A Learner's Story

Vicky Duckworth tells us how one learner's story was published.

See the NRDC website for the full article.

'A fantastic book that offers encouragement to anyone who is trying to improve their life.' - Baroness Helena Kennedy QC 

For the past three years, I have been actively involved in an ethnographic study based at a local Further Education college. The research follows the impact of thirteen Skills for Life learners joining a basic skills programme. When learners leave the course, their journeys are followed. The study has also facilitated close observation of the drawbacks and leaps the learners have experienced and it has enabled me to nominate the group for awards.

One of the learners is Marie McNamara, a single mum, with an older son and two young children. She described how, 'I thought I was thick. I left that school not being able to spell... If I knew what I know now I'd 'ave made them teachers come to them lessons and teach me. But it's also made me who I am.

' That 'who I am' is a woman with true grit. On hurdling the barriers and progressing from basic skills learner to Access to Health learner and to learner nurse at university, her goal 'to be a good role model for my children; getting a career can give us all a better future' has driven her forward. I nominated Marie for a NIACE award (her first ever award which she proudly displays on her living room wall) and the Helena Kennedy prize, which she collected at the House of Commons. We also made contact with Gatehouse, a specialist publisher working with learners and tutors to encourage new writing to help adult learners. Marie was able to tell her story as a learning journey autobiography, one of a number of books written by and for learners reflecting Gatehouse's ethos that 'a beginner reader is not a beginner thinker'.

Marie's journey has been truly liberating and one she describes as 'making me think about where I've been, where I'm at and where I'm goin' '. Marie wants to share her experience with the community. Already, neighbours are stopping her and asking how to enrol at college. 'The woman across the road has enrolled on an English course - her first qualification', Marie told me. 'That's what makes it all worthwhile; getting people to believe in themselves.'

Vicky Duckworth is Senior Lecturer in Post-Compulsory Education and Training at Edge Hill University

Getting Better by Marie McNamara is available here