Why a Learning Community?

There is growing recognition that the survival and revival of communities depends not just on jobs, infrastructure and services but also the ability of community members to participate, cooperate, organise and interact. 

(Cavaye & Lawerence, 2000)[1]  

For too long we have been socialised into believing that there was ‘education’ and there was ‘training’ and that the two were inextricably linked. Other activities that community members undertake for individual and community benefit were recognised as valuable, but not as fully recognised learning.

Within the community sector, people have begun to question what is education, what is training, and what is this thing called ‘Learning.’  Despite this questioning, learning has still been characterised as either formal or informal, or ‘further education’.

To develop the concept and practice of a Learning Community,  we must understand that they establish cooperative and collaborative sectoral relationships, using existing networks, support innovation, improve access to information, encourage hidden leaders, and define our community assets.  A Learning Communities approach can emancipate communities from any perception of powerlessness and assist them to recognise that they can make a difference.

Because many of our current federal political leaders have emerged from large educational institutions, the efforts by the major political parties to address the learning divide and support communities, demonstrates their lack of current understanding of Learning Communities, and the place that they hold in the positive development within our societies and the fabric which holds them together.  

Political parties need to engage in a form of what sociologist Anthony Giddens (1991)[2] termed ‘emancipatory politics’ in relation to learning,  to “shed shackles of the past, thereby permitting a transformative attitude towards the future”.  Resources need to shift more from mass systems of education toward greater community efforts. We need bipartisan political support for ‘Learning’ to become a priority.

In addition to developing the foundations for Learning Communities, there is the equally important need to address the inequities that affect individuals’ and groups’ ability to engage in learning. Determinates for community learning are similar to those for good health: social and emotional wellbeing in particular.

Those in positions of leadership within their communities, can offer a positive future for the development their community by taking a leadership role, and engage their community in becoming a Learning Community and not just a Community of Learners.  

We are fortunate in our great Bundaberg Region that Bundaberg Regional Council (BRC), through Bundaberg Community Development, is supporting the ongoing development of the Bundaberg Region Learning Community.   It is through the support Bundaberg Region Learning Community that BRC demonstrates that it understands what Cavaye and Lawerence (2000) [3] observed, ‘…it is through action, participation and contact that the community becomes more vital, more able to manage change with stronger networks, organisational ability, skills, leadership and passion.’  

It is through these positive developments that a Learning Community supports strong social capital, as describe by Putnam (1995) [4] ‘…features of social organisation such as networks, norms and social trust that facilitate co-ordination and co-operation for mutual benefit.’

That's my Personal View and I look forward to your comments.


Mal

---

[1] Cavaye J and Lawrence G, 2000. Rural and Regional Development – Fulfilling a partial approach- Key Note Address – SEGRA Conference

[2] Giddens A, 1991. :9 Modernity and Self-identity :Standard University Press

[3] Cavaye J and Lawrence G, 2000. Rural and Regional Development – Fulfilling a partial approach- Key Note Address – SEGRA Conference

[4] Putnam Robert D., 1995. : 67 Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, Journal of Democracy 6.1,