"You Don't Know What I Went Through": Re-Making Learning in an Adult High School Equivalency Classroom

Recent policy changes to adult high school equivalency credentialing in the state of Illinois offer alternatives to passing the GED test. These alternatives include other standardized tests, transcript translation of foreign high school transcripts, and competency based diplomas (e.g. 105 ILCS 5/3-15.12). This dissertation explores the possibilities and constraints of implementing a particular competency-based curriculum in one high school equivalency classroom on the West Side of Chicago. Drawing on theories of maker pedagogies (e.g. Catterall & Peppler, 2007; Dzula, 2013; Halverson & Sheridan, 2014) and disciplinary literacies (e.g.; Buehl, 2011; Shanahan & Shanahan), this participatory action research study (Freire, 1982) uses ethnographically-informed methods with adult literacy learners as they co-design and explore learning in a maker-focused, competency-based high school equivalency curriculum. Findings indicate that the students who participated in this study implicitly and explicitly expressed a need for spaces and resources to heal from previous learning experiences. Inviting trauma narratives to be processed in the classroom through the use of maker pedagogies proved to be impactful in aiding students in the process of healing and giving them tools to feel empowered to take on more academic endeavors and career pursuits. Maker pedagogies were supportive in addressing the needs of the students because the act of composing helped students organize traumatic events as they made choices about what version they wanted to share, what they wanted to remember and forget, and what they wanted to reveal and conceal. Additionally, the collaboration that is embedded in maker pedagogies gave students an opportunity to hear feedback as a way to re-establish their sense of self post-trauma. While students used maker pedagogies to process traumas, engaging in digital tools, arts, and design thinking with the support of a caring community also allowed students to develop disciplinary literacy skills and workforce competencies.