BACKGROUND
This research project was funded by Learning Connections to develop and explore the potential for enhancing literacies learning for adults with learning difficulties by engaging with their systems of care and/or support 1. A key aim of the project was to facilitate ways in which carers and support workers could work effectively with adult literacies tutors to establish learning opportunities in the everyday lives of people with learning difficulties. The project was led by Alastair Wilson and Katie Hunter of the Applied Educational Research Centre, University of Strathclyde in the period March 2006-April 2007.
Thanks are due to the learners, their carers and supporters and to the literacies tutors, who participated in this project. All of them engaged willingly and enthusiastically despite the additional work the project entailed. It couldn't have happened without them.
Aims and objectives of the project
The developmental aspect of the project was led by the project researcher and was committed to working with tutors to facilitate the following:
- Identifying and recruiting learners to the project.
- Identifying and engaging with carers/support workers and where appropriate securing the support of their employers.
- Producing a summary of each learner's learning history to provide a base-line for the design of a learning programme and for the measurement of progress.
- Agreement of a programme of learning with the learner[s], carer[s] and tutor[s].
- Engaging with learners' carers and/or support workers and raising their awareness of literacies needs and issues.
- Providing care/support workers with techniques to support and reinforce learning.
- Monitoring learner progress with learners and carers, gathering and analysing data, feeding findings back into project development.
The research dimension of the project ran in parallel with this process and had three primary aims:
1. To explore the extent to which literacies learning for adults with learning difficulties can be improved by engaging with their systems of care and/or support.
2. To examine the impact of this process on their everyday lives.
3. To disseminate the emerging findings of this work effectively to a varied audience.
Action Research
A key feature of this project was the way in which it evolved into an action research project. The researcher played a crucial role not only in contacting and recruiting participants, both tutors and learners but also, crucially, in shaping their understanding and participation in the project. The researcher acted as a catalyst in terms of encouraging and facilitating tutors' effective contact with participants and their carers/support workers. Throughout the project the researcher provided ongoing feedback to tutors, and facilitated meetings between support workers, tutors and a range of other relevant people necessary to progress the aims of the project. In the early stages of the project a virtual research environment ( VRE) was constructed to facilitate the work of the project. This virtual space was accessible via the web to all tutors participating in the project and contained a variety of tools such as chat/discussion areas, a file store, an announcement function and a group email address. The space was made available to tutors as a means of contacting and discussing ideas with the researcher. In addition it provided a means for tutors to record and share their experiences with others.