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There has been a great deal of discussion about the adequacy or inadequacy of economic education and the amount of economic illiteracy in the United States.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Illiterate women have high levels of fertility and mortality, poor nutritional status, low earning potential, and little autonomy within the household. Yet, large populations of women in many developing countries continue to be illiterate. In India over 11 million girls do not go to school at all and 18 million drop out after grade five. As a result 151 million mothers are likely to be uneducated or minimally educated. Thus the problem is very acute. Issues related to effective demand are widely recognized among policymakers in India as being critical to ensuring the existence of effective demand for education. However, there have been few efforts to analyze the impact of these factors. This study attempts to fill this gap. This study examines the views and beliefs of those who make or influence decisions on behalf of girls that impact continuation of the girls in schools when they reach the age of adolescence. Set in a village in the eastern state of Orissa in India, the study analyzes the opinions of mothers, fathers, village elders, teachers and the girls themselves, and identifies the factors that influence the girls' continuation in the education cycle. The study finds that education and educational decision-making are family matters, and parents are the key decision-makers. While most parents support children going to school, negative parental attitudes toward educating daughters constitute a significant barrier to girls' education. Many parents report that sending daughters to school and educating them above a certain level results in problems finding a suitable groom. Further, educated girls would need to marry educated boys, thereby increasing expectations and demand for dowry. Some also report that girls should be taken out of school at the onset of menarche since then they need closer supervision and parental control. The study findings highlight the importance of effecting changes in parental attitudes about girls' education if meaningful improvements have to be brought about, and offer valuable insights for consideration in developing strategies related to girls' access to and retention in primary schooling. / 2031-01-01

This study explores how a small group of adult literacy facilitators (ALFs) working on a pilot literacy project in a municipality in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, develop their practice. Although many reports have discussed the problems of adult literacy work in the Global South and the shortcomings of available training, very little research has been carried out directly with ALFs, examining the processes through which they develop their educational practice. The thesis reports on a pilot programme which took a dialogic approach inspired by the work of Paulo Freire and with an emphasis on context, meaning and social practice drawn from New Literacy Studies. Learning activities focussed on personal expression and writing as the communication of meaning. Texts for reading were produced from participant writing. The ALFs were trained and supported in implementing the new programme. The research uses Systematisation of Experiences, a Latin American methodology linked to popular education which involves project participants in a collective process of reflection on their experiences, leading to the generation of new knowledge both of the internal dynamics of the programme and the work of the project in relation to the wider context. Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, capital and doxa are used to analyse the socio-political setting in which the pilot programme was situated, observing the positions of the research participants within the field of adult literacy in Guatemala. ALFs operate at the margins of the field, subjected to the power structure of the national literacy programme while having no influence on decisions affecting their work. The thesis traces the trajectories of the individual ALFs through the pilot programme and reports on the collaborative work which enabled the growth of trust and a joint sense of purpose. The narrative form attempts to present the multiple voices of participants in dialogue, emphasising the collective processes of knowledge generation. In spite of the difficulties of working with a radically different approach, ALFs supported each other to make important changes in their practice. They observed how participants in their groups responded to the pilot activities and began to question the traditional methods endorsed by the organisation they worked for. Offered the space to design and develop new activities, they demonstrated the ability to make innovative interventions. However, the ALFs felt unsupported by the national adult literacy programme they work for, which has no policy or strategy to develop a professional approach to adult literacy by investing in the training and retention of ALFs. The thesis concludes with the ALFs' views of how the organisation is failing them and what is needed to improve the provision.

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This thesis describes a qualitative mixed-methods study carried out in a vocational-technical secondary school with second-chance adolescent learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in a peripheral area of Israel. The learner population was characterized by complex, socio-economically disadvantaged family backgrounds and a high rate of learning disabilities. The study investigated the effects of a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) intervention to support the development of basic EFL literacy skills by students who lacked solid foundational English skills. The intervention provided an interactive educational software application, The English Club™, on iPod Touch devices to scaffold learning and review of letter sounds and rules of English, integrate them into words and texts, and practice reading, writing and comprehension. Learners developed literacy skills depending on the level they reached in the application. The English Club follows a scaffolded Multi-Sensory Structured Language (MSL) approach, adapting for struggling EFL learners the Hickey Multi-Sensory Method (Combley, 2001), developed by Kathleen Hickey of the British Dyslexia Institute. Printed books containing the material complemented the use of the MALL. The English teachers at the school chose the learners who participated and determined how to integrate the intervention into their English classrooms. An investigation of the teachers' roles was included in the study. The methodology was primarily action research with case studies of individual learners and teachers. Pre-intervention and post-intervention data on learners' English knowledge, skills, attitudes and opinions and on teachers' attitudes and opinions about use of this MALL intervention was generated via skills assessments and semi-structured interviews. As a participant-teacher-observer, I observed the intervention's use in classes and in sessions with individual students. Changes in skills, attitudes and opinions were analyzed in the framework of Vygotsky's theories of language acquisition and the Zone of Proximal Development as elaborated in Scaffolding Theory. Theories of motivation, literacy and second language acquisition, and how struggling learners experience these, have provided additional lenses for analysis. My goals in performing this study were to understand in depth the whole picture of the intervention, both its effects on students' English skills and attitudes, and the factors that shaped these outcomes. The study's findings contribute to an understanding of the ways in which delivering a scaffolded MSL approach to literacy education via MALL can contribute to addressing the world crisis in literacy acquisition, and issues that must be addressed for this type of intervention to be effective. Findings showed that learners who actively engaged in the intervention made significant progress in their English literacy skills, increased their confidence in their ability to learn English and thus their willingness to engage in learning, and demonstrated increased awareness of the connection between their own investment of effort and learning. This success was shaped by many factors, including variation among individual learner profiles, the degree of teachers' support for the intervention, increasing students' motivation to invest effort, minimizing disruptions to the students' learning routine, and maximizing access to charged, working devices and to books. The individual MALL delivery platform enabled an untrained, inexperienced but committed teacher to provide the benefits of this scaffolded method, appropriate to her learners' needs, in multi-level English classrooms and to provide a solution for students returning from extended absences to catch up with missed classwork. Recommendations for policy and practice include use of such scaffolded MSL MALL applications with struggling language learners in conjunction with printed materials and closely accompanied by committed teachers, who do not have to be highly trained in specialized methods to support learning by struggling students. Schools engaging in such interventions need to ensure that the devices will be fully available for use during learning hours, minimize disruptions to the class schedule, and maximize students' use of the MALL app and books in class, during free time at school, and at home. If necessary, extrinsic rewards should be offered to overcome students' learned helplessness.

This thesis explored Gypsies' and Travellers' perceptions of the value and importance of literacy to themselves and their communities. It examined the political and social factors that affected the extent and availability of literacy provision for adult Gypsies and Travellers and their level of participation. It focused on how Gypsies' and Travellers' levels of literacy impacted on their ability to engage effectively with authority. The research focused on two rural and one urban authority in the South of England but also drew on information from neighbouring authorities and Ireland. A qualitative constructivist epistemology was adopted in which ethnography was the main research tool. The data were collected through in-depth interviews and informal conversations with Gypsies and Travellers, public officials and local politicians, a survey of adult education providers, observation of sundry national and local meetings, participant observation and analysis of the discourse and dialogue of two official forums and data from a variety of sources including television programmes and press reports. The research found that Gypsies and Travellers attached little value to textual literacy, did not view literacy as important to economic success and did not perceive the ability to read and write as contributing to their status or self esteem. Other skills were valued more highly. These attitudes challenge dominant education and development discourses which perceive textual literacy as essential to economic achievement, self esteem and status. The research also highlighted a vacuum in literacy and education policy and provision for adult Gypsies and Travellers who were largely invisible in post-school policy documents, even in those purporting to address equality issues. There was no targeted provision in the three authorities, only a few short term projects elsewhere and little interest among providers. Although mainstream provision was available to Gypsy and Travellers as to all adults, those who wished to learn preferred to teach themselves or be taught by friends and family. The research drew on current theories of discourse, power and control. Primary and secondary Discourses impacted on two areas, the absence of educational opportunities for adult Gypsies and Travellers and on their communicative practices and agency. The lack of targeted literacy provision for Gypsies and Travellers was not accidental but a result of deep seated negative attitudes constructed and maintained through the secondary Discourses of dominant groups and bureaucratic institutions. Interviews and observations revealed that language and discourse was more important to Gypsies and Travellers than the ability to read and write, particularly when communicating privately or publicly with authorities. In these contexts, their own primary discourses, learned through home and community practices, were insufficient. The Gypsies and Travellers who were formally educated and were bi-discoursal were able to operate within secondary institutional Discourses. Though others had life experiences which gave them some understanding of the Discourses of power and bureaucracy, they were not able to communicate or challenge as effectively. The research critiques current models of literacy provision for adults. Though aspects of the models can address specific literacy requirements in specific situations, none of the models including New Literacy Studies and critical literacies, sufficiently address the need to become bi-discoursal or develop the agency to affect decisions controlling their lives. Gypsies and Travellers fear formal education will lead to loss of identity, acculturation and assimilation, but without it they may lose what they seek to preserve. Different communities have different aspirations and face different tensions in different circumstances and each will make decisions accordingly. This research on Gypsies' and Travellers' perceptions and uses of literacy provides new insights into complex tensions and contradictions at both an empirical and theoretical level.

This thesis reports on a case study of the creative writing of A Level English Language students. The research took place over the two year course and involved five students from one class in an 11 – 18, secondary grammar school in the South East of England. The students were aged 16 at the beginning of the case study. There were two girls and three boys, and all from families with little or no tradition of going to university. The research was based on the theoretical framework of the New Literacy Studies (The New London Group, 1996), where literacy is seen as a socially constructed phenomenon. Genres, discourse and creative voices were researched through discourse analysis toolkit to reflect and interrogate the socially constructed literacy event: the two pieces of coursework each participant produced. Additional data was also included to present a kaleidoscopic deep study of the literacy practice through using interviews, domain-mapping and questionnaires. It is also a reflexive study as it has built on findings from earlier studies for the EdD course, and also projects forwards to the continuing tensions in the teaching of English. Although Creative Writing is now an accredited A Level for examination from 2014, and is a valued component of the A Level English Language, in the earlier years of secondary education students have had limited exposure to creative writing. This is due to the effect of the National Curriculum that has shaped the generation of this case study. Creative writing has been marginalised and devalued within the GCSE (paradoxically since the QCA, 2007 Programme of Study for English put greater emphasis on creativity), where there is limited creative writing opportunity: teachers select a title from a possible six which their students respond to. The Department for Education's draft new National Curriculum has a brief reference to creativity in a list where grammar and accuracy are prioritised. There is a tension in what policy statements, including stakeholders such as Ofsted, say about creative writing and what students experience in delivery of the syllabus driven by the National Curriculum. There is also the anomaly that many students have a range of literacy practices as they operate in increasingly multimodal literacies that schools do not recognise as writing experiences. At present, there is much written about creative writing in primary schools and in Higher Education; but the creative writing of young adults following an A Level course is not visible in policy documents, nor the focus of academic research (with a few exceptions such as Dymoke, 2010, and Bluett, 2010). Therefore, it is an area that is worth exploring. The original contribution to knowledge that the thesis provides is a definition of the literacy practice of the creative writing of A Level English Language students. The thesis, through the case study, identifies the range of influences the students draw on and, in particular, the evidence of intertextuality. How the students develop and shape their creative writing through different creative voices, building on the intertextual influences is presented through the lenses of multiple and multimodal data-sets. In conclusion, a pedagogical model is offered for practitioners who perceive echoes with their own educational contexts.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Primary Caregiver’s ability to provide a healthy, nurturing and stimulating environment is critical, but Caregivers in South Africa, especially those living in rural communities, are facing many challenges, including a combination of poverty, lack of education and skills, as well as social isolation, which directly and indirectly affect their ability to care for their children in a way to ensure their optimal developmental outcomes. Residents in far rural communities, such as in the Eastern Cape, have had less opportunities to go to school, due to various reasons and Caregivers therefore face multiple burdens. For the purposes of this study, it is important to clarify with reference the term “Caregiver”. The South African Children’s Act (Act 38 of 2005) differentiates between biological parents, guardians and caregivers. According to the Act (Children’s 2005), parents may be a biological father or biological father, a guardian being an honorary parent to the child and a caregiver is any family member rather than the biological parent or guardian who is concerned with care, welfare and development of the child. Although there is such differentiation, caregiving remains central to the holistic care required of any adult responsible for the nurturing of children. This will include biological father, mother, grandparents, extended family members, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles as well as any person who is concerned with the care, welfare and development of the child and has been, after application to court of law, granted permission to exercise parental responsibilities over the child. The population for this study encompassed caregivers who are least educated and or never attended school in the Ku-Jonga rural settlement in Coffee bay and research participants were purposively selected from the populations. Data was collected by means of focus groups with the aid of an interview guide. The interviews were conducted in Xhosa and later translated into English. A Thematic system was used according to the Tesch’s eight steps and ethical considerations such as voluntary participation, informed consent and confidentiality were adhered to. The community has most citizens who identified with the target population. This is based on historical factors. The participants freely expressed themselves and contributed to the findings and thereby assisting the researcher reach the conclusions about experiences illiterate caregivers experience to support their children’s education.

During the fall of 2015, Sweden had the biggest incoming refugee wave since 19921, where more than 80 0002 people searched refuge in Sweden, unfortunately it will not be the last. Using 2015 as a case study, I explore the question: Can visual language facilitate entry into Swedish society for preliterate? Preliterate tends to be set aside in many situations like in 2015. There have been several debates and claims on improving the happenings of 2015, but how come that no one has taken preliterate into consideration? How can we in modern society adjust to this quite huge new group of people? How can we make the entry in to society more ef cient, and how can we provide important information for preliterate – is visual language the answer? To answer these questions, I have collaborated with Merit utbildning Malmö AB (Merit AB), a company that through various assignments like SFI (Swedish for immigrants) and Stöd och matchning (Vocational support, skills and employment matching services), helps newly arrived to nd their place in Swedish society. They allowed me to conduct several workshops with their students, this to ensure that the end result would be by the target group and for the target group. The workshops were primarily based on metadesign methods like 5 levels of storytelling and Designing miracles. After conducting several workshops with both research groups (focus group and reference group), the experience taught me to trust in the process and take a step back as a designer, and let the participants, design the result. The process concluded in an app called Welcome to Sweden, whose content is re ected at Malmö Central Station. While designing the app, the methods to reach out to preliterate were taken in to account. The information is provided in visual language as well as audio, and translated into the most common languages of those who came to Sweden 2015. The app is not the whole solution to the problematics, but my studies show that it would work better for many more in the target group and, in particular, information provided in this way would be more appropriate for the target group preliterate.