across the pond

Are you curious about what's happening in adult literacy research in practice in the British Isles? Do you have some funding for travel? Consider the annual conference of Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL)!

This year's conference will be held at the National University of Ireland in Galway, Ireland, from June 19 - 21.


The theme is "Inclusion and Engagement in Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL". Workshops will focus on the following areas:

• Approaches to teaching and learning that include a range of learners with different interests, aspirations and needs.
• Engaging with new technologies.
• Literacy, language and numeracy practices and engagement in communities
• Policy and practice: the challenges and opportunities for engagement and inclusive learning.
• Inclusive practices in research in literacy, numeracy and ESOL.

If you want to offer an interactive workshop, take part in a panel discussion or present a poster, please send a proposal by March 14 to: kieran.rapal@cgvec.ie.

And if you will miss the event, you can read about it in a future issue of the RaPAL Bulletin.

a literacy journal a little like us

Community Literacy Journal is a peer-reviewed journal from the United States of America. In some ways they seem similar to Literacies and in some ways, quite different.

Click here for a handy-dandy comparison chart.

They are certainly an important, and welcome, participant in the conversation.

Their mission is to "provide a place where community literacy workers and academics can share ideas, learn about activities and projects, discuss theory and practice, and share resources. ..." (read more).

They started in the Fall of 2006. They and publish two times a year. Their newest issue came out on January 25. Here is the Table of Contents:
Programming Family Literacy: Tensions and Directions
Story to Action: A Conversation about Literacy and Organizing
Rhetorical Witnessing: Recognizing Genocide in Guatemala
Rewriting Ideologies of Literacy: A Study of Writing by Newly Literate Adults
Repairing Inmates Through H.O.P.E.: Incarcerated Literacy and the Myth of Progressivism
Slipping Pages through Razor Wire: Literacy Action Projects in Jail

Looks amazing. They do not post their articles online but you can read summaries here. They have made their first issue available as a PDF file.

manitoba initiative

Last fall, the Adult Secondary Education Council (ASEC)Manitoba started publishing a new journal. The inaugural issue of the Journal of Adult Learning in Manitoba features several interesting articles, including:

• a history of adult literacy work in Manitoba
• a practitioner's account of how her classroom has changed since she began approaching literacy as social practice
• an article outlining how instructors can teach chemistry when they work in a site with no lab
• a history of ASEC, which links teachers in adult high schools

The stunning artwork on the cover is by designer Kae Sasaki.

These days, it's rare to get good news about adult literacy work. How inspiring to see this new initiative from Manitoba. Long may JALM prosper!