Strategies for Building Career Pathways in Adult Literacy Eductation
While the passage of the Adult Education Act in 1966 opened new opportunities to create a paid adult literacy workforce; in general, the workforce is not a stable one. Factors such as varied "soft money" funding streams that have created insecure positions, inadequate federal and state funding that do not enable full-time positions, and poor working conditions make it challenging - though not impossible - for adult educators to build a stable career.
A teacher’s strategies to build a career, for example, might include:
- Starting part-time, and increasing hours by adding classes to his or her schedule.
- Staying abreast of national initiatives. Whether the teacher is part of a program that receives federal or private funds (or both), these initiatives offer teachers opportunities to participate in special projects like conducting teacher research, piloting assessments or curriculum, or participating in focus groups, and participation usually comes with a modest stipend. Special projects provide teachers opportunities to build knowledge and skills and make new contacts that may lead to future opportunities. [[1]]
- Exploring career options in teacher professional development. Teachers may build their facilitation skills by leading program-based study circles, presenting at workshops or conferences. The teacher might contact the state professional development resource center and share his or her interest in building a career in teacher professional development. StatePD
- Exploring options with his or her program administrator to learn on-the-job skills that would allow the teacher to expand his or her career to administrating or coordinating programs.
- Identifying supports that will help the teacher stay in the field, grow professionally, and find the work satisfying. Supports may include:
- participating in professional development and taking advantage of opportunities to share, network, and obtain support.
- Becoming an active member of her professional association. Volunteer literacy teachers and tutors may become a member of ProLiteracy. Staff with local education agencies (public schools) may become involved with their state professional association. Adult educators also join national professional associations, such as the Commission on Adult Basic Education (CoABE) http://www.coabe.org/, the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) http://www.aaace.org/, the Association of Adult Literacy Professional Developers (AALPD) http://www.aalpd.org/, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/index.asp, among others.
- Subscribing to free state and national electronic discussion lists. These discussion lists offer a wealth of information and "just in time" support: http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html
- Starting an Independent Consulting business
A program administrator’s strategies for helping to create more stable career pathways could include:
- Establishing a program philosophy much like the WAITT House – "We Are All In This Together" and improving teacher working conditions that support teachers’ professional growth and learning. [[2]]
- Developing or strengthening literacy councils within the community – councils of stakeholders who collaborate to support adult literacy. The administrator could enlist their assistance in helping the program create more full time positions or provide staff benefits.
- Creating opportunities for learner leaders to become employed with the program and hiring them. Learner leaders – adult learners who naturally take on a leadership role in the classroom or program – often help adult learners stay connected with the program. Some program administrators seek unique training opportunities to assist them in strengthening the skills they need to become better established as program staff. Contact Voice for Adult Literacy United for Education (VALUE) for more information. VALUE is the national learner leadership organization in adult literacy. http://www.valueusa.org/
Supports that Practitioners Reported As Helpful in Entering and Staying in the Field:
(Suggestions taken from a discussion on the Adult Literacy Professional Development List titled "Career Pathways: What does our field have to offer?")[[3]]
- I participated in adult literacy education projects outside of the program -- the stipend was helpful -- it supplemented my part-time income and I learned about some very exciting national initiatives that may not be promoted at the local area by state PD or the state office
- Action research grants, peer coaching, professional development activities, a supportive supervisor
- I'm a member of TESOL and WiTESOL (my expense) as well as ProLiteracy America. Attending conferences to share ideas has always been very helpful. I also (my expense) attended 2 TESOL University sessions and a week-long workshop at University of Minnesota (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition). I've also taken some classes on teaching ESL to adults.
- A variety of list-servs (sponsored by NIFL, ProLiteracy, TESOL especially) have provided a lot of useful information. Information on list-servs often leads to other useful sites on the internet. The Verizon Literacy Network (partnered with ProLiteracy) has very good free on-line courses.
- Action research grants, peer coaching, professional development activities, a supportive supervisor, great people at the state professional development center.
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