Now We Read, We See, We Speak: Portrait of Literacy Development in an Adult Freirean-based Class
Purcell-Gates, V. & Waterman, R. A. (2000)

Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
ISBN: 0805834702

This detailed and lively portrait of one teacher’s implementation of principles gleaned from the work of Paulo Freire results from an 18-month ethnographic study of an adult women’s literacy class in rural El Salvador. It is the first in-depth study, with systematic data collection, of a Freirean-based program through a sociopsycholinguistic literacy lens. The central question the authors set out to address is: Using what is known about how people learn to read and write – cognitively, linguistically, socially, and developmentally – what relationships can be seen between these developmental processes involved in becoming literate and the essential aspects of Freirean-inspired curriculum? Purcell-Gates and Waterman sought to see and to understand for themselves how adults in the literacy program learned to read and write as they transacted with the Freirean curriculum, and what such a class could look like in action.

An especially useful feature of this book is the connection the authors draw between their own interpretations of the data from their case study and the larger issues and conundrums the field of adult literacy is facing overall. The chapters describing the literacy class (Part II) are structured around themes that emerged from the El Salvador data and conclude with “Insights for Adult Education” sections in which the themes are applied to the more general field of adult education. In the final chapter, the authors pull this all together and reflect further on how the insights gained from their study can help educators think about improving adult literacy education in ways that begin to truly provide transformative and liberative opportunities for adult students. In the current context of growing marginalization, impoverishment, and alienation for certain socially and economically marked groups of people, and sharp politicization of literacy and literacy instruction, this book is an important contribution to the field of education and literacy.

It is a book for all teachers, teacher educators, and researchers who are interested in, and curious about, Freirean-literacy instruction. It focuses on adult literacy and adult literacy issues, but many of the resulting insights and highlighted principles are relevant to literacy learning at all ages. While this is not a “how to” book, up-close studies, such as what Purcell-Gates and Waterman have done here, of teaching and learning in process, provide important concrete examples for teachers who are on their own journey of development and change. (Description from the book cover)