Functional Context Education

• What it is and why it works
• Approaches
• State and federal legislation
• Resources pertaining to this strategy

What it is and why it works

Functional Context Education (FCE) is an instructional strategy that integrates the teaching of literacy skills and job content to move learners more successfully and quickly toward their educational and employment goals. Programs that use the FCE model are more effective than traditional programs that teach basic skills and job skills in sequence because this innovative approach teaches literacy and basic skills in the context in which the learner will use them. Clients see clearly the role literacy skills play in moving them toward their goals. This strategy promotes better retention, encourages lifelong learning and supports the intergenerational transfer of knowledge.

• For adults who have already experienced school failure, enrollment in programs that use traditional approaches to teaching often reproduce that failure. Functional context education programs address this problem by using content related to adult goals to teach basic skills.
• Basic education and technical training must be relevant to the skills and education required by jobs if low-income persons are going to succeed in becoming economically self-sufficient. In addition, most adults do not have time to spend years in basic education programs learning skills that may seem unrelated to their educational and economic goals.
• Given welfare time limits and restrictions on education and training, it is more important than ever that individuals master basic and job-specific skills as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Despite this need, the number of FCE programs is small. Demonstration projects can help to institutionalize the FCE model. They can provide the opportunity for those interested in implementing functional context education programs to learn how the approach is translated into daily instruction.

• In addition, demonstration projects can be used to develop, pilot and refine classroom materials and lessons plans. Such projects can also result in a trained cadre of technical assistance providers. State funding for FCE demonstration projects would allow researchers to evaluate FCE more comprehensively, resulting in improvement of practice.

• Californians for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (CFESS) commissioned a study, From the War on Poverty to WAR on Welfare: The Impact of Welfare Reform on the Lives of Immigrant Women based in Santa Clara County, which explored the impact of welfare reform in the county on Latina and Vietnamese immigrant women with English language barriers, laying the groundwork for a future project that will focus on functional context English as a Second Language education. In addition, ERA along with CFESS, WOW and other education and training stakeholders convened a statewide Functional Context Education conference in August, 1999, which lead to increased effectiveness of adult education programs for those seeking a pathway out of poverty. Contact Doris Ng, Equal Rights Advocates, 415-621-0672 or dng@equalrights.org.

• CFESS coalition member Women's Initiative for Self-Employment in San Francisco, CA incorporates FCE into their microenterprise training curriculum. Since many of the Women's Initiative low-income clients have low basic math and English skills, FCE helps them build those skills in the context of the economic literacy and business development skills that they seek to attain. Contact Barbara Johnson, Women's Initiative for Self-Employment, (415) 247-9473 or womensinitsf@igc.apc.org.