Capitalizing on the Mobilization and Advocacy Potential of Adult Learners
Weeks and Learning Festivals
Conclusions and Policy Recommendations from the IntALWinE Network Partners
“Lifelong learning is, however, about much more than economics.
It also promotes the goals and ambitions of European countries to become
more inclusive, tolerant and democratic. And it promises a Europe in which
citizens have the opportunity and ability to realize their ambitions and
to participate in building a better society.”
- “Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality”,
Communication from the European Commission, November 2001
“The challenge for the Member States is two-fold: to increase
the overall volume of participation in adult learning, and to address
the imbalances in participation in order to achieve a more equitable picture,
by motivating, encouraging, enabling and supporting the adults least likely
to participate in learning in all its modes, formal, non-formal and informal.
This requires targeted public investment to reach those who have been
least well-served by education and training systems in the past.”
- “Adult learning: It is never too late to learn”,
Communication from the European Commission, October 2006
Across Europe, there is a determination to embed national and trans-national
education and training strategies into an overarching lifelong learning
paradigm. Whatever present or future challenges are discussed at policy
level, lifelong learning has become a major focus for governments, civil
society organizations, the private sector and social movements. While
children and youth are catered for through their formal education and
training pathways, it is adults and the diversity of their ongoing lifelong
learning activities which are mainly addressed through this discourse.
In their 2001 Communication on lifelong learning, the European Commission
clearly defined lifelong learning as encompassing the whole spectrum of
formal, non-formal and informal learning, and identified active citizenship,
personal fulfillment, social inclusion and employability as the objectives.
The Commission called upon their Member States to develop coherent and
comprehensive lifelong learning structures which are based on the centrality
of learners and guarantee that relevant quality learning opportunities
are accessible to all. Creating partnerships, providing adequate resources
and building a culture of learning were suggested as strategies for social
cohesion within environments that are increasingly marked by social disparities
and cultural diversity.
Yet, five years later, the Commission’s 2006 Communication on adult
learning had to admit that “Adult learning has not always gained
the recognition it deserves in terms of visibility, policy prioritization
and resources, notwithstanding the political emphasis placed on lifelong
learning in recent years.” Participation rates of adults in learning
remain very low in all European countries. In particular marginalized
parts of the population, including the low-qualified, unemployed and migrants,
continue to be excluded from learning opportunities.
How then to include the excluded into the lifelong learning societies?
How to “lift the barriers to participation”, as the 2006 Communication
demands?
Adult educators and policy makers in every country have been faced with
this central challenge, which has to be tackled from both the supply and
the demand side. Ensuring quality and relevance of adult learning provision,
synergizing and maximizing conditions through cooperation and, last but
not least, providing adequate resources is imperative in order to increase
participation in adult learning, and it is one side of the coin. On the
other side, adults themselves need to be targeted: they need to be sensitized
and mobilized in order to develop the desire to take up learning again.
They need to know what is on offer, they need to know why learning would
make sense to them and, in many cases, they first of all need to be reached.
Precisely to address this two-fold challenge, adult learners’ weeks
(ALWs) and learning festivals came into being. ALWs and learning festivals
are special advocacy and mobilization campaigns for lifelong learning.
They work on the supply side, building alliances and partnerships between
policy makers, adult learning providers, cultural institutions and media,
thereby helping to build lifelong learning cultures. Yet, ALWs and learning
festivals equally work on the demand side, raising the awareness on the
value of lifelong learning and motivating, encouraging and supporting
potential new learners.
The value and effectiveness of ALWs and learning festivals has been recognized
internationally by the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education
(CONFINTEA V) in 1997 and by UNESCO in 2000. Ever since, a growing number
of countries worldwide have developed their own learning festival to rally
for lifelong learning.
Against this background, we, the coordinators of ALWs and learning festivals
from fifteen European countries who have participated in this Grundtvig
network supported by the European Commission, appeal to all stakeholders
to continue and renew their support and commitment to ALWs and learning
festivals according to their possibilities of intervention. On the basis
of the advocacy and mobilization work we have carried out in our respective
countries as well as through our trans-national cooperation, and with
a view to the Action Plan which the European Commission is planning to
develop in 2007 in order to ensure the effective follow-up of their 2006
Communication, we are highlighting the benefits of ALWs and learning festivals
for policy makers and adult learning providers and are offering the following
recommendations:
To Policy Makers
(National Governments, Local and Regional Governing Bodies, International
Agencies)
A. Benefits of ALWs and Learning Festivals
ALWs and learning festivals create broad public visibility for the diversity
of learning opportunities and the excitement created by learning. They
communicate the value of lifelong learning, and motivate more adults to
take up or return to learning. Awarding learners for their achievements
does not only celebrate and honour individual adults, but encourages other
adults to follow the successful examples.
ALWs and learning festivals help create and develop partnerships between
governments and civil society organizations and social partners at local,
regional and national levels, namely between policy makers, classical
and non-traditional learning providers, sponsors, media, employers’
associations and trade unions. This process improves efficiency at all
fronts, and helps build capacities in planning, management and programme
design of all actors involved.
ALWs and learning festivals put learners and their voices at the centre
and give a public arena to their learning needs, interests and concerns.
They often are the springboard for establishing adult learners’
forums and networks where adult learners can articulate their perspectives
and speak - even to policy makers - on their own behalf, which helps develop
needs-based education policies, strategies and provision.
ALWs and learning festivals address particular groups, such as immigrants,
cultural minorities, people with disabilities or those with basic skills
needs, who are least likely to participate in learning, thus contributing
to social inclusion.
ALWs and learning festivals are national campaigns based on regional
and local activities, which include further promotion of learning and
a huge programme of guidance to learning activities. The central coordinating
function of the organizer supports the development of regional and local
community-based partnerships, which implement activities to address local
needs.
ALWs and learning festivals are inclusive of all learning approaches
and modes, formats and places. They help to overcome the boundaries between
formal, non-formal and informal learning modes, thereby contributing to
a holistic understanding of lifelong learning and the development of lifelong
learning cultures.
ALWs and learning festivals provide a public arena for debate and dialogue.
They offer opportunities to propose, discuss and sift the ground for education
policies. And – if desired – they provide the floor for politicians
to issue statements or make appearances in the media.
And finally, through all of the above, ALWs and learning festivals contribute
to active citizenship and social cohesion.
B. Key Recommendations
1. In light of the multiple benefits, governments (at local, regional,
national level) should acknowledge the uniqueness and value of ALWs and
learning festivals and provide financial resources as core funding for
the campaigns in every country to guarantee the professional management
and coordination.
2. Aside from direct financial support, organizers of ALWs and learning
festivals are greatly helped by a variety of indirect material support
from governmental bodies, such as access to governmental buildings, locations
and facilities, or the possibility of using printing venues or means of
transport. Governments (at local, regional, national level) should welcome
coordinators of ALWS and learning festivals and offer all sorts of indirect
support.
3. Governments (at local, regional, national level) should also consider
backing up ALWs and learning festivals through being open to a concerted
thematic approach in a given year. The propagation of education, cultural
and employment policies can be helped by being advocated for through the
ALWs and learning festivals, while the festivals can raise funds through
aligning themselves to major governmental initiatives.
4. Representatives of governments (at local, regional, national level)
should consider taking part in events and activities of ALWs and learning
festivals. This will help raise the profile of the learning festival,
and will enable the representatives to gain a public forum. Governments
might also be ready to organize certain evens in the framework of an ALWs
and learning festivals, such as professional meetings or international
encounters.
5. The implementation of international, national, regional and local
strategies and development plans in lifelong learning highly depends on
the involvement of all stakeholders – from practitioners to researchers,
from learners to education/learning providers and politicians, media representatives
etc. ALWs and learning festivals should be recognized and tapped as tools
for sensitizing, informing and motivating stakeholders thereby building
a platform for joint action.
6. As there is a lack of research about the impact of the participation
into learning processes, governments should support further research focused
on the overall added value which lifelong learning generates for individuals
and societies. There is equally a demand for participation surveys to
inform policy-makers about who is not learning and which are major obstacles
to their participation.
7. International governmental agencies (EU, UNESCO) should continue to
lend technical, financial and moral support to ALWs and learning festivals.
Transnational cooperation frameworks should be maintained and improved.
However, ALWs and learning festivals are embedded in national and local
contexts, and need to be in line with national and local needs, themes
and rhythms. Frameworks for international ALWs and learning festivals
should be based on the principle of diversity. While there is no need
to standardize everything (name, target groups, timing or individual thematic
foci), creative means should be explored to ensure continued transnational
coherence.
8. The Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission will greatly
help many European trans-national cooperation projects in adult learning
in the coming seven years. While the present Grundtvig network is coming
to a close, the Commission should continue to fund cooperation projects
and partnerships which will follow-up on the work accomplished by the
present network. Yet, it will be of imperative importance to reformulate
the budget structures in order to compensate more justly to the actual
work invested by project partners, aside from direct costs.
To Adult Learning Providers, Cultural Institutions and Media
(Organizers of and Contributors to ALWs and Learning Festivals)
A. Benefits of ALWs and Learning Festivals
Being part of or even coordinating an ALW or learning festival means
to engage in mobilization on all fronts, initiating new or refreshing
old links with cooperation partners, lobbying for lifelong learning and
investing time and resources in publicity work.
This process raises the profile of involved adult learning providers
or cultural institutions, both within the field of education as well as
towards the general public. It will make any organization better equipped
to promote its own courses to learners, and thus to raise its income through
course fees. In addition, the organization will enhance its capacities,
both of individual staff members as well as institutionally.
The advocacy potential of ALWs and learning festivals can also be used
to influence the current policy framework in which adult learning providers
and cultural institutions are forced to operate. Through the alliances
and contacts created as well as through the publicity, it is easier to
raise a collective voice and to create political pressure for the implementation
of lifelong learning polices and goals in adult education. At the same
time, smaller local organizations receive the opportunity to learn about
theses policies and goals.
Adult learners are at the heart of adult learning providers. The improved
cooperation generated through ALWs and learning festivals enables involved
organizations to harness themes which will mobilize and activate learners,
not only during the festival but throughout the year and in diverse settings.
It will also be conducive to creating more opportunities for learners
to meet and to express themselves, possibly leading to learners’
forums and networks as established mechanism of consultation.
B. Key Recommendations
9. ALWs and learning festivals can build a “bridge from sofa to
classroom”. Adult learning providers and cultural institutions should
work in collaboration, including media, representatives of governing bodies
and employers. Time should be invested to create a systematic network
which is continually provided with information and reminders and helps
to extend the reach-out potential. The created network should become part
of the community or region and should be regarded as an added value to
the prospering and developing a lively powerful region.
10. Publicity and public relations should be embraced as necessary and
positive key components of any campaign. Providers should be bold enough
to think out of their own box and use their creativity, for instance approaching
famous people (CEOs, actors, artists, athletes etc) and politicians to
offer statements about their views on and experiences of adult learning.
11. While there is a continuous need for making changes and adapting
to current debates and policy priorities (e.g. new themes, new approaches,
new partners and new initiatives), organizers should ensure sustainability
by keeping the basic structures and cooperation partners on board. There
should be a reasonable balance between continuity, flexibility and innovative
approaches to keep the concept fresh and attractive for the public.
12. Adult learners should be recognized as partners and should be involved
in all contexts where policy initiatives for adult learning are discussed
and planned. There is a need for Adult Learners Forums and Adult Learners
Networks as mechanisms for consultation on the design of learning provision
and policies in all countries, at local, national and international levels.
Providers should actively support the development and sustained operation
of Adult Learners Forums and Adult Learners Networks by all means possible
to them.
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