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Hello, Here is a (very) brief introduction for my essay. Comments are welcome, not sure if I should say more? Thanks, Elaine I think your intro is fine, Elaine Chris

This essay gives a reflective account of a Cooking Project attended by parents with young children; it highlights the literacy learning opportunities in this group. The essay also has observations of the change in structure of a Community Learning and Development service following a local authority review and the affect this had on literacy provision.

Understanding Literacies CACL Course, Aberdeen University

June 2009 Course Tutor Chris Aldred Student Elaine Dalgetty

 __ Introduction __ I have been working as a Community Learning and Development Worker for some time; initially I was employed to work as a Community Learning Worker (Surestart) as part of an area team. Each worker had functional responsibilities; Youth Work, Community Capacity Building and Adult Learning. Although Surestart Workers, Adult Learning Co-ordinators and literacy Workers came under the functional banner of Adult Learning, they were seen as separate jobs with different responsibilities. Recently, Aberdeenshire Council completed a modernisation review of the CLD Service. This brought some significant changes to the structure of the service at the different levels of management and ‘on the ground’. We are now all employed as Community Learning and Development Workers with a generic remit covering all of the functions mentioned above. This caused some trepidation amongst staff, who saw themselves as ‘specialists’ in their particular field. Although, I believe we have transferrable skills, I think we become comfortable with what we are familiar with. I had become comfortable with my role as Surestart worker. The thought that now, I was expected to transfer my skills to do ‘everything’ caused anxiety. I hadn’t fully realised my ability to use my skills in other ways; this course has helped me to acknowledge my skills, as well as recognising others’. I think that this feeling of anxiety was particularly pertinent to literacy work. I had seen literacy work as a completely separate function that I knew nothing about. I would have called in the help and expertise of a literacy worker if I felt that this type of support was required; the structure of the team supported this idea. In reflection, much of the work I had did have a literacy base. I will explore this further in this assignment. After studying the content of this course, participating in the collaborative research, talking to others in the group and as my experience grows I am feeling more confident about the generic role. I do feel that as a team we have to be careful not to lose any of the specialist knowledge and experience and I feel we should be able to share this effectively. I believe we need to acknowledge our shared skills and use this to our best ability to provide a complete service, again I hope to explore this further throughout this assignment with a particular focus on literacies.  __ Project Background __ The project I have decided to concentrate on, which demonstrates the points touched on already, is a Cooking Project. This project was initiated by the Early Years Forum; the Health Visiting Team had identified some families who may benefit from some support and advice with regards to healthy eating; family meals, budgeting and cooking skills. A cooking project had been run previously and this was seen as an appropriate project to meet the needs identified. The project was organised by me, The ‘Surestart’ Worker, I asked volunteers from The Healthy Living Network to come along to share their knowledge and pass on their cooking skills to the participants. The participants were all parents with young children, a crèche was provided for those who required it. The initial meeting was arranged to enable the volunteers and participants to meet each other, get to know each other a bit better and to plan the content of the group together; collaboratively.

__ Reflection __ The purpose of this, I thought, would be to establish the needs and wishes of the participants and attempt to match that to the skills and knowledge the volunteers could offer. The group discussed their likes and dislikes and that of their families. I have since reviewed my management of this group – I realise I made some sweeping assumptions at the beginning of the group. I now acknowledge that I held the power in that group, especially at the initial meeting; I was the one who held the pen and wrote ideas on the flip chart, I was the one who knew everyone involved in the project, I was the one who had an idea of how the group should be, I was the one who was familiar with the physical surroundings. Throughout the groups that followed this initial meeting, I encouraged the volunteers to lead the group whilst encouraging the participants to indeed, participate. From reading //Powerful Literacies//, I can recognise the different stages of Power-over and Power-with during the groups. I would like to think that I exercised Responsive Leadership however, I am left with the same questions as Mary Norton; “How can I use my power responsibly and responsively – While also sharing power as possible and appropriate?”(Crowther, J., Hamilton, M. Et al., 2001, p.176) I am now much more aware of the role power plays in such groups and in all aspects of life.  The volunteers in this group were from Mearns Healthy Living Network, they are volunteers who are keen to share their experience with others. They were not literacy volunteers so did not have specific training in this field. My personal belief is that in some circumstance this could benefit a group; the learning may be more organic than specifically designed to meet the specific literacy requirements of the individuals in the group. I may feel more confident to share my own cooking skills and knowledge in a similar group if I were to do it again, transferring my skills used at home to the work/group domain, therefore becoming part of that group; Power-with. The management structure of Community Learning Service also shaped this group; I was employed as a surestart worker to provide adult learning opportunities for parents with young children. The surestart aims are to; ** Strengthen families and communities ** (The Scottish Government website, (undated)) I believe that the aims of this group complimented all of the surestart aims. I also believe that this group reflected the CLD priority: **//Raising standards of achievement in learning for adults through community-based lifelong learning opportunities incorporating the core skills of literacy, numeracy, communications, working with others, problem-solving and information communications technology (ICT).(//** The Scottish Government Website, (2008)) In reflection, although admittedly not recognised fully at the time, this group also displays some good literacy learning opportunities. I had never had to consider that before; if I had identified a learner who perhaps required some additional support I would have had to refer them to the literacy worker in our area for one to one support. I did indeed; invite the Literacy Worker to provide a short workshop on budgeting, weights and measures, tying it into the Cooking aspect of the group. Now, I feel I would have the confidence in my own skills to provide this type of workshop myself, if it was something that was required. The room we used allowed us to create a home environment; we had a kitchen with one oven, one sink, a fridge and the ‘usual’ contents of a kitchen. This is clearly an assumption that I made prior to the course starting; it is reasonable that not everyone would have or want these things, they may not have constant fuel supply; they may not require any of this for their lifestyle. I still believe that this venue was more appropriate than the school environment that would have been the only other option available to us at this time. This may have been an uncomfortable option for anyone who had a negative experience at school. __ Social Practice Theory __ I had considered that I had followed a social practice model throughout this group – I realise now that I had limited the capacity of this group by sticking to the content agreed by the group. Perhaps I should have challenged and extended this content. I had touched on this by looking at nutritional values on labels. We had done blind tastes on value and branded products. We talked about conflicts between nutritional, dietary advice and oral hygiene guidance. We looked at sugar content of some popular snacks. Although, I believe this touched on ideological social practices, I think I could have expanded it further by providing alternative points of view. I could have challenged the groups thinking by perhaps providing images of ‘healthy’ ‘family’ ‘meals’ from around the world. We could have discussed any differences and the reasons behind this. We could have explored the pressures of advertising and affect that this has on our daily lives. Much of the group focussed on the importance of health family meals. In reflection, this came from the parenting focus of the group as prescribed by the Surestart aspect. In reality, is this something that is aspired to? Is it realistic for these families? Is it not, an ideal that is portrayed by a particular social group? This is a huge assumption of family life and a presumption of the home domain. It would be only the most confident of people who would ‘//admit’// in this situation that this simply did not happen in their home; I use the word admit as the group situation creates an ideal picture of family life; participants may feel that they were challenging or disputing this commonly held opinion. This assumption may cause pressure and expectations from participants; something that may not be achievable, realistic or desired. Perhaps the group should have explored this further, maybe exploding the myth of the retro image of 2.4 children and their parents sitting around a table to enjoy a lovingly prepared meal, with meat and two vegetables and a chat about their daily activities. Many of the recipes we looked at were designed to feed a ‘family’, this obviously means different things to different people. More complex literacy skills required when trying dividing or doubling a recipe to suit your ‘family’; who have different likes, dislikes, allergies, etc. As well as this assumption, we assume that participants wish to have the Healthier, Wealthier and Fairer, Smarter, Safer and Stronger and Greener Lives that are set out as strategic objectives by the Scottish Government.(The Scottish Governement Website, 2008a) We assume that we know what this means to people and that they share our own ideas of this. Another assumption I made is that the participants had some literacy skills. This was put into perspective for me after discussing a similar situation with a literacy worker. They had worked with a learner from an English for Speakers of Other Languages class. The participant had explained that she could only buy branded products in the supermarket as their value brand had no picture on them, only printed word. This was difficult when buying similarly packages goods, e.g., a can of beans would look the same as a can of custard; if reading English was difficult then it was almost impossible to save money by buying the value brands. I had presumed that each participant was there for the same reasons as I had promoted this group. I had presumed that they had either read and understood the poster, or that their friend had encouraged them to come along with them or that their Health Visitor had explained the content of the group. I have since realised that their reasons for attending the group may change as the group progresses and the Community of Practice develops. The group had no accreditation, the rewards for attending the group would be the skills gained and a certificate printed by the CLD staff. When I consider the perception of the learning within this group and also within the wider community, I strongly believe that the participants recognised the benefits within their families. I have included some of the feedback provided by the participants in the appendices. I believe that there is also value in this group being cross-generational; often leading to links in the community. It was acknowledged by the volunteers and participants that cooking/shopping/health (literacies) skills and knowledge were not being passed down through the generations as they might have been in previous years. Often people live away from their extended families making it difficult for skills to be shared. Some people may argue that groups and classes may only have benefits if it leads to something else or provides employability skills. Progression routes for such groups may not be obvious, often with Surestart projects; the progression routes for participants may not be appropriate at that particular time but may be sought some time later; when it is the right time for them. A progression may be something quite personal to each individual; it may not always be obvious to anyone, including that participant. However attending a group may build confidence and lead to someone applying for a college class. I have identified that a progression may be to encourage participants to lead a group if they were comfortable and confident to do so. This may benefit the group in two ways; to create a shared literacy opportunity and to create a shared power opportunity, passing on the skills and knowledge they have gained through the group, similar to Jamie Oliver’s project televised recently ‘Jamie’s Ministry of Food’; I have included information about this in the appendices. Not only does it describe a Community Based Learning Programme but provides some interesting reflection about the original Ministry of Food, set up by the Government during World War II to make best use of available food. As a result, it is claimed that the British public had one of the healthiest diets of any time in history. Jamie Oliver Website, (2008) __ Literacy Policy __ The Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland (ALNIS) Report was published in 2001, this report is the grounding for the initiatives since that date. The report carried 21 recommendations; one of these was to introduce a ‘Development Engine’ (Scottish Executive, 2001). In January 2003, the Learning Connections team within Communities Scotland was set up, focusing on research, development, training, quality, and the promotion of adult literacy and numeracy. In 2007, this team moved into the Lifelong Learning Directorate. Learning Connections funded initiatives such as The Big Plus ( Scotland’s national adult literacy and numeracy campaign launched in January 2004) and developed adult literacy resources such as Adult Literacy Online. (The Scottish Government Website, 2008b). The Scottish Executive made funding available to Community Learning and Development Partnerships across Scotland based on recommendations of the ALNIS report. This led to the development of local authority //Adult// //Literacy Partnerships;// with membership from all agencies and organisations with an interest in literacies. The main responsibilities of these partnerships were to develop a strategic plan to ensure national targets are met and to respond to local need. The partnerships produced annual progress reports against their plan directly to the Scottish Executive. The concordat between Scottish Government and Local Government in 2007 brought some significant changes to literacy focussed provision; Mainly the Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) and a reduction in ring-fencing. There is no longer assurance that all the intended funding will be used for literacies. Each local authority has signed up to a Single Outcome Agreement with the Government based on the National Outcomes, taking account of local priorities. In Aberdeenshire, this Agreement informs the Aberdeenshire Community Plan and the Local Community Plans. The Adult Literacy partnerships are no longer required to present their annual reports directly to Government. This may leave them in a volatile position; it is imperative that their work is recognised in the Single Outcome Agreement and by Community Planning Partnerships to ensure the continuing support of literacy work. The WALT (Working and Learning Together) refresh (The Scottish Government Website, 2008) brings literacies much more closely in line with CLD rather than been seen as a separate provision and there is greater emphasis on //core skills// and //accreditation.// Amongst others, the five Core Skills are: communication, numeracy, problem solving, information technology and working with others. As defined by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. Whilst policy follows a social practice theory, in reality, are we in threat of being too busy measuring learning to satisfy targets, goals and statistics and making sure we are included in crucial policy documents and plans to ensure continued funding.
 * Improve children's social and emotional development **
 * Improve children's health **
 * Improve children's ability to learn **
 * Achievement through learning for adults **

“...social practice literacies, change the relationship of knower and learner, fundamentally challenging the foundations of educational institutions. Such a radical shift requires us to respond with innovation, improvisation and creativity, to experiment with approaches with //un//certain outputs.” Ackland (undated)

I am left wondering to what extent can we be experimental, creative and learner led in a standardised system of learning that is led by assessment and accreditation.

__ International ____ comparison __ I have found this definition of food literacy particularly interesting: “Food Literacy is the ability to organize one’s everyday nutrition in a self-determined, responsible and enjoyable way.”

Food Literacy website, (undated) This project, originating in Austria, states that is main objective is establish “food literacy” as a horizontal theme in adult education and as a personal core competence, such as ‘computer literacy’ or ‘consumer literacy’. A seminar was held in Germany in 2007, to provide information about this project to other EU Countries; I am not aware of any project in Scotland that recognises the term ‘food literacies’. The Eat Well project in Tasmania, whilst mirroring some of the initial aims of the Cooking Project described in this assignment, has gone on to develop other initiatives. One of these initiatives is the Family Food Patch Project which provides special training to participants who then go on to provide a peer education programme throughout their community. Although, perhaps not designed as literacy project provides opportunities to develop these core skills. Eatwell Tasmania website, (2009) 

__ Conclusion __ Before starting this course I suggested that the CLD team share their experiences of literacy work; I think we could learn a lot from each other and our experiences. Not only from the literacy workers but from other workers who may have not been directly employed as literacy workers but have a wealth of experience in this field which has not necessarily been recognised. Literacy workers, also, may like to share their experiences as well as learning from others who may have been seen as having more experience in other areas of Community Learning and Development: I would be confident to say that literacy workers were already using these skills in their day to day work but again, this may not have been recognised. This idea has never been taken forward; I believe that we have missed an opportunity to develop a Community of Practice; “a model that describes the relationship, shared enterprise and informal social learning that is an inevitable aspect of our experience as practitioners.” Understanding Literacies Course Notes, (2009) When I consider accreditation and think of myself as the learner, I wonder if I would attend this course, do the reading, research, put in the time and effort if I did not get the certificate and recognition at the end of it; if it did not affect my employment; if I did not ‘HAVE’ to do it. I have enjoyed the learning experience and realise that there is ‘distance travelled’ but I’m not sure if I would //choose// to do it without the rewards and wider recognition. This course has encouraged me to think about my own learning, I have had to look at my practice and the assumptions I make. I have learned a great deal about literacy policy and practice. I have been able to reflect on my work, not only the Cooking Project but the involvement I have had with literacies throughout all of my work and personal life.

__ Bibliography __ NORTON, M., (2001) Challenges to sharing power in adult literacy programmes. In CROWTHER, J., HAMILTON, M., and TETT, L. Eds. //Powerful Literacies,// Leicester: NIACE. Pp166-177

ACKLAND, A., BAMBROUGH, C., ROBERTS, G., ALDRED, C., (2009), //Understanding Literacies Course Booklet,// Aberdeen, Aberdeen University

ACKLAND, A. (undated), //Lizard Dressed as Lamb,// Aberdeen, Aberdeen University

SOTTISH EXECUTIVE (2001), //Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland,// Crown, Edinburgh

The Scottish Government (Undated). //Sure Start Scotland, Aims and Funding allocations.// Crown. Available: [] [Date Accessed : 15/06/2009]

The Scottish Government (2008a). //Scotland Performs.// Crown. Available: [] [Date Accessed : 21/05/2009]

The Scottish Government (2008b). //Building on " Working and Learning Together  to Build Stronger Communities" A joint statement on community  learning and  development (CLD), including adult literacy  and  numeracy (ALN), by the  Scottish Government and COSLA  .// Crown. Available: [] [Date Accessed: 15/06/2009]

The Scottish Government (2008c).//Learning Connections.// Crown. Available: [] [Date Accessed: 25/06/09]

BEST Training (undated). //Food Literacy- a New Horizontal Theme in Adult Education and Counselling.// BEST Institut für berufsbezogene Weiterbildung und Personaltraining GmbH Mariahilfer Straße 8. Available: [] [Date Accessed: 22/06/2009]

Eatwell Tasmania (2009). //Eat Well Tasmania, Family Food Patch Project.// Available: [] [Date Accessed: 22/06/2009]

Jme Group ltd (2008). //Jamies Ministry of Food.// Jme Group ltd. Available: [] [Date Accessed: 20/06/2009]