Women and Literacy
Gatehouse writer Maria McNamara, author of Getting Better, and her tutor, Dr Vicky Duckworth, were featured on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, discussing the impact of poor literacy and learning to read and write as an adult. Marie described to Jenni Murray how she left school with very poor literacy skills but, with Vicki's help and a great deal of hard work and determination, Marie was eventually able to go to university and is now a qualified nurse.
In the candid interview, Vicky described how she was inspired to go into teaching adults to read and write based on her own experience of Further Education and, importantly, to inspire and empower adults who, not achieving at school, often due to the impact of poverty and struggling with dominant literacy, were labelled and pathologised.