Lifelong learning: contributing to the Big Society Wednesday, October 27, 2010 - 16:27

Promises of Freedom was launched in London at NIACE's Annual General Meeting, which provides NIACE members with an opportunity to make their voices heard in shaping the debate on the future of adult learning.

The book - by Professor R.H. (Bob) Fryer CBE, Chair of the Campaign for Learning UK - examines a wide range of literature in three key areas - citizenship; belonging and identity; and lifelong learning - and traces the relationships between them. It looks at the promises for social improvement and asks to what extent they will be fulfilled and what barriers stand in the way of their fulfilment.

It advocates the development of a universal ‘entitlement' to lifelong learning and the creation of a ‘community chest' of resources to strengthen the infrastructure necessary to support increased lifelong learning for all citizens; concepts that are also addressed in Learning Through Life, the final report of an independent Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning.

The book also calls for UK and worldwide businesses to accept their wider responsibilities as ‘corporate citizens' and supports a greater role for trades unions in promoting citizenship and belonging through lifelong learning.

Promises of Freedom makes a strong case for understanding, accepting and celebrating increased diversity and a wide range of differing identities in the UK today.

The Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, said:

"I am happy to endorse and recommend this book which is very much written in the tradition that Bernard Crick and I set out. In seeking to set out and extend the case for an inclusive, humanistic and optimistic vision of each of the three issues the text concludes with an agenda for action: a set of principles which need to underpin and guide lifelong learning. This will ensure the future development of both citizenship and belonging in a democratic and pluralistic society, against a modern background of the threats of globalisation, risk and increasing insecurity."

Professor John Annette, Pro Vice Master for Lifelong Learning and Engagement and Professor of Citizenship and Lifelong Learning, Birkbeck, University of London, said:

"Promises of Freedom is an original and stimulating reflection on the meanings of citizenship and belonging in relation to the realities of lifelong learning. It will be of great value to both practitioners and academics."

Alan Tuckett, Chief Executive of NIACE, said:

"In Promises of Freedom, Bob Fryer, has drawn on his distinctive range of skills as scholar, policy maker and teacher. The book meets a real need: it offers an overview which captures the dialogues and disagreements central to the contested meanings ascribed to citizenship, identity and belonging and reviews a range of the educational initiatives undertaken to promote them. It also identifies a baker's dozen of principles that should underpin a programme of learning for citizenship of the sort needed for a complex industrial democracy like Britain today."