there a connection to be explored there with Jennifer's career path?

Another hallmark feature of the knowledge economy is the pace of change within it. (184)

A KEY FRAMING QUOTE:

Where in the production process one stands determines the forms of reading and writing one undertakes (194)

Open Coding?

I came across this phrase in Deborah Brandt's article "Writing for a Living":

I used open coding (Strauss, 1987; Strauss & Corbin, 1998) to track all descriptions of work processes and materials, genres, audiences, voices, teaching and learning on the job, solicitation of writing by oth- ers (i.e., clients or customers), uses of workplace resources beyond the workplace, and workplace contact by family members as these descriptions were invited directly by interview questions or arose implicitly or explicitly in other parts of the interview.

The citations are:

Strauss, A. L. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. New York: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.

Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and proce-
dures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Excerpts from student papers

All papers from CLL/OIC/Paper4

Parents have many difficult decisions to make. Working parents have the additional dilemma of making sure their children are safe from the time they are released from school to the time the parent returns home from work.

(from "Latchkey Children: The Need for Community After School Programs" (TaylorPaper4.doc)

“Juvenile delinquency is defined as a behavior committed by a minor child that violates a state’s penal code.” In 1997, about twenty-six percent of the population was under the age of seventeen. Given the high incidence of the juvenile crimes being committed in recent years and the large numbers of youth potentially drawn in, society needs to be involved in solving the problems of juvenile delinquency. The purpose of this paper is to present research based strategies proven to combat the issue of juvenile delinquency.

(from "Those Damn Teens" RoodPaper4.doc)

A police officer in New Hampshire, before he or she can be lawfully empowered, must raise their right hand in a ceremony of sorts, and swear before God to enforce all of the laws of the state, and to defend the United States Constitution. The appointment is all-inclusive. It does not provide for exceptions, and so sworn police officers are not empowered to answer only certain calls for service. They must respond to all calls for service, and the question of whether certain police officers should be armed has become a hotly debated conflict for both the Town of Plymouth and the Plymouth State College administration.

(from "To Arm or Not To Arm... That Was The Question" RaymondPaper4.doc)

Picture this! You're the owner of a small dental practice. Your staff consists of two doctors, two dental assistants, a receptionist, business manager and an office assistant. Each support staff is well trained in their positions and has their very own specific responsibilities to help run the office and make it as productive as possible. Isn't that the way everybody would like to see his business run? It's a perfect scenario until one thing happens - someone calls in sick or has to take a day off. If it's the dental assistant, whose going to assist the doctor? If it's the business manager, who's going to make those all-important $2000.00 or more financial arrangements. If it's the receptionist who is going to answer those important phone calls that involve new patients, scheduling those expensive procedures and rescheduling those all-important canceled appointments. All of a sudden your well-organized business becomes a scenario of chaos that reflects upon your customer service and productivity - the bottom line. This is a problem one of the local dentists, Dr. Ray, faces more and more at his newly established practice.

(from "The More They Know, The Better the Bottom Line," MahoneyPaper4.doc)

When my sixteen year old son came home from spending the night at a friends house, the cigarette smell that permeated his clothing nearly overwhelmed me. I immediately suggested he take a shower and put his smelly clothes into the washing machine. I made the statement to him that I wish his friends’ parents didn’t smoke so much because he really stunk. In response, he shrugged his shoulders, made a low guttural noise and left me to go take a shower.

It wasn’t his response that caused me to feel uncomfortable; it was his lack of response. Normally, he would argue with me or make a comment to the effect that I was picking on his friends’ families. However, this time, his response lacked the usual fervor. Call it a mother’s intuition or something equally as clever, but I knew from that moment on; my son was smoking.

(Untitled, LamerePaper4.doc)

Dying is one of the few events in life certain to occur – and yet one we are not likely to plan for. We will spend more time getting ready for two weeks away from work than we will for our last two weeks on earth. We plan assiduously for retirement. Yet about a third of Americans bankrupt their families in the process of dying.

(from “Dying With Peace and Dignity,” KohlmanPaper4.doc)

Without a doubt, applying for a home mortgage is one the most stressful times in a firsttime homebuyers life. I’ll never forget when my husband and I applied for a mortgage on our first home.

(from “Applying for a Mortgage,” LaBergePaper3.doc)

With the amount of divorces that we have in this day and age, it is hard to understand why the patrilineal torch has hardly flickered. Especially even after divorce, when a woman is generally left as the sole provider and caretaker of the offspring. I have talked to many woman in regards to last names and no one seems to be bothered by the conventional method of marrying, taking on their husband’s surname and passing that name on to their children. I was surprised because I wouldn’t have classified these women as conventional.

When I came home from work the other day, I saw that I had a message on my answering machine and I pushed play. “Good Afternoon Mrs. Dennehy, just a reminder that your son, Kyle, has an appointment scheduled...” if that wasn’t a great end to my day! I haven’t been Mrs. Dennehy for quite sometime and the sound of that name sent my stomach to my feet. If only I had given Kyle my maiden name, I wouldn’t have to do this on an everyday basis for some reason or another.

(from “Surnames and Our Unborn Children,” WildmanPaper3.doc)

I just received my license in the mail. It was official I could now work as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant). I felt proud I had a career. I became a CNA for the money I won't lie about that. It was four months of school and the promise of making more money than I've ever made. I never put much thought into the actual job, the emotional stresses or the dispair that the job would entail.

(from “Death,” SakodaPaper1.doc)

BIG PICTURE

Things on my mind... just tapped into Beth Daniell's A Communion of Friendship.

The students I taught and where I taught them...at GSC, but also at Heidelberg Harris, our party the last day of class at Biddy Mulligan's (and how out of place I felt). The online course, classes at GSC in Bow, in Manchester.

The questions I'm asking about are bigger and simpler:

1. TEACHER: How did I get to the point of teaching writing to these folks (contingent labor, the "faculty" issue at GSC). Who was I?

2. STUDENTS: How/why were these students taking classes at this institution? Who were/are they?

3. INSTITUTION: How did this institution come to exist?

John Beech

A point I want to make with regard to John Beech (and this is something about which I have not yet written)—the way genres shape subjectivities. If you look at one of John’s reports…I wrote in my dissertation about the tone of the report. The genre constructs John as a knowledgeable insider, authoritative is the word, really. This is the kind of person the genre allows him to be. But his critical analysis essay—doesn’t allow the same thing. He may be trying, but it doesn’t really. So, there is a connection between Bawarshi’s concept of alpha genre identity and John’s report writing. I need to explore this a bit more…

3/10 (2)

And today (3/6), I read:

Connors, Patricia. "Attitudes of Returning or Older Students in Composition." CCC 33.3 (Oct. 1982): 263-266.

An interesting piece. She begins: "In recent years, a growing number of older students have begun or have returned to college" (263). This sounds strikingly familiar. She continues:

Although there are a few special courses and programs for these students, most of them are mainstreamed at once into classes with students of traditional college age. The growing number of returning or older students in freshman composition courses, in particular, raises questions about whether they should be taught in the same way as their younger classmates. (263)

Wow. These are the same observations and questions I had twenty years later. The article goes on to detail an "experiment" Connors conducted with two groups of students--traditional and nontraditional in age. She essentially put together a survey and asked them a series of questions about their attitudes towards and about writing and learning. Her purpose, she explains, was twofold:

(1) to discover whether or not there are measurable differences between students of traditional and those of non-traditional age, and
(2) to consider what pedagogical implications such differences might have, if any were discovered.

She culls, from her experiment, several "conclusions" (which really don't seem too far off):

1) They are similar to students of traditional age in many of their attitudes toward writing and toward the teaching of composition.
(2) They differ from younger students in that they are likely to spend more time outside class revising essays and preparing for class.
(3) They are likely to manifest greater desire for direction, guidance, and limits on writing assignments than students of traditional college age.

Her "conclusions" of course are fairly unscientific, because her "experiment" was fairly unscientific. But, they are interesting, nonetheless. Connors then goes on to list pedagogical applications (or implications? or suggestions?) from her study. Among which are:

(1) being patient with non-traditional students' requests for directions while encouraging more autonomy;
(3) inviting both age groups, especially the non-traditional, to share and write about their work and life experiences, to build awareness of the subject matter available to them;

What strikes me as interesting from this piece?

• The familiar trope: there are more and more adult learners in our classes. We need to do something about this. (In Connors' words: "...I do wish to urge composition teachers to be ready to adapt their courses to meet the needs of the returning or older students who comprise an increasingly larger percentage of our composition courses" (266)).
  
• A practitioner taking matters into her own hands, conducting a very unscientific study...and she is someone OUTSIDE the field of composition/rhetoric.
  
• The focus on classes which are composed of both traditional and nontraditional students.
  
• The lack of voices of the nontraditional students themselves. 
  
• There was a panel at C's in 1980 on nontraditional students--might be interesting to try to find this.
  

3/6

Two things on my mind this morning...

First, a little ways back, while working on my dissertation, I was thinking about a project where I would write about the discursive construction of adult students in composition studies. I'm thinking of an essay that Paul wrote in, I think, 2006 on the discursive construction of ESL students. This is a project I might return to...and a first step might be gathering sources. I realize that for me, much of this goes back to Mike Rose, Lives on the Boundary. But, of course, there are plenty of other sources. So what, for example, would an article along these lines look like:

"A Review and Critique of the Portrayal of Older Adult Learners in Adult Education Journals, 1980-2006"

This is an article by Chen et. al. Mine would say something like...in composition journals, 1980-2009?

And, thankfully, someone, probably Michelle, has begun the work of generating a bibliography on the comppile page. So, I need to start reading some of this work. 

3/3 (2)

Revised Implications: 

The question I will answer in this article:

What should writing teachers know about the literate lives of adult learners?

Implications:

1. Many adult students, when the enroll in a post-secondary program of education, are already immersed in complex discursive communities of practice in their workplaces, where the writing they produce is often high-stakes and where writing serves as a tool to "get things done." (Jennifer—the bio-ethics paper vs. the debate paper)
   
2. Adult students will have varied relationships to academic literacy instruction and diverse literacy histories. While some of them will bring stories of negative experiences with literacy, some will not. Some, in fact, will have very positive associations with literacy and literacy instruction. In any event, these histories will invariably shape the literacy work one asks such students to do.
   
3. Adult students will likely have considerable experience producing specific genres of professional writing. Because of the frequency with which they produce them, such genres come to have considerable hold over adult students composing imaginations. Adult students may sometimes mistakenly (and unknowingly) draw on their knowledge of these alpha or dominant genres in their academic writing. These genres may or may not serve as useful antecedents for the academic genres writing teachers invite students to produce in composition classrooms. (Tony—problem/solution, John: Project engagement model)
   
4. In their capacity as workers, many adult students are not just writers, but serve as teachers of writing and/or local writing consultants. (Jennifer, Tony, Charlene)
   
5. Some adult students, when they arrive in the classroom, may already been engaged in any number of self-sponsored literate endeavors--these could serve as potential resources for the teaching of writing (John's blog, Charlene’s letters).
   
6. Adult students may carry with them various histories of the (constrained, limited?) pursuit of academic literacy (Jennifer: Her experience illustrates the way in which decisions made during past periods of social and educational inequality continue to reach out into the future and shape the arc of people’s lives and also the way in which social or cultural expectations around schooling, in Jennifer’s day and in our own, shape the practical, day-to-day, educational decisions that individuals make.).
   
7. Paths to and through higher education are diverse and often non-linear.
   
8. Some adult students will bring to the writing classroom their own goals, objective and literate projects. It’s worthwhile to find out what these goals are and to find ways, where possible, to engage them. (“From there, students could pursue projects of their own interest, which, ideally, would emerge from the reflection and insight gained from producing the literacy narrative. John, for example, might focus on the genre of the blog, researching various blogs and their conventions and then working to create and publish his own. Tony might examine various emergency medical publications and their genre conventions with an eye towards producing an article that could be submitted for publication by the end of the term. Jennifer could investigate the relationship between visual imagery and written text in an effort to assemble a rhetorically complex and persuasive compilation of literature to send to prospective FGCC clients. Presumably, some students, like Tony, would want to focus on rhetorical or grammatical aspects of writing which have eluded them.” Michaud, 180)
   
9. Depending on their workplace experiences, adult students will bring a diverse range of experience with communications technologies (Tony and Brad vs. Charlene and Patsy).
   

2/10

This morning, I began in earnest on the revised plan for my research--in sum, focusing less on the transition that I feel incapable of making, given the data I have collected and more on the description of literacy. I'm feeling pretty good, so far. I've begun a new draft of a new article. The only question is where this might be published. And I'm not at all sure. I need to think about this a bit more. I'm still intrigued by the possibility of publishing in TETYC. Here are some of the journals I need to look into:

Reading and Writing Quarterly
American Educational Research Journal
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
Journal of Literacy Research
Literacy
Journal of Writing Research

Today, I focused on framing the piece and tried not to worry too much about "that section where you have to situate your work in relation to others that I hate so much" as, I think, Bonnie put it in her talk last month. This has been, for some time now, the part of this project which has frustrated me the most. Today, I grabbed the introductory section that I have loved for so long and started the essay with that. Next, I moved to framing the study with updated stats from NCES on adult education enrollment patterns. I'm borrowing from Sohn's article to think about how to frame this work, before I get to the presentation of the actual cases. There are some questions that I have about this revised project, however:

1. How many cases will I include in this article? Two? Three?

2. Will I include samples of writing in this article? How will I talk about actual documents, if at all?

3. In the larger book project, will three cases now be enough? If I'm not going to devote 1/2 of each chapter to the transition piece, looking closely at a particular "case," then these chapters suddenly get a lot shorter. I have other cases that I can include--in particular, Zoran, for second-language issues, and Charlene, since she is sort of that stereotypical mom who has gone back to school (and also brings in issues around ADD). So, what will the larger study include? 

4. Framing information in the larger study: it seems to me that I'm trying to teach my audience two areas of information: adult learners, business/professional writing/literacy. The first I'm going to have to do some work, some reading, to do. This is a totally new part of the project that I'm going to have to clear time for--a concise summary of some of the issues related to teaching adults, generally--demographic information, adult development, etc. The second, I need to find a way to write a fairly concise explanation of the differences between academic and professional writing, or what we know to be the differences. Where would these go? Sections within an Introduction? Their own chapters (no). 

For now, my main focus has been on this article. I have postponed the SWR for now to focus on the article.