AHE 577

Learning Journey
Case Study

By K. Fuhrmeister
Fall 2016
Learning Journey Case Study 2

Introduction:
The following is an account and analysis of the learning journey of a 28 year old,
heterosexual, Hispanic man living in western Washington. For the sake of
confidentiality, he will be referred to by the pseudonym, Manny. Being that I am a
white, heterosexual woman of a similar age, I recognize that my ability to fully
comprehend the stories shared by Manny may be fairly limited at times. That said, I will
do the best that I can to accurately draw connections between his shared life story and
our course materials. The following case study will be divided largely in two parts. Part 1
will involve a general overview of Mannys story while Part 2 will include an analysis of
said journey as well as a few more relevant details from his life not previously shared. I
will start Mannys story from the beginning as I feel that his childhood experiences play
directly into the course of events of his adulthood.

Part 1: Mannys Educational Journey

Early Beginnings and Primary:
Manny was the first of two sons born to his Hispanic parents in a small town in
northwest Washington. His father spoke English and worked for the Seattle Parks and
Recreation Department, commuting long hours to and from Seattle each day. While his
mother, who was limited by her inability to speak English, set aside her dreams to
become a secretary and took up factory work.
Manny had very limited English skills when he first attended elementary school.
In our earliest interview, he laughed remembering how he learned a lot from watching
TV shows like the Ninja Turtles; phrases like Cowabunga Dude! were some of his first
English words. Manny explained that he picked up English fairly easily and that the
language difference did not present many challenges as he attended a bilingual
elementary school that taught classes in both English and Spanish up until the 4th grade.
In addition, the student population at this school was made up of roughly 65% Hispanic
students which in a way, made Manny part of the majority race there.
Things changed when he wound up attending a different elementary school for
4 through 6th grade due to a family move across town. This was the first time that
th

Manny had really experienced being of a minority race at school as his new school was
roughly 85% Caucasian. He commented that he was bullied for a few years at this
school by upper-class white kids but added that he felt that race was not a factor in
this as his Caucasian and African American friends were also picked on. Instead he said
he thinks the bullying took place more because they were outcasts. By 6th grade he
had joined a different friend group that was a bit more rough around the edges. This
change brought an end to his bullying issue.

Middle School & High School:

His grades in middle school started to fall a bit but they were still good enough to
get by. That said, if things were more challenging for Manny academically in middle
school, it got even worse in high school. It was not that Manny was not an intelligent
Learning Journey Case Study 3

student, but he did not see the value in school and states that he did not apply himself
as a result. Neither of his parents had completed high school and through hard work
they were able to provide a comfortable life for their family. Manny especially
referenced his dad with pride in his ability to work hard and keep a family, and stated
that he always envisioned following a similar path as his father. In our interview Manny
also referenced his young selfs dismissal of college as nonsense. Overall, Manny
wasnt much of a fan of school, he went because it was what his parents wanted. The
social aspect of school was at least one redeeming quality.
By the end of 9th grade he had already failed around four classes. His grades took
a turn for the better in 10th grade, but a month or two into his junior year his dad came
to him and asked if he would mind if they moved to California. His dad hated the cold of
the northwest and had never planned to stay as long as they had. Manny agreed and
really appreciated that his Dad had involved him in the decision. That same fall they
moved to the Temecula Valley in northern California. His family purchased a ranch style
home on some acreage, about 30-40 minutes away from any schools or towns. Over
time, the long school commutes and isolation were hard on his mother especially, so
they decided to move back to Washington after about six months. Manny was able to
finish his junior year in the same classes that he had started the year in.

Entering Adulthood:
Manny and his high school girlfriend got pregnant very early into his senior year.
As a result, there was some sort of falling out between him and his parents and he
stopped-out of high school the day that he turned 18. He and his girlfriend then moved
back to the Temecula Valley with his girlfriends one-year-old daughter. To support his
new family, Manny got a job working at an auto shop with his girlfriends uncle. He
recalls the monthly struggle to afford rent for a $1050.00, two-bedroom apartment, but
says that he didnt want to compromise their living situation and move to a more
affordable area where gangs would likely be an issue. He recalls that he had to grow up
fast, and that many times they would go a whole week with nothing to eat at all.
Sometime in June the next summer, his parents came down and met his
daughter. He says that they patched things up between them and he and his girlfriend
decided to move back up to Washington State. With the help of his parents and with
new knowledge of and access to governmental support programs, he and his young
family were able to get back on their feet. He paid a private school in a neighboring
town $500 to get his GED, as he fortunately had enough credits from high school to not
need to take any more classes. Manny also got a job at a low-end department type store
just before he and his girlfriend got married at 18 years old.
Shortly after their wedding, his wife helped him submit an application for a para-
educator position to the local school district. Not expecting to hear back, Manny was
surprised to be given an interview, and even more surprised to get a job offer shortly
thereafter. Since he did not have any post-secondary schooling, the one stipulation to
this job offer was that he would need to pass an employment test in under three
attempts. He recalls that he was able to pass the English, reading, and writing with flying
Learning Journey Case Study 4

colors, but had to study his ass off on the math section in order to pass it on his third
try.

Adulthood:
Manny worked as a para-educator for four years before he decided to enroll in
an apprenticeship program through his union in order to get a raise. In this program he
studied a great deal about early childhood education, brain development, and social-
emotional behaviors. He said it was mind-blowing to learn about these topics and it
was especially of benefit to his home life as he and his wife had just had another child.
There was a sense of transferability to what he was learning and what he was doing at
work and at home. Manny explained that he was satisfied to have completed half of the
aforementioned apprentice program (which was enough to get one half of his incentive
benefit) and did not feel the need or desire to continue his training to get the full
benefit.
Two years later, he applied and received a higher position at the same school as
a family advocate. In this position Manny serves as a voice for both the school and many
families of Hispanic students who may or may not have the English language skills to
communicate directly with school employees.
Today Manny still works as a parent advocate at the elementary school (which is
how we met) and is the father to three girlsa 13 year old (his step-daughter), a 10 year
old, and a 5 year old. He and his wife also run a cleaning business on the side and he
plans to support her as she makes headway to startup her own daycare facility as well.
Manny describes her as his rock and beamed with admiration as he shared about her
many talents and strong work ethic.
Currently, Manny is still on the fence about going back to school, he mentioned a
love for cars and also enjoys the idea of becoming a counselor or a psychologist
someday. He ended an interview by stating, that for now anyway, he is content with the
life that he has.

Part 2: Analysis
Andragogy:
The previous accounts of Mannys life thus far focus more heavily on formal
learning learning organized by educational institutions (Merriam & Bierema, 2014) as
well as the many non-formal learning opportunities (i.e. work trainings) that he has
attended for his job in the school district. That said, I get the sense that some of
Mannys favorite learning stems from the informal category; Merriam and Bierema
(2014) explain that informal learning involves a conscious effort on the learners part
such as learning how to play the guitar or taking a self-guided tour of a museum. In
Mannys case, his favorite informal learning content revolves around cars: how to fix
them, how to make them go faster; I can still seem him laugh happily as he explained his
fascination with headlights and how they add personality to a vehicle. This informal
learning largely falls into the category of self-directed learning because it is all planned
Learning Journey Case Study 5

and implemented by Manny (the learner) himself (Merriam & Bierema, 2014).
Mannys favorite way to learn about cars is through reading car magazines. For
many years he subscribed to three different magazines and read them cover to cover:
articles, tech tips, and all. He also enjoys looking up answers to specific problems
using Youtube videos or through peer-to-peer interaction with his father or friends.
Mannys desire to learn how to solve a specific car problem relates to Merriam and
Bieremas (2014) discussion about problem-based learning and how more often than
not, adult learning will fall into this category. Adults pursue this type of learning to solve
a problem with a desire for immediate application.
When prompted about his preferences for maximizing learning efficiency,
Manny explained that he learns best when someone can first show him what to do. For
the learning to really sink in, he says he then needs to go and practice the skill and/or
use the knowledge himself. He mentioned that this was commonly a problem when he
did not have broken car parts to work on and he would have to decide between less
concrete learning or potentially damaging his perfectly working car! I know that much of
the learning pyramid is controversial (ACRLog, n.d.), but I cant help but think about how
the pyramid insinuates that the more hands on a learner is able to get with new
material, the higher the retention will be. In Mannys case, I feel this directly relates to
his desire to practice his new learning directly on a vehicle.

Learning Theories:
Based on my conversations with Manny, it seems to me that he thrives in a more
humanist learning environments and that some of the least favorite learning
environments from his past took a more behaviorist approach. I say this because when
prompted about some of his favorite learning experiences, he often would recite stories
of a time when he worked as a teachers assistant (TA) before he stopped-out of high
school. He explained how much he liked to get to know his teachers on a more personal
level and how much more meaningful the teacher-student relationships felt. I feel that
this relates to some of what Rogers (1983) describes in his writings about student
centered learning, and taking a more of a facilitator roll to teaching. Rogers (1983) also
advocates for teaching to and connecting with the whole person. This is in contrast to
less favorable learning situations where Manny describes teachers as being overly strict
and using intimidation to get their desired result in the classroom. This relates to the
behaviorist ideal of adding a stimulus to an environment in order to incite desired
outcome (Merriam & Bierema, 2014).
Another learning theory that I would like to draw a connection to is the social
cognitive theory. Merriam and Bierema (2014) describe this concept of learning as
taking place by observing others and acquiring knowledge, skills strategies and beliefs
from observing others actions and the consequences of said actions. It seems to me,
that much of Mannys formed conceptions of his future prospects were based on what
he observed from his parents. The following is an excerpt from an interview
transcription (shown in the Appendix) and took place after Manny had been describing
how his parents worked hard to successfully provide a comfortable life for their family.
While there are many currents of social class and perhaps also culture evident in this
Learning Journey Case Study 6

excerpt, I do feel like it effectively captures much of Mannys early conceptions about
education.

Umm and I saw that [his parents working hard] and I realized that that is
probably what I am going to end up doing. You know, working at construction
and making good money to support my family cuz thats whats important;
school is just not for me. And I didnt know that you could, you know, work in an
office job and make a good living and do all that. Probably because I was not
around that, you know? Cuz that was not what was going on at my house, so I
would see that more in richer homes, you know? Families who have college
degrees and all that stuff. And I already hated going to school, so I was like Im
not going to go to college and do all that; naw, thats nonsense.

Many of Mannys views of education have clearly changed since his late teens,
he now sees education as being a useful stepping stone for opening up new career
opportunities and a way to further engage in personal hobbies; which brings me to one
last learning theory that I would like to discuss, and that is transformative learning.
When prompted about the most transformational time in his life, Manny will
very quickly cite the year he turned 18 when he went from living at home with his
parents to being a parent to two children and the sole provider for his new family.
Manny explained that having a child so young wasnt something that he had planned,
but it was something that he had planned for the future, so he thought well I might as
well do it now. He explained to me that this time in his life made him realize that life
isnt just about partying. He had to grow up fast and made many sacrifices. Merriam and
Bierema (2014) state that transformative learning involves critiquing and personal
assumptions and exchanging them for a new perspective through personal experiences.
I certainly feel that Manny exhibited a shift in perspective during this time as he was
thrown in to what he referred to as full on adulthood.

Participation, Persistence, and Motivation:

It seems like to some extent, motivation in school was an issue for Manny when
he was growing up. He knew that his parents had not completed high school, let alone
engaged in higher education and observed that they were still able to provide a nice life
for their family. As discussed above, Manny himself stated that growing up, he didnt
see himself doing much different.
Merriam and Bierema (2014) explain that adults are motivated by wanting to
improve their situation in their adult life, whether the situation is work related, personal
(such as improving their health or dealing with family issues, or social community
related. In this case, Manny eventually went back to school and completed half of an
apprenticeship program in order to get a raise; more of an extrinsic motivator. That said,
Manny is also very intrinsically motivated to learn about cars and engages in
independent self-directed learning to pursue this interest.
Something that Manny said in our interview made me wonder if he had realized
earlier that he was good at learning, or that he could enjoy it in high school, how this
Learning Journey Case Study 7

would have impacted his educational journey today. In our interview Manny recalled
this same thought process when he said I learned so much from reading in my car
magazines I was like if I would have applied this in psychology or anything else like that,
I mean I could have done really, really good.

Diversity:
I wanted to use this space to share some data about the engagement of Hispanic
students in adult and higher education. According to the Western Interstate
Commission of Higher Education (2008), Latino students are the fastest growing section
of students in the United States and the largest minority group in primary and
secondary schools. Because of this fact, (Handel & Montoya, 2012) state that: the
political and economic well-being of the United States rests upon significantly increasing
the number of Latinos completing college.
It is clear that Hispanic and Latino engagement in education is important,
however, their academic performance in education is currently not as high as other
ethnicities. Ryu (2010) found that measures of academic achievement for Latino
students were much lower as compared to Asian or white students. There is also worry
that Latino and Hispanic students do not have access to the same at-home supports in
order to navigate their way to and through the higher education system. This is because
many Latino students have parents that have never attended school in the United States
themselves (and thus, do not understand the system) and 40% of Latino students
mothers have not completed high school (Contreras, Flores-Ragade, Lee, and McGuire,
2011).
These situations may be very realistic for Manny, as I believe his mother had
immigrated from Mexico and neither of his parents had completed high school. Mannys
previous quotes also support some of this data as he had voiced an initial opinion that
he was destined to be a manual laborer and that some of those higher paying jobs were
for richer homes and families that have college degrees.

Recommendations (Theories in Practice):

I agree with Merriam and Bieremas (2014) statement that ..our [teaching]
practice is enhanced by knowing as much as we can about who our learners are as well
as how they learn. Knowing what I know now from this course combined with what I
know about Mannys educational journey to date, I have several recommendations for
educators teaching students similar to Manny.

To Secondary Education and Adult and Higher Education Professionals:

I would recommend that you employ a more humanist approach to teaching by:
1. Giving your students choice Let the student select a subject that they are
passionate about to get them engaged with the learning skills, the process of
learning, and to increase their motivation and confidence for learning. I believe
this will set these students up for more success as they enter adulthood. There is
no one-size fits all approach to learning, after all, and: 2. I would you as a
teacher, to build professional but real relationships with your students.
Learning Journey Case Study 8

Work with your learners to either decide on or convey the benefits of your
educational program. How will this positively impact their life?
Be aware of cultural differences and be sensitive to obstacles your students may
have had to overcome to get to the point where they are now.
Provide or facilitate opportunities for students to physically practice the course
concepts on their own.

References:
ACRLog. (n.d.). Tales of the undeadlearning theories: The learning pyramid. Retrieved from

http://acrlog.org/2014/01/13/tales-of-the-undead-learning-theories-the-learning-pyramid/

Contreras, F., Flores-Ragade, A., Lee, J. M., and McGuire, K. M. (2011). The College Completion Agenda:

Research and Context Brief (Latino Edition). New York: The College Board. Retrieved November

14, 2016 from

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/public/pdf/rd/context_brief_latino_2011.pdf

Handel, S. & Montoya, J. (2012). Increasing student participation in higher education:

New collaborations for new populations. Retrieved from https://secure-

media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/rd/NewCollabs_NewPopulations%20_Handel-

Montoya.pdf

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco, CA:

Jossey-Bass, a Wiley brand.

Rivera, L. (2008). Laboring to learn: Women's literacy and poverty in the post-welfare era. Urbana:

University of Illinois Press.

Rogers, C. R. (1983). Freedom to learn for the 80's. Columbus, OH: C.E. Merrill Pub.

Ryu, M. (2010). Understanding Key Characteristics of the U.S. Hispanic Population. In Minorities in

Higher Education: Twenty-fourth Status Report. Washington DC: American Council on Education.

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (2008). Knocking at the College Door Projections of

High School Graduates by State and Race/ Ethnicity, 1992-2022. Boulder, CO: Western Interstate

Commission for Higher Education.

Learning Journey Case Study 9

Appendix:
Interview Transcript:

Interviewer: Kara fuhrmeister
Respondent: Manny (A pseudonym)
Interview Setting: A sports bar chosen by the respondent.
[Towards the end of the first interview]

Interviewer: Is there anything missing from the picture of your educational journey?

Respondent: Well to me work always seemed a little more I guess, important. Which is
why my idea of going to school and learning wasnt a big thing to me. Because my dad
worked construction all his life and I dont know if he graduated or not. I know he made
it to high school and I think he went to 11th or 12th grade but I just dont think he
graduated and same thing with my Mom. But I always saw my Dad working hard, thats
what he did. He worked hard. He would commute from here to Seattle everyday for
seven years, you know, waking up super early in the morning and coming back really
late. You know, thankfully for him, we lived a pretty decent life, you know, we lived a
middle class life.

Interviewer: Was he working on skyscraper type buildings?

Respondent: No he was actually working for the parks department. But he worked
himself up from the bottom pretty much. He started driving these big dump trucks
where he was getting paid more and doing less laborious work because he was just
driving around. So I saw all that and I was like You know what? Thats the kind of
person, the kind of man that I want to be. I want to be just like my dad. You know he
works hard, he supports us, we have everything we need. Umm, you know, we have
clothes on our backs, food on our table, all that.
My Mom was the same way. She was always working. She would be working at factories
and she didnt have the English skills so thats why she would be working at something
like that but she always wanted to be a secretary; that was like her biggest thing.
Growing up she was always like Oh, I want to be a secretary, I want to do this. Umm,
but because of her inability to speak English it inhibited her from doing something like
that. But she was always working hard. Umm and I saw that and I realized that that is
probably what I am going to end up doing. You know, working at construction and
making good money to support my family cuz thats whats important; school is just not
for me. And I didnt know that you could, you know, work in an office job and make a
good living and do all that. Probably because I was not around that, you know? Cuz that
was not what was going on at my house so I would see that more in richer homes, you
know? Families who have college degrees and all that stuff. And I already hated going to
school, so I was like Im not going to go to college and do all that; naw, thats nonsense.
So thats what also I think kept me from doing as much or better in school than I really
Learning Journey Case Study 10

put forth. I did the basic and enough to get by, but I didnt really apply myself. Whereas
my brother would apply himself, because he was younger, he didnt really see what was
going on. And I was the oldest one, I would be more aware of a lot of the grown up stuff
and things like that that were going on. So yeah, I think that is what really caused me to
not do my best in school. Cuz I look at it now and like math, I took all my math in college
and I got up to where I could go to like pre-calc or something like that. And I learned all
of it and I was like Man, this is, this is pretty easy if I would have applied myself, I
could have learned and picked up all this stuff and started college classes in pre-calc.
instead of doing all the basic Ed. classes from high school, you know? So I was like okay,
thats not too bad and then reading and writing, again like I said, I learned so much
from reading in my car magazines I was like if I would have applied this in psychology or
anything else like that, I mean I could have done really, really good. I even took a
psychology class and I loved learning about that. I always thought about um, being a
counselor or a psychologist because I like helping people.
[The interview continued for a few more minutes.]

Learning Journey Timeline:

Mannys Learning Journey Timeline

Learning Journey Case Study 11

Informed Consent:

Learning Journey Case Study 12