Gendered Narratives of Adult Basic Education in the U.S. Dr. Beth L. Goldstein University of Kentucky

Education for sustainable development and empowering people and their communities within poor regions of the US: The gendered case of adult basic education in Appalachian Kentucky

Researchers stand within socially constructed worlds so its not about subjective vs. objective but of being alert to standpoints. Dorothy Smith (1990)

‘Reading the word and the world’ Paolo Freire Being able to read is to have agency in the worlds in which we live Literacy defines self and community

Kentucky in USA

Poverty rates in KY 18.8% below federal policy level Household income 20 percent below national average (2013) Highest percentage of children in poverty in US 6 of 10 poorest counties in the US: Median income Unemployment Life expectancy College Education Disability Obesity

Fayette CountyClay County Median Income$49,000$22,000 Unemployment6.3 %12.7% Life Expectancy78.1 years71.4 years Disability1.3 %11.7% Obesity33 %45% College Education39.9%11.9%

Education attainment for KY adults Kentucky ranked forty-ninth in the nation in adults without a high school credential (KYAE, 2007). 42 percent of adults are at Basic or Below Basic levels of literacy Within the adult population with low education levels, the least served by the state’s department of adult education are those who read below the equivalent of a 6 th grade level.

Forced out of school early due to conditions of poverty need to work for family support teen pregnancy lack of school support for less able learners Lost highly paid jobs as coal miners, truckers, public employees, construction workers, business owners, tobacco farmers economy changed formal education became the gatekeeper for employment Why low education levels?

Adult basic education: Education in core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics to the 5 th grade equivalent Family literacy: Integrated adult basic education, parenting education, and early childhood education for young children of the adults

Key conceptual constructs Power Privilege Performativity Intersectionality Difference Agency “taking strategic and intentional actions or perspectives toward goals that matter to oneself” (O’Meara et al 2011).

Within American contexts of adult basic education, adults who can not read or do math and the educators who instruct them are socially constructed in ways that make them invisible, marginal, lesser, deprived and deficient. This stigma is especially so if they were born in the US since it is assumed that they had opportunity to learn and failed. How do these discursive constructs inform action and learning for the women and men within adult basic education programs?

American adult basic education programs premised on a deficit model: Adults without literacy can not be good workers mothers citizens Adult educators have low status as education professionals women’s semi-voluntary work work with few professional credentials – if you can read, you can teach someone else to read have no union representation work at low wages and with little job security.

Adult Educators: A Female Profession