2019 Annual Conference

Adult Basic Education and Literacy Education

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

Immigrant adult learners comprise a significant portion of the learners’ population enrolled in ABE programs. The purpose of the narrative study was to be presented was to understand immigrant ABE learners’ experience in an ABE setting in terms of their stories and the shared themes of their experiences. 

The audience of this presentation may include adult basic educators, adult basic edcuation policy makers, adult basic education scholars,English as Second Language adult educators, adult education proffessionals, adult education scholars with social justice approach to adult education, adult education diversity and inclusion practitioners, and qualitative researchers,  

The participants of this session will be able to,
Identify the learning needs of immigrant adult basic education learners
Describe the significance of learning English for immigrant adult basic education learners
Discuss the effective teaching practices to address immigrant adult basic education learners' needs
Describe an inclusive learning environment that addresses immigrant adult basic education learners' needs

This study explores the experiences of immigrant adult basic education learners' in terms of their eductional processes and learning needs. The significance of this study is how these learners' needs are informed by their life processes in their home countries as well as in the US. The results of the study are discussed and presented through critical theoretical frameworks that contriubutes to a sttuctural understanding of the learners' needs and experiences. This study also looks at the inclusivity of an adult basic education learning environment in terms of addressing the needs of immigrant adult basic education learners and discusses some practical implications to support them. Accordingly, this session comprises both theoretical and practical implications for the participants. Qualitative research is a growing research method in the field of education and the researchers' experience with this method in a formal adult education setting may be a contribution to better reiterating of effectiveness of this methodology in understanding the experiences of adult leareners. 

Having shared the process and findings of the study, the presenters will ask the participants to add their impresstions to the themes of the study, dicussing their rational for such conclusion. The presenters will then ask the participants to discuss the characteristics of an inclusive learning environment that addresses these learenrs' needs in groups. The next activity is a gallary walk through which the participants come up with some teaching strategies to address the learners' needs. The session is concluded with the presenters' recommendations for future research in this area.