Community education
Community education, also known as Community-Based Education or Community Learning & Development, or Development Education is an organization's programs to promote learning and social development work with individuals and groups in their communities using a range of formal and informal methods. A common defining feature is that programmes and activities are developed in dialogue with communities and participants. The purpose of community learning and development is to develop the capacity of individuals and groups of all ages through their actions, the capacity of communities, to improve their quality of life. Central to this is their ability to participate in democratic processes.
Community education encompasses all those occupations and approaches that are concerned with running education and development programmes within local communities, rather than within educational institutions such as schools, colleges and universities. The latter is known as the formal education system, whereas community education is sometimes called informal education. It has long been critical of aspects of the formal education system for failing large sections of the population in all countries and had a particular concern for taking learning and development opportunities out to poorer areas, although it can be provided more broadly.
There are a myriad of job titles and employers include public authorities and voluntary or non-governmental organisations, funded by the state and by independent grant making bodies. Schools, colleges and universities may also support community learning and development through outreach work within communities. The community schools movement has been a strong proponent of this since the sixties. Some universities and colleges have run outreach adult education programmes within local communities for decades. Since the seventies the prefix word ‘community’ has also been adopted by several other occupations from youth workers and health workers to planners and architects, who work with more disadvantaged groups and communities and have been influenced by community education and community development approaches.
Community educators have over many years developed a range of skills and approaches for working within local communities and in particular with disadvantaged people. These include less formal educational methods, community organising and group work skills. Since the nineteen sixties and seventies through the various anti poverty programmes in both developed and developing countries, practitioners have been influenced by structural analyses as to the causes of disadvantage and poverty i.e. inequalities in the distribution of wealth, income, land etc. and especially political power and the need to mobilise people power to effect social change. Thus the influence of such educators as Paulo Friere and his focus upon this work also being about politicising the poor.
In the history of community education and community learning and development, the UK has played a significant role in hosting the two main international bodies representing community education and community development. These being the International Community Education Association, which was for many years based at the Community Education Development Centre based in Coventry UK. ICEA and CEDC have now closed, and the International Association for Community Development, which still has its HQ in Scotland. In the 1990s there was some thought as to whether these two bodies might merge. The term community learning and development has not taken off widely in other countries. Although community learning and development approaches are recognised internationally. These methods and approaches have been acknowledged as significant for local social, economic, cultural, environmental and political development by such organisations as the UN, WHO, OECD, World Bank, Council of Europe and EU.
Definition
Community education is often used interchangeably with adult education in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom. For example, night schools and classes in village halls or community centres had been key opportunities for learning in communities outside of traditional school. Community education bridges the gap between adult education, lifelong learning and community development. John Rennie, former director of the Community Education Development Centre in Coventry, wrote that there are five tenants to defining community education: the best solutions come from collective knowledge and shared experiences involving the community, education is a lifelong activity, use of a variety of resources, each person has a contribution to make, and a sense of citizenship. In the 1960s and 1970s, the UK saw an increase in community development and community action organisations which had the potential to blur the lines between the responsibilities of adult education and community development. However, poverty and social disadvantage emphasised the need for adult education opportunities and a community approach supported the need to meet individual circumstances and to understand barriers to learning. Ian Martin, Honorary Fellow, Community and Society at the University of Edinburgh, has argued that community education "will allow genuinely alternative and democratic agendas to emerge at the local level." In a 1996 UNESCO report known as Learning: The Treasure Within learning throughout life was promoted as benefiting both society and individuals because it allowed them to respond to the changing labour market and social landscape.History
and planning became more of a priority after the decolonisation of independent states in Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Caribbean, and the Second World War. Community development was first significantly promoted by the United Nations in the 1950s as a way to develop the socioeconomic prospects of low-income countries by supporting education, housing and healthcare infrastructure. The UN established a Regional and Community Development Division and a Community Development and Organization Section. In the 1970s, a shift in adult education saw practitioners experiment with more informal outreach work within local communities. The International Association for Community Development was established in 1953 in the United States, and has since gone on to represent community development at the UN and partner with the United States, UK, Canada, Hungary, Hong Kong, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, Nigeria, India, Philippines, Georgia, Ireland and Kenya. The IACD includes community education as a way in which community development can empower people within their communities.In the UK
England and Wales
In July 1917 the British government, under Lloyd George, established The Ministry of Reconstruction. This governmental department aimed to address a number of political and social areas including employment, housing and industrial relations. In 1919, The Ministry of Reconstruction Adult Education Committee published the Final Report in which it argued that adult education was a "permanent national necessity." The AEC was chaired by A.L. Smith, and members included historian and social critic R.H. Tawney. Tawney believed that adult education was a democratic bottom-up process, that acts as a space for individuals to challenge and change their community. In the Final Report the need for adult education is described as individuals desire for "adequate opportunities for self-expression and the cultivation of their personal powers and interests." The 1919 Final Report identified a number of challenges that education may help to improve and these include; international cooperation, gender equality, maintaining democracy, and employment and the quality of work.The UK underwent a reform in social welfare during and after the inter-war period. Community centres were built in newly established suburban housing estates under the and the , and the Education Act 1944 introduced the Youth and Community Service. In the Ministry of Education pamphlet ' it is stated that:
In a 1944 booklet entitled Citizen Centres for Adult Education by the Education Settlements Association, posits adult education as vital to the "social reconstruction" of post-war Britain. One of the main challenges identified in the booklet is provision of centres and states that "the primary function of any local citizen centre should be the progressive development of the individual as a member of a free society, through mental training, the encouragement of self-effort, and the exercise of personal responsibility."
During the 1960s, Britain experienced increased poverty. In a 1965 survey entitled The Poor and the Poorest, Peter Townsend and Brian Abel-Smith measured poverty as the rate of people receiving National Assistance and, from this, they found approximately 14% of British people were living in poverty. British social researcher, Richard Titmuss published his book Income Distribution and Social Change in 1962, and argued that the wealth divide between classes was much wider than shown in official statistics. In 1965 the Seebohm Committee was established to investigate and review the work of social services in Britain. The subsequent Seebohm Report was published in 1968 and recommended greater integration between social care services and other health and social welfare services, particularly proposing the creation of a single family services department. The Seebohm Committee's work bolstered interest in community work as it was seen as a way to facilitate plans for social change. The Seebohm Report argued that in order to prevent delinquency, social work should be involved in encouraging positive community values and empowering people to help themselves. In 1965 a study group, chaired by Dame Eileen Younghusband and funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, investigated the role of community work in Britain and how best to go about training community workers. The study group published their findings in 1968 and defined community work "as a means of giving life to local democracy" and said that community work was important to coordinate and develop "services within and among organisations in a local community." In response to concern about poverty and social inequalities in Britain, Prime Minister Harold Wilson introduced the National Community Development Projects in 1969. Subsequently this influenced creation of the Urban Aid Programme, which allocated grants to local authorities to support education, housing, and social care organisations. Martin Loney described the CDPs as "the story of Britain's largest ever government funded social experiment." The rationale of the CDPs, and similar American projects such as the Community Action Programmes for Juvenile Delinquency, was that social issues were local and caused by individual pathology.
CDPs were established in 12 cities and towns in Coventry, Liverpool, Southwark, Glyncorrwg, Bately, Birmingham, Canning Town, Cumbria, Newcastle, Oldham, Paisley and North Shields. The aim was for researchers to identify local issues, and work alongside the local community to provide and evaluate different methods of intervention. A number of reports were published particularly by the North Tyneside CDP, following CDPs research, and these include Whatever Happened to Council Housing, ' and '.
In 1973, Adult Education: A Plan for Development was published by the Department of Education, also known as the Russell Report. The Russell Committee was chaired by Sir Lionel Russell and was first established by the Labour Government in 1969. However, the after the 1979 election, the Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher came into power and this may have effected the approach of the Committee. The reports recognised that there was increased demand for adult education and that with "modest" investment could benefit adult education greatly to make use of existing resources. The General Statement of the Russell Report explained:
The committee expressed that adult learning should be directed by the learner's individual needs e.g. for vocational reasons, for employment or to upskill in a job. The Report outlined ten important recommendations; establishment of a Development Council for Adult Education for England and Wales, ongoing partnership between statutory and voluntary bodies when providing adult learning, the secretary of state should provide guidance in accordance with the Education Act 1944 for how Local Education Authorities should provide adult learning, increase number of full-time staff employed in adult learning with appropriate career and salary structures, offer access to qualifications at all levels for adult learners, targeted provision should be available for "disadvantaged adults", increase in accommodation, premises, available for adult learning, maintain funding structure for universities, the Workers Educational Association should be funded by LEAs and the Department for Education, and greater opportunities for residential adult education. The Russell Committee were obliged to focus on non-vocational adult education. The Russell Report supported the use of the Direct Grant that funds were specifically stipulated for adult learning bodies. The Committee conducted research for the Report, and they recommended that programmes for learning should be developed specifically for disadvantaged individuals. 'Disadvantaged' is defined, in The Russell Report, as " the extent to which integration into society" is influenced by physical or mental health, poverty or social deprivation, or lack of basic education, learning impairment or language barriers.
In 1977 the Advisory Council for Adult and Continuing Education was established in 1977 after the Russell Report and was chaired by British sociologist Richard Hoggart until 1983. The Council established committees related to national educational policies, conceptualising continuing education, for example integrating higher education and vocational training. In 1979, the ACACE carried out a survey of adult learners' access to higher education and they conclude that "recurrent post-secondary education could be established without heavy new expenditure, especially on capital projects. The basis of the system is there." In another 1979 paper entitled Towards Continuing Education: a discussion paper, the ACACE argue that adult education should include vocational training under the Employment Acts and the Education Acts. The ACACE defined adult education as a social policy concept, meaning that it would address issues relating to social change and the economy, and Naomi McIntosh argued that the council helped to change people's attitudes about adult education.
In 1987, the National Vocational Qualifications was introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as framework to standardise vocational qualifications. This followed the creation of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications, consisting of members appointed by the secretary of state for education and employment. The council aimed to accreddit qualifications, and assign levels to qualifications within the NVQ framework. Criticism of the framework, however, ranged from less flexibility for learners, too bureaucratic and the expense of new assessment procedures. In his book Russell and After: The Politics of Adult Learning
The UK Government published the Green paper entitled 'The Learning Age: a renaissance for a new Britain
National Training Organisations worked in partnership across education with the government and third sector to: identify skill shortages, develop occupational standards, provide advice on training and communicate between partners. PAULO was an NTO for community-based learning and development established in January 2000. PAULO was concerned with the educational need of learners but also of the staff and their training by focusing on: appropriate community venues, prioritising voluntary learning, emphasising links between learning, individual and collective action and citizenship, promoting social inclusion and equality, and widening participation in lifelong learning.
The Learning and Skills Act 2000 was introduced and established the Learning and Skills Council to ensure provision of education and training for young people and adults. Local LSCs were also established to guide local education authorities with providing adult and community learning opportunities. The Adult Learning Inspectorate was a non-departmental public body established under the 2000 Act and headed by the Inspectorate David Sherlock. However, the UK Government established the Office for Standards in Education in 1990 and advising on adult learning and community education came under its remit in 2007, replacing the ALI.
The Institute for Employment Studies published 'Adult Learning in England: a Review' in 2000 alongside The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education and gave an account of the services involved in providing community education. NIACE was an educational charity, founded in 1921, to promote adult learning in England and Wales before it became part of the in 2016. The main agencies and services identified in the 2000 review are listed below as their current iterations:
- Ministerial Departments e.g. the Department for Education
- Jobcentre Plus
- Local Education Authorities
- Education and Skills Funding Agency
- Voluntary and charity organisations
- The National Careers Service
- The Open University
- BBC Schools
- Employers
- Trade Unions
In January 2021, the Department for Education published the White Paper "Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth''" which aimed to "strengthen links between employers and further education providers." In 2020 the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered a speech on the Lifetime Skills Guarantee in which he stated the education system in England "will move to a system where every student will have a flexible lifelong loan entitlement to four years of post-18 education – and suddenly, with that four year entitlement, and with the same funding mechanism, you bring universities and FE closer together." The White Paper made recommendations that aimed to deliver on the Lifetime Skills Guarantee by implementing a flexible Lifelong Loan Entitlement "to the equivalent of four years post-18 education from 2025." A major theme of the Paper was emphasising the role of employers working with education providers, and it recommends developing 'Local Skills Improvement Plans' to match skills with the needs of the labour market, including technical skills as well as improving english, maths and digital skills. £2.5 billion is proposed as a 'National Skills Fund' to upskill and reskill adult learners. Statutory guidance for Local Skills Improvement Plans was published in October 2022, in reference to the , and states that the Plans should set out key priorities and represent the needs of employers and how to address skill needs of employers in partnership with local education services.