Key concepts

Social capital

What does it mean to invite teachers to consciously build social capital in their learning environments as a basis for and outcome of learning? 'Social capital' is a term coined by economic and social theorists to talk about the importance of social networks, reciprocity and trust in people's lives. Having high social capital is said to deliver benefits to individuals (health, economic, well-being) and, as the term suggests, to the communal act of wealth-creation. As the old saying goes, "It's not what you know, but who you know that gets you a job." Having extensive social networks and strong relationships get you more than just a job.

Building social capital in a learning environment could mean that teachers structure learning activities to foster relationships between learners both within the classroom and in the larger community. Where there is trust and shared values, people flourish and learning can be enhanced – Beth Marr has been particularly helpful in designing pair and small group work that generates trust and relationships among learners. While there are 'measures' of social capital (see OECD and ABS) the concepts are not yet used to describe or measure outcomes of adult learning. Jo Balatti and Stephen Black have drawn attention to the importance of social capital in adult learning in work published by NCVER.

Resilience

Adult education courses are often characterised by high levels of drop-out or poor attendance or both. This makes it difficult for people – both teachers and learners – to make significant progress, and it certainly pushes up the cost of courses. It also leads to learners being enrolled in the same course, or the same level of qualification over and over. This is wasteful of everyone's time and the taxpayer's money since these courses are almost always publicly funded.

Resilience in learning is a characteristic of behaviour that enables someone to work through adversity, refuse to give up when things get difficult and maintain positivity as a means of taking on challenges. Resilience can be destroyed – the experience of continual failure for which a person begins to blame themselves will destroy resilience. Resilience can also be fostered – when a teacher is able to construct a learning experience at which a learner succeeds and then ensure that the learner can see the success they have had, then that experience contributes to building resilience.

Resilience (in both teachers and learners) is a critical success factor in adult education because the learning is so hard. Learners must persist and get pleasure and reward from doing so. Go to www.nrdc.org.uk to look up their work on 'learner persistence'.

Identity and trust

For learners to persist in learning and be successful they have to be able to trust and bond with the teacher. They have to believe that the teacher respects them as an individual – they also know that, initially, they are not in a strong position to gain respect. In this relationship the learner is the risk-taker, therefore the vulnerable one. Teachers ask new learners to expose how limited their literacy skills are and then ask them to share their humiliating experiences – for the purpose of offering support and finding out what and how they must teach. Teachers are asking for trust without first having a chance to earn it. Perhaps the biggest trust issue is raised when teachers ask learners what their aspirations are.

One of the crucial challenges for a literacy teacher is to understand and remember that the differences between their identities and those of the learners—social, educational, economic—have the potential to disrupt trust by echoing experiences in the wider world, where learners are likely to have been judged and found wanting. Successful teachers understand the complexity of this process, and maintain a heightened sensitivity to it. They gain the trust of their learners – and continue to foster that trust - no matter how relaxed the relationship becomes.

Effective teachers also know that literacy learning can be life-changing, and understand that learners’ lives may change significantly as a result of new skills. New learning may bring about changes to learners’ understanding of themselves and their worlds. Teachers need to be aware and look for opportunities to support learners during these changes, and at the same time develop strategies that deal with shifting group dynamics and capitalise on these to maximise learning experience and opportunities.