How a new name for our field could help us
David J. Rosen
Note: the original version of this article was published on the ProLiteracy website. This version was written in June, 2024.
Do you work for, volunteer, or learn in an education program that has in its name “adult literacy” ? How about “Adult Basic Education (ABE)”, “Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE)” or just “Adult Education” ? If those or other names work for you, no problem; This article’s purpose is not to persuade you to change the name of your program; however, we do have a problem with the name for our field. Current names often confuse teachers, volunteers, program and state administrators, and others in our field. They also confuse legislators and other policy makers and the general public whom we may want to educate about our field, and whose support we need.
Unfortunately, there is no single widely-used name for our field. Some names, for example, “adult literacy,” even within our field have different meanings. In some cases, adult literacy means basic reading and writing instruction; in other cases, it refers to the full spectrum of our field’s services from basic reading and writing, or English for immigrants and refugees, up through adult secondary education. “Adult Education” may be the most confusing to those who are not familiar with our field; they usually assume that this refers to post-secondary education or courses offered by community education centers for personal or professional growth. Some believe that the name “Adult Basic Education” solves that problem; however, within our field this name is used either to describe all the offerings of our field, or sometimes just instruction up to but not including adult secondary education. There are problems, too, with other names we use to describe our field. Having the right name for our field is especially needed for those who are trying to persuade policy makers to increase funding to improve and expand our under-funded, and to most Americans, invisible field.
We need to do many things to change that invisibility. One is to have a single name that distinguishes our field from preK-12 and higher education. It would be impossible in a short name to include the wide scope of activities included our field so, at least in the first few years of using this term, in writing and in presentations, we would also need to include the definition of the name.
The Open Door Collective, of which I am one of three co-founders and am a steering committee member, is a national program of Literacy Minnesota. Its Steering Committee took on the challenge of finding a new name for our field, and of developing and vetting a definition that makes clear what kinds and levels of education services the name includes. The name we chose is Adult Foundational Education and the current definition will be found at https://bit.ly/3LAbx45 .
There is no name for our field that everyone would find ideal, but after several efforts to try this one out in public discussions, it appears to solve several problems. We believe that our efforts have influenced a change in the language used to describe our field that has been proposed for the 2024 reauthorization of the Workforve Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title II, currently named Adult Education and Family Literacy. There are instances in which the language proposed uses the term Adult Foundational Skills.
I hope you will try out Adult Foundational Education in referring to our field - including its definition, to see how it works for you. If those who hear it for the first time ask you what it means, that may be a success as it may open the door for you to explain what our field includes.
If you have thoughts about the new name, or its definition, I would be glad to hear them.
David J. Rosen, in addition to co-founding the Open Door Collective and serving as a member of its steering committee, is also: a ProLiteracy board member; the President of an independent consulting firm, Newsome Associates; the moderator of a national adult foundational education advocacy group, and a co-founder and Steering Committee member of the Urban Alliance for Adult Literacy. You can reach him at djrosen123@gmail.com .