Hello,

My name is Krista Hilton and I'm a doctoral student in Educational
Psychology at Georgia State University.

Presently I am embarking on research with Daphne Greenberg, and I could
use your kind recommendations/advice regarding the following study we
would like to conduct. The name of our project is: Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual
(LGB) Struggling Adult Readers. As D'Amico (2004) explains, LGB
individuals who have difficulty reading have not been studied. If one
looks at the adult literacy journals, one notices a complete void on
this topic (although over the last few years there have been a handful
of articles in the Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy covering
literacy issues with adolescents). Therefore, very little is known about
this group.We are following  D'Amico's (2004) recommendation  that
researchers begin to address sexual orientation within the adult
literacy field.  We plan to do the following:

a. Conduct a thorough literature review and resource review of any and
all mention of sexual orientation and adult literacy. Special attention
will be on any curricula issues devoted to this topic, any
acknowledgement of difficulty LGB struggling adult readers have with
printed materials, and issues that LGB struggling adult literacy
students face in the classroom due to their sexual orientation.

Mev Miller has already graciously helped with her list of resources. We
are wondering if anyone else on this list can help with item a.

b. We plan to recruit and conduct focus groups/interviews with
individuals in adult literacy programs who self identify as LGB. Our
plan is to talk to classes about the project and hand out a flyer with a
telephone number for people to call if they are interested in
participating. This way they do not have to self-identify in front of
classmates/teachers. The focus of these focus groups/interviews will be
on issues related to the intersection of sexual orientation and
difficulty reading for these individuals. Anticipated topics of
discussion will include classroom climate and sexual orientation (for
example do students feel comfortable talking about their same sex
partners in the classroom-why/why not),  knowledge about the existence
of local LGB organizations, their involvement in LGB organized
activities (what types, why/why not), and if they are involved, their
perceptions of the literacy climate of LGB organizations (for example,
can they read and understand information provided by these
organizations).

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to recruit participants for our
study? We feel like we are charting new territory, and if anyone has
done work like this before, we would love any
suggestions/recommendations that you can send our way.

Many thanks in advance for your time, and I look forward to any help we
can get.

Be well,

Krista

-- 
"Unguard your heart, over and over; even when you don't want to ~ especially
when you don't want to." - David Deida
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