WEA Education Blog

Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning - CALL

The WEA has become a founding member of CALL - the Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning. The other founding members are: NIACE, UCU, UNISON and the National Union of Students. CALL will be having a founding conference on 20^th September in

London

and the WEA will be involved. To visit the CALL website click here

The founders of CALL believe that affordable access to the life changing opportunities provided by education is the hallmark of a civilised society.

CALL is a non party-political alliance. The only qualification for joining is commitment to our six founding principles below.

CALL believes our education system should provide:

1.     quality of access to high quality education for all learners (regardless of: class, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, asylum status or employment status), including a statutory right to learning in the workplace

2.     universal access to basic skills, ESOL and ICT courses and a first level three qualification regardless of age

3.     learner, teacher and community  involvement in all levels of decision-making about their learning wherever it takes place

4.     learning for personal wellbeing and development and the maintenance of local authority adult education

5.     a path out of poverty and disadvantage including widening participation in higher education and the provision of a second chance later in life

6.     a stable, motivated and rewarded workforce of professional practitioners

Part-time adult learning at risk

Last week's NIACE Policy Committee was very useful on an number of fronts. In particular, the general concern from all those participating around the position facing part-time adult learners. This concern covered both university and FE level provision and Dick Taylor (our Chair of Trustees) spoke strongly on the serious issues facing the funding of adult learning in Higher Education.

It made me realise that the structures, contracts and cultures within which we have to work are obscuring a situation where part-time adult learning at all levels is becoming disconnected from the drive to full-time provision for younger people in FE and HE. This is accelerating in the changes coming in the Machinery of Government proposals and in the changes in funding regulations in Higher Education.

At the meeting, Alan Tuckett, the NIACE Director presented a paper which he has now written as an article appearing in today's 'Guardian'. 'click here'.

These issues and Alan's 'shopping list' are timely in relation to the WEA's own thinking on its strategic direction. In particular, they are a reminder that we need to argue for the continuation of part-time adult education opportunities for all adults from a range of providers and at all levels.  The survival of the WEA would be little consolation if it were an exception within an overall collapse of lifelong learning opportunities that individuals can chose without reference to their employer.

Added value from the LSC

The Learning & Skills Council, the main funder of the WEA and adult learning in England, is often criticised for bureaucracy and creating 'data burdens'. A recent press release will surely placate anyone who doubts the value of their efforts. Research undertaken by the LSC reveals:

"that over 80 per cent of Brits admit to wasting time, with just under half estimating that they faff for as much as 2-3 hours each day. The survey of 1,658 Brits also shows that nearly a third of respondents (32 per cent) were annoyed at the amount of time they wasted in a day, with over three quarters (76 per cent) stating that they would like to make better use of their time."

If you want to faff around more you can download the text here:

Download nat-555britswasteday-aug08.pdf

Green New Deal

This week has seen the launch of a publication by the 'Green New Deal Group' which starkly addresses the key issues many of us worry about but often put to one side when faced with vital and well constructed initiatives to transform education to meet the needs of employers and the economy.

Perhaps the issues raised here are the 21st century version of the issues that brought the WEA into being.

The report is available from the New Economics Foundation http://neweconomics.org/gen/

I copy the foreword here:

"This report is a call to wake up to the scale of the menace posed to the natural
world, the global economy and all our livelihoods by a triple crunch: the present
global financial crisis, climate change and the rapid depletion of oil.

To develop innovative, sound solutions that will deal with the gravity of this triple
crunch we have convened a group of ‘new economists’ whose backgrounds range
from the City, to the oil industry and the labour and environmental movements. We
set out to envision a different future, and propose policies for renewal. This report
is the result. It is a call for a radical transformation in the financial and economic
model that has fuelled these crises. In it we propose a Green New Deal.

As our executive summary suggests, the Green New Deal is designed to address
these great threats confronting society and restore stability to our financial, political
and ecosystems.

In doing so, we hope to correct a number of critical oversights. These include the
ways in which environmentalists have tended to neglect the role of the finance
sector and economic policy; how those involved in industry, broadly defined, have
failed to grasp the malign effects of the finance sector on the overall economy; and
how trade unionists have for too long ignored financial and environmental concerns.
We hope that the publication of this report will help bring these diverse social and
industrial forces together, leading to a new progressive movement. We believe
that our joint signatories point to an exciting possibility of a new political alliance:
an alliance between the labour movement and the green movement, between
those engaged in manufacturing and the public sector, between civil society and
academia, industry, agriculture and those working productively in the service
industries.

Such a political alliance is vital if we are to challenge the dominance of the finance
sector in the economy, its threat to the productive sectors of the economy, its
corruption of the political system, and its corrosion of social and environmental
values.

By proposing a Green New Deal, this report acknowledges the limits to our
ecosystem; that ‘the biosphere that supports us is finite, non-growing, closed and
constrained by the laws of thermodynamics’, as the environmental economist
Herman Daly put it.

The Green New Deal promotes ‘joined-up thinking’ about the four systems that
dominate our world: the market, the state, civil society and the ecosystem. We hope
that it will lay the basis for a radical transformation and renewal of our financial,
political and ecosystems."

Is this an alliance that the WEA should be engaging with and a debate that staff, tutors, volunteers and students would want to join?

WEA funding summary for 2008-09

The funding allocation to the WEA for 2008-09 has been confirmed and Sally Burke has produced a single side summary of our main national contract for next year.

This has been circulated to Association Committee and Trustees but you may find this summary useful when considering next year's work and in the context of the very significant changes to the funding methodology facing the whole of FE funded provision. This coming year we have a 'safeguard' at 100% of last year. The LSC is currently reviewing us with other SDIs and Former External Institutions to determine how we can be funded from August 2009.

You can download the summary here: Download funding_summary_0809.doc

WEA Zambia

On 1st July I met Mike Chungu of the WEA Zambia as he visited London.

WEA Zambia was set up in 1997 modelled on the WEA in England and Scotland as part of the development of civil society in Zambia as a multi-party democracy. We have supported WEA Zambia with a small annual grant which has been used to support five workers and secure other project funding internationally.

Mike described the current work done and their plans in three strands: Trade Union Education, Community education and work in the informal economy. It is clear that the WEA is Zambia is making an important contribution to the country in a number of ways.

Mike agreed to summarise these (at very short notice) in a short video (4 minutes) which you can open from here in QuickTime

Download mike_chungu.mov

I hope we can develop our relationship with WEA Zambia and involve many people across the WEA here in that process. Finding a way to build support, share ideas and learn from their work must be possible and I hope we can come up with some ideas that Mike will find helpful and will strike a chord with anyone here interested in developing international education practically and in a way that will make a difference.

Direction of the WEA - please help

The Association is revising its Strategic Plan. This revision looks to plan for what the WEA should be in five years. In September, the WEA Trustees, Association Committee, Regional Chairs and Management Team will consider the goals that should be included in the Plan.

The proposal is to include four 'Statements of Direction' that have been slightly adapted from the current plan. From these we hope to devise strategic goals that are Association wide, written so we know when we've met them and capable of being prioritised, reviewed annually and so everyone involved in the WEA can see how what they do contributes to the plan. For that to happen, we need plenty of help in devising the goals. You can help by proposing a goal here by using the 'comments' below. Please comment as soon as possible and before 12th September.

The four proposed Statements of Direction for the WEA are:

Our Work:

•          The WEA’s work is to develop a range of educational activities meeting the needs and interests of adults returning to education to improve their skills and knowledge for themselves, for their involvement in communities and workplaces and their understanding of the world - its environment, societies and cultures.

•          The WEA’s work encourages all these adults to: become aware and involved in an association that advocates continuing education as essential to democracy; become more active citizens; and to play a vital role in taking that work forward.

•          The methods of work used throughout the WEA reflect and reinforce democratic educational principles

•          The WEA’s work includes campaigning, influencing and alliance building to ensure that a high quality adult education is available to all through an infrastructure of many providers – not just the WEA itself

 

Our Workers:

•          The WEA’s workers include all those it pays to employ (staff and tutors) and those who it uses as volunteers (in such activities as organising, promoting, campaigning, evaluating, fund-raising and governance). Workers in the WEA are capable, confident, resourceful, versatile and responsible for delivering the work of the Association.

•          Wherever they are in the organisation, WEA workers have the information they need to do their job and represent the WEA. This is accompanied by a range of appropriate continuing professional development and training that is systematically part of their work and informs their review and performance management.

•          WEA tutors are key to taking our work forward. They are expert in their subject and in their teaching methods and develop these through reflective practice and with others in a network of WEA tutors. They are involved in developing the overall work of the Association and the relationship is professional but more than just contractual. They meet all WEA students as equals and see themselves as part of the Association as a whole.

 

Our Supporters:

•          The WEA’s supporters act to further the aims of the Association and its work. They include members, donors, supporters, affiliated organisations and other partners. They understand the work of the WEA and how they can contribute as volunteers or in other ways.

•          Their voice is heard through the Association and they seek to encourage all students and potential students to hear of our work.

•          The structures through which supporters work are clear and communication with and between supporters is effective and builds the WEA’s voice, work, resources and reputation.

 

The Money:

•          The Association gets its money from a range of sources including the LSC (and its successor), other government departments and agencies, partner organisations, learners and donors.

•          It uses it effectively and sustainably to maximise its impact in supporting the work of the WEA. The Association continually looks to cost efficiencies to maximise resource directed to the work, build reserves and minimise environmental impact and carbon use.

•          This includes, where appropriate, technological solutions and review of operational locations that are not directly linked to the provision of learning and engaging with individuals, communities and partner organisations.

Please comment on these and propose specific goals that can be considered.

You can see a Powerpoint presentation around these plans here:

Download developing_association_strategic_plan_june_08.ppt

WEA Response to Informal Adult Learning consultation

The WEA formal response to the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills consultation into the future of Informal Adult Learning has been submitted. Thank you to the many colleagues from across the WEA who have contributed to this. You can open the document by clicking below.

Download response_from_wea.pdf

Just suppose teaching and learning became the first priority...

I copy here the first two paragraphs of an excellent - and very up-to-date LSN Publication by Frank Coffield, Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London.

"Just for once let us take the government’s rhetoric seriously and imagine a learning and skills sector (LSS), where teaching and learning have become the number one priority. We are all familiar with current practice: ritual genuflection is made to the central impor tance of learning, but the sermon swiftly becomes a litany of what the government considers to be the really key elements of transformation – priorities, targets, inspection grades and funding – and the topics of teaching and learning disappear from sight, as if they had no momentum or dynamic of their own. If they are mentioned fur ther, teaching and learning are treated as unproblematic, technical matters that require little discussion. The unspoken assumption
is that we can all recognise and disseminate ‘best practice’ without any difficulty.

For once, let us reverse this process and take the following proposition seriously, namely that the way to creating a world-class LSS is to improve the teaching and learning taking place within it. This pamphlet will explore this proposition, and will tease out the most likely consequences of making teaching and learning the first priority of the post-compulsory sector. In doing so, I am aware that I am swimming against the prevailing tide but, as Malcolm Muggeridge once remarked, only dead fish swim with the stream."

The pamphlet: "Just suppose teaching and learning became the first priority..." (which is quite long) is attached here:

Download frank_coffield_on_teach_and_learning.pdf

A new play reminds us of the noble tradition of working class ambition and intellectualism

Guardian

Saturday June 7 2008

On Thursday Gordon Brown took time out from negotiations over 42-day detention to go to the theatre and see Lee Hall's play The Pitmen Painters. Sitting a few seats away from him, I could see both his discomfort at and absorption in the production were in equal measure. Rightly so, because not only is it a compelling piece of political theatre - as one might expect of the writer of Billy Elliot - but the issues it explores are central to Labour's crisis and David Cameron's refashioning of Conservatism. Hall has no qualms about being political - the final statement, on a screen onstage, is a reference to the abolition of Clause 4 in 1995 - but not even he quite realises the extent to which he has laid out the thematic territory of the next election.
The play is based on the story of a Workers' Educational Association lecturer who in 1934 turned up in Ashington, a mining town north of Newcastle, to deliver art appreciation classes and stumbled on extraordinary talent; over the next few decades, the paintings of these 23 men found their way into galleries across the UK. Hall ends the play in 1947 as the miners celebrate a brave new world of nationalisation, and universal education and health services. Ashington could be "teeming with artists", "pitmen poets" and "pitmen painters", even "pitmen professors". Shakespeare and Goethe will no longer be the preserve of the upper classes - "it's ganna belang to us", they declare.

But of course there isn't a university of Ashington; the pit was closed in 1981 and such former pit towns register some of the highest rates of incapacity claimants in the country. What happened to this tradition of working class intellectualism and ambition? Who is demanding the right to Goethe now? It was the point Brown picked up with Hall at the interval; providing universal education has not ensured that potential and talent are realised. What else is needed?

"These pitmen had a tradition of organised labour which provided places of solidarity which made possible this kind of intellectualism," Hall comments. "They were profoundly concerned with creativity and how that linked to personal growth and collective understanding - how you learn and the relationships, with teachers, with peers, in that process."

It is the themes of autonomy, engagement and empowerment, and how they transform lives and communities, that are of such interest to politicians across the spectrum. What policies encourage them, which ones kill off their fragile growth? After a decade of investment, the electorate's faith in the state to deliver change in depressed communities is compromised - has Labour missed a part of the puzzle? - while the Conservatives argue that it is precisely the big state that crushed the self-help and initiative of the working class.

Hall is horrified that his play could become grist for Cameron. His sympathies are clear. Some of the play's best laughs are at the expense of the union official with his rule book and his citing of clauses. He is an easy figure for an impatient age to mock, but he was actually the initiator of this remarkable project. Organisation and the group's own solidarity were crucial to the pitmen's individual development as painters. Hall, however, is too subtle a playwright not to acknowledge the paradox that these can also be irritating and major constraints on that development.

At another level, the play is much more straightforward: it unashamedly celebrates one of the most powerful traditions of the 20th century, shabbily smashed in the 80s. The organised working class not only fought a war, it reshaped Britain and its achievements still organise our lives - the NHS, universal education and the welfare state. For the best part of three decades, this historical record has been an embarrassment to Labour, and an object of ridicule to the Conservatives. Hall admitted he was worried that his material was "old-fashioned" but rapturous London audiences reassured him. Are we finally ready for a reassessment in which we begin to recognise that a ruthless disenfranchisement, culturally and politically, facilitated Middle England's stranglehold on power?

Part of that disenfranchisement has been implemented through a culture of loathing: the working class is characterised as - and despised for - being fat, smoking, smacking their children, eating junk food, getting into debt and having chaotic family lives. Hall says he wanted above all to remind people of what the working class is capable of: that given the right circumstances ordinary people achieve extraordinary things. They can be much more than passive consumers of a culture they are rarely allowed to create.

· The Pitmen Painters is at the National Theatre until June 25 and will return next January [ mailto:[email protected] ][email protected]