THE ROLE OF ADULT EDUCATION IN IRELAND
Dr. Ted Fleming Department of Adult and Community Education Maynooth College
INTRODUCTION
When you ask people "what is adult education?" most reply immediately - night classes. Others will indicate that literacy or day time classes are what is meant.
To me this suggests two things: Firstly, it is a recognition of how important the traditional VEC provision has been in providing courses and classes over many years for adults. This is the positive! Secondly, it indicates that the full potential of adult education may not have been grasped in the popular imagination and the public debate about education. And this is the negative!
I am going to frame what I want to say in these combinations of positive and negative; the for and against; the affirming and the critique. The organisers have asked me to say some words and share some thoughts with you on the role of adult education in Irish society.
I would like to choose just three ideas and talk about these for a few moments:
1. In this year of life long learning and in the age of second chance education we have these two ideas which have become buzz words. They fit easily into our vocabulary and have wide acceptance and support.
2.I will take a brief look at Irish society to see what is happening that is relevant to this discussion of the role adult education in Irish society.
3.Finally, a look at what adult education offers beyond the slogans and taking account the real Ireland in which we live.
Adult education is to a great extent a critique of schooling, the education system and even society in general. What do I mean by this? Well, for many people their time in school was not happy, they did not learn and in fact frequently they emerged damaged, with low confidence and poor self-esteem, unable to shine and reach the peak of their abilities. Schooling left many unprepared for life and work. Where in school, for instance, did we learn to be parents?
Adult education grows out of this dissatisfaction and provides for many a way of reclaiming lost possibilities. A second chance!
Adult education also grows out of the realisation that at school, even if we were among the successful ones and full of learning, this knowledge was not enough to last all our lives in a very fast changing world. Our knowledge and learning becomes out of date and redundant in a few years. So lifelong learning is now essential!
We do of course appreciate having these new phrases in adult education. They give us a new language with which to encourage people to participate and just as importantly to attract funding. These new ideas and words help us and students identify with the possibilities implied in them. Second chance is a totally modern concept and fits they way we think in our modern Irish society. The divorce referendum was sold on this idea of giving people a second chance.
SECOND CHANCE EDUCATION
The concept of second chance is about catching up - be it reading/writing or any other missed opportunity. It allows people to get certificates and qualifications which were missed the first time around. The Leaving Certificate is now considered a minimum qualification in Ireland - but the majority of adults in our country do not have this certificate. It is hugely important to have a second chance.
But there are some problems. We are in danger of being seen as the remedial section of the educational system. You see, giving people a second chance does nothing to remedy the system that failed these people the first time round. So some other actions need to be taken as well as second chance education. And as adult education grows out of a critique of the educational system we need to be careful that we are not just uncritically plugging the gaps in a faulty system or providing more schooling.
Unfortunately second chance implies two things - more schooling but something different too.
If it is more of the same then it is deeply problematic. Anything that looks like the schooling system that failed adults will be a difficult idea to sell.
The school system not only failed adults but schooling is in many ways a way of reproducing and perpetuating inequalities in our society. None of the great school reforms have succeeded in eliminating this disadvantage. As wonderful as free secondary education was or free school transport, etc. they were in fact taken advantage of by those who were not poor in a way that was out of proportion to their numbers. Women continue to be socialised through schools into attitudes which facilitate their subordination. Will free university education will also be an expensive innovation not increasing significantly the numbers of poor people with degrees?
So second chance is a wonderful thing. But we must be careful because there is another side to this. You see it also hides from us something very important. For many adults this is not their second chance. It is in fact their last chance. How else would you describe it? Because if they fail in this system where do they go?
Therefore, in embracing second chance we must be clever. To link with the school system but be different; to offer a second chance but also look for other actions that change the causes of failure in schools.
LIFELONG LEARNING
Lifelong learning is bit like this too. A useful idea, because it helps us focus on the need to learn throughout our lives. This European Year of Lifelong Learning increases awareness and does good PR. We can even begin to think of how we might become a learning society. These new phrases and words excite us with the possibility of learning from the cradle to the grave.
Our society is changing so fast. If we even concentrate just on technology and computerisation we can see the speed of this change. Two of the largest computer companies in the world - Intel and Hewlett-Packard are building new factories within walking distance of here. IBM have this week announced 2,500 jobs just north of here near Blanchardstown. Not only does the school system, the new Blanchardstown RTC (the other RTCs) and the universities have to prepare people for work in this brave new world but adults changing jobs or attempting to hold their jobs are in constant need of training and retraining. All the companies I mentioned have adult education departments or training sections that rival in resources and facilities anything we know from our adult education experience. They are pioneering lifelong learning.
Fantastic! Now at last adult education has become accepted. We are part of something really worthwhile. We are mainstreaming! But just like with second chance education we need to be suspicious. A great gift like lifelong learning might, like the Trojan horse, have some unpleasant surprises inside. The experience of the people of Troy led to the poet saying "beware of Greek bearing gifts". But the Latin scholars among you will know that the original Latin was much stronger timeo Daneos et dona ferentur -be afraid of Greeks bearing gifts!
How could we be afraid or even suspicious of such a gift that encourages certification, credit, acquiring knowledge, investing in training, combating exclusion and learning foreign languages, etc.
But once we realise that the European Union, in supporting this idea, is emphasising the link between work and learning. Lifelong learning is largely driven by economic agendas. The push for lifelong learning is a push to develop our economy. Inside this Trojan horse we are in danger of finding cheerleaders for the enterprise culture. And that is deeply problematic. The enterprise culture is part of the problem. This is the same culture that produces unemployment and survives on the foundation of exclusion and social division.
What else might be hiding within the Trojan horse? If we say lifelong schooling instead of lifelong learning we clearly see another danger. In the European White paper on Education and Training there is sufficient evidence that what is meant is lifelong schooling. For many adults lifelong schooling will inevitably lead to lifelong failure.
The third problem with lifelong learning is this. The literature is full of the language of individualism. One sentence in the promotional literature says this: the intention is to focus on the individual as learner using innate individual strengths and intelligences to determine individual preferences and achieve individual potential.
The model of learning being proposed by Europe is one which will allow the strong and self-motivated individual to climb the economic ladder and fit into society. But adult education offers something different to this.
What does adult education offer our society? As against this individualistic vision I suggest a kind of learning that will galvanise people for social action that will change an unjust social, political, and economic system.
IRELAND TODAY
But before exploring this vision of adult education what about the society we live in? We have low interest rates, a healthy balance of payments, low inflation, emigration is at a very low level and public sector borrowing and pay are tightly controlled. There is a slight fall in unemployment and we are in the fast lane with the big countries for monetary union. Is this the Ireland we live in?
Or is this version more the case? Our blood transfusion service kills women, child care institutions have sheltered violent and abusing adults; a supermarket owner famous for outrageous labour relations has a cosy little deal with the special people; beef barons and tribunals focus on money frauds and fail to notice BSE, angel dust and antibiotics; the environment is at risk from the pharmaceutical industry and on and on. The mess is in need of some action.
Has adult education a role in this? I am going to suggest in this final section that the role of adult education needs to be defined in such a way that it has something to say to this mess.
WHAT IS ADULT EDUCATION?
It is legitimate to teach people job skills and train young people to work and earn a living. It is even more important to engage in the arts, learn history, enjoy reflexology or do a counselling course. There are many injured and damaged bodies and minds to be healed. Exams do need to be passed, leaving cert. to be got, personal development to be achieved and creative writing to be explored.
But there is more. We are, as adults, capable of a different kind of learning. We are capable of dreaming of a different world in which there might be justice, freedom and an end to the violations. This learning is social, political, critical and seeks to change systems and institutions that are now operated in the interests of the few to operate in the interests of all.
This process has begun in some places. Women's groups and community groups in particular have been discovering the power of critical reflection and collaboration. Their processes and learnings are about changing unjust structures which exclude. They have put in place through their learning a participatory democracy which is inclusive. This is a counter to the representative democracy representing special interest groups which is so problematic in our society.
Adult educators who are concerned with this kind of learning encourage people to become aware of community and social problems and to act together to solve them. This involves two kinds of teaching. The first fosters critical reflection on social conditions, practices, institutions, systems and uncritical ways of thinking. In any adult education, community development, personal development the role of the adult educator is the same. It is to develop true communities of collaborative and critical debate leading to social action.
The second function of adult educators is to help adults who have already become aware of the need for collective social action to learn what they need to know to act effectively. This may require specialised knowledge and the services of an adult educator experienced in social action education.
I am proposing therefore a vision of adult education that involves fostering learning communities in which people can reflect critically, discuss collaboratively and act collectively.
This adult education vision has an ideal society in mind. It is composed of communities of learners engaged in a continuous and critical investigation of their world. This ideal society would be cemented by empathetic understanding and solidarity. It would be committed to the social and political practice of participatory democracy, informed through critical reflection, continuously engaged in discussion and together acting thoughtfully to ensure that social systems, institutions, organisations, and practices are responsive to the needs of everybody.
The solution I am proposing is one where we can only learn our way our of the mess and beyond the violations. I am proposing a second chance, a learning society and lifelong learning for all. But in returning to these ideas we define them and claim them in quite a different way - to make actual the full potential they imply.