Atelier Grundtvig

The general aim of the workshop is to improve the lives of adult learners, especially those belonging to social and economic disadvantaged groups that are affected also by literacy issues; the main leverage in doing that is to provide a platform of relating and supporting them in deconstructing self-limiting and self-defeating descriptions of self (problem saturated stories about themselves) and in developing the agency to embrace further adult education.

The practical way to reach this overall goal is to invite to the interactive workshop adult educators (teachers, coaches, and counsellors, other professionals) to exercise narrative and dialogical open ways of positioning and relating.

Narrative approaches and open dialogues are practical approaches that have roots in different geographical source – Australia for narrative approaches and Northern Europe for open dialogues – but they are recently connected in emphasizing the disconnecting processes that abound in professional services and in human connections without reflective surfaces and practices. Some of the narrative approach and dialogical practices will be provided as narrative competencies to the participants especially linked to the relationship with the literacy issues.

From a functional literacy perspective the innovative aspect of the workshops relates to its focus on dialogue systems and interactive conversations related to literacy.

Literacy is “a life skill and the primary learning tool for personal and community development and self-sufficiency . . . . Literacy is now seen as the foundation for life skills ranging from basic oral and written communication to the ability to solve complex scientific and social problems . . . . The new definition makes it clear that literacy is the primary enabling force for all further education. It is a uniquely effective tool for further learning for accessing and processing information, for creating new knowledge, and for participating in one’s own culture and the emerging world culture.” (Inter-agency Commission, 1989).

From this very broad perspective, narrative and open dialogue approaches are tackling the very core of personal expression an identity-development and re-engagement with life.

This workshop will give you:
 understanding of the modern power/social discourses action especially in limiting the socio-economically disadvantaged adult learners with literacy issues;
 opportunity to exercise deconstructing conversations which work against totalizing practices and against self-limiting beliefs;
 participation in an open space for asserting agency towards further education;
 expanding the toolkit of open space/open dialogue, networking and support groups in the work with adult learners with literacy issues;
 an opportunity to share and contribute to a community of expertise regarding effectiveness of the methods practiced related to working with adults with literacy issues;
 a personal and group opportunity to reflect and share on the own personal and professional development in working with adults with literacy issues;
 the development of a practice of continuous reflection that will continue at home on personal and professional development to support adaptation of working with adults with literacy issues in connection to colleagues from other European regions/countries.