Africa
Development, Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, 2012, pp. 69 – 86
© Council
for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2012
(ISSN 0850-3907)
Parents’
Engagement in Adult Literacy and its Impact on their Children’s Schooling
Efua Irene Amenyah*
Abstract
This study
examined the positive impact of adults’ engagement in literacy classes and its
relation to the retention and performance of their children’s schooling. It was
hypothesized that adults who are pursuing personal goals by engaging and attending
literacy classes when perceiving the instrumentality value of the learning
activities have their children attend and succeed at their schooling. A mixed
research methodology combining qualitative and quantitative approaches was used
to collect and analyse data. Respondents included 132 adult learners and 20
volunteer teachers from ten different adult literacy classes across Togo.
Results have shown that adults who engaged in learning and performed and
persevered while attending literacy classes, show positive behaviours to their
children and consequently were able to be involved in their children’s
schooling by encouraging them to learn for better achievement and performance
in school.
Key Words: Adult Literacy; Performance and Perseverance;
Education role models.
Résumé
Cette étude
analyse les effets positifs de l’engagement des adultes dans les cours
d’alphabétisation et son impact sur le maintien et la performance de leurs
enfants à l’école. Le postulat est que lorsque qu’ils prennent toute la mesure
de la valeur des activités d’apprentissage, les adultes -poursuivant des
objectifs personnels à travers leur engagement et la fréquentation des cours
d’alphabétisation- voient leurs enfants fréquenter régulièrement l’école et
réussir. Les données ont été collectées et analysées selon une méthodologie
mixte de recherche combinant approches qualitative et quantitative. Ont été
interrogés 132 apprenants adultes et 20 enseignants volontaires empruntés à dix
différents cours d’alphabétisation pour adultes à travers le Togo. Les
conclusions ont permis d’établir que les adultes engagés dans un apprentissage,
performants et persévérants pendant les cours avaient un comportement positif à
l’égard de leurs enfants et étaient donc aptes à s’impliquer dans la scolarisation
de leurs enfants en les encourageant à apprendre à faire mieux et plus à
l’école.
*
National School of Specialized Social Workers (ENTSS), Dakar, Senegal. Email:
efuanam@yahoo.com
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Introduction
A major change in
educational settings is the increasing number of adults enrolling as students
in educational programmes (Bourgeois 1996; Carré 1997; 1998) and in literacy
classes (Thomas 1990; Comings 1995). In recent years, many African countries
have also registered many adults as students in literacy classes, particularly
adult women (Amenyah 2005; 2011).
According to Comings and
colleagues (2000), adults choose to participate in education-based activities
by making an active decision to engage and to learn. Paraphrasing Brookfield
(1986) about purposeful learning in adult educational settings, it can be seen
that adults make an active decision regarding their perspective to overcome
significant barriers as parents to attend classes that require hundreds of
hours of learning in order to acquire knowledge and skills.
Different studies based on adult
education have shown that adults engage in education for the sake of learning
(Balleux 2000; Villemagne 2011) but many do not persist while attending classes
(Gartner 2005; Amenyah et al., 2010). Other studies have shown that adults
engage in learning with personal goals (Bourgeois 1998; 2009), because they
have perceived the value of learning activities (Eccles and Wigfield 2002;
Phalet et al., 2004) and they have tried to determine their outcomes or
benefits and performance to themselves and their families. So, when adults
students decide to attend classes and persevere in learning, it is because of
the value related to its impact (Monnoye 2007).
The present study explores the relation between adults’
engagement in literacy classes and its impact on their children’s retention and
performance in school. We postulate that when adult students, exclusively
women, engage in literacy classes because of their perceived utility value,
their behaviours serve and encourage their children to perform and succeed at
school.
Engagement in Learning
Regarding the
Expectancy-Value model, Eccles and Wigfield (2002) indicate that individuals
engage in learning activities because they have perceived the value of the task
and believed in their chance to succeed (expectancy). The value construct
refers to the beliefs individuals have about reasons they might have to engage
in the task and it includes mainly four components: importance, interest,
utility and cost. The expectancy construct reflects individuals’ beliefs and
judgments about their capabilities to do the task and to succeed. Both, value
and expectancy are seen as important predictors for individuals’ future choice
behaviour as: engagement, persistence, effort and achievement when considering
their motivation to engage in learning (Pintrich
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and Schunk 2002).
In learning situations, choice, behaviour and persistence are seen as
successful patterns and positive predictors to succeed (Feather 1982; Eccles et
al., 1983; Dweck and Leggett 1988) and to achieve learning (Pintrich and De
Groot 1990; Guan 2004).
Research based on
Expectancy-Value model indicates that individuals engage in learning because of
they have perceived the value of the learning task and believed they can
succeed (Feather 1982; Eccles et al., 1998). In this regard, individuals refer
to a question like ‘why should I do the activity?’, and responses include
interest (I am interested in the activity), importance (the activity will help
me to improve my self-image), utility beliefs (this topic is useful for my
future or my different various activities) and cost (if I take this class, I
will not be able to go to farm or sell my products). According to authors, importance,
interest and utility are perceived to correlate positively with engagement,
performance, persistence and effort; while cost is seen as the negative
component (Wigfield and Eccles 1992; Pintrich and Schunk 2002). When
considering importance, interest and utility of an activity, learners are
confident that they can and will do well while engaging and persevering for
achievement (Simons et al., 2004).
For many adult students who
attend literacy classes, the first purpose they pursue while they engage in
learning is to succeed in their economic activities in order to satisfy their
primary family needs. In this perspective, there were many who choose to learn
to write and to calculate as these two instrumental learning outcomes can help
them in their daily activities. When adults decide to enrol in literacy
classes, their first option is not to support their children in their schooling
but this only comes later as a consequence of the learning content and beliefs.
According to Lens (2001),
learning, performing and achieving in school, in educational programmes or
elsewhere, are all intentional and goal-oriented activities. This
intentionality can vary from the very simple (one single goal) to the very
complex (multiple goals). For example, children or adults in learning have
many, multiple or varied reasons to engage in a task while for the author, the
individual goals that are striven for and which determine learners’ motivation
can be situated on two dimensions: intrinsic versus extrinsic goals and immediate
versus future goals. The total motivation to learn is the combination of
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and immediate and future time perspectives.
In literacy classes, adult
learners were intrinsically motivated when they engaged in learning but they
were more extrinsically motivated because the learning activities were done for
the sake of the outcomes or other rewards that could be used for other
different activities as their income-based activities that greatly contributed
to sustaining their family needs.
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Engagement in Literacy Classes
In literacy
classes, adult students choose to engage in learning because they have
perceived the value of the learning task and expected to succeed (Phalet et
al., 2004) and because they were extrinsically motivated (Porter et al., 2005).
Adults who attended literacy classes have not engaged because they were only
motivated to learn (Vallerand and Thill 1993; Viau 1994) but because they have
perceived that learning activities are significantly useful accomplishments in
their own standing. In many African countries, literacy classes are generally
associated or coupled to small credits that many adults can benefit from to
increase their economic activities when they are invited to attend classes.
This strategy has been set up to assist local community adults in which
learning activities’ perceived value is related only to its instrumentality or
utility value. Recent research has, however, shown that perceiving the value of
learning in literacy classes implies judgments on importance, interest and
utility as adult learners are motivated by personal and extrinsic goals for
engaging in learning and also their looking forward to possible outcomes to be
earned (Simons et al., 2004; Stamler 2007).
After all, many adult learners
(if not all) engage and participate in literacy classes with different and
multiple goals (Sansone and Harackiewicz 2000). It is not because adults are
extrinsically motivated that they choose to engage and participate in learning
whose outcomes are seen as advantageous to their future careers or their other
current activities (Carré 2001).
The objective of literacy classes is to teach adults to
learn to write, to read and to calculate in their local language and also to
acquire ‘skill-based learning’. Through the new development, literacy classes
are organized to target local populations in their communities and classes have
to be available and reachable (Unesco 2006). Thus, classes are organized in
market places in urban areas and community centres in rural areas to facilitate
access (Amenyah 2005).
Instrumentality Value of Literacy Classes
For many adult
students, engaging in literacy classes means to learn to write, to read and to
calculate with the perspective to succeed on their economic activities (Vella
2002; Comings 2007). For many adult learners, engaging in literacy classes
means to benefit from the loan that is needed for their economic activities’
success. The focus while performing learning activities which are supported by
their personal goals is their family basic needs. But it seems that adult
learners who are extrinsically motivated are exploring other different aspects
of the learning activities that can help with special outcomes and benefits for
themselves and also their family (Bourgeois
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2006,; 2009; Bourdon 2010). In this view,
Aubret (2001) assumes that when adult learners engage in learning activities,
they perceived learning in the perspective of their career, their relation to
themselves and to others. How then do adult learners’ own attitudes towards
learning and persistence in school influence their own children’s education?
Certainly, adult learners’ primary choice is related to their work and also
their relation to others importantly their children.
Children’s Retention and Performance in School
In the past
decades when adults engaged in literacy classes, their personal goals were
oriented to instrumental learning and importantly to writing and calculating
learning. But once they persevere on learning and engage in skillsbased learning
activities that are taught, the goals they pursue change in direction and
intensity as their learning progresses. With skills-based learning activities,
they are able to explore new relations with their children.
In recent research, psychologists
and sociologists have been interested in parental expectations about their
children’s achievement in school and their future occupational attainment
(Salkind 2008). Most research tends to characterize parent expectations as
realistic beliefs and judgements that they have about their children’s future
achievement. Surely, every parent has the same concern and illiterate parents
attending literacy classes too have concerns about their children’s retention
and performance in school. Some empirical studies have also shown relations
between parental expectations and student achievement. It is important to note
that once parents have started to learn in literacy classes, they understand
that they can relate their learning achievement to other goals that are not
identified while engaging in learning.
In that regard, parents who hold
high expectations for their children’s performance in school or grades on
examinations, their children tend to subsequently receive higher grades,
achieve higher scores on standardized tests, hold higher aspirations for their
future educational and occupational attainment and persist in their schooling
(Boekaerts et al., 2000). At the same time, when adult parents are succeeding
in their own learning, they are able to ascertain their children’s learning and
performance in school.
With literacy classes, parents
too have expectations for their children’s achievement in school and future
occupational attainment, but most of them are illiterate and unable to follow
subsequently their children’s progression or improvement during their
schooling. In recent research, Robinson-Pant (2004) concludes that illiterate
women are likely to send their children to school as literacy programmes are
designed to address the perspective.
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Other field
research investigates the positive aspect of the persistence in learning (Lebel
et al., 2007) and demonstrate that when adults persevere in literacy classes,
benefits and skills acquired are directly oriented to their children’s
retention and performance in school.
In summary, adult learners engaged in learning in literacy
classes with personal goals. With learning progression, they too will have
expectations for their children’s educational achievement in school. To attain
their objective, they have to strive to achieve all learning activities that
were taught in classes and to persevere while performing learning activities
and persevere while attending classes and try to behave in a way that
encourages children in their own schooling. By doing so, adult learners relate
their own learning achievement to their children’s learning retention and
performance in school and they try to behave in ways that encourage the
children in their schooling because their own attendance serves as model and
example. To understand the relation between adult learners’ engagement in
literacy classes and its impact on their children’s retention and performance
in school, field research was conducted during April/May 2008 and used a mixed
methodology to collect data.
Methods
To understand the
positive relation between adult learners’ engagement in literacy classes and
its diverse impact on children’s children retention and performance in school a
mixed methodology combining quantitative and qualitative approaches was used to
collect and analyse data. The positive aspect of the methodology used was to
cross-analyse data collected in order to appreciate their relevance and
effectiveness. Respondents included adult learners, volunteer teachers and
their supervisors from 10 literacy classes reached across Togo, in West Africa.
Descriptive and correlation analyses were used for quantitative data while
in-depth analysis presented in form of monographs, was used to analyse
qualitative data.
The sample distribution (see
Appendix 1) covered the 10 literacy classes and it comprised 152 respondents of
which 132 were learners, exclusively women. Ninety-seven learners were from
rural areas and 35 were reached in urban areas. On the whole, there were 20
volunteer teachers of which 30 percent were women. Within a sample of teachers,
25 percent were supervisors. Data were collected in April and May 2008 by
interviews and questionnaire. The questionnaire focussed on individual
characteristics and applied to respondents whereas interviews were conducted at
either individual or group level. In total, 52 individual and 10 group
interviews were conducted; this was combined with quantitative data for all the
152 respondents.
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Learners’ ages ranged from 20 to
70 years and teachers’ ages ranged from 25 to 56 years. Respondents were
single, married, divorced or widow. Learners’ educational level covers three
parameters: no instruction, primary level and secondary level. The time spent
in attending classes varied a lot. Four categories were identified: up to 3
months (short-time period, SP), up to 6 months (average period, AP), up to 9
months (long-term period, LP) and indefinite period (IP) as some learners do
not remember the number of months spent.
Variables examined through interviews included different
and various topics among which learners’ engagement in learning, learning
achievement behaviours and learning outcomes for their immediate family such as
children retention and performance in school.
Results
Prior to focus on variables measuring
learners’ engagement, achievement behaviours and learning outcomes for the
direct family, such as their children, descriptive and correlation analyses
were used to determine learners’ mean age (M = 43.6 and SD = 11.72) and
teachers’ mean age (M = 41.9 and SD = 8.36). Seventy-eight percent of learners
were married and the others were divorced, single and widow. Ninety percent of
teachers and supervisors were married; ten percent were single. In terms of
prior learning, a little over half of the learners (53 percent) have never had
any formal education whatsoever; 33 percent had primary education; 14 percent
had secondary education. Eighty percent of the learners in rural areas had no
prior formal education while there were 52 percent of respondents from urban
areas who had no prior formal education either. Among the teachers and
supervisors, 50 percent had primary education and 50 percent secondary
education. One teacher had high school education (Advanced level) and one supervisor
had university education level. Main characteristics of learners are summarized
in Appendix 2.
Engagement in Learning
Four specific
learning activities were reported as taught in literacy classes because they
are related to personal goals pursued (learning outcomes) by adult learners.
They include: writing, reading, calculating (arithmetic) and a ‘discussion’ of
life issues. The first three activities were referred to as ‘instrumental
learning’ (numeracy, literacy and writing skills); and the fourth one was
referred to as ‘skills-based learning’. The following scripts represent some
learning goals as described by a representative sample of adult learners
engaged in literacy classes.
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I have followed the literacy
classes to learn how to do calculation [arithmetic] so that if I see cars’
registrations number; I can read them and so they [car drivers] cannot ‘cheat’
me anymore when I charged the products (Afi, Hanoukopé).
We have attended literacy
classes to learn to know certain things, like writing and signing with my name,
that we do not know before, so we can educate ourselves and others (Eugenie,
Atsokou).
Analyses of
learners’ learning goals show that many (if not all) were extrinsically
motivated when they were engaging in literacy classes. Lots of learners were
oriented to outcomes to be earned from learning activities. Each learning goal
pursued is associated with one or more learning activities to achieve. Learners
who engaged in literacy classes attributed their learning behaviour to specific
learning goals that they have perceived the value. We found too that adult
learners have engaged in literacy classes in order to achieve ‘instrumental
learning’ [or acquire basic skills in writing, reading and calculating] as they
were related to their economic activities and to acquire ‘skills-based’
learning. They strove to achieve learning a they perceived learning to be
‘important’, ‘interesting’ and ‘useful’.
Analyses show too that learners engaged in learning,
perceived the value of ‘instrumental learning’ for their economic activities
and for their selfimage. Learners who perceived the value of ‘skills-based’
learning, orient outcomes to achieve their family concerns. We found that many
learning engaged in literacy with these specific perspectives. In sum, they
have chosen to engage and to attend classes to achieve learning activities as
they present outcomes for their economic activities, their family and
particularly for themselves.
Learning Achievement Behaviours
Results showed
that the time spent attending literacy classes varies considerably. Three forms
of persistence were observed with adults engaged in learning: low attendance
level (14 %), average attendance level (72 %) and high attendance level (14 %).
Analysis shows that learners with
average and high level of persistence in literacy classes present positive
behaviours patterns in achievement of the goals pursued while engaging in
learning. We have found too that when learners persevered with learning, the
perception they have on learning value are wide and in many cases it is in
favour of their relation to their children attending school and the whole
family. In clear, with these two attendance levels, learners were not only
focussed on ‘instrumental learning’ directed to their economic-based activities
but they were also able to show strong
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interest in their
own learning achievement and retention because, with the time spent in literacy
classes and by perceiving the value of ‘skills-based learning’, they orient
directly to the outcomes on the family and importantly to their children’s
performance at school and their future career.
The following short monographs of two learners, one with an
average attendance level in a rural area and the other with a high attendance
level in an urban area, show how the perception of the value of learning
activities varies to focus on their children’ schooling:
Dovi:
A learner with a continuous participation
Regarding Dovi,
her engagement in literacy classes occurs in Atsokou village where she is a
native, mother of five girls and a member of the women’s local association. The
interview was conducted while she was still attending literacy classes after
many breaks and at the time when the number of learners has decreased
considerably. She engaged in literacy classes to learn principally to write in
order to be able to benefit from the credits which were granted to women
members of the association. Formerly, she had to put her fingerprint as all the
other members whereas she had attended primary school in her young childhood
but had given up at the elementary second year (CP2). After a few months of
classes, she signs today with her name to receive the credits and to save funds
on an account she has opened with the local cooperative. During the classes,
Dovi saw some changes in her personal goals like supporting her daughters on
their schooling; the fight against cheating in the market, so on. From time to
time, Dovi cannot attend the classes because she is obliged to remain at the
disposal of the sharecroppers whom she engaged to work in her farm. Like the
others learners, she has to manage in order to reconcile learning activities
and her agricultural activities in the farm which is the principal income for
her family. In this way, Dovi is not able to attend her learning classes on a
regular basis but she has noticed that while she was attending the literacy
classes, her daughters too like going to school but when she stopped, they too
are lazy going to school. So Dovi cannot remember the time spent to attend classes
because she is shifting between her literacy classes and her agricultural
activities but she did not drop out. Presently, she paid extra time learning
work for her daughters in order to help them succeed in school. Today, Dovi
felt herself totally valorised by learning achieved by attending classes since
she shows a new image of herself to her daughters and, consequently, she is
perceived differently in her family and also makes future plans with them all.
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Améyo:
A learner with successful achievement
Regarding Améyo,
her engagement in literacy classes happened in Adawlato market, the biggest and
quite famous market of Lomé where various goods are traded. Améyo has not
attended school because she was placed in her childhood with relatives and she
was only authorized to go to market with her supporter. At the moment of the
interview, she had already finished the classes and had obtained the
certificate. Améyo engaged in literacy classes in order to learn to read the Bible
so she will be able to read it at church and also follow the schooling of her
children. Améyo had no prior education as she had never been to school but she
had admired her supporter’s children in their uniform and with their shoulder
bag attending school. Although, she did not know anything about school but she
has to make it understandable to her children who are attending school that
they should study, study hard to succeed with distinction. While attending
literacy classes, she said she tried out what she was asking and requiring from
her children but at the same time she is seeing a decrease in their learners’
number day to day. She persevered in learning as she had a positive image of
school and had too to show the example to her children and finally she had too
to achieve her personal goals. During the interview, she showed full
satisfaction and the pleasure she had gained during the literacy classes,
especially the adjustment of the learning schedule which did not prevent her
from trading and the possibility of counting on her neighbouring sellers during
her classes. Today, Améyo complained a lot because literacy classes were over
and she would wish that they reorganize them with the same scheduling. She
reads, writes and calculates but she had not enough reading learning achieved
since the pursued goals which brought her to engage in literacy classes were
not attained. At end, she preserved good relationship with others learners. In
her family, she developed new relationships with her children who are satisfied
with her. But for her, learning is largely insufficient because she would
strongly like to continue the classes in order to be able to read.
Analyses of learners’ learning
choice, achievement, behaviours and persistence, point to diverse findings
regarding goals attainment, learning performance, achievement beyond pursued
goals and their influences on their children retention and performance in
school. Concerning the first case, when the learner tried out to drop out from
literacy classes, the behaviour displayed affects directly the daughters’
retention in school as they too tried to withdraw from school. With the second
learner, without having any prior education, the learner encourages and
requires from her children to study hard and to succeed at school and that is
what they are doing because it is their mother’s expectations for them. In this
way, literacy
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classes
constitute an opportunity for her too to experiment and to insist on her
wishes. In both cases, the learners have a positive image of school and of
educational achievement. We found too that learners engaged in learning in
literacy classes attend classes not only to learn and to achieve the goals
pursued but also to replicate what school attendance recommends and to serve
their children’s interest. They have recognized that the effects of their
personal behaviours while attending literacy classes are not neutral in their
children’s educational achievement as, they, parents are their first model. And
consequently, the way they behave when they chose to persevere on learning and
to perform has direct positive or negative effects on their children’s
retention in school.
As can be seen in the preceding paragraphs, the first
learner is still attending the literacy classes with lots of breaks while the
second learner completed the classes over the fixed period. The first learner
came from a rural area where agricultural activities are dominant in cyclical
periods and the second learner was a trader in the big market in urban area
where selling activities require six days attendance per week. Learners’ local
context and personal goals pursued are different but literacy classes’
objectives are the same and focus on similar and predefined activities which
include ‘instrumental learning’ and ‘skills-based’ learning.
Learning Achievement and Outcomes
Analyses show
that both learners have performed different and specific learning activities
which were supported by their personal goals. Dovi, the first learner writes
and signs with her name to receive credits and/or to save money with the local
cooperative. Améyo, the second learner reads, writes and calculates and she can
also use a calculator to do some operations in her selling activities. In both
cases, learners engaged in literacy classes have experienced ‘instrumental
learning’ that they have desired to learn and to develop with literacy classes.
Moreover, learners have also performed ‘skillsbased learning’ as they have
persevered while attending and achieving learning activities. It is important
to note that none of learners have engaged in literacy classes by pursuing
goals that related to ‘skills-based learning’ that they have achieved because
they imply discussion about ‘life issues’ such as girls’ education,
immunization, water and sanitation, and so on. However, learners who have
persevered with learning were able to perform them because they were not only
able to participate in discussion but that help them to have broad
understanding of different issues including in learning activities and through
which they have reinforced their comprehension of educational achievement and
performance to attain in school.
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We found too that learners engaged in literacy classes have
achieved the goals that have motivated them to learn. More specifically and on
her side, Dovi achieved goals that have motivated her to engage and to learn in
literacy classes. That can be a sufficient reason for her to withdraw from
classes but she has considered her girls’ retention in school. And for that
reason, she has to continue attending literacy classes as they are still on. On
the one hand, Dovi has improved her knowledge by achieving ‘skills-based
learning’ which was oriented toward her daughters’ educational achievement in
school. On the other hand, Améyo has performed all ‘instrumental learning’
activities taught in literacy classes as her goal was to learn to read only but
she has not achieved the goals pursued while engaging in literacy classes
because she is not able to read the Bible at Church. But she has acknowledged
that she has gained, and literacy classes have positive impact on her
children’s educational achievement in school. Finally, achievement attained,
performance realized and persistence observed by learners are considered as
positive outcomes which are relevant and determinant in their children’s
retention and performance in school. In summary, learners engaged in literacy
classes to learn have achieved in different ways ‘instrumental learning’
activities of reading, writing and calculating and they have also picked up
‘skills-based learning’ activities which were observed to resulting from their
persistence, choice and performance that have direct impact on their children
in school.
Discussion
The contribution
of this paper is to show the relation between adults’ engagement in learning in
literacy classes and children’s retention and performance in school. It appears
clearly from different results that adults’ engagement in learning, participation,
choice behaviours, achievement and persistence in literacy classes are
motivated and supported by different factors that are determined by learners’
immediate and direct environment, personal goals pursued and the perspectives
they clearly have or not concerning their own life’s improvement and their
children’s future achievement and aspirations.
As noted by Brookfield (1986),
‘adults engaged in purposeful learning’ and for Lens (2001), ‘adults chose to
participate in learning for its instrumentality value’. As indicated by our
results, goals pursued while adults choose to engage and to participate in
learning are strongly and extrinsically motivated by their economic activities,
their social life aspiration and other personal goals oriented onto themselves.
However, looking forward to influence on their family life’s conditions and
importantly their children’s educational achievement, the goals pursued while
adults are entering in learning have changed in direction and in intensity into
‘skills-based learning’ (Forster et al., 2001; Bourgeois 2006).
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Within Expectancy-Value Model,
Eccles and Wigfield (2002) and Feather (1982) indicated that individuals have
different reasons for engaging in different achievement tasks. When
extrinsically motivated, individuals engage in activities for instrumental or
other reasons. In-depth analyses of interviews have shown that adult learners
have had different reasons that lead them to engage in learning in literacy
classes and they were extrinsically motivated as goals were principally
oriented to activities related to their basic needs and the improvement of
their life existence (Bourgeois 2009).
Our results are consistent with
the Expectancy-Value model in such a way that choice behaviour, performance and
persistence are achieved toward learning activities. How do these findings
relate to Feather (1988) who worked mainly on adults’ engagement in learning?
In the current study, learning achievement was positively related to the extent
to which performance to attain had subjective value. The results of our study
add to the evidence that supports links between goals pursued and value of
outcomes of learning activities.
One issue that will require
further conceptualization and research is the process around persistence by which
adult learners participate differently in learning activities. Therefore,
findings related to persistence showed some similarities to Comings (2007) and
Porter and colleagues’ (2005) research which demonstrated discrepancies in
attending adults’ literacy classes. Our results showed three different types of
attendance levels. Variation in attendance level has much influence on learning
activities’ achievement. The findings revealed that learners who attended
literacy classes during a short period were not able to deepen their knowledge
with ‘skills-based learning’ which would help them to focus their own learning
achievement with regard to their children’s educational achievement. But
learners who attended literacy classes during the average or long period were
able to emphasize their own performance achieved in regard to their children’s
performance.
An important finding from this
study is that the perception individuals have from one’s self and from others.
Within Expectancy-Value Model, authors deal with self-concept (Feather 1982;
Wigfield and Eccles 1992; Eccles et al., 1998; Fredricks et. al., 2004). Our
study results showed that adults who engaged in literacy classes felt
uncomfortable about the image they showed of themselves to themselves and/or to
others and of how they were perceived by themselves and by others (including
their children). For themselves and for others, they were looked at as
individuals or parents with no prior education and in many cases that conflicts
with the ‘ideal’ self-image some children would like to have of their parents.
The second
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idea deriving
from this finding concerns the parents’ behaviour regarding educational
settings. As children copy mostly from their parents because they are the
primary care providers and first educators or models (Salkind 2008), children
are highly influenced by parents. When Dovi withdrew from her literacy classes
it influenced her children’s retention in school. Améyo has a strong esteem for
learning and has transmitted it to her children. Finally, when learners attend
literacy classes, the perceptions they have of themselves and others have on
them and the image they show of themselves to others are positive and they are
full of self-confidence and they behave in such a way that their children rely
on them and can involve themselves in their educational achievement.
Last, our results have practical
implications in that they imply that engagement in adult literacy classes has a
positive impact on children’s retention and performance in school. Adults
engaged in learning do not only provide an example to their children but also
change the perception of the image their children have of them. Our findings
shed light on many aspects regarding learning achievement, choice behaviours,
performance and persistence in adult educational settings (Wigfield 1994;
Pintrich and Schunk 2002; Amenyah et al., 2010). And different aspects will
need further conceptualization and development in another paper.
Finally, this paper concludes by reporting that a positive
relation between engagement in adult literacy classes and children’s retention
and performance in school exists. Further improvement and also discussion are
needed in order to orient the debate towards the perspective to reverse trends
by focussing on school enrolment rate in developing countries. In another way,
advocacy and interventions can be undertaken in order to encourage adults to
engage in learning in literacy classes in order to directly influence on their
children’s retention and performance in school.
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Appendix 1
Learners and
teachers and their supervisors’ number per site visited
|
|
Site
|
Indicators
|
Numbers
|
%
|
|
Literacy
|
|
|
|
|
classes Urban Abattoir 9 5,9 Adawlato 9 5,9
Attikpodzi 11 7,2 Hanoukopé 6 4,0
Teacher
& supervisor 2 1,3
Sub-total 37
24,3
Rural Agbodeka
kopé 9 5,9 Atsokou 15
9,8
Gboto 51 33,6
Klologo 12 8,0
Kpavou 3 2,0 Plakomé 7 4,6
Teacher
& supervisor 18 11,8
Sub-total 115 75,7 Total -- --
152 100
Appendix 2
Learners and
teachers and their supervisors’ number per site visited
|
|
Site
|
Indicators
|
Numbers
|
%
|
|
Literacy
|
Urban
|
Abattoir
|
9
|
5,9
|
classes Adawlato
9 5,9
Attikpodzi 11 7,2 Hanoukopé 6
4,0
Teacher & supervisor 2
1,3 Sub-total 37 24,3
|
|
Rural
|
Agbodeka kopé
Atsokou
Gboto
|
9
15 51
|
5,9 9,8
33,6
|
|
|
|
Klologo
|
12
|
8,0
|
|
|
|
Kpavou
|
3
|
2,0
|
|
|
|
Plakomé
|
7
|
4,6
|
|
|
|
Teacher & supervisor
|
18
|
11,8
|
|
|
|
Sub-total
|
115
|
75,7
|
|
Total
|
--
|
--
|
152
|
100
|
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