Description:
This article explores some propositions about how students’ everyday<br />lives may interact with their success at learning in a large Further Education<br />College in England. Some students, on paper, have all the appropriate entry<br />qualifications, but still struggle to complete their courses. Indeed, some do<br />not complete at all. So, what could be done to help these students achieve<br />success? As a member of a large-scale research project team, I have been<br />investigating the home literacies of further education students. Papen<br />(2005a:14) points out that ‘it is useful and necessary before any intervention<br />can be planned, to carry out research which identifies learners’ everyday<br />literacy practices’. Of course, there are many other aspects of people’s<br />everyday lives that will influence their learning success. However, in this<br />article I want to focus on the possibility of the influence of home literacy<br />practices, by exploring how the reading and writing in the everyday lives of<br />students could be drawn upon and utilized in order to help these students to<br />succeed on their chosen college courses.