Literacy learning care –
families, care and the state
DR MAGGIE FEELEY
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL JUSTICE
UCD
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Personal research experience
 Community-based women’s sector
 Civic inquiry about educational experiences
 Survivors of institutional abuse – memory work
 Literacy learners: distance, family, work-related
 Young LGBT people and empowerment
 Disadvantaged parents’ views of family literacy
 Adults involved in care work
 Those with lived experience of inequality and the law
 Those working in the area of gender based violence
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Emancipatory goals and processes
 Understanding oppression and tackling it; research as
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praxis
Transformation (radical change) – for individuals; groups;
structures? Including unheard and marginalised voices;
non-exploitative research processes; validating and
checking in an accessible manner
Attending to ethics; how participants are involved in the
research from question to findings and beyond – sharing
control over processes, participation and their words
Research relationships – how equal can they really be?
Costs, boundaries and gains
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Focus on two studies
1 ) A D U LT M E M O R I E S O F C H I L D H O O D L I T E R A C Y
2 ) PA R E N T S ’ V I E W S O F F A M I LY L I T E R A C Y
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Questions about literacy, learning and care
 How might a focus on affective equality help to define
adult literacy needs and practices with educationally
disadvantaged groups in Ireland?
 What causal role do inequalities of love, care and solidarity
have in the educational disadvantage of adults with unmet
literacy needs?
 Do these affective factors explain the different literacy
outcomes for individuals from similar groups?
 How therefore, might recognition of affective inequalities
and an adoption of an ethic of care become
transformational in work with those with unmet literacy
needs in Ireland?
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
A relational method of enquiry
 A study of the role of care in learning literacy
 3-year ethnography
 Adult survivors of institutional abuse in Irish industrial
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schools
Practitioner research (Fowler and Mace, 2005) in
Lighthouse Centre, Dublin
State apology in 1999
Cohesive, supportive community
Opportunity for emancipatory process of reflection
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
A relational method of enquiry contd.
 28 adults aged 40-65 years
 Age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and learning ability
 Met and unmet literacy needs (15 met/ partially
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met/13 unmet)
Observation, accompaniment, semi-structured
interviews
Triangulation – 10 interviews with tutors, counsellors,
legal professionals and Centre staff (Denzin, 1997)
Collective memory (Olick and Robbins, 1998)
Critical case sample (Patton, 1980)
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Institutional ‘care’
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No nurturing adults (abandonment)
Antithesis of affection – harm; abuse
Anti-relational nature of ‘care’
Separation of siblings
Control and production of docile servants and
workers
• Hierarchies of ‘care’ within the institutions
• Children became withdrawn
• Any affective links helped the learning process
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Experiences of schooling
• In school, survivors experienced fear; damaged selfesteem; corporal punishment; tension and
humiliation
• Robotic, adversarial teaching; difference in learning
styles, intelligences not recognised; left-handers
abused
• General disrespect; low value and expectations for
children
• Some lower than others – Travellers; ethnic
minorities; children of unmarried parents; a disability
• Small positive affective differences – a comic; a visit;
a caring ethos in only one primary school
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Anti-solidary learning care
• Co-operation and friendship groups
discouraged or forbidden
• Siblings separated
• Isolation
• Many learned the benefits of solidary
learning in adulthood
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
The state role in literacy and care
• Despite the fact that orphanages were designed
to educate us and protect us from the ills of
society, we received only minimal education and
most of us were illiterate. Lack of education
deeply affected every aspect of our lives, leaving
us unprepared for and fearful of the world
outside the institution (Bernadette Fahy,
1999:54).
• State care-lessness
• State responsibility for governance; fair social
systems that ultimately determine degrees of
learning care
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
AND SUBSEQUENTLY…
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Taking care of family literacy work
 Hegarty, Ann and Maggie Feeley (2010) Taking care
of family literacy work: An enquiry with parents about
their experience of nurturing language and literacy in
the home. Dublin: NALA
 Extended research conversations with 3 groups
Dublin, Midlands, West (20 women and 2 men) using
photovoice (Wang, et al 2000; Luttrell, 2003; 2013)
 To explore with parents their attitudes, perceptions,
knowledge and understanding of family literacy; their
role and engagement; their views of family literacy
programmes
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Defining family …
 …a unit of people bound together by special affective
relationships; these may be multi-generational, historic
and rooted in biological bonds or lifetime commitments of
love, care and solidarity.
 22 parents; one Traveller; two ESL; 2 with addiction
issues; criminal justice system; sexual and domestic
violence; diverse family structures; extensive care roles
 58 children aged between one year and 28 years;
average age 11years; 82% (n=18) had children in
primary sector; 50% (n=11) in first class or below; 2 in
Gaelscoil; 36% (n=8) SLD; ADHD and ritallin
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Photovoice
 Participative action research strategy
 Voicing our individual and collective experience
 Qualitative methodology (Wang and Burris, 1997) –
designed to give voice to those who often go unheard
 Freirean, feminist and egalitarian approach to research
 Photos prompt reflection, narratives, discussion that is
recorded, codified and analysed
 Trust and belief in grassroots wisdom to name and
challenge dominant/dominating structures and prompt
change
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
3 x 2-hour workshops
 Workshop 1 – talking about literacy; reading and
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writing photographs
Workshop 2 – discussing participants’ photos
Workshop 3 – Designing family literacy supports
Follow-up interviews with 5 participants
Feedback sessions
Participants felt affirmed in their role in supporting
family literacy
Heightened ‘noticing’ of literacy events and practices
Increased interest in family literacy programmes
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Family learning
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Literacy and care
 There should be a bit of love has to go in there too.
Actually when I am doing homework with the young
fellow he is kind of sitting up and kind of leaning against
me as if to say – I am well supported here. He feels safe.
So I think love should go in there.( Parent aged 42 with 4
children)
 I have always read to him even when he was a baby. It’s
a comfort thing really. He’d sit in my lap and I’d read to
him or maybe he would be in bed or we’d be sitting
together. Sometimes we do these things but we won’t
think of it as teaching or even as work but I think that
being a mother is one of the hardest jobs in the world.
(Parent aged 32 with 3 children).
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Findings
 All parents want their children to do well
 As a result of structural inequalities, parents are
unequally resourced to do this work
 Parents want to be involved in partnership with schools
but schools vary in the degree to which they view
parents as partners
 Parents enjoy the support of peers and welcome the idea
of family literacy programmes
 Parents want: intensive literacy support; more skills in
supporting children with language and literacy
development and dealing with learning difficulties;
computer skills; support with dealing with bullying and
communicating with the school
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
The pivotal nature of care
 A decisive factor in both projects is the pivotal nature
of affective aspects of learning and how unequally
resourced parents are to do this work
 We need to put learning care on the agenda
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Defining learning care…
Learning care refers specifically to the impact
(giving and receiving) of degrees of care on our
capacity to absorb and retain new knowledge and
skills.
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Four types of learning care (Feeley, 2012; 2014)
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The primary learning care relationships experienced within the
family or alternative primary care centre.
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Secondary learning care relationships in school and adult learning
centres.
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Solidary learning care experienced with peer learners and
communities of interest.
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State learning care describes the attentiveness given by the State to
ensuring structural equality (equality of condition) across all the
contexts that influence family, school and community capacity to
support literacy learning.
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Conceptualising learning care
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie
Conceptualising learning care
maggie.feeley@ucd.ie