Contradicting the stereotype: Case studies of success despite literacy difficulties

This study set out to investigate how successful people with limited literacy have achieved and sustained employability.

• Based on ten case histories, the study reveals that individuals achieve success in their lives, despite their literacy difficulties. However, the strategies adopted often involve some degree of deception, avoidance and dependence. It is not an easy path. Perseverance, networks and technologies emerge as key strategies used by these people, and resilience is identified as a significant personal attribute for success.

• The study reinforces the observation that schools and adult literacy education providers have a relatively narrow interpretation of what counts as success. The lives of the individuals represented in this study show that broader interpretations and multiple pathways to success are possible and needed. A focus on positive capabilities rather then perceived deficits will open up possibilities for learning, personal development and vocational success.

This project began with the observation that some individuals are able to succeed in life and employment, despite continuing difficulties with literacy. Such people are contradicting the stereotype, which is often painted of adults lacking literacy skills. This study identifies and explores the strategies and behaviour of ten individuals who agreed to share their life stories with us. These stories are presented in digital form on a CD-ROM, produced as part of this project, and are now only available on loan from the NCVER library.

It is hoped that this report and the digital stories will encourage adult literacy educators and policy-makers to re-think some of the assumptions and taken-for-granted 'truths' about what it means to experience difficulties with literacy, and what the consequences of such difficulties may be.

What is 'success'?

The project enabled us to explore notions of 'success', which proves to be a slippery concept. We considered a range of indicators to be relevant. These included economic independence and continuous employment, stable relationships and successful parenting. Other criteria, which some may find surprising for this group, included academic achievement, attainment in business and wealth generation. In various ways, the individuals whose stories are told in this project are living successful lives. However, their success has not been due to mastery over the written word. Perseverance, networks and technologies emerge as key strategies, and resilience is identified as a significant attribute for success.

What is 'il/literacy'?

Most practitioners working within the adult literacy field consciously avoid the term 'illiteracy'. However, the participants in this study self-identified as having severe and continuing difficulties with reading and writing. Some had been diagnosed as dyslexic and/or with learning disabilities.

The various labels (such as 'dyslexic' or 'learning-disabled') are shown to be double-edged. On the one hand, they may promote prejudicial judgements, serving to relegate people into pigeon holes in life by defining them in terms of their disability. On the other hand, such diagnoses can provide, in some cases, a platform for the development of 'alternative' strategies, building on capabilities and a positive orientation to life and learning. The label may serve to liberate and to empower. Having identified and accepted that there is a disability, new strategies and resources can be brought to bear to provide support for individuals. Such approaches can lift an intolerable burden of expectations regarding literacy learning. These issues are further discussed in the literature and the findings of the study.

This study also suggests the value of further exploring what we have termed 'para-literacy'. Despite their avowed difficulty with and resistance to literacy, virtually all of the participants in the study used written texts, at least to some extent. In a sense, they were simultaneously rejecting and adopting literacy skills. Some theorists, embracing the notion of 'multi-literacies' might suggest that, in their own ways, these individuals are literate after all-and (in a limited sense) we could agree. Yet it seems inaccurate to use the term 'literate' for individuals who are consciously resisting and rejecting literacy as a strategy for success. For this stance we are proposing the term 'para-literacy'.

We also note that, while resisting the need to read the written word, these successful individuals were very adept at 'reading the world' (Freire 1983). However, their accounts suggest that their strategies and interpretive skills are not legitimated by the world at large,and by educational institutions in particular.

The questions

The study set out to investigate how successful people with limited literacy have achieved and sustained employability. We were interested in how they developed resilience in the face of significant setbacks and whether their strategies are transferable to the contemporary and often fluid worlds of work and employment. We were also interested in whether literacy teaching had been of assistance, and what teaching approaches, interventions and resources have assisted in achieving sustainable employability.

Employability, resilience and transferability

In relation to questions on employability, resilience and transferability, the findings highlight the importance of:

• an individual's sense of personal autonomy, self-direction and identity

• the ability of the individual to accept responsibility for his/her own life and learning

• the capacity for critical and independent thinking-which is not dependent upon literacy skills

• the role of family, friends, employers and others in providing strategic support to enable individuals with literacy difficulties to maintain self-esteem and develop positive strategies for learning and personal development. In many cases these relationships have sustained individuals in spite of the corrosive effects of their experiences in education

• need for assistance to employers and educators to help them enable people with limited literacy to make contributions commensurate with their potential.

Literacy, teaching strategies and resources

In relation to questions on literacy, teaching strategies and other resources, the findings highlight the importance of:

• the relative and subjective nature of 'literacy'-which takes different forms and has different meanings (and value) according to the lives people lead

• the relative importance of other (non-literacy) skills which might be characterised as 'generic' and/or employability skills

• the role of multiple intelligences (Gardner 1985, 2003), particularly those other than linguistic intelligence which provide 'alternative' strengths, strategies and pathways

• the value of appropriate technological aids, including digital technologies which enable individuals to function more independently (for example, speech recognition software).

Technological assistance can overcome many of the barriers, but the technology is not promoted as an option to employers, educators or people with literacy difficulties (as, for instance, it may be for people with more recognised disabilities). Some helpful technologies are also expensive and no assistance is available to defray the cost.

One of the significant findings of this study is its reinforcement of the observation that schools and adult education providers teach particular literacy/ies. Teachers' expectations of learners may be shaped within relatively narrow, scholastic interpretations of what counts as successful reading and writing. When these expectations are not met, for whatever reasons, it is often the learners (rather than the expectations) who are deemed to have failed. The lives of the individuals represented in this study show that broader interpretations and multiple pathways to success are possible.

The study also suggests the value of re-thinking assumptions about what is 'essential' or 'necessary', and asking whether, in some circumstances, there might be equally legitimate, but quite different ways to move forward.

Issues and implications

The study raises issues and implications for diverse groups with interests in adult literacy, vocational education and employment. These audiences include: adult literacy and vocational educators; academics, researchers and teacher educators; adults with literacy difficulties; school teachers; employment/careers advisors (the pathmakers); education policy-makers and employers/human resources personnel (the gatekeepers). The implications for each of these particular audiences are discussed in the report. However, taken as a whole, and in brief, the major issues and implications of the study are:

• Focusing on the positive, on capabilities (rather than perceived deficits), opens up possibilities for learning, personal development, and vocational success.

• While it is increasingly important, literacy is not the only criteria for personal, vocational or employment success and critical thinking; education and achievement are not dependent upon literacy (although it may help).

• Literacy takes many legitimate shapes and forms-the teacher's literacy is not the only one.

• People with minimal formal literacy may have exceptional skills (including entrepreneurialism and creative capacities), which may be hidden behind a veil of uncertainty and apprehension.

• There is value in identifying, developing and celebrating multiple forms of intelligence and capability within learners and recognising that the 'new basics' include developing diverse capacities for 'learning how to learn'. A key dimension of this is developing a positive sense of self as a learner-an identity, self-concept and self-confidence which enables robust learning and the capacity to rebound from setbacks.

• Employees not practising conventional or expected literacy skills are likely to conceal their non-compliance unless employment relationships are open and trusting.

The study also suggests the value of:

• recognising the strategic role of social, kinship, and other relationships within which the learner is embedded. Literacy is a social practice. Hence the value of others-friends, family, partner, workmates etc.-who can provide a web of support, both personal and practical, should not be ignored

• re-thinking and broadening the concept of 'disability' and 'disability/learning support services' to enable adults with literacy difficulties to access appropriate support services. This is particularly important in the context of initiatives to address lifelong learning, the retention of older workers and the needs of an ageing population

• helping learners in some instances to disconnect their sense of self-worth from literacy achievement, thus lifting the 'weight' from literacy, making it easier to bear and to learn

• recognising and legitimating 'para-literacy' skills which may help to build autonomy and independent learning

• recognising the importance of supportive technologies, including digital technologies, not only to facilitate literacy learning, but to provide tools which facilitate 'alternative' strategies (which may actually involve less reading and less writing in the conventional sense), but which will support the learners in their journeys towards their goals

• undertaking further research to illuminate the diverse para-literacies in action within workplace and educational settings, thereby providing more appropriate advice, resources and information to employers and educators to accommodate workers and learners who cannot easily decipher or produce text.

The experience of people with literacy difficulties who do not seek adult literacy programs is poorly understood, covert and unsupported. More work needs to be done to understand their needs and to assist employers and educators to maximise opportunities for these people.