8621
Evaluation of learning activity in voluntary organisations
Brian Barnes, University of Lancaster
Introduction
In 1983 a report of a survey of provision of Post Initial Education in the North West of England undertaken by Percy et al. was published by the Advisory Council for Adult and Continuing Education (ACACE)[1]. Amongst its findings the survey clearly showed that ‘learning activity’ occurred in voluntary organisations.
In May 1986, the Unit for the Development of Adult Continuing Education (UDACE) funded the further development of this work at the University of Lancaster specifying the following aims:
(i) To identify the extent of formal and informal learning activity in voluntary organisations;
(ii) To examine and classify the kinds of learning opportunities developed by voluntary organisations;
(iii) Submit a report to the UDACE Development Group on voluntary/statutory relationships.
A ‘map’ of voluntary organisations (and the defining characteristics of their educational activities) was also to be drawn for three areas - rural, urban and inner city.
The brief then was, in one sense, that of carrying out a large-scale evaluation of activity in the voluntary sector. It was to be a question of describing and classifying that activity and giving some of it an educational ‘value’. The value-laden difficulties of defining activity as ‘educational’ while those who are actually participating in it apply to it no ‘educational’ constructs at all, are considerable. There are also dangers in subjecting what might be a completely informal and spontaneous activity to the rigours of external scrutiny. In a real sense, the UDACE enquiry was not evaluating voluntary organisations in the usually accepted sense of the word; nevertheless, participants in such organisations could easily see it as such.
This paper is based on early stages of research by the author[2] which constituted part of the UDACE project based at Lancaster.
Constraints
The scope of the work was limited by various constraints including:
(i) Time - Only three months were available for field work and a further month for report writing;
(ii) Size - Of the three areas designated, the urban one alone (Preston) had 435 listed voluntary organisations;
(iii) Variety - The variety of voluntary organisations was found to be great both in the extent to which they had clearly formulated educational aims (if at all) and their pattern of organisational characteristics - significant to any sampling procedures;
(iv) Membership sensitivity - As members of these societies often do not see themselves as being involved in an educational activity (rather do they see their society as a social organisation within which they can pursue their particular interest in company with those of like mind), previous ‘bad’ educational experiences may cause them to feel threatened by anything other than an indirect approach in any attempt to evaluate the educational aspects of their activity.
Sampling procedures
In the early stages of the work, the urban area was selected in order to pilot the research.
The selection of the individual societies/clubs was carried out by taking a stratified sample in which two constraints were applied; firstly, that the clubs selected should reflect the range of categories noted in Percy et al.[3] and later subsumed into four ‘orientations’ noted in Percy[4]; and, secondly, that they should meet weekly so as to allow a sufficient number of visits to take place to complete the intended investigations in the time available.
Beyond this, the clubs were selected by enumerating the 435 societies selecting the first six to fulfil the above criteria using a table of random numbers[5].
The clubs selected were as follows:
OrientationSociety
Special InterestPreston Jazz Club
Preston District Model Rail
Sub-Aqua
New Longton Artists
ServiceBritish Red Cross
SocialAge Concern
AdvocacyCo-operative Development Agency
Consumer Group
The 'Advocacy’ societies were later rejected as they were shown later not to conform to the original remit.
Relationship with statutory educational provision
Elsey[6] suggested that in terms of their learning provision, voluntary organisations occupy a position midway between mass entertainment and formal educational activity. However, at a preliminary stage of the investigation the heterogeneity of the voluntary organisations in terms of their entry requirements, certification definition/acquisition and pattern of club activity in relation to this was perceived as a continuum with that of the statutory provision. The model noted below in Figure 1 is provided as an illustration of this.
It can thus be seen that at least some of these organisations have much in common with the statutory formal adult agencies and these (at least) may offer potential for statutory agency/voluntary organisation collaboration on educational matters.
Methodology and evaluation
What measures then can we use to evaluate the educational activities of voluntary organisations and how can we determine numerical expressions as an index of this? Clearly, it is in this way that this research may be considered evaluative.
Four techniques are to be employed:
(i) A general postal-enquiry addressed to all the societies in the area (i.e. 435);
(ii) Interviewing the secretaries of the societies selected;
Figure 1. Gradations in organisation of learning situations in statutory and voluntary organisations
(iii) Holding personal interviews with between 70-100 (approximately 25%) of the members of the above societies;
(iv) Observing the behavioural activities of around six (15%) of the members of each society investigated according to a predetermined schedule.
As in any research of this sort, the data suffers from being subjective. However, it is hoped to counter this at least when observing the behaviour of members, by having two observers operating on the same subject concurrently. Also one must guard against other factors such as the ‘Hawthorne’ effect.
How will the data be used?
McGivney[7] has already provided data on voluntary/statutory relationships and it is expected that the outcomes of this work will contribute to the development of this UDACE theme.
It might also be seen as helping to develop criteria/mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating educational activity in voluntary organisations.
However, it is paramount in such considerations that the management autonomy and the social and democratic nature of these organisations should be left intact, otherwise bureaucratic intervention will sound the death knell of a valuable educational resource which appears to extend into parts of our society not always reached by the formal educational agencies.
Note:
The UDACE research team at Lancaster University, directed by Keith Percy, was to submit its report in December 1986.
[1] Percy, K. A., Butters, S., Powell, J. and Willett, I., 1983, Post initial education in the north west of England: a survey of provision