WE LEARN 2008 Conference schedule

** in progress -- there will be slight changes as we get closer to the conference **

Margery Freeman (Moderator) has spent over 35 years as an educator and advocate in public schools, early childhood enters, and adult literacy programs. Today she is an antiracist trainer/organizer in New York City.

Stacie Evans has worked in adult education for seventeen years as a teacher and program director in literacy, basic education, GED and ESOL programs. Stacie is a recipient of New York City’s Literacy Recognition Award for outstanding service in the field of adult education.

Tiffany King is a co-founder of Resistahs in Wilmington, Delaware. Resistahs is a community education collective which supports the personal and political development of Black women. Resistahs has collaborated with young women in local high schools, survivors of domestic violence, women in public housing, GED classes and community colleges to develop community education programs. Resistahs community education programs include, “Breakin’ Down bell: The Works of bell hooks” and “Violent Intersections.” Tiffany has also contributed to the anthologies The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex and Letters From Young Activists. Tiffany is currently a Davis-Putter Scholar working to complete her degree in Sociology in Education.

Jamel Walton is a student leader who has organized local literacy committees. She is centrally involved in the fight for adult education in New York City (SALU - Students of Adult Literacy United).

Creating common language about racism = Building a diverse women’s movement (Part 1)

Participants will analyze the power dynamics of our educational institutions to better understand how institutional and cultural racism impacts adult education. We will demonstrate how racial inequities prevent women from organizing together. We will discuss strategies to make us more effective in building a literacy movement.

Margery Freeman has spent over 35 years as an educator and advocate in public schools, early childhood enters, and adult literacy programs. Today she is an antiracist trainer/organizer in New York City.

For Muslim women in Mewat, the literacy rate ranges 1.76 % to 2.13 %, the lowest in India. The research paper will probe the strategies being used by local organisations to address the issue of enhancing women’s participation in development in the context of dissemination of ‘literacy’ as a skill to the Muslim women of the district.

Dr. Rachna Singh: Dr. Rachna Singh has a Ph.D., an M.Phil., an M.Ed. and a B.Ed. in Education from the Department of Education, Delhi University. Dr. Rachna teaches Corporate Social Responsibility at IILM. Her professional interest lies in education for disadvantaged sections of society, communication across cultures, gender issues in management and ICT. She has presented several papers on women’s education at international conferences held in India and abroad. She is a member of Professional Groups such as Comparative Education Society of Asia, Women in Education and Language Learning, Amnesty International, UN-ICT Task Force, Jivika (for livelihood management) and Education – South Asia.

People tell and hear many stories in literacy programs. How can we use stories to understand each other better? Together we will use art to explore this question. Then you will learn about a research project in Toronto that is looking at stories and diversity in adult literacy.

Tannis Atkinson worked in community-based literacy for many years in Toronto. She is now the editor of a journal, Literacies, that connects research and practice. Nadine Sookermany is a community literacy worker with Parkdale Project Read, and teaches in the Community Worker program at George Brown College in Toronto.

This panel/workshop will introduce and promote women’s leadership in the fight to end illiteracy. Presenters will push active organizing through the use of newsletters and examples of lesson content. We will use written and oral student experiences, active dialog and questions and answers to stir discussion and action.

Students of Adult Literacy United (SALU), Brooklyn NY: Paulette Henry, ABE Student &Vice president for Student Committee. Jamel Walton, GED Student & Board of SALU, Workshop Coordinator. Calvin Miles, President of SALU & VALUE Leadership Educator and Organizer. Sri Mostafa, ESOL student and organizer. Also: Shellon Mars & Marcia Delpratt.

Wikis and Listservs in Organizing for Women’s Literacy (Greenberg & Jacobsen)

Participants will get hands on experience on how to participate in the Poverty, Race, Women, and Literacy Discussion List (NIFL) and learn how to work with a wiki – a web page that anybody can contribute to. We will focus on the “Women and Literacy” section of the Adult Literacy Education Wiki. Participants will consider ways to use these tools to create safer, reflective, and comprehensive electronic environments to address “Building Alliances,” especially around gender, race, and class. Participants can add their stories, thoughts and questions and read what other students and teachers have to say.

Daphne Greenberg is the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Adult Literacy at Georgia State University, and the facilitator of the Poverty, Race, Women, and Literacy Discussion List. Erik Jacobson is an assistant professor at Montclair State University. He has worked in adult basic education for more than 15 years as a teacher, researcher, and professional developer.

Often values influence behavior, but often they go unspoken. This workshop will focus on two hands-on activities to introduce values to foster student confidence and interaction. Participants will leave with a sense of how to address a complex topic in a way that meets the language-learning needs of low-intermediate learners.

Hillary Gardner coordinates the English & Civics Program at the Center for Immigrant Education and Training at CUNY, where she has created tools for learning and communication for adult learners.

Creating common language about racism = Building a diverse women’s movement (Part 2)

Negotiating Meaning and Power: Literacy in the lives of women in transition after incarceration

The presentation is about the development of political awareness and the sharing of power amongst a group of women who have recently been released form prison and the women who facilitate the theater group called Theater for Social Change [TSC]. The presentation will focus on the negotiations of meaning and power both in our daily lives and in our meetings.

Limor Pinhasi-Vittorio is an assistant professor of literacy and the coordinator of the graduate program in Lehman College. Her work is focused on various marginalized groups and their literacy abilities. In her work she is using aesthetic education as away to promote critical literacy. Barbara Martinsons has taught in the College Program of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. She is a co-founder of College and Community Fellowship and has been the Assistant Director of the Center for Cultural Studies at the CUNY Graduate School. She currently teaches at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City

In the context of WE LEARN, any pursuit is greatly impacted by a stress-filled lifestyle. If a woman can manage the stress in her life, she can pursue education, career, and community goals with greater ease and with the personal power that comes from taking control of one's life/mind/body. From an alliance-building perspective, women who feel at ease “in their own skin” are more likely to become involved in team/community-oriented environments and movements. This workshop will help participants focus on specific mind-body connection techniques that result in an individual’s healthy physical, emotional, mental, and relational/social outcomes.

Lynn M. Trudeau is a licensed master social worker; she has been working with Incarcerated Education for the past 16 years at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Fultonville NY, 30 miles west of Albany. Lynn currently provides counseling/case management and human development classes at the facility. Lynn is also a watercolor and digital artist and sells her work at shows and on her website www.symphonyofcolor.com.

Landscapes of Difference: Culture, mobility, and learning in the construction of female identity

Immigrants move from one country to another uprooting families for economic, political, religious, and social reasons, often leaving family and history of place behind. Migrants traverse landscapes, continuously on the move, following agricultural growing seasons or housing booms often retracing steps over and over again yet never settling in one place, but many places. A landscape is not a given, a piece of reality that is simply there, but an effort of imagination, an ordering of reality from different angles. This session examines how dimensions of mobility, spatiality and culture influence learning and identity construction of diverse women. How five women experienced the destabilizing effects when the flow of their lives shifted and how they made meaning as they relocated from one place to another are taken into account. It is the internal shift in sense of well being and identity that is often profoundly thrown into question.

Barbara Sparks, Ph.D., is Director of Professional Development at Literacy Assistance Center. Formerly, she served as professor of adult education at North Carolina State University and University of Nebraska specializing in research on poor women’s education and differentiated access to adult literacy by diverse groups based on gender, race, ethnicity, and class.

This session will discuss the development and implementation of “Reading Against the Odds,” a year-long reading discussion group for women literacy students--funded by an American Association of University Women (AAUW) grant-- that supports the critical exploration of literature written by black women.

Jaye Jones, MA, MSW has been an adult literacy volunteer at Literacy Chicago for 3 years. She is currently a PhD student in Social Work at the University of Chicago.

Teaching Advantage for Parents, an integrated approach to workforce and parent needs

An interactive demonstration and discussion of TAP: Teaching Advantage for Parents, a new approach to family literacy tested with 3 adult education agencies in DC. TAP teaches visual literacy strategies to uncover and build on parent strengths toward academic achievement for adults and school readiness for children.

Louise Wiener, founder and chairman of the board of Learning and Leadership in Families is the primary author of TAP: Teaching Advantage for Parents. Imani Owens-Bailey is the director of the Parent Self-Improvement Program, an adult literacy program sponsored by the National Council of Concerned Black Men. She integrated TAP into her program offered in Anacostia in Washington, DC. Lisa Rucker, Supervisor of Adult Literacy programs at Friendship House has serves on the Advisory Board of TAP. TAP was tested in 3 adult education classes at Friendship House.

LGBTQI and the Language of Sexual Diversities: From awareness to action Are lesbian and gay Are lesbian and gay (bisexual/transgender/LGBTIQ) diversities and realities being addressed, silenced, and/or ignored in ABE/ESOL? This interactive discussion will explore how educators understand and address sexuality issues in our programs, and consider connections to social justice education. A glossary of terms and bibliography of research and curriculum-related materials included.

NETWORKING BREAK – time for resource sharing – Open Air – Caucuses, etc.

This conference includes plenty of breaks and times for participants to connect with various individuals and groups, topics and activities. Many of these opportunities will be available throughout the gathering in the WE LEARN Alliances Village (Popo Auditorium).

Additionally, we have scheduled specific activities during this time block.

This group of women will share a collage that illustrates their participation in the center, which shows other women who also participate in its programs and will not be present. They will also read the acrostic with the letters of Jacob Riis that relates to their experience of learning at the center. One or two of them will express, in their own words, what they are doing at the center and what their learning and personal growth experiences have been like, at the center.

El grupo de mujeres mostraran un collage para ilustrar su participación en el centro representando a aquellas otras personas que también asisten y no están presentes. También leerán el acróstico con las siglas de Jacob Riis relacionándolo a su experiencia de aprendizaje en el centro. Una o dos de ellas expresarán en sus propias palabras lo que ellas hacen en este centro y que tal ha sido su experiencia de aprendizaje y desarrollo personal.

Jeanette Soto is 28 years old. She is from Puerto Rico. She is doing her masters in Social Work at Hunter College, and does her supervised practice at the Riis Center. She coordinates the support group and is the person to contact for this activity. Tiene 28 años de edad. Es originaria de Puerto Rico. Esta haciendo su maestría de Trabajo Social en el Colegio Hunter y hace su práctica supervisada en el centro Riis. Dirige el grupo de apoyo y es la persona a contactar para esta actividad.

Antonia Peralta is 58 years old. She is from the Dominican Republic. She attends ESOL classes, conferences, and the support group. Tiene 58 años de edad. Es originaria de República Dominicana. Asiste a las clases de inglés, conferencias y al grupo de apoyo.

Carmen Angeles is 68 years old. She is from the Dominican Republic. She attends ESOL classes, conferences, and the support group. Tiene 68 años de edad. Es originaria de República Dominicana. Asiste a las clases de inglés, conferencias y al grupo de apoyo.

Rosa Vargas is 67 years old. . She is from the Dominican Republic. She attends ESOL classes, conferences, and the support group. Tiene 67 años de edad. Es originaria de República Dominicana. Asiste a las clases de inglés, conferencias y al grupo de apoyo.

Ynes Cabrera she is 55 years old. She is from the Dominican Republic. She attends ESOL classes, conferences, and the support group. Tiene años 55 de edad. Es originaria de República Dominicana. Asiste a las clases de inglés, conferencias y al grupo de apoyo.

Dolly Padilla is 53 years old. She is from Colombia. She attends ESOL classes, conferences, and the support group. Tiene 53 años de edad. Es originaria de Colombia. Asiste a las clases de inglés, conferencias y al grupo de apoyo.

Beatriz Solis is from Colombia. She attends ESOL classes, conferences, and the support group. Es originaria de Colombia. Asiste a las clases de inglés, conferencias y al grupo de apoyo.

Aurora Robles is 68 years old. She is from Ecuador. She attends ESOL classes, conferences, and the support group. Tiene 68 años de edad. Es originaria de Ecuador. Asiste a las clases de inglés, conferencias y al grupo de apoyo.

So many of us are burning the candle at both ends that we are completely stressed out, reaching for artificial stimulants (caffeine, sugar, etc.) to keep us going. This healing activity will teach you how to de-stress anytime and anywhere through conscious breathing (meditation) and movement (chair yoga).

Martha Grier, D.Ay. R.Y.T., of Siura Wellness Group, is a holistic health consultant and yoga teacher who has worked in the wellness industry for over a decade serving primarily women.

Discovering Ourselves (** This activity will be available throughout the conference. **)

Using the template of “I am from…” poems (L.Christensen), participants will write a “historical” poem of their lives related to identity issues and alliances building covered by the conference. Participants will create a collage/portrait of themselves/their past/their dreams using magazines and colored papers and the activity will be posted in such as way as to be a whole conference poem.

Elite Ben-Yosef, Ph.D. teach literacy at Adelphi University and Nassau Community College, Long Island. Teach literacy to adult women in a recovery home (as a volunteer). Hana Confino used to be a teacher. Currently teaches literacy to adult women in a recovery home (as a volunteer).

Gatekeepers: The Role of Adult Education Practitioners and Programs in Social Control

David Green would like to discuss this article he has written with conference participants.

Keynote Address: Meizhu Lui – 5:00 pm

Meizhu Lui is the former Executive Director of United for a Fair Economy, a national non-profit organization that identifies our current economic problem not as poverty per se, but as the growing divide between the very wealthy and the rest of us. Under her leadership, UFE brought public attention to the racial aspect of that divide, and to the negative consequences racial inequality has on our economy as a whole.

She describes herself as a “professional troublemaker!” She became a single mother when her son was 7, and took a food service worker job at Boston City Hospital first out of necessity, but stayed on by choice. She was an AFSCME activist for fifteen years and became the first Asian to become the elected President of a local union in Massachusetts. Her work for racial and gender equality has been recognized by numerous organizations including the Boston Women’s Fund, Rosie's Place (a homeless women's shelter), the Women's Law Caucus of the New England School of Law, the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, the Coalition for Basic Human Needs (welfare issues), the Patriots Trail Girl Scout Council, and was inducted into the YWCA’s Academy of Women Achievers. She is a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization that works for a united left.

She is a Trustee of the Hyams Foundation, and was selected for the 2007 Barr Fellows Program that honors the contributions of the most gifted and experienced leaders in the Boston area. Meizhu served on the Center for American Progress’ National Initiative to End Poverty. Her articles have appeared in the Wealth Inequality Reader, published by Dollars & Sense in 2004, Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and its Poisonous Consequences, The New Press, 2005, and 10 Excellent Reasons to Pay Your Taxes, The New Press, 2008. She is a co-author of The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the US Racial Wealth Divide, The New Press, 2006.

Stacie Evans (Moderator) has worked in adult education for seventeen years as a teacher and program director in literacy, basic education, GED and ESOL programs. Stacie is a recipient of New York City’s Literacy Recognition Award for outstanding service in the field of adult education.

Representatives (2) from CIF: Center for Immigrant Families (CIF) is a collectively-run organization of low-income immigrant women of color and community members in Manhattan Valley (Uptown NYC). Committed to a holistic vision of organizing, our stories and lived experiences are central to building a community that works towards social transformation and promotes justice, mutuality, love, trust, and dignity.

Nadine Sookermany is a community literacy worker with Parkdale Project Read in Toronto, a community-based program that approaches literacy from a holistic, critical and social perspective. She is also actively involved with the Toronto School Board as a member of its Equity Policy Advisory Committee and with various committees and research in the literacy field.

Women’s Ways of Doing: A Kaleidoscope of Best Practices in Education for Disfranchised Populations in Chicago’s Inner-City Communities – Part 1 – (2 session workshop)

Chicago is a confederation of neighborhoods and the boundaries that segregate its poor and disfranchised communities are drawn by color and ethnicity. Chicago also has a rich history of development and social change by means of education. For several centuries, Chicago’s varied communities of the enslaved, refugees, and immigrants have birthed movements and models that led to self-determination. The work continues. This group of Chicago women educators and CBO leaders will present an in-depth view into practices of education that are grounded in liberatory education, critical race theory, and Christian values. Set in Chicago’s Black, Latino, and Immigrant communities, several projects will be chronicled with words, music, pictures, and other artifacts to evidence and analyze the deep, engaged, and authentic learning each of the women has gained. Most importantly, discussion will be facilitated and sources and practices shared with the hope that participants of this workshop will emerge inspired, invigorated, validated, and with a few more tools in hand – so needed for doing our work “the women’s way.”

Dr Gabriele Strohschen is mentor and resident faculty member at the School for New Learning - DePaul University in Chicago. She has mentored the first cohort of the new M.A. in Educating Adults at DePaul in creating a community of practice during their studies. Gabriele worked in community organizing in Chicago for 20 years prior to working in academia. The graduating students and Gabriele will present this seminar. Tracy Seager-Huber worked as a training specialist in the finance industry. Her background includes performance consulting, instructional design, and interpersonal skills training. Tracy has her undergraduate degree in elementary education from the University of Arizona and is completing her MA. In Educating Adults at DePaul University. She is married, has one daughter, and currently is a stay-at-home mom. Deborah Benford is a leader at the Roseland Ministries organization on the SouthSide of Chicago. She coordinates activities for the transitional shelter for woman and provides other human care services to women, their children, and drop ins at the shelter. Deborah has a degree in the arts and is completing her studies at the School for New Learning in the M.A. in Educating Adults. Gloria Andrews works with CNA Company in Chicago. She provides personal and professional development coaching services as a volunteer in Chicago's disfranchised communities. She also teaches GED in a church-based setting. Goria is completing her M.A. in Educating Adults at the School for New Learning. Carol Kranpitz is a workforce development consultant in the greater Metropolitan Chicago area and focuses on career readiness services for non-traditional women and teenage mothers. She is completing her M.A. in Educating Adults at the School for New Learning. Kate Donovan is a self-employed real estate agent in Chicago's suburb. Her passion has found her teaching ESL in Chicago's and suburban disfranchised Latino communities. Kate is completing her M.A. in Educating Adults at the School for New Learning. Olivia Flores-Godinez is the Executive Director of Universidad Popular. She has worked for two decades in Chicago's Latino communities and mentors young adult educators. UP is a Freirean-based CBO in the heart of Chicago's Lower WestSide.

In this presentation we will describe a partnership between a community-based literacy center for women and a local university. Presenters include a member of the literacy center’s staff, a university faculty member, and two university students. The presentation will address key questions for community/university partnerships.

Betsy A. Bowen is Professor of English at Fairfield University, where she teaches courses in writing and literacy. She has served as a tutor at Mercy Learning Center in Bridgeport, CT. Sharon Sanford is Mercy Learning Center's Student Enrichment Coordinator. Formerly an ESL tutor, she is now responsible for developing supplementary programs to enhance the Center's literacy program through the use of volunteers. Christopher Bernard is a sophomore at Fairfield University from Lanesboro, Massachusetts. Tamika Dickens is a sophomore at Fairfield University, majoring in Biology/Pre-med. Her plans after college include further research in the medical field and the intent to go to go to medical school.

This interactive workshop will introduce and model a process of participatory action research that can be implemented in or outside of the ABE or ESOL classroom. Participatory action research brings students and teachers together to learn about issues that are of import to them; these might include women and HIV, neighborhood violence, children’s health, or local elections. The possibilities are endless! Workshop participants will learn about the principles and practices of participatory action research and will have the opportunity to act as researchers in an abbreviated version of the process.

Julieann Rapoport and Joanie Cohen-Mitchell, (The Community Consulting Initiative) have over 40 years of combined experience working in community-based educational settings overseas as well as in the U.S. They share the belief that participatory practices are essential to individual empowerment and the fostering of democratic communities. To that end, they have worked together to develop inclusive approaches and methods in literacy programming, organizational capacity-building, and evaluation.

The students in the college program at Bedford Hills are using writing successfully to develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their society--the society from which they came and the prison society. And they are using writing successful-ry to prepare for their lives after release.

Jane Maher has been teaching composition for 30 years. She is the author of four biographies, including the life of Mina P. Shaughnessy, a pioneer of open admissions at CUNY, and William P. Stokoe, the father of American Sign Language Linguistics. Sharon White & Cheryly (Missy) Wilkins.

Unbound: Teenage girls reconstructing “womanhood” through collaborative playmaking

viBe Theater Experience develops creative literacy skills and builds community by engaging NYC teenage girls in a playmaking/performance process that involves adult women in their lives. This workshop shares some of the ensemble’s creative writing and theater techniques, and examines how this process reconstructs meanings of “girlhood” and “womanhood” across generations.

Dana Edell is the Co-Founder/Executive Director of viBe Theater Experience. She has directed professionally throughout the country, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Theatre at NYU. Heather Stickeler is a Ph.D. Candidate in Theatre for Youth at Arizona State University, who participated with viBe as a researcher in 2006.

This interactive workshop is an opportunity to explore our challenging relationships. Through sharing and body sculpture, we will increase our awareness of the patterns we have around the people that ‘push our buttons.’ Then, we’ll role-play to try new approaches in dealing with the difficult people in our lives.

Cheryl Reid has been working in Ontario in adult literacy since 1992. She presented at last year’s WE LEARN conference. WE LEARN Member, Community Literacy of Ontario Executive Board Member, Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy Member, Ontario Literacy Coalition Member and Festival of Literacies participant.

Continuations of caucus group discussions from annual meeting for those who want to remain engaged with them.

Women’s Ways of Doing: A Kaleidoscope of Best Practices in Education for Disfranchised Populations in Chicago’s Inner-City Communities – Part 2

This workshop presents techniques for using powerful songs to stimulate discussion and language learning. In-depth study of music and lyrics promotes understanding of and respect for culture, developing comprehension of vocabulary and idiomatic speech and honing critical thinking skills while teaching social justice and empowering women.

Elise Klein is president and founder of Teachers Against Prejudice and is the past chair of the Caucus Leadership Council of International TESOL. Ms. Klein develops and delivers workshops and keynotes throughout the world and is committed to equity and social justice for all.

Using stories of three women from The Open Book (a former CBO in Brooklyn, NY) this presentation will explore rationales for growing/nurturing/sustaining women’s spaces/places as well as some of the struggles involved in protecting those spaces/places.

Dianne Ramdeholl has been an adult literacy practitioner/staff developer for over 15 years. I just graduated with my doctorate in adult education from National Louis University this past June.

This workshop will be an opportunity to explore teaching with socially relevant content, to see some lessons modeled, and to consider strategies for developing integrated lessons from a wide array of timely source materials. Participants will receive two recent issues of The Change Agent.

Cynthia Peters is the editor of The Change Agent, an anti-war and community activist in Boston, and a former teacher in a union-based adult education program.

Women Supporting Women: Proposal Development Strategies for Women-Focused Programs

Come learn how to develop grant proposals and build community collaborations for your women centered programs. Walk away with a CD Rom filled with sample grant proposals, sample partnership agreements and listings of grant opportunities for women-focused programs.

Janell NaKia Irving received a Master of Arts degree in English from Purdue University Calumet and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration. For her dissertation, she is studying domestic violence issues and their relation to homelessness with the ultimate goal of developing control systems that will enhance the quality of community support for victims of violence. Ms. Irving recently published, Swimming Above the Turbulence: Self-Esteem Building for the Woman of God, a biography of her own struggles with low self-esteem and domestic violence. Irving is the Grants Writer for Purdue University North Central and has helped to generate 2 million dollars in grant funds.

For more information contact:
Contact Mev Miller, Director
welearn@litwomen.org or 401-383-4374

5th Annual WE LEARN (Net)Working
Gathering & Conference on Women and Literacy

March 7-8, 2008

Schedule **

5th Annual WE LEARN (Net)Working Gathering & Conference on Women and Literacy

March 7-8, 2008

Schedule **

5th Annual WE LEARN (Net)Working
Gathering & Conference on Women and Literacy