Summary

This study examined the relationships between student resistance and student attendance in an ABE classroom. It found that adult students generally displayed resistance behaviours, and that that resistance was expressed in a variety of ways. It also found that the students who:

1. dropped out displayed more of the withdrawal type of resistance;
2. attended sporadically displayed almost no resistant behaviour;
3. attended regularly displayed more, and more varied, forms of resistance.

These findings suggest that retention increases if ABE teachers learn to recognize, value, and encourage student resistance as a positive attempt on the part of the adult student to maintain dignity and pride in their marginalized identities and to assert that identity while participating in the very dominant discourse which tends to devalue it. It suggests that teachers who learn to work with resistance, as opposed to discouraging it, will enhance student learning and ABE retention.