How to Involve Learner Representatives in the Development of Policies
and Provision
Recommendations and Proposals from the Perspective of Adult Learners
These recommendations and proposals have been prepared by two of
the adult learners involved in the IntALWinE activities,
John Gates from Wales and Winifred Hignell from Ireland/England, in consultation
with members of the international group.
Context
The comments made by the adult learners who took part in the IntALWinE
project suggest that it was a success. There were outcomes apart from
the original ones that grew spontaneously out of bringing learners from
different countries together. It was shown that meeting and being able
to talk with adult learners from other countries was the greatest benefit
that came out of the project. Participants could see how they had benefited
from this interaction and could see how it would also benefit other learners
from their country.
Having had the opportunity to see how adult learners were able to take
part in discussions and to have an influence in the formation and delivery
of learning in other countries, they came to the conclusion that it must
be a fundamental principle that: “Adult learners have the right
to be involved in any discussions that affect their learning lives”.
Benefits:
The participants in the IntALWinE activities could see
how greater involvement would benefit not only the individual learner
but, more importantly, would also benefit the learning provision in their
individual country. Greater involvement would give successful adult learners
the opportunity to give something back to the learning system, to receive
training and gain qualifications for working in the community.
Recommendation:
Adult learners need to be able to learn new skills and to practice those
new skills in a non-threatening environment. Thus, adult learners should
be given opportunities to attend seminars/conferences at a local, national
and international level.
Involving Individual Adult Learners
Individual adult learners can take part in activities at different levels
and with different objectives, depending on their own circumstances and
the respective national/local context. The possibilities include adult
learners functioning as:
- Enthusiasts: Adult learners willing
to talk to groups of future adult learners about what learning has been
like for them. They can make a contribution at open days and events
where you are encouraging people to become learners.
- Mentors: The dictionary definition is
“an experienced and trusted advisor”. Adult learners as
mentors can support new recruits giving advice and increasing their
motivation to continue.
- Champions: Adult learners who can speak
on the radio or in the press to tell their story and to motivate others
by their example. Ideally these would be learners who have already won
awards during an Adult Learners’ Week or a learning festival.
- Activists: Adult learners are members
of communities who can be supported and trained to go out and research
what kind of provision the community members would like to have available
in their area.
- Advocates: Adult learners who can promote
the advantages of learning to a number of different groups and can highlight
important issues to professionals.
- Members of Governance: Adult learners
who act as learner representatives on committees or boards and can feed
information in both directions: about what current and new adult earners
demand and need and what issues are discussed and what decisions are
taken in the board room.
Benefits:
It is important to remember that the various skills acquired, practised
and improved by the respective learner representative in one or many of
the above roles will be of benefit to the wider community, local charities
etc.
Using a successful learner as a role model can:
• Change attitudes – both of policy-makers and of adults “turned
off” by learning,
• Show that barriers can be overcome,
• Highlight the ways of reaching new audiences,
• Motivate other people to take part or seek more information,
• Attract the attention of the media.
Recommendation:
In order to be able to fulfil these roles and to carry out the various
responsibilities, adult learners need to be trained. There will be a need
for training in communication skills, team working skills, committee skills
and an understanding of the education system in their country. Adult learners
should be given the training and a chance to make a difference by being
consulted on a wide range of subjects. In addition, adult learners will
also have to have an understanding of democratic principles.
Learning Champions
Learning Champions have already been identified through Adult Learners’
Week or the learning festival in some of the participation countries of
IntALWinE. Most are found to be enthusiastic and are
willing to give something back to the learning system.
Benefits:
Learning Champions are a great asset and they have great potential. By
using the adult learners’ already acquired knowledge and experience,
they can actively promote learning in a community. They can advocate for
learning towards those who are not yet engaged in learning by:
• Speaking to potential adult learners,
• Leading adult learners in local initiatives to promote learning
,
• Speaking to local providers,
• Speaking to local media,
• Speaking to local organizations.
Recommendations:
Adult learners are the experts of using the current education system.
They are the ones who have experienced the problems, and might know how
to overcome them. Only adult learners can say if what is provided does
what it says it should do. Successful adult learners identified during
the learning festivals should function as Learning Champions in a longer-term
perspective (e.g. for a whole year) - it would be a waste if they were
champions only for a night.
While benefiting from the experiences already gained by Learning Champions,
their knowledge and experience should also be extended so that they can
make a more effective and positive contribution, by:
• Inviting them to attend national & international conferences
seminars & events,
• Enabling them to speak on behalf of other adult learners nationally
and internationally,
• Encouraging them to be available for national media interviews,
• Including them in policy-making committee meetings.
Adult Learners’ Forums
An Adult Learners’ Forum is a meeting of adult learners who are
currently involved in any form of learning. The forum members meet to
identify issues and concerns about their learning, talk about their experiences,
give each other mutual support, identify causes for celebration or for
concern, support and celebrate good developments and work on strategies
for bringing about necessary change.
Getting together helps adult learners to generate a collective and authentic
voice on their own behalf. It is a means by which adult learners can join
in the discussion with professionals, providers and decision-makers.
Learning providers will only know if the courses they are providing are
meeting the needs of adult learners by asking them or by listening to
the “voice of the learners”, and when adult learners can articulate
their problems and concerns. The only way that those who fund adult learning
can find out if the money is being spent effectively, is to ask adult
learners if and what they have gained from the course.
Benefits:
By consulting adult learners through adult learners’ forums, money
can be better targeted at provision identified by the learners as needed
by themselves or their communities. Because adult learners live and work
in their communities, they are better placed to identify what the community
requires and can be an important force for developing a learning culture
within that community.
• Learner feedback is an invaluable tool in bringing about change.
It is a worthwhile experience and motivating force for adult learners
to feel empowered as agents of change in their own learning environment.
• Learner feedback can also be regarded as a key component of accountability.
• Adult Learners’ Forums can underpin a new way of planning
education and training.
• Adult Learners’ Forums can contribute strongly to the development
of a learning society and of learning communities.
Recommendations:
Learning Champions who are already identified and trained can be used
as the basis for forming an Adult Learners’ Forum. The establishment
and maintenance of adult learners’ forums need to be supported,
both financially as well as through professional and moral support. At
the same time, adult learners’ forums should gradually become more
directly owned and managed by adult learners.
Adult Learners’ Networks
An Adult Learners’ Network is a network made up of adult learner
forums and of individual adult learners. The learners can be involved
in any form of learning, both formal and non-formal, accredited or non-accredited.
An Adult Learners’ Network can take place anywhere, through E-mail
communication, in the community or in a formal learning establishment.
The advantage of an Adult Learners’ Network is that it can reach
out to learners who are geographically distant, and thus create a broader
linkage of interests, concerns and voices.
Benefits:
Adult Learners’ Networks can help to identify a learner representative
who can sit in all committees that hold discussions and make decisions
on adult learning, including the policy, planning, management and monitoring
of provision. Based on the possibilities to reach out and have an ongoing
communication mechanism, an Adult Learners’ Network can also:
• establish a working dialogue with the Government (nationally and
locally) and all providers of adult learning, and
• identify the strengths and weaknesses of the provision of adult
learning and bring these issues to the attention of the Government, learning
providers, funding bodies and other decision-makers.
Recommendations:
For an Adult Learners’ Network to succeed it must have the support
of the policy makers and professionals. At the same time, networks need
to gain that support in showing that there are worthy of being supported.
One support mechanism from professionals could be the development of a
data base containing information on those adult learners, who have already
shown that they are a willing to take part in the policy making and promotion
of learning. The data base can also help learning providers to identify
individuals for specific duties and tasks – which would help build
capacities of adult learners that can feed back into the network.
A European Adult Learners’ Network
One of the outcomes of IntALWinE which had not been
foreseen was when some learners and providers from the original project
were invited to a global ALW conference in Oslo, Norway, in October 2005.
After several discussions it was decided to join forces to apply for a
grant from the European Commission under the leadership of the Scottish
Adult Learning Partnership, SALP, in order to set up a “European
Adult Learners’ Network” which would carry on the work that
had grown out of IntALWinE.
The main purpose of the European Network would be to build an enthusiastic
alliance of adult learners throughout Europe, who could exchange experiences,
give each other advice and support, and find out more information in order
to develop learning forums and networks in the participating countries.
The European network could also be used to spread good practice in learning
provision between countries as seen from the viewpoint of the learner.
Common barriers across borders to learning could be identified and innovative
solutions to overcome them could be suggested.
It is hoped that each participating country will arrange local, regional,
national and international events, where adult learners can have the opportunity
to meet up with other adult learners to extend their knowledge and experience
by mixing with other learners, learning providers, policy makers and politicians
from different countries.
Benefits:
The many directives coming from the European Commission on learning and
education highlight the need to give adult learners an international voice
and to empower learners throughout Europe to take an active part in their
learning journey. The European Adult Learners’ Network could help:
• To support national/local adult learners’ forums and networks
for the sharing of good practice,
• To help more countries develop national/local adult learners’
forums and networks,
• To promote the mobility of individual adult learners from European
countries and to help them take part in international campaigns,
• To offer research opportunities to adult learners,
• To act as an information service for the European Commission and
Parliament.
Recommendations:
The development of the European Adult Learners’ Network will largely
depend on the support from the European Commission, but also on other
trans-national organizations and the national participating organizations.
The Commission should grant its support to the proposal which will be
submitted in order to provide the framework. Support should also be given
from the side of the European Association for the Education of Adults
(EAEA) and from UNESCO. The national participating organizations should
include the provision to have costs budgeted for one professional and
for one adult learner each in the related activities.
Overall Challenges and General Recommendations for Learner Involvement
Despite the benefits which the involvement of adult learners in the development
of policy and provision of learning will bring, two major challenges to
adult learner involvement have been identified: the attitude and situation
of the learners on the one hand, and the attitude of professionals and
policy makers on the other hand.
The first problem to be tackled is inertia of adult learners. Adult learners
need to be motivated. Those who need to get involved in learning have
little experience of being asked their opinion about what they want in
general, and so they have no expectation of being asked their opinion
on matters about their education. They are usually the ones who believe
that no one will listen or take notice of what they have to say.
In the beginning adult learners will also be suspicious about whether
their role as agents of change would be respected. Another concern will
be that, once they are invited to meetings, these meetings will be perceived
as just another “talking shop”, meaning that there will be
lots of talk and very little action.
Recommendations:
Adult Learners are usually fully immersed in their own lives. They have
a family, a job, and are attending their learning courses. In contrast
to professionals, attending meetings is not part of their work time. In
order to attend meetings, adult learners have to give up some of their
course, leisure or family time. So the timing of meetings is critical,
and meetings need to be made at a time appropriate to the needs of adult
learners, if their involvement is seriously desired.
Other barriers that could deter adult learners from taking part in meeting
and activities for policy discussion should be taken into consideration
when organizing them, such as the loss of wages, the costs for transport
(which is often a problem for adult learners on low income), and child-care
facilities for younger adults and dependant-care for older learners.
Up to now, it is understood that there is a risk in consulting adult
learners about what they want and in collecting their views. Managers
and providers are often uneasy about sharing power but they will need
to develop a culture where open and honest feedback is welcomed and where
views can be expressed safely. There has to be a cultural shift amongst
policy makers and providers.
Extra work and funding will be required in order to ensure that feedback
is given to adult learners and relevant actions are taken. Transparency
about the purpose of the consultation and what can be put into action
realistically is important.
If adult learners are meant to be empowered, if the activities are meant
to be “learner-centred or learner-led”, then the following
should be considered:
• Treat adult learners as equals and the adults that they are,
• Give power to adult learners so that they can take an effective
part in the governance of learning provision,
• Ensure that adult learners have the means to make comments and
influence learning provision,
• Ensure that the project leaders not only listen, but act upon
what has been collectively agreed.
Concluding Remarks to the IntALWinE Network
Although the Grundtvig project of IntALWinE has come
to an end, it would be a backward step if the network were to disband
without any follow-up and the close relationships, contacts and experience
of working together were lost. The network partners should continue working
together but change its focus. They should now look at how working with
and using Learning Champions could enhance and improve the effectiveness
of the respective ALWs and learning festivals. To do this successfully
the network partners would have to embrace the principles and practices
described above.
Recommendations:
Members of the IntALWinE network should:
• promote the use the Learning Champions (to a greater extent),
• look at ways of involving adult learners in their work,
• look at ways to fund the learner involvement,
• look for ways of funding the Adult Learners’ Network,
• support the European Adult Learners’ Network.
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