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Listening to Learners: Consultation with Learners about Adult Literacy Education in Scotland

3 Accessing learning opportunities

To be able to access learning opportunities one has to know what is available (information) and be able to enrol (overcome the barriers). Both aspects of access seem quite limited among the learners and non-participants we talked to. Even though the learners had actually accessed a course, they had limited information about their range of options, and faced ongoing barriers to their participation.

a) Getting information

Most of the focus group participants have very limited information about their learning options. This was true both for ALN and other adult learners, as well as the non-participants. Many of the people on courses found their way there through family or friends, or by referrals. They have very shallow information maps of their adult education opportunities. They know about the programme they are in, and usually the local college, but they know little about other learning opportunities near their homes. Non-participants had similar limited information about learning options. Most of them felt that what they knew about was not sufficiently local, not accessible, and/or not offering topics that would interest them. While they expressed an interest in learning they had no specifics in mind.

The main routes for getting information on courses taken by the learners we talked were:

• Personal networks - used by the great majority of learners. These include especially friends and family members, but also groups they are involved in (mother and baby club, toddler group, family centre).
• Referrals - also used by a substantial number of learners. These include social workers and care workers, health visitors and occupational therapists, employers and union (UNISON), other courses, but most of all the Job Centre or 'buroo'. However, in one area people said no-one would ever go and ask at the Job Centre - 'the Job Centre has got a terrible reputation round the work, nobody in their right mind will go to ask them for information, because you're not treated nice.' [Highlands, Other Adult Learner]
• Self-directed by investigating a range of information sources - used by a smaller number of learners, and more especially other learners than ALN learners. Resources used include ads in newspapers and television (several mentions of LearnDirect), leaflets brought home by children from school, going directly to the local college and asking about courses. However, one person had phoned LearnDirect to ask about German courses in her area and was told to look in her local paper - so she did not think they would be helpful to people wanting literacy classes. Libraries were mentioned by several people, but in most cases they had only discovered the library as an information source through their class, and they noted there are so many brochures at the library that it's confusing.

b) Barriers to access

Adult learners face barriers to entering learning - that much is well known. What is striking in the focus group discussions is how the barriers are not simply overcome once on the way into a class, but are faced again and again. Barriers have to be constantly overcome - a crèche may be offered but what about childcare for studying time, or visiting a library to prepare a project? A course may be free but what about bus fares to get there? Confidence may be building, but ALN learners may still not be ready to take the next step for a range of reasons.

The focus group participants spoke about many barriers that get in the way of their learning, for themselves and for others they know:

• Embarrassment about others knowing that one has difficulty with reading and writing - 'When I first came here I was so embarrassed at the thought of sitting with my tutor and somebody coming in and seeing me with her. Now it doesn't bother me, I've got over that.' [Highlands, ALN Learner]
  For others the stigma is still there, and they are not yet ready to tell other people about it.
• Not knowing what is available, and not having the confidence to ask. Many people said others just do not know what is available and do not have sources they can ask. 'If there was some sort of group set up to help people get back into education and get advice from to help you on the way. Because it's really hard doing things by yourself.' [Aberdeen, Other Adult Learner]
• Not being able to cope -'They don't have the courage to just come into it and see what it's like ... they have the feeling that it is something they couldn't cope with.' [Fife, Other Adult Learner].
• Childcare - for parents (especially single parents) with young children, learning can only be accessed if childcare is provided. And even if there is a créche during class time, these people have difficulty in getting studying done outside of class time because of the demands of family life. It can be 9 pm before they can open their books to study, once the children are in bed and the chores done.
• Costs - not only for the course itself, but also for transport, childcare, and (for the vocational courses that offer intensive preparation for work) the need to generate income to maintain the family. One learner said that there was support for the unemployed and for single mothers, but not for her, a married woman with children, who could nevertheless not afford course fees.
• Time - for people who are working it is finding a class that they can fit in with work schedules, for mothers it is finding a class that can be accommodated with children's needs, for some it is not wanting to take a bus somewhere at night. Others felt that the college courses they knew about were too big a commitment of time -- they would have to go full time, or several days a week, or commit themselves for a whole year. What they wanted instead was something short, flexible and accessible that could lead to something else.

Fear: Perhaps the biggest barrier to learning is fear. The adults in literacy and numeracy classes talked about having 'butterflies in my stomach', a 'sore stomach', bursting into tears in the first class. They talked about their fear of walking in the door. Their fears are of two main forms (which often come together): fear of the unknown, and fear of what others will think.

Fear of the unknown is common to other adult learners too - the focus group participants in other programmes talked about wondering if they would be able to do the work, anxiety about having to write or speak in front of a group. Some of the Return to Learn participants talked about how hard their first day was - confronted with a lot of paperwork, a book, having to answer the tutor's questions. 'I think maybe when we came we got the book handed to us and we read what we had to do. I think that was quite frightening right from the start. I know folks that I worked with thought I'll never be able to do that and they just didn't bother coming back.' [Fife, Other Adult Learner]

Most of the learners didn't know the people in their class beforehand, and this made them shy. One class in a focus group had several people who had known each other before and they talked about how this had made it easier for them.

ALN learners in particular had another kind of fear to overcome - fear of what other people will think. They are conscious of the stigma attached to literacy learning, and worry that 'people will think I'm stupid'. 'When I first started I was as nervous as a wreck and I knew what I had and I felt ashamed at the time.' [Glasgow, ALN Learner]

'I think some of them don't want to come because they are ashamed of not being able to do it, they think it's a stigma on them.'

'I think they are scared in case people think they are stupid or something.' [Fife, ALN Learners]

Asked whether they knew someone who might be interested in a course but didn't want to come along, focus group participants mostly did know such people. In some cases they did not know what was available. In other cases they did not feel it was for them:

'I do know a couple of people that I have mentioned it to, and one person said they thought it was actually for people who were illiterate, and there was another girl who thought it was all going to be too advanced for her and she couldn't cope with it. So maybe a wee bit more information on the level that you are working at.' [Glasgow, Other Adult Learner]

Attitudes: Accessing learning is about attitudes as well as information. One other learner described telling his oldest son about starting the course:

'He smiled. I said what are you smiling for? He said what are you doing that for, you've been through all that, why are you doing that? His attitude seems to be that he's been through school, he's now an adult, he's done enough, he's got a job and he doesn't need to do anything else. I said, well, it's always good to go and try and learn something new, son, I'd rather do that than sit and watch the TV. But his attitude was amusement.' [Glasgow, Other Adult Learner]

Behind some of the barriers lie cultural attitudes towards learning that are slow to change. People who didn't do well in school are regarded as 'thick'. People think once you're through with school why go back? Studying is seen as too difficult, and not for people like me. These attitudes do change and can change, but only slowly. In their recommendations, learners suggested more could be done to change the culture of learning.

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