The Learning Society LIFELONG LEARNING IN PALESTINE

Delors: “In confronting the many challenges that the future holds in store, humankind sees in its education an indispensable asset in its attempt to attain the ideals of peace, freedom and justice”.

Learning Society is based on lifelong learning Learning throughout life becomes the central organising concept as Universities, training centres, employment all shift …

Lifelong Learning Changes in our expectations of learning and work feed into the demand and supply nexus, so that a demand for different sorts of provision emerge and institutions change because they respond to the changing demand … The process becomes important as the place of learning becomes less important

Broad view of education … - guidance - promoting good practice - identifying, promoting innovation - evaluation - self-evaluation - informing policy

Acting as a whole system, from the bottom up, a system that is led by people ‘on the ground’ who constantly feed their education and training needs into the policy loop …

Bologna process Facilitates mobility of students, graduates and higher education staff; prepares students for their future careers and for life as active citizens in democratic societies. Supports personal development; offers broad access to high-quality higher education, based on democratic principles and academic freedom.

Bologna’s significance for Lifelong Learning in Palestine

Community engagement Community learning and development (CLD) - covering adult and community learning/community based adult learning; community development, community education, development education, youth work, family learning and work with parents

Learning in the community Education in all its forms is a right … Lifelong Learning means the right to learn operates throughout life and not just during during school years …

Lifelong Learning as a fundamental Palestinian right … Education is a right for Palestinians as all others Right to education, work and development

Libraries & learning centers Libraries, archives and information services. A team from Glasgow is already in the West Bank from Glasgow Libraries and Museums

Work based learning … Work based learning (WBL) is both publicly funded and a concern of private sector training organizations who might deliver applied vocational training, which is primarily work based learning. These might be related to TVET in Palestine

Organically links … Instead of rigid hierarchies networks can be communities of practice or on-line webs of knowledge exchange not only mediated by technology but driven by low cost technology – phones etc.

Collaboration is knowledge Networks of knowledge exchange linking different sorts of providers to create new knowledge. Exchange works across different formal-nonformal-informal arrangements …

Knowledge exchange Not transfer. Exchange process to give new combinations and multiple forms of knowledge in new methods of storage and retrieval …

Universities become drivers Universities are centers of knowledge production but the knowledge created is constantly displaced or moved out to communities. Value is not diluted with the rolling out process but simply generalized in different value forms

Free and open tasters On-line free courses Tasters Routes from community to university and from University to work and community

A lifelong learner in Gaza … Does not finish High School Gets married and raises family Then takes Tawjihi school certificate Gets 80 % - Enters university as mature women Graduates with Bachelors Short contract NGO jobs - Unemployment Sets up her own business for more secure income

Investment in education Heavy investment of time and energy in education and training which increases value in what results from work – thought replaces labour ‘power’ …

Investment in learning skills Skill a national resource – attracts investment Learning becomes the source of investment

Social and human capital Learning generates new human and social capital

Learning not determined by age or place Learning focuses on process and not place Empowerment not in fixed buildings and structures but in people

Learning in the home Distance learning … Learning anywhere online … Palestine has high computer use in every home …. IT savy …

Learning in work Work based learning Professional development Work becomes learning / learning becomes work

Cultural learning Memory in artefacts – museums Networks of oral history Retrieval gives indentity Individual and collective sense of being …

Informal / Formal Spread across a whole range of informal/formal provision

Learning society in Palestine Delor’s Report The Treasure Within …