LEARNING COMMUNITIES: Building on the Foundations of Adult Education for the Future Knowledgebased S

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LEARNING COMMUNITIESBuilding on the Foundations
of Adult Education for the Future Knowledge-based
Society

• Ron Faris Ph. D.
• Stockholm
• March 18, 2004

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THE ANTIGONISH MOVEMENT

• Antigonish region of Nova Scotia
• St.Francis Xavier University - 1928
• Adult Education for Social Action
• Radio listening groups
• Listen - Study - Discuss - Act
• Cooperative and credit union development
• Coady International Institute

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Masters of Their Own DestinyMoses Coady , 1939
We have no desire to create a nation of
shopkeepers, whose only thoughts run to
groceries and to dividends . If they are wise
they will create the instruments to obtain them.
They will usher in the new day by attending to
the blessings of the old. They will use what
they have to secure what they have not.
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Take from the Altar of the Past the Fire, not the
Ashes - Jaures

• Social movement
• Formal non-formal learning linkage
• Education for
• Community economic development
• Democracy active citizenship
• Use of current technology

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STATEMENT OF PURPOSECAAE, 1946
The adult education movement is based on the
belief that quite ordinary men and women have
within themselves and their communities the
spiritual and intellectual resources adequate to
the solution of their own problems.
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KEY GLOBAL TRENDS

• Three inter-related drivers of change
• Globalization
• Technological change
• New knowledge and learning
• From resource-based to knowledge-based economy
• Human social capital
• New literacy learning technologies

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LEARNING COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

• EUROPE
• OECD Learning Regions - Spain, France,
  Denmark-Sweden UK
• Learning Communities Network - UK Finland
• Learning Villages - Finland, Portugal Italy
• AUSTRALIA
• Learning Communities Network
• Victoria Learning Towns
• CANADA
• Community Learning Networks

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LEARNING COMMUNITIES A DEFINITION

• Neighbourhoods, villages, towns, cities or
  regions that explicitly use lifelong learning as
  an organizing principle and social goal in order
  to promote collaboration of their civic,
  economic, public, voluntary and education sectors
  to enhance social, economic and environmental
  conditions on a sustainable, inclusive basis
• An OECD/UK structural/process model

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SWEDEN BRITISH COLUMBIA COMPARISON
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UPPER SKEENACHALLENGES

• The Land resources
• 75 Gitxsan First Nation nation building
• 50 ? 90 unemployment
• 70 youth - many at-risk
• Inter-generational divide
• Diminishing stock of human/social capital

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UPPER SKEENAINITIATIVES

• Small-scale agricultural projects
• Gitsegukla Valley Farms (12 employees)
• Industrial Hemp Oil
• Youth service-learning
• Book Bags for Babies
• School trail projects
• Outdoor/Tech café project
• Learning Shop
• Jam sessions
• Gitxsan evenings

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SOME LEARNING COMMUNITY PRIORITIES

• Upper Skeena community self-reliance/diversity
• Whistler-Mt Currie equitable employment
• Lillooet Lifelong learning centre - literacy
• Learning Canyon multi-purpose co-op
• Building bridges between FN non-FN communities
• Lumby value-added forest production
• Victoria organic farming/youth entrepreneurship
• Building bridges between rural urban communities

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ELEMENTS OF A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

• Lifelong Learning - Organizing Principle
• Ecological Models - Natural Sciences
• Human Development - Health Social
  Sciences
• Political Economy - Human/Social Capital
• Community Economic Development - Community
  Spirit Values

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LIFELONG LEARNING AN ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE

• Two dimensions - cross hairs
• Vertical or life-span
• Horizontal or life-wide
• Value all forms of learning
• Learning - a social process
• Informed by research
• Neuroscience/health determinants
• Wider benefits of learning
• Education Training Float on a Sea of Learning

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AN ECOLOGICAL MODEL

• Implications for human communities
• Social Organization - Shift from hierarchies to
  networking
• Cooperation Partnerships - All community
  sectors mobilized
• Diversity Sustainability
• Capra (1996 2000)

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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

• Early experience impacts on brain behavioral
  development
• Socio-economic status, school achievement
  health are linked
• Schools communities can enhance social
  intellectual growth
• Societies with sharp socio-economic differences
  have lower overall health well-being than those
  with less pronounced differences
• Keating Hertzman (1999)

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POLITICAL ECONOMY

• Human capital investment in edn/training
• health (formal learning)
• Social capital emphasizes learning from
  relationships and networks (non-formal learning)
• Synergy between human social capital are
  intangible assets of a knowledge-based society
• Communicative Competence is crucial
• Simon Szreter (2000)

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SOCIAL HUMAN CAPITAL
Tom Schuller (1998)
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Learning is a social, not an individual activity.
Communities are not aggregations of individuals
but interactions among individuals -
conversations and storytelling are
central. Lester Thurow, The Future of
Capitalism, 1996, p.304
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COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT VALUES

• Balance citizen rights responsibilities
• Devolve resources and power to communities with
  increased capacity of learning and information
  technologies
• Mobilize human/social capital to foster
  sustainable local economic development, social
  inclusion cohesion

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CONCEPTUAL SUMMARY

• Core concepts
• Communities - are all about relationships,
  partnerships, networking and learning
• Community learning networks - driven by purpose,
  not technology
• Think globally Act locally - Networking enables
  Glocalization

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SUSTAINABILITY

• Four inter-related aspects fostered by Learning
  Communities
• Environmental
• future generations matter
• diversity increases probability of sustainability
• Economic
• IKEA/Scandics Natural Step e.g. Whistler
• eco-certification
• Partnerships Networking
• increase probability of sustainability
• Learning
• acquisition of new knowledge skills
• enables changed attitudes behaviour

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SUCCESS DETERMINANTS 3 Ps

• Learning how to
• Build Partnerships
• Foster Participation
• Assess Performance
• - DFEE, 1998, Practice, Progress and Value, p. iv
• Build on existing assets/initiatives

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EVALUATION AS A LEARNING PROCESS

• Community set goals and objectives
• Measurable, achievable Learning Targets and
  outcomes
• Action, participative research approach
• Evaluation as a community learning process
• Build community capacity for self-evaluation
• Genuine Progress Indicators - sustainable
  development

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SELECTED REFERENCES

• Capra, Fritjof, 1996, The Web of Life, Anchor
  Books, New York.
• , 2002, The Hidden Connections, Doubleday,
• New York.
• Florida, Richard, 2004, The Rise of the Creative
  Class, Basic Books, New York.
• Keating, Daniel Clyde Hertzman, 1999,
  Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations,
  Guildford Press, New York.
• Milner, Henry, 2002, Civic Literacy How Informed
  Citizens Make Democracy Work, University Press of
  New England, Hanover.

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SELECTED REFERENCES

• Natrass,B. Altomare, M., 1999, The Natural Step
  for Business, New Society Publishers, Gabriola
  Island.
• OECD, 2001, The Well-being of Nations, Paris.
• , 1996, Lifelong Learning For All,
  Paris.
• Putnam, Robert, 2000, Bowling Alone, Simon
  Schuster, New York.
• , 2003, Better Together, Simon
  Schuster, New York.
• Schuller, Tom, 1998, Three Steps Towards a
  Learning Society, Studies in the Education of
  Adults, Vol. 30 No.1, pp. 1-20.

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SELECTED REFERENCES

• Szreter, Simon, 2000, Social Capital, the
  Economy, and Education in Historical
  Perspective, Social Capital, Oxford University
  Press, Oxford.
• Thomas, Alan M., Beyond Education A New
  Perspective on Societys Management of Learning,
  Jossey-Bass, New York.
• UNESCO, 1996, Learning The Treasure Within,
  Paris.
• www.caledoninst.org , 2004, Five B.C. learning
  community stories
• http//members.shaw.ca/rfaris Lifelong learning
  communities home page