Toward a New Pluralism in ABE/ESOL Classrooms: Teaching to Multiple "Cultures of Mind." Executive Summary. NCSALL Reports #19a

The authors carefully followed for a year or more the inner experiences of learning and change of 41 ABE/ESOL (Adult Basic Education/English for Speakers of Other Languages) learners from all over the world. They were enrolled in three distinct U.S. programs (a community college, a family literacy site, and a workplace site), each oriented to enhancing greater English language fluency, increasing content knowledge, and improving effectiveness as workers, parents, or students. The authors' purposes were to gain a better understanding of how these adults perceived program learning; how, if at all, program learning helped them to enact a particular social role; and how, if at all, these adults changed while participating in the program. In addition to the many better understood forms of diversity that are present in an ABE/ESOL classroom, and which good teachers strive to recognize and include (differences of gender, age, race, cultural origin), their study suggests the importance of another form of diversity--a new kind of pluralism--namely, the differing meaning-systems or ways of knowing which adult learners bring into the room. All three of the study's major findings revolve around the importance of this new variable for thinking about teaching and learning in the ABE/ESOL classroom. The major findings are: (1) Varieties of Change for ABE/ESOL Learners; (2) The Power of the Cohort in Adult Learning; and (3) A New Pluralism: Varieties of Meaning Systems Among Adult Learners. (Contains 1 footnote.) [This is a companion document to "Toward a New Pluralism in ABE/ESOL Classrooms: Teaching to Multiple "Cultures Of Mind"" reports. For the main report, see ED508683. For the research brief, see ED508684.]