COMMENTARY H Learning –
it’s a family affair
NIACE is beginning to think about what a new model for
family learning in the coming decades might look like. Whatever the social policy
challenges we face, it is vital that we build on the core
values and well-understood impact of family learning, writes CAROL TAYLOR
ow can twenty-first century family learning respond to changes in social policy whilst, at the same time, maintaining its positive impact on the lives of adults, children, families and communities? Thanks to the efforts of advocates such as NIACE and the Basic Skills Agency the value of family learning is now well understood. As a concept and as an intervention strategy, it is supported by politicians on both sides of the House. Like motherhood and apple pie, it’s difficult to argue with. But family learning has to be regularly reassessed in the light of social, political and pedagogical change. We know that learning as a family has a powerful contribution to make to any future vision for lifelong learning; it crosses policy areas and provides many of the critical building blocks for long-term changes in aspirations and learning practices at the level of family and community. But its potential is hampered by structural and policy issues. NIACE would like to see a future system – with the notion of the learning family at its core – that unblocks some of these systemic issues. The pedagogical approach which we champion – in contrast to what many saw as a deficit model in the early 1990s – views the family as a learning environment, encourages participatory learning, and promotes family relationships as supporting wellbeing and a readiness to learn. The learning family supports a culture of aspiration in adults and children and provides opportunities to build confidence and try out new skills and ideas. It also places adult learning at the heart, recognising that the skills, aspirations and confidence of adults who are parents and carers are of paramount importance. Family learning, in this decade, includes
family-friendly museums, workplace family learning, university-led projects, work with young people in care, faith-based programmes, and discrete literacy- and numeracy-based programmes. Any new model of the learning family should accept that family learning is not necessarily located in educational establishments; indeed, it may have no connection at all with traditional educational structures. It has to accept and adapt to changes to families, communities, technologies, demography and patterns of employment. Of course, any new model has to start at the top. There has to be more joined-up thinking, not just between the departments for Business, Innovation and Skills and Children, Schools and Families, but with other key departments of state. The fact that a recent DCSF consultation on family learning was carried out with no representation of those working with adults underlines this position starkly. This new approach to joint working would have to be complemented by strong local authority leadership. Family learning, like adult
learning more generally, has the potential to play to numerous local policy agendas. But if family learning finds itself locked into the silo of a single council directorate, its cross-cutting importance could be negated. A national indicator for family learning, together with the new national indicator for informal adult learning, would ensure that family and lifelong learning activities gain an effective place in many aspects of local strategic planning. The sampling framework designed for the Learning and Skills Council for the Family Learning Impact Funding programme has enabled providers to track the social, personal, economic and educational outcomes of a small number of families over a three-year period. We need to build on and develop this, so that we can track the learning and other outcomes, and assess the impact of this work on a range of policy areas. This has to be backed up by professional development, and the new qualifications developed by NIACE, ranging from Level 2 to Level 5, will enable providers from all sorts of backgrounds to develop the skills of their workforce and volunteers. Finally, a new curriculum is needed for the twenty-first century. We suggest that a new model of working with families – what we term the ‘learning family’ model – will enhance the integration of learning opportunities into the range of Public Service Agreement policy priorities and so strengthen civil society. In addition to improving the skills of families, the learning family model will show clearly how it links to civic engagement, community cohesion, happiness, wellbeing, sustainability, skills, resilience and tolerance. This is a considerable prize for policy makers and practitioners – but the biggest prize will be better lives for the many thousands of people, young and old alike, taking part in our new learning family. What do you think? Let us know by emailing:
comment@niace.org.uk.
Carol Taylor is Director of Operations, NIACE. Her article draws on The impact of learning as a family: a model for the 21st Century, a paper written by Penny Lamb for the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning. The paper is available to download from
www.lifelonglearninginquiry.org.uk.
Copies of Learning Through Life, the Inquiry’s main report, can be pur- chased from
http://shop.niace.org.uk/ifll- learningthroughlife.html. Readers of Adults Learning can buy copies at a specially reduced price of £9.95, provided they order before 1 December 2009, quoting the discount code MCALOCT09. This offer has been extended due to the late mail-out of the October issue.
NOVEMBER 2009 ADULTS LEARNING
7
Photo: Sue Parkins
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