BRIAN STREET - The LETTER Project

"The LETTER Project: Learning for Empowerment Through Training in Ethnographic Research" APA Citation: Street, B. (2014, April 27). The LETTER project: Learning for empowerment through training in ethnographic research. [Webinar]. In Global Conversations in Literacy Research Web Seminar Series. Retrieved from   • BRIAN STREET - The LETTER Project  . This webinar was presented live on March 27, 2014 for Global Conversations in Literacy Research 2013-2014 Series" (http://globalconversationsinliteracy....) Dr. Street's web seminar has addressed The LETTER Project. Started in India from discussions between a local women's NGO, Nirantar, dedicated to Women's Empowerment Through Education, the programme commenced in 2005 with a series of workshops arranged by Nirantar and the Asia-South-Pacific Bureau of Everyday Literacies in Africa. Ethnographic Studies of Literacy and Numeracy Practices in Ethiopia Everyday Literacies in Africa. Ethnographic Studies of Literacy and Numeracy Practices in Ethiopia Adult Education with participants from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. The project then moved to Ethiopia in which 20 teachers from around the country participated in this highly generative programme, and a book was written locally and published. A current project is underway in Uganda linking Makerere University with Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), Kwa-Zulu-Natal University (South Africa) and Kings College London and the Institute of Education, London (UK). Two new features of The LETTER Project are the writing of reading material for learners, using ethnographic approaches to explore original (oral) material such as local stories and practices, and secondly, each of the participants has been asked to develop and teach a short training programme in literacy for adults using ethnographic material. Thus training for teaching is part of the LETTER Project now. The main focus of The LETTER Project was on approaches to exploring everyday literacy and numeracy in local communities using ethnographic-style methodologies, and its basic principles are that of helping the literacy learners to understand more clearly how they regard 'literacy' and numeracy, and how they are already engaging with it as an essential first step towards helping them to learn more. Developing detailed local ethnographic perspectives will be a particularly effective tool for challenging assumptions and generalisations about both literacy and learning; ethnographic explorations of the everyday are a necessary part of any pedagogic activity, whether with adults or children, whether in Europe or in the contexts of international development.