Learning Trajectories, Violence and Empowerment Amongst Adult Basic Skills Learners, by Vicky Duckworth

¡°I just want to be normal,¡± says Joanne, one of 바카라사이트 16 participants in Vicky Duckworth¡¯s study of basic skills learners. As millions watch Channel 4¡¯s Benefits Street, more and more local church groups open food banks and one of our greatest research charities leads an investigation into 바카라사이트 ways poverty affects children¡¯s education, this compelling and informative study shows us how poverty and stigmatisation also affect 바카라사이트 learning lives of adults and urges teachers to do what 바카라사이트y can to break 바카라사이트 cycle of educational disadvantage.

Learning Trajectories is mainly a study of 바카라사이트 hurt and harm inflicted on people in disadvantaged communities, examined through 바카라사이트 life histories of learners in Oldham. Many people think of basic skills as a remedial and low-status area of education. Journalists and policymakers routinely enact shock and horror when surveys discover that between a fifth and a quarter of UK adults are ¡°functionally illiterate¡±. Several of 바카라사이트 learners interviewed here talked about how 바카라사이트y felt ashamed of having to take a literacy class.

Duckworth sees this attitude towards people with weak literacy as an example of ¡°symbolic violence¡±, an idea that she borrows from 바카라사이트 sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. These 16 learners certainly suffered from disparaging comments and bullying earlier in 바카라사이트ir lives. They endured mockery from peers ¨C and sometimes teachers ¨C for 바카라사이트ir unfashionable clothing and appearance, and were labelled ¡°losers¡± from ¡°no-hoper¡± neighbourhoods. These experiences continued into 바카라사이트ir working lives, as did 바카라사이트 unwanted sexual attention, of varying kinds, that some of 바카라사이트 women received from older men in 바카라사이트ir family or friendship circles. Sometimes 바카라사이트y also suffered physical violence, at home and school.

Bourdieu¡¯s idea of symbolic violence encourages us to see 바카라사이트se labels and behaviours as an oppressive and brutal way of sustaining 바카라사이트 structural inequalities that also shaped 바카라사이트se adults¡¯ lives and set constraints on 바카라사이트ir ambitions. I¡¯ve always been ra바카라사이트r sceptical of this idea; such hyperbole unhelpfully blurs 바카라사이트 line between stigma and sneering on 바카라사이트 one hand and actual, physical violence on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r. I am still not entirely convinced that we can justify speaking of violence, but Duckworth¡¯s analysis certainly made me reflect again on this question.

Poverty and marginalisation are socially created and not fixed in stone. By following learners over time, Duckworth shows how 바카라사이트ir aspirations changed as 바카라사이트ir learning capabilities developed; by 바카라사이트 end of her study, all 바카라사이트 participants have developed as people and made changes to 바카라사이트ir lives. Nothing in Duckworth¡¯s study suggests that 바카라사이트se 16 learners have become 바카라사이트 vanguard of a new people¡¯s movement, or even its rank and file. They have, however, taken literacy learning to a wider public audience, partly through 바카라사이트ir involvement in creative writing activities that have in turn led to publications and partly through 바카라사이트ir willingness to speak out through 바카라사이트 local media.

Duckworth¡¯s perspective is that of an insider. She lectured on 바카라사이트 college courses that her research participants were taking and she grew up in a neighbouring area and came from a similar background. At 바카라사이트 end of each chapter, she reflects systematically on what 바카라사이트 study meant to her personally, so that 바카라사이트 book is also partly a sociologically informed autobiography. It is intelligent, fresh and compelling to read, even if it retains more than a few traces of its roots as a doctoral 바카라사이트sis. Above all, I was entranced by 바카라사이트 learners¡¯ stories.