“[Regarding] the difficulties in accessing community- based research work on gender and adult education …. [the] challenge is for us who receive funding or are interested in research/ works/ programs to make links with and engage with and involve ourselves with the grassroots movements at the outset.”

Responder, Susan Brigham

A significant number of research projects have been situated in the community with community agendas at the forefront. However, one of the challenges is to access this work, especially if it is not published in academic journals or easily located on the internet. This places responsibility on academic researchers to make the links but also a centralized website is recommended for Canada which could bring together all the resources, websites, list-servers, centres and other information on gender and education.

Although it is encouraging to note the progress in this field, two other concerns were identified:

• The level of funding for further research. E.g. the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW) has not been in a position to fund research on gender and education for five years or more;
• As noted in other State of the Field reviews, there were few, if any, linkages between researchers and policy makers.

Special thanks to recorders Lauren Dobell and Heather Patterson.

“Neighbourhoods, villages, towns, cities and regions in which the concept of lifelong learning is explicitly used as an organizing principle and social goal. The learning resources of the community are mobilized to foster environmentally sustainable economic development and social inclusion.”

Ron Faris, 2003
State of the Field Review

LEARNING COMMUNITIES

To create the State of the Field Report on Learning Communities, Donovan Plumb and Robert McGray (both were presenters) from Mount Saint Vincent University, conducted extensive review of the literature from many different sources – academic, professional, practice-based and government – and searched for indicators used to assess learning communities. Elayne Harris from Harris & Associates in Vancouver was the practitioner responder.

Unlike the other theme areas Learning Communities does not have a definitive body of theory and practice. However there is an intrinsic connection between adult learning and community life that has been recognized in major adult education initiatives such as the Antigonish Movement, Frontier College, and the Farm Radio Forum.