About Bridges
Background
The program of research will respond to calls for the urgent need for rigorously designed research in adult education (Torgenson, Porthouse & Brooks, 2003, 2005) and compare the effects of two educational programs for abused women who do not have their high school diploma, and examine their experience with barriers and motivations with respect to education and educational success. The research program will provide a framework to systematically examine and address violence-related barriers to educational success for abused women, who drop out of secondary school studies at two to three times the rate of other adult students (Raphael, 1998). Applying this to retention figures provided by ABC Canada, where recent research reports that 33% of all adult basic education students drop out (ABC Canada, 2001), there is compelling evidence to support an exploration of the barriers faced by abused women to sustaining enrolment in adult education.
Although 29% of Canadian women do not have a high school diploma (Statistics Canada, 2002), the rate is over 40% among women using shelter services (Grasley, Richardson & Harris, 2000), and rises to 47% among recipients of government financial assistance (Ontario Works, 2003). Rather than presume that women’s lack of motivation is responsible for lack of retention in adult education, it is imperative that we look more closely at why they leave. For example, research shows that abusers frequently sabotage women’s efforts to go to school with abuse that may include threats to her and her children, denial of access to transportation, and physical abuse causing missed exams (Riger et al.,2001). Looking at women students in general, resent Canadian research reveals that 72% of women who drop out of adult basic education programs do so because of ‘socio-economic-circumstantial’ reasons that include job-related pressures and childcare, while 17% cite policy and program-related reasons such as content and teaching structure for leaving, and 6% cite cognitive-emotional (e.g. worry or nervousness about being in a program) as the reason they dropped out (ABC Canada, 2001).
Once enrolled in school, women may experience cognitive and affective barriers to learning in addition to the abuse. Abused women, as compared to nonabused women, have more trouble concentrating (Brush, 2000), are more distracted by fear for their own and their children’s safety, and are less able to engage in classroom learning (Raphael, 1996; Horsman, 1999). There is a paucity of research that describes or investigates specific cognitive outcomes for these women, but literature that examines the effects of violence on children’s cognitive functioning indicates that children who witness family violence experience more depression and anxiety, less academic engagement and achievement, lower scores on standardized tests, and more behavioural, social and cognitive problems than their nonwitness counterparts (Fantuzzo & Mohr, 1999; Shonk & Ciccetti, 2001).
Linking these difficulties with the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among women who experience violence, educators and researchers recommend education programs include supportive counselling and advocacy as a necessary element for success (Allen, Bybee & Sullivan, 2004; Horsman, 1999;US GAO, 1999).
The main themes of this project involve diversity, gender, culture, literacy and learning. The current proposal is guided by the aspiration to support women in their efforts to escape violence and establish safe homes and independent lives for themselves and their families. This project is proposed as a means to this end. University and community agencies will work in partnership with women on the research, policy, curriculum, and safety and support components for at-risk women to create change and opportunity. Meaningful, extensive community consultation has taken place and a Community Advisory Committee was formed to discuss how to help women get the basic education of a high school diploma or GED (General Education Development), find stable work and, ultimately, become financially independent from government assistance and/or their abuser. The announced SSHRC funding will help to build a solid research program that will result in enhanced educational success for women experiencing violence, and will be used to meet the following specific objectives: a) Identify and examine the barriers and motivators to taking part in adult education, and to experiencing success in education; b) Track retention and credit attainment among women enrolled in a traditional adult education program; c) Create an alternative, participatory adult education program to meet the needs of women who have experienced violence; d) Compare cognitive (achievement), affective (self-efficacy) and behavioural (retention) outcomes for women with those experienced by their peers in a traditional education program; and e) build a theoretical model of literacy and education for women experiencing violence. We plan to use this website, academic conferences and community meetings to share results with the research and service communities.