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Maintaining participation and the pursuit of equality in Adult Learning
| Date: | Friday 2 March 2007 |
| Venue: | Woburn House Conference Centre, 20 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ |
| Ref: | C14-98/03/07 |
| Fee*: | £175. *(includes lunch, tea/coffee and a copy of the publication priced at £25.25 inc p&p): |
[Background & Aims] [Audience] [Programme]
Background & Aims
Building on the work of Veronica McGivney
Throughout her long career Dr. Veronica McGivney made an enormous
contribution to informing and updating adult educators about the significance
and impact of current policy decisions on the changing role of adult learning.
Her meticulous research always involved the plentiful contributions of learners
themselves, front line staff, academic commentators and providers in what have
become treasuries of detail and understanding about educational developments and
their implications. To mark her retirement in 2005, NIACE commissioned a
collection of essays, written by leading educators and commentators, to reflect
on some of the important and contentious areas addressed by McGivney during her
career. To celebrate the resulting publication, Participation and the Pursuit of
Equality, the book’s contributors have been invited to take a critical look at
the current state of adult learning, and with the help of Veronica in her
closing comments, chart some of the main challenges facing us today.
More immediately
The latest evidence from the Learning and Skills Council makes bleak
reading. It shows falling participation rates last year among all age groups
aged 19 and over in further education and a 10% decline in adult and community
learning. These figures come on top of sharp losses in student numbers in 2004-5
and ahead of a cut in the European Social Fund’s support for participation in
further education for the most vulnerable groups. It is a high price to pay for
the Skills Agenda and for the advent of Leitch. Over the next three years around
a million learning opportunities for adults will be lost and are testament to
Labour’s abandonment of its vision for lifelong and life-wide learning for all.
In its place we have a narrow utilitarianism, with government support available
to employers and to people who want the qualifications the government wants them
to want. Revisiting earlier debates about participation and the pursuit of
equality in the light of huge cuts and changing priorities is a timely exercise
for all those who want to defend adult learning against the present government’s
obvious change of heart.
This event aims to:
 | Highlight three broad areas of activity in which participation and the pursuit of equality still has a long way to go |
| Outline the main ideas and arguments developed by the contributors to Participation and the Pursuit of Equality |
| Involve conference delegates in discussion about these ideas and arguments |
| Invite Veronica McGivney to respond to some of the main challenges. |
Delegates will be able to:
| Be reminded of the important research studies undertaken by McGivney, which are still available, and highly relevant to present concerns |
| Have the opportunity to consider and debate the implications of current policy directives as they impact on the provision of adult learning across the sector. |
| Receive a complimentary copy of Participation and the Pursuit of Equality |
Following attendance, delegates will be able to:
| Update colleagues on current policy issues and implications |
| Organise in a more informed way to defend adult learning against current cut backs |
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Audience
The event will be of particular interest to:
| Managers and front line workers across the sector |
| Academics with an interest in Adult Learning |
| Students on professional development courses concerned with Adult Learning |
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Programme
| 09:45 | Arrival and Registration (Tea/Coffee available) |
| 10:15 | Welcome and Introduction to the
Day Chair: Alan Tuckett, Director, NIACE |
| 10:30 | Learning, Participation and
Democratic Action – Can education change society? Peter Lavender, Director for Research, Development and Information, NIACE Stephen McNair, Director, Centre for Research into the Older Workforce (CROW) Prof. Richard Taylor, Director of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Cambridge, Institute of Continuing Education Followed by Questions to speakers |
| 11:30 | Tea/Coffee break |
| 11:50 | Participation and Sectoral
Responses – where are we now? Learning and Skills – 10 years after Kennedy Judith Summers, NIACE Research Fellow Higher Education Maria Slowey, Vice President for Learning Innovation/Registrar, Dublin City University Informal Learning Ursula Howard, Director of the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (NRDC) and Head of the Bedford Group of Lifecourse and Statistical Studies, Institute of Education, University of London Followed by Questions to speakers |
| 12:50 | Lunch |
| 13:50 | Gender, Learning and Equality
Is feminism still relevant to women in education? Jane Thompson, Principal Research Officer, NIACE Wilma Fraser, Senior Lecturer, Department of Post-Compulsory Education and Training, Canterbury Christ Church University Annie Winner, Education Consultant Chris Scarlett, Writer and Researcher Followed by Questions to speakers |
| 14:50 | Response from Veronica McGivney |
| 15:20 | Closing comments from the Chair |
| 15:30 | Close of Conference (Tea/Coffee available) |
This programme is correct at the time of going to press. The organisers reserve the right to make changes to the published programme in the event of one or more of the advertised speakers being unable to attend. Delegates will have no claim against NIACE in respect of such changes.
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