4. Migrating Voices: Intricate Passages
• “Language equals access to work.”
• “Everything is time-consuming.”
• “I’m not lazy. I’m diligent. I don’t want to
show that I have difficulties.”
• “I lost confidence in myself.”
5. Migrating Voices: Intricate Passages
• “I needed to be cared for.”
• “You have to learn on your own.”
• “[They] don’t understand my thinking.”
• “There is pressure to go into school right
away.”
• “We need to speak a common language.”
6. Honouring the Stories
• by acknowledging the personal
experiences of each student.
• by understanding the uniqueness of each
student’s needs.
• by comprehending the desire to pursue an
education.
8. Project Impetus
• Internationalizing Campus (expand and
maintain access)
• Increased enrollment of students of different
cultural and educational backgrounds
– Barriers along educational journeys
– Barriers are compounded by others which cannot
be easily seen or remedied:
• Adapting to a new host culture and learning
environment
• Meeting academic requirements and expectations that
grant them the Canadian education they are pursuing
9. The Project Goals
Primary Goal:
This present study seeks to investigate levels
of support for LESLLA transitioning into
post-secondary studies
Tertiary aims are twofold:
– Identify gaps, barriers or struggles students face
in transition
– Explore strategies to enable a better transition
experience and promote success during transition
10. Primary Research Question
• What factors or barriers influence the
adjustment of adult learners’ transitions
into post-secondary studies?
– implications for understanding these
barriers
12. The Distinctness of the Project
• This study focuses on one learner demographic
(LESLLA) a significant portion of the student
population
– involved in complex processes of navigating
around and adjusting to a new learning
culture
– in constant states of negotiating between the
complexities of a new culture and education
system, and adjusting to a new life
13. The Details
• stages of acculturation which can
compound the educational experience
• Face barriers that limit them from
succeeding with their educational agendas
(institutional policies may marginalize,
underrepresent, or generalize)
14. The Literature
• much value in the research that looks at
how socioeconomic and literacy
barriers impact the attainment of a
post-secondary education
– adjustment challenges host learners face
such as learning a new language, integrating
into a new campus culture, and making new
friends (Constatine, Anderson, Berkel &
Utsey, 2005; Surdam & Collins, 1984).
15. The Literature
• Current research on academic success and
language and literacy development
specifically English Language Learners
(Vinogradov and Liden 2009; Schönwetter,
Clifton, & Perry, 2002; Harklau, 1999) has
identified barriers that impact the academic
success of English Language Learners
transitioning into college.
16. The Literature
• additional language acquisition and
acculturation processes (Brilliant,
Lvovich, and Markson, 1995)
• language and learning barriers students
face while in college level courses
(Cazden, 1988; Chaudron, 1988; Ellis,
1990; Zamel & Spack, 2004)
18. The Project
• Qualitative study that targeted adult
learners enrolled in college programs
• Eight face-to-face interviews
– participants ranged from ESL to (former)
LESLLA
– More are coming forward!
• The conversation: transition experience;
academic and social life; family and
community life
19. Following One Path
• Approaching transitions
– “I used to do this and it worked. So I tried it
here.”
• Learner enters with some prior
experience; inlays one experience onto
another; processes do not translate
– each transition brings on a new way of
navigating
– difficulty navigating the differences
20. Following One Path
• diverse educational landscapes –
negotiating processes that form pathways
– had few educational opportunities in
home country
– attended high school in Canada
(graduated)
– attended an ESL Literacy program
– went from a part-time to a full-time
Business Admin student in college
21. Following One Path
• Translating processes (more complex
educational system)
– Come with educational goals (how to translate
those goals)
• time (reality and
expectations=misconceptions)
• social success: developing peer relations
• initiative to seek out help
• accommodating learners to expand educational
opportunities
22. Navigating Transitions
• The project provided insights into understanding
the multiple transitions traveled between of
home, school, and community.
– How are students navigating new educational
environments?
• transitions laden with prerequisites, grades,
course expectations, policies or general program
expectations
– Look at the intricate nature of student’s
actions, decision-making processes
24. Helping Students to Reach the Highest
Points
• Entrance into-newness of the environment;
socializing; connecting; seeking help
• Within transition-prioritizing; becoming;
adapting; adjusting to the academic rigor;
production-orientated; execution of skills;
clarifying, relearning; self-styled strategies
become more intentional; assessing what
exists
• Departure-transitioning into yet new (work)
communities
25. Preliminary Summary
• Capture the experience inlayed in the social
and personal
• Desires “a common language” to be used
• insight into the tension between the
personal and the social and the
experiences that surround their transitions
– College success
– Educational attainment
• Negotiating these complex tensions: never
out of the process
26. Preliminary Summary
• Student reflections on their transitions and
adjustments to college life revealed
varying levels of satisfaction and
dissatisfaction while in transitions.
– Self-perceived barriers to the point of drop out
27. Preliminary Summary
• Constraints (financial) forces student to
enter into self-sustaining and coping (crisis)
processes rather than ones which are
logistically created to sustain all levels of
support throughout the students’ education
• Entering into the system with a level of
preparedness only to be confronted with
new challenges that cannot be anticipated
28. Preliminary Summary
• valuable commentary emerging from the data
suggesting that ESL Literacy learners
enrolled in college are facing more significant
challenges such as learning in an academic
way
– ineffective strategies used to negotiate
processes
– frustration with being unable to navigate
effectively and successfully in order to
access college programs
29. Preliminary Summary
• What shapes successful academic journeys?
– Capacity to support linguistic and academic
transitions
– Social networks are critical to success in school
– improve access and ease to undergraduate
studies by bridging those gaps students are
unable to navigate independently.
– Perceptions that some systems are less
advantageous
30. Preliminary Summary
Working with adult learners
– needed to regain what was lost
– adopt strategies (innovations) to
maintain first careers from home
countries
– enhance the skills they already have
31. Preliminary Summary
• the importance of collaboration amongst
college program developers and post-
secondary sectors that would motivate
students to go to college.
– What motivates students to go to
college?
• Bridging a gap: continuing an
education left behind in home country
33. Bringing the Stories to Light: The
Implications
• Prioritizing the students’ adjustment
experiences minimizes the chances of
barriers emerging while in transition
• Social support provisions encourages
successful integration into new academic
communities
• different forms of transitions and adaptations
to them influenced the larger transition into
college
• Rangel (2001) “academic invulnerability”
34. Connecting Closely: Better Navigating the
Future
• Even though this project did not focus on
program and policy development, the data from
it may impact future institutional vision
statements surrounding the education of
adult learners from all cultural and educational
backgrounds.
• May call for revision of institutional
responsibilities surrounding the delivery of a
post-secondary education to LESLLA learners.
35. A Sense of Agency: Defamiliarizing the
Familiar
• “You gotta believe that you are worth it.”
