Updates...

As 2005 comes to a close, I want to connect with you and update you on the work I have been doing over the past year as I continue to focus as much of my time as I can on raising awareness of the impact of violence on learning and developing innovative and holistic approaches to teaching in the face of widespread violence and abuse. I want to ask for your continued support for this work in whatever form is right for you.

I was frustrated recently by the media response when Jacques Demers, a celebrated figure in the hockey world, revealed that he is illiterate saying he believes this to be due to his “high anxiety” because his father abused his mother. Though reporters sounded astonished that he could be illiterate there was no further reference to the role violence might play in contributing to learning problems. Instead an expert was quoted saying that undiagnosed learning disabilities often lead to reading and writing difficulties. The total silence about the impact of violence on learning astounded me. Yet it seemed to sum up my difficulty getting widespread support to address the impacts of violence on learning.

Over the last year and a half I tried to go forward with my dream of moving the issue from the margins to the mainstream so that the impact of violence on learning will no longer be ignored in this way. This year I put much energy into trying to increase funding for this issue, while continuing to network to broaden the community.

Highlights of my work in the past year:

Workshops, presentations and courses:

  • Presentation to adult basic educators in New England: Everyone Can Learn: Changing the ways violence gets in the way of learning
  • Workshop for literacy learners at the WE LEARN Women’s Literacy Networking Conference in Rhode Island. http://www.litwomen.org/welearn.html
  • Three one day workshops for literacy educators across Nova Scotia.
  • Planning for workshops in 2006 for literacy workers in New Brunswick and the North West Territories.
  • Online graduate course Women, Violence, and Literacy: Learning Impacts and Options for OISE/UT with a full class, mostly teachers and school administrators.

Publications

  • Article for an academic journal: Moving beyond stupid: Taking account of the impact of violence on women’s learning. To be published in: International Journal of Educational Development should be on their website soon (It began life as an invited paper for the international seminar on equity for women in adult education: Beyond Access, in England in 2004).
  • Two articles for literacy practitioners to be reprinted in the anniversary book produced by the Change Agent Adult Education for Social Justice: News Issues and Ideas from the New England Literacy Resource Center. Responding to disclosures of abuse in women’s lives: A Guide for teachers of literacy, originally published in 1997, (completely rewritten and updated) and Feeding the whole self in the literacy classroom, originally published in 2002. www.nelrc.org/changeagent/index.htm

Applications for funding

  • Integrating research and practice funded by National Literacy Secretariat, Two year project, beginning January 2006. 12 researchers (including myself) will carry out small research studies to look at how to move learning from my research on violence and learning into practice.
  • Wrote proposals, letters of intent, and inquiries to try to obtain anti-violence, women’s issue, literacy, academic and policy-related grants from foundations, academic research councils, and government departments. Five proposals were rejected.

Networking

  • While looking for funding, collaborated with organizations to sponsor projects, including Parkdale Project Read, the Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy, Education Wife Assault, the Assaulted Women and Children’s Counsellor/Advocate program at George Brown College, Literacy Alberta, and Festival of Literacies of OISE/UT.
  • Looking for individuals to participate in proposed projects, found a wonderful array of enthusiastic people including literacy practitioners, anti-violence activists, women’s studies professors, statisticians, and other researchers, educators, and activists from several different communities
  • Ongoing communication and responses to email and website posts from students and educators
  • Responding to requests for support from women struggling to learn in the face of violence.

Related work

  • Position paper: I Want to Be Free: Older Women’s Right to Live Independently with Dignity on abuse of older women written for Education Wife Assault (available soon through www.womanabuseprevention.com)
  • Co-coordinating a national research project on supports for literacy practitioners to carry out and engage with research (to summer 2006).

Each piece of work during the year led me back to questions about how to reach more educators and students in different settings – literacy programs, schools, colleges, training programs, and universities - how to reach educators and administrators who would never attend a workshop and don’t believe the issue is relevant to their work; questions about how to contribute to more substantial change of educational practice and policy. During this past year I hoped to find the funds to strengthen a network, begin to build an organization, carve out a “space” where understanding of the issues could be deepened. In spite of the valuable connections I made, the time I spent writing unsuccessful funding proposals was enormously disappointing, not only did it fail to get me closer to my dreams, but I also had to leave the work I really believe in, to focus on fundraising in the hopes of strengthening that work. Although I was delighted to discover allies and people who might work with me in this area it was frustrating to be unable to find the funds to follow through and develop these connections.

Now although I am finding it harder to hold onto my dream of creating a virtual centre – one that provides resources for educational administrators, policy makers, community educators, teachers and students; a place where researchers and educators can find others interested in similar questions, design research that reveals the scope and depth of the problem, learn how to re-design educational programming that meets the needs of students who bring experiences with violence to their learning and to their learning environments, I still keep hoping I can find a way to move the dream towards reality.

I visualize a partnership that brings together a team of researchers and educators to collaborate on a website for networking and resources, participatory research projects, curriculum development, and pilot projects to test innovative programming models. I know I will probably need a fairy godmother or a magic wand to begin the process – some seed money that will provide this issue a temporary home. I cannot dip into my savings further to create the time to network and write proposals. I believe this field is at a place now where we need a home to strengthen networks and develop mechanisms that will allow us to influence the educational practices of a broader group of educators – with very little we have accomplished a lot but there is a lot more to be done.

If you have been working in this area over the last year, or reflecting on the issues, if you can think of any way to support the development of my dream of a virtual centre, or have dreams yourself about how to increase awareness and understanding of the issues, I would love to hear about your work, your ideas, and your ways of developing this work further. If you think of any person - or organization - who might support this work please feel free to forward this letter to them, point them to my website (www.jennyhorsman.com), or get them to contact me directly at jenny@jennyhorsman.com or 416-533-8502.

I hope your own work has developed in ways you dreamed over the past year and I wish you a restful and enjoyable holiday season and a new year where you can pursue your dreams.

All the best,

Jenny's signature

Jenny Horsman

 

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