WEA Education Blog

In memory of Emily Davison

100 years ago on June 4^th 1913 Emily Wilding Davison walked in front of the King’s horse in the Derby at Epsom to protest against the continuing denial of votes for women in Britain.

She died four days later from the impact of the collision. The WEA sent flowers to her funeral “with deepest regrets”. 

Voting was extended to women in 1918 after the First World War. Davison was one of the most radical and active of the suffragettes and, along with others, had endured terrible brutality from the police and authorities in prison and on demonstrations. Looking back from today, it can seem extraordinary that the extension of the vote to women was resisted so strongly by the state. However, their struggle was seen as part of a wider challenge to the power and property of the ruling classes that characterised the first part of the 20^th Century.

The centenary of her death has been widely marked but the issue she fought for is still important. Voting levels are dropping in UK elections. We can all mark this centenary by encouraging everyone eligible to register to vote.https://www.gov.uk/browse/citizenship/voting. 

You may be on the register but are you sure your children/grandchildren are? If you teach for the WEA can you remind your students? If you’re a student – talk about it with others in your class.

The WEA supported a campaign to recognise Emily's sacrifice, and following the intervention of presenter Clare Balding, this year’s Derby Day organisers have commissioned the campaign to make a short photo and textual montage about Emily Davison and the suffragette struggle for the vote which will be shown on all the big screens at this year’s Derby.

The WEA’s vision:  a better world – equal, democratic and just can only be achieved through an active and educated democracy. The WEA believed that in 1913 and there is much we can do today.

Membership, Volunteering & Marketing: What’s the problem?

A voluntary sector adult education charity with over 60,000 members, thousands of volunteers in local areas, branches and projects, all supporting programmes of classes across the country, professionally taught, bringing thousands of adults back into education each year. This statement, and all the elements within it, is a true description of the WEA now. However, for many volunteers, tutors and staff it doesn’t always feel that way. Why is that?

The WEA is a fantastically dispersed organisation and perceptions of it can be quite local. It’s also a pretty old organisation and many who’ve been involved for a while know its weaknesses. These are often raised in points to me as I’ve been to WEA meetings across the country: why doesn’t the WEA have a stronger profile? Surely all these members aren’t really involved. Who is deciding what in the Association? Why do you keep sending all this stuff I’m not interested in?

In my new role as Director of Membership, Volunteering and Marketing I need to address these questions – but also need to remember what a remarkable organisation the WEA is. For example, alongside our voluntary branch structure, there is a more hidden network of volunteering that supports teaching and partnership work in disadvantaged communities all across England, Carers in Plymouth, Archaeology in Yorkshire, digital inclusion in the East Midlands, classroom support in Slough. We need to find ways to recognise that more, learn from it whilst allowing it to flourish where it is.

The Membership, Volunteering and Marketing strategy is addressing issues like these. The direct resources for this work are modest; but saying that doesn’t take account of the nature of the WEA or the skills and commitment of its tutors, staff and volunteers.  By setting up some simple networks I hope we can share ideas and move forward more quickly. New technology can help: almost 30,000 WEA members have reliable e-mail addresses and over 40% of those members open e-mails we send to them. WEA News has a small physical print run but over 16,000 people download it from our website. I think it means we need to focus on making communication interesting, relevant and, where possible, two way. We need to engage more with our huge membership, discover their interests, not assume these will be the same as existing active volunteers. We need to offer them opportunities to connect with one another as well as encouraging more of them to consider giving time to the WEA or raise money to help our work.

Inevitably, the key issue here is communication. That needs to build relationships, use new and old methods, be true to the WEA and help everyone get pleasure from contributing to the Association’s work. It can’t be a centralised, head office approach but it can be coherent, strategic and make sense to everyone involved wherever they are.

We may never get 60,000 people to all be actively engaged with the WEA, but if we got 1% of that number every year as new activists that would bring the resources of 600 new people to assist the WEA in its work  - 60 per region leaving aside volunteers who come to us through other routes! I think that’s a reasonable ambition for a voluntary movement and I thank all of those who have helped develop this work so far.

 

Independent working class education during the Global Financial Crisis?

With the passing of New Labour and the recession, government through ‘big (rubber) levers of power’ has largely been discredited. Years before David Cameron launched the ‘Big Society’ and the localism agenda, David Miliband had talked about ‘double devolution’ of decision making down beyond the local authority level. Now, in FE this is presented as new freedoms to be responsive to communities – apparently quite a change from the certainties of the Leitch Report (written by a former banker).

Has this ended years of confusion in FE between needs and interests of adults with needs and interests of regulators? BIS and the Skills Funding Agency actually talk about ‘freedoms with results’ and rapid contract interventions if ‘results’ aren’t there. This has its parallel in the payment by results of the Work Programme. Leaving aside the contradictions in this I think the Prime Minister’s interest in the Big Society is genuine. Few are arguing the old Blair/Brown ‘we know best’ approach any more – even if they think they do.

Internationally, there’s currently a massive globalised expectation on (and demand from?) working people to get skills through qualifications, at both technical (FE) and HE level. 75% of New York subway ads are about training and qualifications; buses and billboards in Kowloon are the same. Some employers value skills - in Swindon, Honda preferred to retain staff in 2008-09 rather than make redundancies because of the training they’d invested in them.  John Field has argued for years that lifelong learning is no longer something cosy or worthy but an imperative on workers in globalised capitalism.

Across Britain, the USA and elsewhere, middle level jobs are being rapidly stripped away leaving a thinner middle class (in pay/benefits terms) sandwiched between a  largely insecure working class and the rich ‘overclass’. This is accelerating as the ‘insurance’ provided by the welfare state is hit by austerity. In Cleveland, Ohio this month over 70,000 people dropped out of welfare payments onto food stamps after three years out of work. A high proportion of them were home owners in the suburbs.

In the face of the ongoing Global Financial Crisis (GFC), you’d think there would be an upsurge in workers’ educational activity in this country. However, after four years of recession and financial crisis there is little of the activity that was seen arising in the WEA even during the early 1980s, let alone in the earlier part of the last century. In reality the capacity and institutional infrastructure that supported birth of WEA has gone. The conditions in which the WEA grew included:

• Labour movement connected to localities
• Lively and active local political party branches
• Churches with a reform agenda
• Cooperative societies
• Confident, councillor led, local authorities
• Individual teachers in universities looking outward and into local communities

The loss of the above has led to a much reduced sense of active democracy. Today, networks of individuals acting locally have often been replaced by networks of professionals working within central government initiatives, looking for bids, drafting ‘deliverables’, totting up ‘beneficiaries’.

This loss of an infrastructure of local democratic institutions with their expectations, committee culture and decision making has been said to have individualised working class people into either aspiring or ‘lumpen’ behaviours/cultures. But these are longstanding trends (at least since 1976 economic/political watershed) and now sit in context of the GFC. This crisis likely to lead to despair and social unrest within which new organisations (reactionary or radical) emerge.

In terms of adult education we’ve seen the limits of a government led professionalisation agenda (and its successor – government endorsed, professional ‘self-regulation’) and yet we all know that one of the most critical elements in successful adult education is great teaching by tutors who are engaged with and understand their students and their communities.

In the historic independent working class education model (however true in reality), great teaching engages with communities and their organisations, learns from all participants, attends to their interests rather than ‘banking’ information or knowledge (however radical) with them. This was centre of Freire’s approach.

The GFC has thrown up new debates and arguments. These have been rapidly spread around the world through the Occupy movement and slogans like ‘we are the 99%’. Within that, the publication of research around the consequences of income inequality in ‘The Spirit Level’ has been significant in concisely capturing the essence of inequality whilst supporting the argument with researched evidence. There has been a remarkable response to it in public debate and from the three main political parties in England. Incidentally, the Tea Party movement in the USA seems to correlate the same issues and reach exactly the opposite conclusion: i.e. income inequality is due to individuals not getting educated, eating badly, committing crimes, getting pregnant too soon, not moving to get work, etc.  Of course, they don’t make the comparisons with other developed countries that makes the Spirit Level presentations so simple/effective.

However, the Spirit Level audience is probably a professional one, concerned at the impact of the GFC (on them as well as society). The Spirit Level premise is simple: Income Inequality leads to many social ills, but it’s one that most working class people across the world probably know already – things are unfair and the ruling class isn’t necessarily on your side. In Telford in the early 1980s unemployment reached 20%. The Trades Council called a public meeting which was well attended. The Trades Council Chair (a TU lecturer) introduced the meeting by reading from The Sunday Times an article about unemployment in the Midlands. After a few moments he was heckled by people saying they knew all that but what should be done?

2011 seems to have marked a turn in people’s reaction to the GFC. Disillusion with politicians (as well as the collapsed reputation of banking, journalism and the metropolitan police) is repeated in countries across the world. In that sense, 2011 may be like 1968, 1945, 1919. Within the Arts, some argued that the impact of 1968 didn’t appear until 1974/5. Could there be new structures and ideas emerging now. The Occupy protests put education workshops and debates high on the activities organised to pass time in the encampments.

Adult education and its organisations still need to immerse themselves in working class communities – to see what people think, build a continuing relationship and a changing programme that reflects the issues arising from the relationship. That doesn’t exclude working with state agencies and others in authority but it does require close working with working class communities to understand them and develop the case for sustained work and resources from an authentic point of view. This is a challenge when you need to win contracts, make bids, etc. but it is fundamental to an organisation’s reputation in those communities and that builds its reputation above them at local, regional and national level.

The task for an independent adult education is the same as always. To be successful, its work and behaviour needs to be respected by the community, be on their side, in an open and democratic way – not a subcontractor for the state.

England is very different than 100 years ago. It’s not the GFC that is the biggest challenge to independent working class adult education; it’s the disappearance of local networked infrastructure and decision making in which it can flourish. Can new structures develop in a different networked world?

 

WEA goals for membership, volunteering and marketing

New WEA Interim Strategy for Membership, Volunteering & Marketing was approved this week. It was the outcome of work across the autumn with colleagues around the WEA. The Strategy has the usual three year goals and one year action schedule. Essentially, we want to: develop and engage more with our members across the country; clarify and build voluntary activity; ensure WEA governance is effective and democratic; build more systematic campaigns and alliances; improve promotion and marketing so more people get involved in the WEA; improve fundraising to support our work and improve communication across the Association.

 Should set me up for the next year's work after 12 months of change in the Association.

 

WEA Annual General Meetings - just “keeping in touch”

I’m writing this on my way home from the WEA East Midlands AGM. That was my fourth AGM in a month and, again, an enjoyable and thought provoking day. I’ve been to Eastern, North East and North West as well on my journeys but had to miss another six which clashed.

Overall, it’s really striking how different the character of each region is – and yet how much in common they have about the purpose and value of the WEA. Inevitably, there were questions in different places about how decisions are made on minimum class size, concessionary fees, the complexity of procedures and paperwork, the need to improve publicity and find new tutors. I think these issues may always have been raised in WEA AGMs but I’ve met almost 240 people in the last four weeks who are prepared to come to a Saturday meeting because they want the Association to succeed – and I’ve learnt a lot.

Today’s meeting included a talk  by Cynthia Brown ‘Paths laid with ruin – drugs and the Victorians’ -  mostly around opium and arsenic it covered social policy, poverty, literature and the enterprising approach the British had to selling opium into China and the wars they started when the Chinese resisted this trade.

My presentation to each AGM has evolved as I’ve gone round. Today, I concentrated more on volunteering and membership but, inevitably, after this year the issue of how to improve communication across the WEA was one of the main themes. In one region someone said ‘it’s not change that’s the issue, it’s the communication. It’s got to really be two way’.

People agree the need for clarity around membership and volunteering. It’s almost as if a conversation started ages ago but never got past the initial exchanges. The potential as well as the problems were discussed in every AGM I went to. In the discussions there were plenty of ideas: find out more about our members - their skills and interests; be clear about their roles; leave room for creativity; acknowledge and thank volunteers for their work; keep a campaigning edge – the WEA is a movement for social change; give them as much of a break as possible on admin and compliance issues; find ways for new people to be involved in shaping things.

There were concerns about how much is asked of members and volunteers. Equally, I think people agreed that with 54,000 members, engaging and making even 1% of them into new WEA activists would be a massive additional resource to the Association.

There are questions around what the benefits are to members and we do need to be clear about this. On volunteering one longstanding member in East Midlands, Ivor Moon, asked me if I thought that the greatest benefit of volunteering is in doing it. What could I say but yes?

In Nottingham, the discussion and reports before I spoke touched on issues around new volunteers, local decision making, social purpose education, digital inclusion, campaigning and community leadership. In some respects, whilst localism, challenging authority, voluntary activity and addressing inequality are current issues in the news - they’re new but old in the WEA.

I know there are lots of doubts about the potential of social media – particularly with older people. My mother, who is just 80, told me that she wasn’t really any good with computers – all she could use was Skype and Facebook. I said I thought that was pretty good but she then said they didn’t count because they were just for ‘keeping in touch’ with grandchildren and family. She’s right, it’s the C in ICT that is developing so quickly – ‘Communication’.

Despite my lengthy new job title, it’s communication that’s becoming the key issue for me. Within the WEA that's a challenge I expect will be absorbing and fascinating.

 

Democracy and discussion in the WEA

I've just got home from attending and speaking at WEA North West Region's AGM in Manchester. That's my third regional AGM in three weeks since WEA Conference. One more to go next week in Nottingham before reporting to Association Committee.

Another enjoyable day with very welcoming colleagues. This was combined with some excellent discussions and presentations. A really inspirational TRIP project linking the WEA in Accrington and Bury with Uganda was fascinating. It is really striking how far NW has gone in trying to integrate WEA values and curriculum principles throughout its provision. They'd be first to say more to do but it's great to meet new staff so keen to apply these ideas in their work.

Once again I was asking views on the development of of Membership, Volunteering and Marketing in the WEA and, once again, points were made that really helped - and I probably should have thought of myself. There's no doubt that the WEA is going through a bit of a resurgence in its own democracy and debate. All three AGMs have had a positive atmosphere combined with a determination around social purpose education, the importance of our work being shaped from the ground up and a desire to build communication, up and down the organisation and laterally. 

I've been adding ideas to the draft strategy as I go along and there were several more today. For example, I was asked why the WEA doesn't appear in a Google search against qualifications we offer when we often have lower fees than other providers. Not the usual 'distinctiveness of WEA provision' point but a really sensible question on how we place ourselves in a market and help adult learners find us.

Because several WEA regions have AGMs on the same Saturdays in November, there are five I've missed in England as well as Scotland. I hope I'll be able to find ways to meet these other colleagues in the New Year.

New ideas at WEA AGM in Cambridge

I was at the WEA Eastern Region's AGM today in Cambridge.

Detlev, the chair of one of their many branches, met me at the station. We'd got talking the previous week at Conference in Nottingham and we arranged to chat before the meeting. 

I'm going to a different AGM each Saturday this month. Good turn out, more than 100 there. I was quite surprised at how many people I knew. Several new staff there, too. 

I enjoyed hearing the reports on the Biennial Conference from staff and volunteers - seeing the events on both days from their point of view. Lots of comments on the Spirit Level and Community Learning Champions as well as the excitement and tension of Conference decisions. 

One idea I liked was their early preparation for the region's Centenary. They are circulating a digital flip video camera around their branches (over 130). Someone from one branch goes to another, makes a short film and then shows someone there how to use the camera. They then leave the camera with them and ask them to film and pass it on (both the camera and how to use it) to another branch.

 I described some of my ideas for membership, volunteering and marketing and we had a brief discussion. Here's my presentation Download AGM presentation 

I'm using my visited to AGMs to develop my thinking and feed it back to a reference group. Newcastle next week.

Equality, Inclusion and Action in Adult Education - WEA Conference 2011

The WEA's Biennial Conference is in Nottingham on 28th October with the theme: Equality, Inclusion and Action in Adult Education. 

We want to welcome as many people as possible to contribute to the debate. The one-day conference is hosted by the Workers’ Educational Association and supported by the Co-operative College, on Friday 28 October, East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham.

Speakers include John Hayes MP, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, David Hughes Chief Executive of NIACE, Dame Pauline Green President of the International Co-operative Alliance, Richard Wilkinson, author of ‘The Spirit Level’ and more.

Further information is attached or can be obtained directly from [email protected] or on 020 7426 3486.

Book online now at: http://weaconference11.eventbrite.com/

Membership, Volunteering & Marketing in the WEA

I'm three days into my new role in the WEA: Director of Membership, Volunteering and Marketing. A big change for me in an organisation I've been involved with for over 30 years. Not the first change though; I've been a student, branch member, tutor, tutor-organiser before becoming a director. 

I'm really looking forward to the new role. Almost 50,000 members and over 100 years of history to work with! I think the first priority is to link the new role into the main business of the WEA - adult education in communities across the country. That's going to need a systematic approach and hard work on communication. Won't get too far before my summer holiday but I've got plenty of ideas to knock into shape and I want to make sure we make progress quickly.

I've always enjoyed discussions with members and volunteers in the WEA as much as with tutors and students. I'm looking forward to much more of that - and developing ideas into action.

Membership, volunteering and WEA

The second day of the WEA's annual Education & Strategy conference covered a number of issues: the impact of WEA provision in communities across the country, how our partner - the Coop - is developing its membership and how we can learn from the success of the Community Learning Champions initiative and integrate it into ongoing volunteering in the WEA. I'd recommend the Coop's 'Join our Revolution' website. The videos on the Community Learning Champions site here is really worth visiting.

The conference was really enjoyable. At the end everyone said one thing they will do from what came out of the event and one thing the WEA should do. I look forward to hearing how these go - and to seeing if the WEA can act on some of these ideas.