LEARNING COMMUNITIES: Webs of Life, Literacy & Learning

1. LEARNING COMMUNITIES: Webs of Life, Literacy & Learning Ron Faris Oct. 4, 2007 Truro http://members.shaw.ca/rfaris

2. THIS WE KNOW,ALL THINGS ARE CONNECTED LIKE THE BLOOD WHICH UNITES ONE FAMILY .WHATEVER BEFALLS THE EARTH,BEFALLS THE SONS AND DAUGHTERSOF THE EARTH.MAN DID NOT WEAVE THE WEB OF LIFE;HE IS MERELY A STRAND IN IT.WHATEVER HE DOES TO THE WEB, HE DOES TO HIMSELF.Ted Perry, inspired by Chief Seattle

3. KEY GLOBAL TRENDS • Three inter-related drivers of change • Globalization – market ideology • Technological change • New knowledge and learning • From resource-based to knowledge-based economy • Human & social capital • New literacies • Learning technologies

4. KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY • Constant change = Continuous learning • Investment in education/learning results in significant returns to organizations, individuals & society • Human & social capital are “intangible assets” • Human capital: Formal educational attainment • Social capital: Trust, networking & shared values • Social/human capital synergy: • Social capital the cradle of human capital

5. LEARNING COMMUNITY INITIATIVES • EUROPE • OECD Learning Regions - Spain, France, Denmark-Sweden & UK • Learning Communities Network & Test-beds - UK • Learning Villages - Finland, Portugal & Italy • AUSTRALIA • Learning Communities Network • Victoria State Learning Towns • CANADA • Community Learning Network projects in B.C. • South Island Learning Community (SILC) project

6. A LEARNING REGION MODEL INDIVIDUAL LEARNING ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS SOCIAL CAPITAL ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING SOCIAL INCLUSION Source: OECD, 2001

7. LEARNING COMMUNITIES: AN OPERATIONAL DEFINITION Neighbourhoods, villages, towns, cities or regions that explicitly use lifelong learning as an organizing principle and social/cultural 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 “communities of place”

8. R.Faris 2006

9. LEARNING COMMUNITIES: A NESTED CONCEPT • LEARNING COMMUNITIES OF PLACE • Learning Organizations • Peter Senge • Academic Learning Communities • Alexander Meiklejohn • Communities of Practice • Etienne Wenger • Learning Circles • Miles Horton & Kurt Lewin

10. PURPOSES • SUSTAINABLE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE • Economic • Environmental • Social/cultural • SOCIAL INCLUSION • Building First Nation & non-First Nation bridges • COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING • Human capital - Individual attainment • Social capital - Trust, Networks, Shared Values • Built capital - Infrastructure • Natural capital - Ecology

11. LEARNING LEARNING COMMUNITIES: A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Community Partners civic economic public education voluntary Inter-related Strategies adult literacy community econ development expanded IT use at-risk youth initiatives Outcomes economic regeneration social inclusion increased community capacity lifelong learning Input

12. LEARNING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS CIVIC Municipal - Band Shire - Prov-Fed ECONOMIC Private - Social PARTNERSHIPS PUBLIC Libraries - Museums Social - Health Agencies EDUCATION K -20 COMMUNITY/ VOLUNTARY

13. LEARNING COMMUNITIES:SUCCESS DETERMINANTS • 3 P’s of success • Partnership - learning to build links among all sectors and mobilize their shared resources • Participation - learning to foster participation of all learners and involve the public in the policy process • Performance - learning to assess progress and benchmark good practice

14. LEARNING COMMUNITIES: THE 3 P’S Performance Assessment & Benchmarking Civic, Economic, Public (e.g. libraries, health & social services), Education, & Voluntary/Community Partnership Info Tech Learners, Organizations, Ethnic & Aboriginal communities Media, Public forums, Website/Listservs & E-portfolios Participation

15. ADULT LITERACY: AN INVESTMENT A one percent rise in adult literacy scores is associated with an eventual 2.5 percent relative rise in labour productivity and a 1.5 percent rise in GDP per head (C$18 billion) Three times greater effect than investment in physical capital “…more important to economic growth than producing highly skilled graduates” C. D. HOWE INSTITUTE (2005) Coulombe & Tremblay

16. SUSTAINABLE TRIPLEBOTTOM LINE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IKEA SUSTAINABILITY ECO-JUSTICE

18. SOUTH ISLAND LEARNING COMMUNITY (SILC) PROJECT GOALS • Bridging First Nation & non-FN Communities • Building Community & Organizational Capacity • Testing Innovative Literacy Approaches: • Open Source Technologies • Learner E-Portfolio & Learning Plans • Developing Service-Learning Opportunities

19. SILC: FORMATIVE EVALUATION • From Awareness to Involvement • From Involvement to Understanding • From Understanding to Commitment

20. COMMUNITY VALUES • Balance citizen rights & responsibilities • Devolve resources and power to communities with increased capacity of learning and information & communications technologies • Mobilize human/social capital to foster sustainable local economic development, social inclusion & community capacity

21. Men and women have within themselves and their communities the spiritual and intellectual resources adequate to the solution of their own problems. Canadian Association for Adult Education Statement of Purposes, 1946

22. THE WEB OF LEARNING: LEARNING COMMUNITIES Private & Social Enterprise Local Government Economic Sector Community Colleges Universities LEARNERS Civic Sector Education Sector Service Clubs Institutes Schools Libraries Museums Public Sector Voluntary Sector Community Associations Health Agencies Social Service Agencies Faith Communities

24. SENGE:Creating Quality Communities “Building learning organizations is not an individual task. It demands a shift that goes all the way to the core of our culture. We have drifted into a culture that fragments our thoughts, that detaches the world from the self and the self from the community. We are so focused on our security that we don’t see the price we pay:living in bureaucratic organizations where the wonder and joy of learning have no place. Thus, we are losing the spaces to dance with the ever-changing patterns of life. We need to invent a new learning model for business, education, health care, government and the family.This invention will come from the patient, concerted efforts of communities of people invoking aspiration and wonder. As these communities manage to produce fundamental changes, we will regain our memory – the memory of the community nature of the self and the poetic nature of language and the world – the memory of the whole.”

25. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:EARLY LEARNING • Keating, D. & C. Hertzman, 1999, Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations: Social, Biological and Educational Dynamics, The Guilford Press, New York. • L. Irwin et al, 2007, Early Child Development: A Powerful Equalizer, WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, Geneva. • Schweinhart, L., 2006, The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40: Summary, Conclusions, and Frequently Asked Questions, High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, Ypsilanti, Michigan.

26. ADULT LITERACY ROI • Coulombe, S. & J. Tremblay, 2005, Public Investment in Skills: Are Canadian Governments Doing Enough?, C. D. Howe Institute Commentary, No.217, Toronto. • Hartley, R., & J. Horne, 2006, Social and economic benefits of improved adult literacy, National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide. • Sticht, T., 1999, Adult Basic Education: Strategies to Increase Returns on Investment (ROI), Applied Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences, Inc.

27. A PERMANENT UNDERCLASS? • Butterwick, S. & C. White, 2006, A Path Out of Poverty: Helping BC Income Assistance Recipients Upgrade Their Education, CCPA, Vancouver. • Institute for COMPETITIVENESS & PROSPERITY, 2007, Prosperity, inequality, and poverty, Working Paper 10, (September 2007), Toronto. - Morisette, R., & Zhang, X., 2006, “Revisiting wealth inequality”, PERSPECTIVES (Dec. 2006), Statistics Canada, Ottawa. - Myers, K., & Lebroucker, P., 2006, Too Many Left Behind: Canada’s Adult Education and Training System, Research Report W/34 Work Network, CPRN, Ottawa.

28. HUMAN & SOCIAL CAPITAL - Duke,C. et al, 2006, Making knowledge work: Sustaining learning communities and regions, NIACE, Leicester. - Mowbray, M., 2005, “Community, the State and social capital impact assessment”, Rebalancing the social and economic: Learning, partnership and place, NIACE, Leicester. Pp. 47-61. - OECD, 2001, The Wellbeing of Nations: the Role of Human and Social Capital, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, Paris.

29. NORDIC vs N. AMERICAN MODELS - Brooks, J. & Hwong, T., 2006, The Social Benefits and Economic Costs of Taxation: A Comparison of High- and Low- Tax Countries, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ottawa. - Rubenson, K., 2006, “The Nordic Model of Lifelong Learning”, Compare: A journal of comparative education, Vol. 36, Issue 3 (Sept. 2006), pp. 327-341. - Veeman, A. N., 2004, Adult Learning in Canada and Sweden: A Comparative Study of Four Sites, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.

30. PAN-CANADIAN LITERACY STRATEGY • Alexander, C., 2007, Literacy Matters: A Call for Action, T D Bank Financial Group, Toronto. • Faris, R., & Blunt, A., 2007, Report on the CMEC Forum on Adult Literacy, Prince George, British Columbia (June 19-20, 2006), Council of Ministers of Education Canada, Toronto. • HRDC, 2005, Towards A Fully Literate Canada, National Advisory Committee on Literacy and Essential Skills (Bradshaw Cmtee), Ottawa.