In trying to think how the WEA should plan strategically for
the next five years everyone agrees that has to be with an outward looking
perspective. The crisis that peaked in our Centenary year is now five years
behind us and there is a sense that we should now be confident enough to take a
leading role in the debate about the value and purpose of adult learning in
society.
Within post-16 education recent years have been dominated by
government initiatives around the needs and demands of employers and placing
skills the centre of British economic competitiveness in the face of rapid
globalisation. Within this there is a genuine commitment to building the skills
of individuals to help them maintain or improve their employment or
employability.
However, the international financial crisis of the last 12
months has brought into question the infallibility of deregulated international
banking capital and the judgement of corporate and financial institutions.
Recent comments have suggested that western economies may be facing
difficulties greater than at any time since the Second World War. In this climate it might be worth considering
the current view of the role of adult learning and whether we are at a point
where the direction of the last thirty years may be changing.
1970s was a key decade for the environment, for the post-war
economic consensus and for education. It was the time when evidence of the
development of global warming and environmental degradation first became widely
recognised. For example, the potential for CFCs to create a hole in the ozone
layer was identified and later confirmed. It was a key period for the
internationalisation of capital and the advancement of the case for monetarism
and neo-liberal economics. It was the decade when many ideas raised in the late
sixties moved to become legislation – particularly in industrial relations. It
was also the decade where the first significant cracks in the post-war Welfare
State consensus became evident and
Britain
’s informal social
partnership ran out of steam.
Clearly, in the 1970s the Cold War continued to dominate
international relations. In the nineties the end of the cold war and the
collapse of the Soviet Union brought with it an acceleration of the trends that
could be seen in the 1970s – an increasing rate of exploitation of human and
environmental resources within a deregulated and global system of capital. In
the last thirty years Thatcher, Reagan, Bush and Blair have been able to frame
an agenda and simplify it around corporate and wealthy interests because: ‘It’s
the economy, stupid!’ and ‘there is no alternative’. In the
United States
,
for 20 of the last 28 years, the presidency has been held by a Republican party
strongly influenced by the neo-conservative agenda.
All of this, as has
been shown by John Field in his book: ‘Lifelong
learning and the new educational order’ , is reflected in definitions of
learning. The length of the thread of thinking leading to Leitch can be seen in
James Callaghan’s famous ‘Great Debate’ speech in 1976 at Ruskin
College
:
“In today's
world, higher standards are demanded than were required yesterday and there are
simply fewer jobs for those without skill.”
From this we
can see that priorities of the State have been developing consistently for
three decades and there is a close correlation between this view of the purpose
of adult learning and the period of dominance of politics and the economy by the
values, interests and demands of international corporate capitalism.
However, in
2008, the credibility of these values and their proponents is under question. We
can now see that we have been in an accelerating period where profits have been
privatised, risk internationalised and now the losses of some are being nationalised.
National governments and their tax payers are bailing out the mistakes of the very leaders in
commerce and finance that were supposed to be delivering prosperity and (even)
social mobility and justice.
We have seen
over the last thirty years, that meeting the demands of international
deregulated capital has led to dramatic reductions in social mobility, vast
increases in wealth differentials and, more recently, to the removal of the
security and privileges previously available to professionals and the middle
class (reliable pensions, secure jobs, affordable higher education). It has
also exploited the environment to the point of near collapse, especially in
relation to climate change. A stateless oligarchy of individuals and companies has control of the
world’s wealth and resources and still controls (through its ownership of
international media and a tireless and longstanding lobbying) the perspective
of many of the G7 governments.
In February 2007 (several months before the ‘credit crunch’
started on August 9th)
Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson wrote a review of
Britain
in the Blair years: ‘
Fantasy
Island
’. In their analysis – amongst
many fantasies that had operated over recent years were two ‘master-fantasies’:
“the one that suggests we can borrow money without limit and
the one that suggests that caring for the environment is entirely compatible with
endless economic growth”
A year later both of these have been exploded.
In the next five years we can expect people in
Britain
and
across the world to have to pay the price for these failures of leadership, the
risk taking, aggrandisement and vanities of the last thirty years. A recent
report proposing a Green New Deal looks to address this but emphasises the
stark urgency. Within 100 months of July 2008 the balance of evidence is that
climate change will move beyond the point of no return. That means the next
US
president –
if they have two terms – could be in power at that point. If they don’t begin
to take action with 100 days of being in office – say by 1st May
2009 we cannot have confidence that catastrophic climate change can be avoided.
Faced with
the situation where free-wheeling capital has generated hyper profits, massive
risks, gigantic debt and huge pressure on the environment, what can be done?
Moreover, is there anything an organization like the WEA can do?
If the last thirty years has placed skills as a key
component in a deregulated and private globalised economy, the analysis in the
Leitch Review must now need some revisiting. The assumption that employees and
citizens should cope, let alone thrive, whilst competing in an international
race to the bottom on wages or the mass acquisition of high level technical and
entrepreneurial skills has been exposed. Moreover, the idea that, within this
model of labour and manufacturing, demand and standards of living could
continue to rise through increasing personal and national debt based on rising
asset values is clearly unsustainable. People will still need to acquire,
develop and renew their skills but the 2020 vision in Leitch may now be based
on a view of the world that passing.
Perhaps, this is now as significant period of change as was
seen in the mid seventies or just after World War II. If it is, doesn’t the WEA
need to reflect and respond in the way it has through its history: in the
argument for working people to have access to knowledge and learning; the fight
for comprehensive educational opportunities within a democracy; the historic
development of trade union and women’s studies. In 2008 where does the WEA
stand in relation to the world people face and how does that relate to the current
government skills strategy? In many ways the principles and issues that brought
the WEA into being are still there in a modern form. Issues of equity,
democracy and the importance of knowledge, ideas and skills have been a common
thread along with a tradition of students and tutors co-producing learning by
bringing together their expertise and experience around education with a
genuine liberal and progressive perspective.
If the principles, approaches and efforts of the WEA can
develop and provide education that can change people’s lives how can we now use
adult education to help people:
- Cope
with work and improve their experience of work
- Cope
with worklessness
- Cope
with increasing costs, financial uncertainty
- Build
confidence and self-reliance in communities and individuals
- Improve
their health and well being and that of their families
- Deal
with ageing and independence
- Deal
with pressures and changes to family and community
- Improve
their knowledge and skills and help their children learn and develop as
individuals and citizens
- Recognise
and cope with the issues arising from labour mobility and migration
- Feel
confident to take action to improve their communities and address
environmental improvements in the absence of leadership from elsewhere
- Understand
issues of history, culture and identity through the humanities
- Link
with others internationally addressing the same concerns
- Avoid
intolerance or influences seeking to divide people or create scapegoats
for the failures of the government and corporate leadership
- Speak
for themselves and their communities and act to improve things
The list can go on but, in its essence, what can the WEA do
to help build positive self-reliance and the use of independent learning to understand
and improve society, address issues in climate change and globalisation?
Looking at our organisation’s history and the current issues
facing the world, is it too dramatic to say the WEA believes:
- You
can’t leave things up to leaders – whether politicians or in the corporate
world
- Communities
and individuals need to be resourceful to care for themselves and each
other
- We
can’t wait for business or government to improve issues of environment,
economy or equality
- We
can use education to help people cope with work, worklessness and the
fragmenting and individualising outcomes of modern international
capitalism
There must be more to the WEA than just survival and there
must be more to education than the Leitch report was able to express. We can’t
do what we do without government funding but, if we don’t move strategically
now to find a role in the world that people face, what would be the point of
the WEA?
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