“It Feels Like a Little Family to Me”

Abstract

Supportive social relationships are an important dimension of marginalized women's participation in community-based adult education programs. However, policy makers and researchers often consider these social dimensions to be tangential or secondary to instrumental outcomes such as obtaining employment or increasing standardized test scores. Drawing on two qualitative studies of family literacy programs in the Northeastern United States, this article examines the importance of social interaction and support for women in poverty. The study reveals that, for women with limited social support and social ties, family literacy programs afforded a social space that enabled them to leave the house, enjoy social contact and mutual support with peers, establish supportive relationships with teachers, and pursue self-discovery and development. The article concludes that nonformal adult education and family literacy programs play an important role in helping women in poverty receive social support and in turn enhancing their psychosocial well-being.

Benefits of Adult Education Participation for Low-Educated Women

“…Undoubtedly, the contribution to the social and cultural well-being of the community is another benefit of adult education that has been analysed by the literature at most at a general level (Manninen & Meriläinen, 2011;Field, 2009;Merriam & Kee, 2014;Motschilnig, 2012), specifically in the case of women. According to Norris and Oyasande (2017), participation in non-formal education activities promoted greater social and environmental awareness in women and greater solidarity, as shown by Duckworth and Smith (2018), and the promotion of greater social support in their communities, as stated by Prins, Toso, and Schafft (2009). In short, these benefits are what Freire (1994) advocated when proclaiming that adult education can offer organic tools of transformation for social awareness.…”

“…Benefits have also been demonstrated for women with a low educational level in the work by Prins, Toso, and Schafft (2009).…”

“…Adult education among women with a low educational level has been little explored in the scientific literature. However, studies by Patterson et al (2008), Dave, Corman, and Reichman (2012), Tawiah (2017), Norris and Oyasande 2017, Porras-Hernández and Salinas-Amescua (2012), Duckworth and Smith (2018), and Prins, Toso, and Schafft (2009), among others, have shown the individual, social, cultural, and even economic benefits of participation in educational activities for women with low starting educational levels. All of this is explored in the hypothetical model that we present below.…”

“…This study is even more necessary if we refer to groups at a double risk of exclusion, such as women with low educational levels (Lewis, & Lockheed, 2007), who also have a much lower participation in learning activities (OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016). According to authors such as Patterson et al (2008), Dave, Corman, and Reichman (2012), Tawiah (2017), Norris and Oyasande 2017, Porras-Hernández and Salinas-Amescua (2012), Duckworth and Smith (2018), and Prins, Toso, and Schafft, (2009), although the claim cannot be generalized, low education combined with lack of skills development during adult life could cause these women to be at risk of being excluded from participation in the social, political and cultural spheres of their community and their potential employability could be reduced; they could even have worse health than women with a higher educational level.…”

Undocumented Migrants, Rights Literacy, and ESOL Classrooms: A Community-University Partnership to Enhance Psychopolitical Learning

“…Many educators and researchers working with adult migrant learners have observed the capacity of ESOL classrooms to function as sites for creating or developing community (e.g., Malsbary, 2014;Prins, Toso, & Schafft, 2009;Stern, 1997;Ullman, 1999). The ESOL Know Your Rights Tool Kit is intended to enhance community-building processes within the ESOL classroom and beyond it.…”