story by Claire Miller | photo by David Hoffman
The College of Education & Human Development’s Adult Literacy Research Center (ALRC) takes a broad approach to studying adult literacy.
“We know that adult literacy doesn’t have a narrow focus. It covers a wide range of skills, topics and settings for people ages 16 and up, including workplace literacy, health literacy and civics,” said Distinguished University Professor Daphne Greenberg, who serves as the center’s director.
The center works with affiliate faculty and graduate students from the College of Education & Human Development (CEHD), the School of Public Health, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, to conduct research related to adult literacy and health literacy.
On Feb. 9, the ALRC hosted its first mini conference to bring together affiliate faculty and students from across campus to share their research projects and network with one another. About 75 people attended the event, which featured nine lightning talks and 24 poster presentations related to health literacy and adult literacy.
CEHD doctoral student Christy Jarrard gave a poster presentation on how administrators, instructors and students in adult education programs view digital literacy skills.
She and Greenberg conducted a study where staff and students in adult education programs were interviewed about the importance of digital literacy, the challenges instructors face in incorporating those skills into their lessons, and what supports educators need to ensure students gain these skills.
“Instructors’ main concern was how and when to implement digital literacy in their adult education classes,” she said. “They have some students with high digital literacy skills and others who aren’t at that level, so they also talked about how to teach with that variety of skill levels in their classrooms.”
The mini conference also gave Jarrard valuable experience sharing her work with others.
“It’s been really great talking to people about different aspects of adult literacy,” she said. “This conference is helping me become more comfortable presenting my research.”
Dawn Aycock, professor in the Lewis College and an ALRC affiliate faculty member, attended the mini conference to support current and former nursing doctoral students who presented their work.
She hopes that the center continues to hold mini conferences to further disseminate this research across the Georgia State community.
“It’s been phenomenal to work with Daphne Greenberg and Iris Feinberg in the Adult Literacy Research Center on grants and strengthening students’ knowledge. In our college, we know just how important it is to teach about health literacy,” she said. “It’s exciting to see this mini conference happen and to watch a variety of presentations on faculty and student research. I hope they’ll continue to hold these so we can learn more about what’s going on in other colleges.”
School of Public Health student Puja Raol received the mini conference's Best Health Literacy Poster Award, and Jaikanishka Nattamai S.R., the poster's second author and a School of Public Health student, received a certificate. College of Education & Human Development postdoctoral adult literacy fellow Gal Kaldes received the Best Adult Literacy Poster Award.
Elizabeth Tighe, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and ALRC assistant director, and Claire Spears, associate professor in the School of Public Health and an ALRC affiliate member, served as co-chairs for the mini conference. The organizing committee included Daphne Greenberg, Georgia State Distinguished University Professor and ALRC director, and Iris Feinberg, CEHD research assistant professor and ALRC associate director; the student committee included CEHD students Christy Jarrard and Carlie Cope and College of Arts and Sciences student Christina Doan Sun.