Bamdas, Jo Ann

Global illiteracy remains rampant partly due to confusing definitions, inadequate data gathering, hidden agendas, and improper tools of stimulation. Adult literacy is a problem despite efforts and resources. Using children's and adolescents' literature can improve literacy but it is not being used enough due to false concepts. The problems and an adult non-reader profile are outlined. Current literature on literacy, children's literature theory, and critical plus public intellectual media in academia and popular culture is reviewed. I borrow Martha Nussbaum's idea of the narrative imagination to explore J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. I analyze and then provide a program sketch showing how adults can learn to read while building self-esteem because of innate familiarity with the storytelling tradition, with language, and with ordinary life issues. The literature fosters narrative imagination and encourages discussion. Each new adult reader then adds to the cultivation of humanity.

The purpose of this qualitative narrative research study was to interpret the meaning found throughout the formal educational experience stories of Native American, Asian American, and African American women born after 1944, who had earned an education doctorate degree after 1976, and were working with adults in an educational capacity within the community. Utilizing the snowball technique, 14 participants from across the United States volunteered to collaborate with the researcher. The study's conceptual framework included adult learning principles and practices, Nussbaum's 'narrative imagination,' which were used to examine the women's motivation to participate in an education doctorate program as well as the barriers, the enhancers, and the application of the degree in the community. Data collected included an in-depth, face-to-face interview, two reflective narrative guides, document analysis, and researcher journals and analytic memos. All data was coded and analyzed with Atlas -ti 5.0 software, and thematic analyses completed in order to triangulate the data. Six major themes for motivation to participate were found: self-awareness through placement in the family, family and community expectation in importance of education, personal strengths and weaknesses, perceived differences in the classroom and mainstream society, and knowledge of motivation to pursue doctorate. Five barriers emerged: racism, gender, advisers, institutional changes and problems, and juggling multiple roles in limited time. Five main enhancers arose: family and community foundation, financial, friends, and others which motivated participation.