Learning, Life Histories and Citizenship

Aims and objectives

The overall partnership project was called Learning, Life Histories and Citizenship. The e-learning project run by Harrow Adult and Community Learning service within this was called Share My Story: E-Learning and Citizenship.

The aims of the overall project were to focus on how ‘excluded’ groups, including ethnic minorities, adults with learning disabilities and economically marginalised women, can find a voice in the European debate about active citizenship. The project used life history techniques to explore the concept of citizenship in three European countries, with an underlying recognition that citizenship has both a collective and individual dimension.

The aim of the e-learning project was to build on the process of enabling learners to construct their own ‘world view’ through voicing and sharing their life experiences through the use of an e-learning programme that would be more likely to engage those groups or individuals feeling the most cut off from the host society.

Using Information and Learning Technologies (ILT) as a vehicle for engaging learners in a discussion about citizenship, a modular e-learning resource was developed that could be used as a blended learning tool. The starting point was an ‘autobiography tool’ to allow learners to reflect on their background, life experiences and culture. The stages in this guide the learner through writing a mini-autobiography using tools such as chronological lists and timelines. It also included space to reflect on differences between countries and cultures and how ‘citizenship’ could have a trans-national meaning. Having produced a draft autobiography, learners were then asked to look at skills they already had or could develop in order to think about their wider application in a community setting. Within the e-learning programme this was structured around the themes of Skills, Motivation and Making Ideas Happen, which was focused on how the next steps could be developed in a collective context.

As learners did not necessarily have the requisite Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) or language skills for the programme, the next step was to produce a basic ICT module in English with spoken language support in Arabic, Farsi, Gujerati and Tamil. In addition, to teach the writing skills for the autobiographies, two optional English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) modules were created. Learners could thus work through the autobiography stages with support as required from the ICT and ESOL modules. As part of this process they had access to a diary to reflect on distance travelled in terms of skills acquired and confidence and enjoyment. The whole programme was finally made accessible on the Harrow ACL website: http://www.learninharrow.org.uk

The main achievement of the Harrow ACL project was the development of the Share My Story e-programme outlined above. Evaluation to date has shown that, alongside the development of English and ICT skills, learners have been encouraged to discuss current affairs and to start sharing their experiences in a group. This has made engagement in the process of active citizenship more feasible and is leading to links into a number of other routes, including a preparatory programme for the British citizenship test.

The programme has also raised important issues in relation to the learning process, the shaping of a virtual community and how the integral use of ICT can engage learners in a discussion about citizenship.

Share My Story: an E-learning/blended learning programme on www.learninharrow.org.uk

A summary of the Harrow ACL project was included in the Winter 2005 edition of LCN News, http://www.bgfl.org/services/lcn/files/win2005.pdf

See also Bhamra, K., and A. Tuckett, 2005. The wider benefits of non-accredited learning: a case for sustaining lifelong learning through an understanding of the benefits of non-accredited learning. London: Harrow Council.

The overall project involved The Centre for Continuing Education at Sussex University and Harrow ACL Service from the UK, the Larkin Centre from Dublin and the Eijsveikeet organisation working with Learning Disabilities in Northern Savo, Finland.

The Harrow project involved a number of local community-based organisations, including Harrow Mosque, the Sangat Centre and a group of Sri Lankan women based at a school in South Harrow.

In the first year of the project, a group of predominantly Sri Lankan women who were parents at a First and Middle School in South Harrow used a life history approach in a classroom setting with a tutor helping them write down autobiographical experiences. The group was chosen as an initial focus as members were not in the formal education system for a number of reasons, including language skills, social isolation and cultural constraints, yet they had a shared sense of cultural identity shaped by their past.

The work threw up a number of problems, both in the use of the term ‘life histories’ and in getting learners to move beyond their own experiences of education and work to a wider engagement in citizenship and it was at this stage that the development in a new direction to utilise the potential for e-learning began. This was piloted with a new group of learners, firstly at the Sangat Centre and then at Harrow Mosque, again with those who might feel excluded from the wider political community but who shared a sense of cultural identity. The programme was used as blended learning and evaluated for future changes and for impact on the learning process.

On the organisation
Harrow ACL delivers some provision through a range of community and voluntary organisations. The e-learning programme has had an impact on the way these organisations recruit learners as well as the type of learners. Some of the organisations have expressed an interest in delivering all or part of the e-learning modules themselves.

On staff
Tutors have fed back that running this course with the e-learning as a central part is enabling them to better understand learners and their diverse backgrounds. The e-learning is supported with a comprehensive tutor’s module that enables ICT curriculum tutors to deliver embedded ESOL.

On adult learners
The feedback from learners indicates increased confidence in themselves, learning in general and building rapport with tutors and peers. Learners recruited through a FLLN programme told us they felt not just part of existing communities but also that they had been able to build a peer community through shared life stories.

On outside bodies
Developing the e-learning programme has been useful in raising the profile of the service and of the work being done in ILT. The project was presented at the Changing Landscapes Conference at Swansea University in April 2005 and an E-Learning Practitioners Award was presented by JISC to Karen Bhamra for developing the programme in July 2005.

Geoff Trodd
Harrow ACL service
Harrow Teachers Centre Tudor Road
Harrow
HA3 5PQ

Telephone no.: 020 8861 2668

Email: gtrodd@harrow.gov.uk

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