Memory Quilts and Hope Chests: Adult Learners Craft Counterstories in Their Community Museum

• Published in: Journal of adolescent & adult literacy Vol. 63; no. 5; pp. 549 - 558
• Main Authors: Gruen, Rachael, Killian Lund, Virginia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-Blackwell 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Adult Education; Adult Literacy; Case Studies; Citizen Participation; Handicrafts; Literacy; Literacy Education; Memory; Museums; Program Descriptions; Story Telling; Student Centered Learning; Teaching Methods
• DOI: 10.1002/jaal.1018
• ISSN: 1081-3004

The authors describe how a community museum created and curated by adult education students acted as an innovative and student-centered model to support learners in developing and demonstrating their literacy skills and knowledges. Using a case study approach to document and analyze students' counterstories (i.e., stories that disrupt dominant narratives), the authors highlight the ways in which creating and curating a community museum leveraged adult students' expertise and opened opportunities for meaningful civic action through counterstorying. The authors aim to provide adult literacy educators with a concrete example of how an expansive understanding of literacy skills within their curriculum, including the literacies of making and design, can support students' development of relevant content literacies and workforce competencies, including researching, multimodal composing, speaking, and collaborating.