Scope of the problem
Anecdotal evidence
I used to teach a class for welfare women, 98% of whom had either
been in abusive relationships and gotten out, or were still in them.
The figures for the women in my class that had come from a background
of childhood violence or abuse were horrifying - 100% (there were 20
women in my class).
In literacy, the dominant discourses limit recognition of the extent
of violence and the effects of violence on learning. The impact of violence
is traditionally seen as separate from education, and viewed as a matter
for therapeutic interventions. As a result, though many literacy workers
hear repeated accounts from students of current or past violence, there
are few venues to talk about these issues and how best to respond. Although
little is written or spoken about the links between violence and literacy,
anecdotal accounts of literacy workers suggest that frequently all, or
most, students in a class have experienced sexual or physical abuse as
children and many have continued to experience violence as adults.
It is particularly important to look at the impact of violence on learning
in the area of literacy. This is not simply because there may be extremely
large numbers of adult literacy learners who have experienced trauma, but
also because literacy learning is likely to work as a strong trigger
for memories
of violence. Literacy learners who have experienced violence in childhood,
in the home or at school, can find that the horrors of their childhood are
brought back to the present when they return to the classroom and try to
improve their reading - something they first learnt in childhood. Literacy
learning
may be the first return to a school-like situation for many learners, and
that, in itself, may be terrifying and lead to panic. As well as the
direct impact
on attempts to learn, literacy workers and counsellors talked about the importance
of recognizing self-inflicted violence, threats of suicide, and suicide attempts
as legacies of childhood violence which may be firmly intertwined with the
terror of attempting to learn and change as an adult.
Literacy, But Not Only Literacy...
Although literacy learning is an acute example of problems that occur
whenever people try to learn and teach, it is not the only learning
where the experience
of violence creates an impact. During an online seminar, Mary J. Breen
described the demands:
...all teachers deal with violence in their work because violence
is an issue for everyone in this culture. For many people, a teacher
is
the only outside person they can talk with. I think of a good friend
of mine who teaches in a community college. In any typical week, he
hears stories... My reason for stressing [this] is that I often hear
people
speak of the poor in terms of the violent, disruptive lives they lead
- as if domestic assault and sexual abuse were issues only pertinent
to “them” not “us”...
Unless the everyday presence of violence is acknowledged, teachers can
only question how to teach and respond adequately, as a university professor
explained:
What happens usually is that students will come and talk to me, so there's
usually an increase in disclosures after a classroom discussion or lecture
dealing with a topic such as colonization, structural violence, patriarchy
etc. I'm not a counsellor. I can listen and I can suggest where people
can go for help, but beyond that I can't counsel. I often end up wondering
how I can best deal with this.
Not all instructors will experience disclosures in this way. Many may
not be perceived as trustworthy or approachable and may never know why
students do poorly in their course, leave a class with no explanation,
miss classes frequently, or drop out entirely. One college librarian
spoke of numerous students who tell her their stories when they retreat
to the library fleeing a class that disturbs them and leaves them unable
to stay. Another online participant, Kathryn Alexander, a university
tutor, explained:
I feel that the trajectory of violence and literacy has been a
theme in many students’ lives - even if they are able to succeed
and go on to university - it still affects them - mainly I have heard
and
experienced stories from women who are searching for means to make
sense of their experience of abuse and survival in their own education
- choosing
certain areas for study - and then struggling with the institutional
structures that may in fact mirror back the violence/disrespect/control/
or discrimination they have survived.
Unless education at all levels acknowledges the violence in the lives
of women and children and its impact on learning, many students will
not only fail to learn, but may also experience the educational setting
as a silencing place, or another site of violence, where they are controlled,
diminished and shamed by institutional structures or classroom interactions.
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