In spring 2006, ALKC initiated a pilot program intended to foster adult learning projects around knowledge exchange and network-building. In response to ALKC’s national Call for Projects, 16 community-based projects were able to conduct knowledge exchange action activities and events in communities across Canada. With this Call for Projects, ALKC chose to focus on small and innovative adult learning initiatives. The projects, which received grants ranging from $1,800 to $5,000, created opportunities for new partnerships between researchers and practitioners.
The symposium provided ALKC with an opportunity to showcase six exemplary projects. Below are brief descriptions of the showcased projects:
Ideas into Action presented a one-day workshop, designed to enhance proposal
development skills, in order to build research capacity within the networks and
sectors of adult literacy providers in Ontario. The workshop information will be
shared with other organizations across Canada.
Organization: Ontario Association of Adult & Continuing Education School Board
Administrators (CESBA), Iroquois, Ontario
Contact person: Brenda King
Aboriginal Literacy Database Development Project contacted Aboriginal literacy
programs across Canada, to seek their permission to include material related to their
programs (program descriptions, curriculum materials, best practices, etc.) on the
database of the National Indigenous Literacy Association. As well as providing
extremely valuable information, this project will facilitate the development of
partnerships among like-minded organizations.
Organization: National Indigenous Literacy Association, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Contact person: Doug Bartlett
Maintaining the Momentum offers a communication vehicle for literacy
practitioners and program coordinators to facilitate the sharing of ongoing research
activities and findings. The research groups were formed at a workshop in March
2006, which was designed to help diverse literacy groups develop action research
projects. Maintaining the Momentum has dedicated space in Literacy Nova Scotia’s
quarterly newsletter, an action research fact sheet, and a web forum.
Organization: Literacy Nova Scotia, Truro, Nova Scotia
Contact person: Ann Marie Downie
Weaving a Web creates an interactive website on research into the impact of
violence on learning. It is well established that violence has a significant negative
effect on the ability to learn. The website is designed to provide a site for exchange
between researchers and practitioners, in order to enhance both the research and
practice of learning for learners who have experienced or are at-risk of violence.
Organization: Parkdale Project Read, Toronto, Ontario
Contact person: Jenny Horsman