Literacy and uprooted families: an educational agenda for the nineties

This paper is based on a presentation made at the International Literacy Year Colloquium in October 1990, in Washington, D.C. It addresses the strategies employed by people uprooted from Southeast Asia and adjusting to a new life in the United States. The social context of literacy is discussed by showing the coping strategies of three Hmong people. Next, learning English through intergenerational relationships is discussed. Then an agenda for the nineties is proposed. This involves:

1. A shift in focus from individuals and institutions to families and communities;
2. The incorporation of traditional knowledge with new forms of knowledge
3. The promotion of collaboration on all levels

The paper closes with a challenge to all of us to use literacy to become intergenerational healers in our work.