Adult Learning Knowledge Centre
National Symposium
June 21-23, 2006

In an atmosphere charged with a spirit of collaboration and networking, more than 150 symposium participants discussed the challenges, successes, and next steps to enhancing adult learning programs and activities across the country. The symposium provided a venue for learning, reflecting, and developing priorities for action for ALKC, CCL and other stakeholders in the practice and research of adult learning.

The first-day sessions focused on the State of the Field review, which is the first comprehensive documentation of adult learning research in Canada. The State of the Field review provided an excellent foundation for discussing seven key areas of adult learning: barriers to participation, culture, e-learning, gender, learning communities, literacy and social movements. Some concerns were common across the seven areas; these included

The second-day sessions gave participants an opportunity to reflect on what had been learned from the presentations and discussions on the State of the Field review. Using four broad discussion areas (communities of practice, diversity of adult learning, community-based research, and university- community research alliances), participants identified recommendations for action, intended to assist with the work of ALKC and its consortium.

The recommendations offered by the discussion groups centered around three fundamental proposals:

  1. Strengthen the culture of adult learning in Canada by promoting a better understanding of informal learning, by making the link between community movements and adult learning, and by sponsoring pan-Canadian events that celebrate adult learning.
  2. Build the capacities of practitioners and researchers to exchange knowledge, to mobilize information, and to undertake research by offering accessible, inclusive, bilingual, and interactive tools and events (such as symposiums, skill-building workshops and web-based portals) designed to exchange, disseminate, and expand the information generated by the state of the field work as well as other information relevant to adult learning communities. These tools and events must be responsive to the needs, concerns, and experiences of individuals, communities, and organizations across the country in both language groups.