THE EXPERIENCE OF GRIEVING, TRAUMA, AND VIOLENCE: The Forgotten Adult Learner
Creators: name: Zabitgil Gülseren, Ö.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009

description: Violence related deaths and after-effect of trauma on the learner is a topic that received barely any attention in adult literacy and education. Experience of violent death is a serious barrier for participation and learning of adults. My experience as a female grieving adult learner and educator verified having to go through bereavement complications without adequate recognition or support from the educational world. This research inquiry comes from the experience of the researcher in the aftermath of violent death of her primary family members. Various databases and library journals hardly found any results when I typed in the key words grief, death, trauma, adult, literacy, education, adult education, and adult literacy. A similar lack of attention and avoidance of death is also observable in the U.S. culture: "... survivors often feel confused and inadequate in responding to their own feelings when someone dies or to the feeling of others with whom they share the loss" (Stephenson, 1985, p. 12). This cultural response is also prevalent in adult education where the line drawn between intellect and emotion, public and private, is a strong one. Lack of attention to this topic has serious consequences for learning of adults, and can result in drop-outs. Therefore, death and aftereffect of death, especially violent-death is a significant research topic to explore in adult education and literacy.
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