The meeting under the overall heading Democratizing Lifelong Learning: Tools and Strategies was part of a project funded by the SOCRATES programme of the European Commission and took place at the end of last year on 3-5 December 2001 in the Belgian capital, Brussels. It brought together some 120 participants from all over Europe, including implementers of (other) SOCRATES projects, representatives of ministries and various networks, and members of UNESCO National Commissions. Organized by the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE) in cooperation with the European Commission and two partner organizations - the National Organization for Adult Learning of UK (NIACE) and Lire et Ecrire of the French-Speaking Community of Belgium - the meeting aimed at exploring and improving the instruments for democratizing lifelong learning.
Because of their potential to reach out to people, to mobilize them to take part in learning and social activities and to stimulate their learning demand, adult learners weeks and learning festivals (ALWs/LFs) constitute important strategic tools in building social cohesion and in promoting active and critical citizenship - and thus in fostering the democratization processes of adult and lifelong learning and societies on the whole. Against this background, the explicit focus of the meeting was put on assessing and further developing the weeks and festivals.
Another intention of the meeting was to create more visibility for the ALWs/LFs in the entire region, but also among the different actors within countries, and to facilitate the exchange between different actors - with a view to potential contributions from so-far untapped sources for the improvement of adult learners weeks and learning festivals. Finally, additional stimulation was expected from more enlarged and integrated perspectives, such as UNESCO's International Literacy Day, the approach of trade unions to lifelong learning, or the point of view of journalists towards issues of learning.
At the time of the meeting, twenty-one countries in Europe including the Eastern and Central European countries and the Baltic republics had been carrying out an adult learners week or learning festival - some of them for a number of years: the United Kingdom (since 1992), Slovenia, Belgium/Flanders and Switzerland (since 1996), Germany, Estonia, Norway and Finland (since 1998), Austria (since 1999), the Russian Federation, Sweden, Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Ukraine and Romania (since 2000), and finally Bulgaria, Denmark, Yugoslavia and Albania (having joined the movement in 2001). The framework provided by the SOCRATES project enabled UIE to unite, for the first time, all twenty-one ALWs/LFs coordinators from Europe in a face-to-face encounter (for the list of participating ALWs/LFs colleagues, click here).
A first assessment report on the state of the art of the European ALWs/LFs, carried out by UIE prior to the meeting on the basis of input from the national coordinators to a questionnaire, was presented (for the report, click here). It provides an illustrative account of the richness of activities carried out in the different countries. It also portrayes common characteristics as well as divergent features of the campaigns, including the gains accomplished and the obstacles confronted with, and the expectations with regard to in-country and cross-national cooperation.
Adult learners weeks and learning festivals are promotional campaigns, and thus rely on publicity. Media, for this reason, are key partners. The assessment has revealed that, despite the varying degrees of cooperation with media already existing in the different countries, one of the central challenges for the future is to work on an increased presence in the media. The assessment process has equally shown that a genunie evaluation of the impact of ALWs/LFs is still difficult to do, due to the lack of measurable data, systematic observation and adequate criteria. For that reason, the development and application of (common?) evaluation methods will also be at center stage for the future. Other major areas upon which the future collective work will concentrate are the need for steadiness and reliability in implementing the campaigns, and the necessity for tightened cross-national cooperation.
The meeting in Brussels and the first assessment phase constituted initial steps in a process to be continued in the course of this year. In the second assessment phase, the focus will be laid on enriching the data and substantiating the impact evaluation for a more inclusive final assessment report. The meeting was very helpful for the strengthening of the ALWs/LFs network in Europe. The possibility to get to know the faces behind names, to initiate future contacts and to learn about the campaigns in other countries on a first-hand basis was highly appreciated. The experiences from the encounter and the assessment process in Europe will also pave the way for creating similar collective cooperation patterns with and within the other world regions.