Learner Leadership Discussion Summary
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Learner Leadership Discussion Summary
Guest Participant, Will Grant, (see Bios of Learner Leadership Guest Participants) began the learner leadership discussion with information pertaining to BLAST (Building Leadership through Adult Student Training) - New Mexico’s learner leadership project.
BLASTS Questions addressed were:
- Would you tell us how the Blast Project evolved?
- Was the Blast Project always involved with developing and delivering teacher training?
- Why did Blast became involved with teacher training, and how did that happen?
- Has there been an impact from the student-led PD that resulted in improving things like retention? Teacher satisfaction? Other?
Will writes, “Teacher training evolved as the major focus of BLAST because the ABE field in New Mexico asked for student led PD and because teacher training was a priority for the student leaders.” Will further explains that BLAST student leaders’ priority is to bridge the gap between students' worlds and adult basic education teachers and programs by: helping learners navigate the system; strengthening communication between learners and their teachers and programs; and offering teachers important insights into the world view of adult basic education students.
BLAST incorporates learner leadership into professional development through various ways, including (but not limited to) tutor training and a Teacher’s Foundation Course which hosts a performance by the BLAST Social Impact Theatre.
Learners’ Role in Teacher Training
Adult learners bring a wealth of life experiences to the classroom and to teacher training. Some participants discussed what they have learned from their students, and what they believe students contribute to teacher training. Teachers offered a variety of questions (Teacher Questions for Learner Leaders), they would ask of learner leaders in teacher professional development, and discussed at length the benefits of learners leading teacher training.
One participant warned the group about taking too narrow a focus on student roles in professional development. There are many avenues for dialoguing with and listening to students, so in what ways can student voice influence professional development and decision making?br>
Participants shared several practices for making student voice central to professional development and integral in decision making, including activities such as:
- Facilitating discussion among a group of students and teachers
- Asking students questions like, “What do teachers need to know in order to teach adults?”
- Sharing learner perspectives in professional development trainings, whether in writing as training materials or in person
- Involving students in providing teacher workshops: New Mexico Workshop Model of PD
- Involving students in creating student-generated classroom examples as material for teacher response
- Inviting learners to join Panel Discussions: Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts
- Including students in program orientation for new students
- Generating teacher training materials
- Asking learners to provide or write classroom scenarios for use in teacher hiring process
- Conducting action research to address questions like teacher certification programs and planning teacher training. Use the report as training material.
- Inviting adult learners as keynote speakers at professional development
Realizing Strengths
A teacher asked, “How would you bring the student to the understanding of what they have to offer [in teacher training]?” Tips included strategies for shifting thinking from motivating to mobilizing students.
Barriers to Learner Involvement
Participants addressed the question “Why don’t more programs involve students?” Some ideas were shared, and later participants addressed similar questions (but in greater depth) while discussing “challenges of learner leadership.” Additionally, participants explored strategies for understanding student perspectives.
Experiences with Learner Leadership/VALUE
Several adult learner leaders, practitioners, and professional development staff shared their experiences with learner leadership, including colleagues from:
- Mass AAL and SABES, Massachusetts
- M.O.M.S. (Motivating Other Mothers for Success}, Texas
- Read Santa Clara, California
- The Student Action Health Team, Massachusetts
- Vermont Adult Learning (VAL) and Learning Works, Vermont
Additionally, participants discussed Students’ Roles in Technology PD and Students’ Roles in Heath Literacy. Several health literacy web links were provided, and the group heard from the The Student Action Health Team at Operation Bootstrap in Lynn, Massachusetts about learner leadership in health literacy.
Understanding Student Involvement
Participants then led into a fascinating discussion of what student involvement really means, what it is and is not from learner leaders and teachers perspectives.
Who Gets Involved and Why?
List colleague David Rosen describes reasons why learners may get involved with programs, because some “…develop other goals and do want to be involved in other ways; some don't. Some come to the program and need to be involved in other ways right from the beginning; they need to have other purposeful roles in the program in order to accomplish their goals as a learner -- they need to be a contributing member of the community where they are giving as well as receiving.”
What Is Student Involvement?
Learner leaders and teachers shared their perspectives on what student involvement is, but as Guest Participant Angela Childers noted, “It seems the second we define student involvement is the instant that students lose interest.” Participants agreed that student involvement has a range of possibilities, but that student involvement is ultimately about students having a voice in the program and in decisions that matter to them. Students create the vision for involvement, for the project or position, such that their involvement equals the interest they have in what is at stake. Student involvement is a learner-teacher partnership, renegotiating the power dynamics inherent in traditional learner-teacher roles. Student involvement fills the gap that seems to exist between students and teachers because of this traditional power differential. Learners have greater responsibility by being involved, and it offers their classroom peers student leadership models.
Student involvement can come in many forms, and participants shared a list of student roles that learner leaders may fill at the program.
Challenges of Learner Leadership
Participants listed several challenges of student involvement and possible solutions to address them, including:
Blaming the Student
One participant cited lack of student maturity (in younger students) as the reason why student leadership would likely not work in her program. “Not all learners in an adult ed program are "adults" in maturity or responsibility...They don't want to work, they don't want to take ownership of their own futures even after the difficulties they have faced of public education and even worse.”
Time Constraints
Others mentioned challenges that accompany time constraints, and offered suggestions: make learner leadership a part of the in-class curriculum, and make time for professional development to teach teachers how this is done.
Convincing Program Administrators
Participants offered strategies to ”make the case” for student leadership:
- a. Student leadership is an accepted “best practice” in ABE. In ProLiteracy’s Accreditation Standards, learner involvement is recognized as a national standard for improving the quality of volunteer literacy services and achieving organizational success: http://www.proliteracy.org/proliteracy_america/accreditation.asp
- b. Student leadership could provide first-hand, positive public relations
- c. Ask learner leaders (from programs that actively support student involvement) could come speak with learners, teachers, and program administrators about getting involved.
Adult Learner-ism
Participants then discussed "adult learnerism" as a challenge of student involvement. Adult learnerism was described as the concept of (well-meaning) practitioners viewing current and former adult learners with their deficits (as opposed to their assets) in mind, thus placing them into one category, marginalizing them. In speaking from his experiences with some adult learners, Guest Participant Ernest Best discussed the marginalizing effects of adult learnerism. Earnest shared that many adult learners do not see themselves as the “challenge” to the advancement of adult learner leadership, but feel that they are viewed by some practitioners as such. Ernest shared Freire’s Banking Model of Education as one common example. A second example he cites is persistence/retention, which he states is “mainly attributed to the lack of the adult learner’s ability to adhere to her, or his educational, and life goals, a character flaw.” Ernest encourages practitioners to open themselves up to new, transformative ways of thinking. He writes, “It must be recognized by practitioners about their students, that in terms of success, the sky is truly the limit. The barriers are in the mind, and not always in the mind of the adult learner.”
Student/Teacher Power Differential and Paradigm Shift
Participants discussed issues of real equality between students and teachers, and strategies that might lead to a greater sharing of power between the two, including: participatory education, student leadership, open communication and trust between the students and teacher, and teacher professional development. Some offered examples of how teachers could become learners, share learning experiences, and strategies teachers can use to draw upon existing learner expertise and provide opportunities for learners to become classroom instructors. List Colleague Eileen Eckert noted how a teacher paradigm shift might direct our attention to power relationships in society as a whole, and thru partnership, teachers and learners might “...become co-investigators of the sources of some of the problems we all face, and collaborators in finding solutions.”
VALUE Training
VALUE training helps programs partner with adult learners and learner leaders to develop student leadership organizations that also compliment the goals of the program. State professional development systems can play an important role in supporting learner leadership by providing several support mechanisms for both learners and practitioners. Guest Participant Will Grant gave an overview of the VALUE training components and VALUE Executive Director, Marty Finsterbusch, answered specific questions:
- Where did the VALUE training come from?
- Why provide the training?
- What does the training do?
- How does the training work?
- Where has the training been held?
- How does one get the training in your state?
- Where is the VALUE training going?
Several practitioners and learner leaders from Vermont shared their experiences of how programs in their state became involved with VALUE.
Discussion Wrap-Up and Next Steps
The discussion ended with sharing web resources for VALUE News and updates, and some participants shared what they learned from the discussion, and next steps.
