Seven Days of Adult Learning in Scotland
Girlie and I have just come home from a trip to Scotland. After a short nap, I have followed the advice for shaking off jet lag faster – stay awake so long as the sun is up.
I thought I might as well write about the week that was – seven days of learning in Scotland.
Our visit to Scotland was really 10 days, but three of them were travel days. We flew out on the morning of Saturday, September 5, and arrived in our Edinburgh hotel just before midnight. We left the hotel at 6 a.m. of Sunday, September 13, for the flight back to Manila via Amsterdam, arriving here this Monday morning
On Sunday, September 6, our hosts from Scotland’s Learning Partnership, Fiona and Deborah, took us out for lunch and a brief orientation. Girlie and I have been invited for the International Adult Learners’ Week, together with a few others – John and Christine Gates from Wales, Sue from Somerset, and Winifred from Birmingham. I had met them in previous conferences, so the visit was also a reunion with friends and kindred spirits.
My first scheduled appointment was in Inverness, the main city in the “Highlands and Islands” region of Scotland. We took an early morning flight on Monday and were met at the airport by our hosts, Julie Simmons and her husband Robert. At their office, Girlie and I were impressed by their “Bookstart” program, which was started by private companies but is now funded by government. Mothers are given a series of pack of children’s books to help them teach their children to read. The starter pack is for 4 month-old babies, followed by a pack for one year olds, and still another for three year olds.
We joined a group discussion of adult learners and adult learning providers. The topic was on how adult learning helps in community participation. I heard stories of how local communities have changed and are changing, how “locals” and “incomers” relate to each other, and how the reputations of some communities persist and label those who live there. I shared some ideas from the community organizing experience in the Philippines. One is the focus on community “issues” – problems that people think/feel affect them personally, and about which they think/feel they can do something. The other is the focus on community leaders.
In the afternoon I spoke at a forum in one of the halls of the Highland Council, the government of the Highland region. Girlie observed that the audience, mainly adult learning providers and some local officials, seemed “reflective” – silently relating what I said to their own experience. Later, Fiona told us that people in the Highlands are more reserved, compared to the people I would address in Glasgow on Friday. But some did ask questions, especially about assessment and certification of adult learning that should not be limited to employable skills.
I think that one of the key issues in adult learning is precisely that – social, and even “market” recognition of the competencies that adult learners acquire and demonstrate. In building an alternative learning system, the system of assessment and recognition needs more attention compared to delivery systems of instruction.
One successful initiative in this direction is the annual Adult Learners Award. Tuesday evening, we traveled with a bus load of people from Edinburgh to the Marriot Hotel in Glasgow for the ceremony. There were 18 winners honored, symbolizing the 18 years of the award. The winners were chosen from 400 nominees received from all over Scotland – individuals or groups of adults that have been disadvantaged or marginalized, but who have changed heir lives for the better because of adult learning.
The ceremonies were quite impressive and moving. The hosts were two well-known TV personalities, and there were brief video clips of every winner before they came up to the stage, together with their nominators, to receive their trophy. The fast and efficient pace of the ceremonies contributed to the cumulative impact of the 18 stories on all of us. From time to time, I caught myself thinking of similar stories in the Philippines, and wishing we had something like these awards.
The next day at the office of Scotland Learning Partnership, we met the staff of the Grundtvig program, the EU funding facility for adult learning. She told us that the EU has made statements that one percent of it should be used for adult learning outside the EU. That is precisely the goal of SLP in promoting a Global Adult Learners’ Network.
The we had a filmed discussion on the proposed International Adult Learners’ Charter. We also had a preview of the website for the Global Adult Learners’ Network which we hope to build on the platform of the charter. This is planned to be launched in Brazil during the CONFINTEA 6.
The main voices heard on issues of adult learning tend to be those of “providers.” The driving purpose of the charter and network is to make the voices of adult learners heard; in fact, to place learners at the center of adult learning. I suggested that we need to identify and develop “leader-learners.” This is akin to ELF’s vision of “a community of leaders and learners.”
For Thursday, Fiona arranged a talk at the Newbattle Abbey College, just outside Edinburgh. It’s the only residential college for adult learners, and the estate had been bequeathed by its owner to the nation. The one year course is exclusively for disadvantaged adult learners – those with no degrees or formal higher education. But the college is also experimenting with a two-year “blended learning” program, somewhat like what we have tried for our grassroots leadership course, combining face-to-face and distance learning.
“I hope you don’t mind the title I gave your talk,” Fiona told me. “What is it?” I asked. “Teaching Fish to Fly,” she said with a smile.
It is a metaphor she remembers from my talk in Manchester a few years back, and she asked me to use it in all my presentations. I presume it is because the “fish” represent the adult learners, while the adult learning providers are the “birds.” The need for birds to learn to swim – immerse themselves in the life and culture of the fish – is sufficiently appreciated and advocated. In fact, there is a premium given to “birds” who can talk about how they swam with the fish.
But there is no equivalent recognition of the need to help fish learn to fly – learners able to reflect and theorize about their experiences, speak on their own behalf at conferences, and even teach fellow learners. In Negros Occidental, ELF’s partnership with Quidan Kaisahan has given them the name “GCEL – grassroots community educator-leaders.”
The ”partnership” in the name of Scotland Learning Partnership refers to two networks – a network of adult learning providers, and a network of adult learners, especially those who have been winners and are active in the Learner Forums that have been set up.
Pursuing the metaphor, the partnership we want to promote is that of “birds who have learned to swim and fish who have learned to fly.”
The images and the ideas seemed to resonate with the audience both at Newbattle Abbey College and at the Strathclyde University in Glasgow, where I gave a talk on Friday, though that had another announced title: “Make your learning greater than your experience.”
It’s past midnight, and jet lag has set in. Bye for now.
