How DO we learn…to tackle Coles/Woolies???

PWF writes regularly about the achievements of Neighbourhood/Community Houses/Learning Centres but until a discussion with Dr Helen Sheil recently we hadn’t realised that ‘lifelong learning’ is education’s ‘poor cousin’ and there is no career pathway for those who teach adult ed.

When you think about it a huge amount of resources go into adult community education, community consultation and small business support as well as professional development within large organisations.

In so many ways we deal with the need to ‘educate adults’. On the web you can find many Council manuals (pdf) for community consultation and the Local Government Act says Councils have to consult BUT,

• Do council officers know how adults learn?
• Do they have professional skills in this area?
• Will the consultation mean anything if people are not ‘engaged’?

Today, in response to Climate Change and sustainability issues in particular, adults are seeking to learn more and more in local communities.

www.worldwatch.org reports that people see vibrant, liveable communities, family farms, independent local businesses, community newspapers, local artists & craftspeople, entire eco-systems disappearing and want to do something to preserve the world we’re passing on to our kids. They want a more personally fulfilling & socially responsible way to business success AND they are learning how to do this in the local community context.

Real world experience tells us that:

• people can relate to a case study, eg of a similar small business, or a like-minded community project, and this tends to be the best learning tool.
• if they can share in a ‘vision of what might be’ eg a picture of what a ‘sustainable future’ might mean for a community, they tend to accept responsibility for making it work (Jan Carlzon, former CEO SAS Airlines in ‘Moments of Truth’).
• if they believe they can contribute to a specific community goal, the shared sense of purpose leads to the dream being fiercely chased by all on many fronts (Dalmau & Dick ‘Small groups as vehicles for cultural change’).

Some successes in this area:

• The UK’s Greenlinks Directory – for every local area – is very different from the already-existing national centralised Green directories which creates ‘bio-regions’ only through a computer search facility. Greenlinks helps stimulate awareness and customer loyalty with standards based on local knowledge and trust.
• In the US BALLE has tripled in size over the last 15 months, now representing 45 local business networks, 2,000 companies & community organizations. The ‘think local first’ network creates a database of ‘local good guys’ making it easy to find local businesses with the products & services the community needs. You can follow the BALLE Conference beginning 31 May 2007.
• The international Green Map System (GMS) ‘Think Global, Map Local’ promotes ‘inclusive participation in sustainable community development’ around the world, using mapmaking as the medium. Teams of local mapmakers use GMS’ adaptable tools and universal iconography along with local knowledge and leadership to chart green living, ecological, social and cultural resources.
• In Oz the IGA’s (Independent Grocers Association) ‘Local Heroes’ campaign ‘putting money back into your neighbourhood’ is doing well as it fights the Coles/Woolies duopoly AND educates us about Australian owned and made grocery items in the 5 page list in their free Fight Back for Australia booklet available at the stores.
• Local community Climate Change groups are spreading like wildfire around the country – all holding events with expert speakers so the issues can be clarified and people can learn.

All of the above start with a small local group influencing others by word of mouth.

Moving from this ‘natural engagement of adults’ to more formal education…

Currently there is a National Reform Agenda underway for COAG as the vocational training and education system faces a number of challenges to meet the increased demand for higher level skills and to provide training opportunities for unqualified adults.

Adult Learning Australia agrees that the community sector should work as an ‘outreach arm’ of Vocational & Technical Education using its community linkages to engage adults into the system. It says the community sector can strengthen the pathways from non-formal learning to formal training in workplaces and the community ..and these will be ‘more valued than in the past’.

BUT it seems these ‘engagement’ skills are not ‘named’ as ‘general transportable skills’ by the education industry though they should surely be part of an educator’s professional development.

Helen Sheil, after years of research and community engagement projects, has developed nine strategies for collaborative adult education based on social justice and ecological sustainability. They reflect and amplify what is happening ‘out there’.

It’s to be hoped this approach will be adopted as essential to a professional educator’s range of skills and that careers in adult learning will lead to sustainable community development.

Helen can be contacted through PWF.

Strategies for collaborative adult education

Dialogue

– Ask and listen. Be a partner. Develop language. Respect differences. Be vulnerable and humble.

Time

– Change takes time. Trust takes time. Personal and community development takes time.

Visioning

– Safe environment. Share dreams.

Community ownership

– Support don’t direct. Nurture. Develop skills/knowledge.

Networking

– Gatherings. Newsletters/chat lines. Radio. Invitations/visits.

Cooperative culture

– Open and generous. Mutual development. Working together. Group participation.

Action

– Implementing change. Learning skills. Being responsible. Celebrating the milestones.

Transformation

– New confidence and involvement. New stories. New language.

Reflection,

– Constructively evaluate. Grow stronger. Include others. Use process to educate.