Self-authored motivations of US adult basic education English learners

Author: Jennifer Ouellette-Schramm
Walden University, USA

Edition: Volume 63, Number 2, July 2023

Introduction: Many adult English learners enroll in U.S. Adult Basic Education programs every year. The federally defined goal of these programs is to increase adult learners’ skills to enable them to enter the workforce, but it is not clear whether this purpose matches learners’ own motivations for entering these programs. Using the lens of self-authorship theory of adult development, this small qualitative case study investigated learning motivations among three adult Els in an Adult Basic Education college and career preparation class. Data included two qualitative interviews per participant, demographic questionnaires, and reading scores. Interviews were analyzed using the grounded theory approach to qualitative interview analysis. This study presents findings unique to three learners in this study, which was part of a larger cases study investigating learning experiences of nine adult learners from an adult developmental perspective. The three learners in this study constructed meaning from a developmental perspective growing toward self-authorship, characterized by orienting to an internal authority and self-defined goals. This article discusses these distinct self-authored learning motivations and offers implications for adult education programs to respond to the selfauthored learning motivations of adult English learners.

Keywords: self-authorship, adult development, adult basic education,
learning motivation

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 63:2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.