Community education, also known as Community-Based Education or Community Learning & Development, or Development Education is an organization's programs to promote learning and social development work with individuals and groups in their communities using a range of formal and informal methods. A common defining feature is that programmes and activities are developed in dialogue with communities and participants. The purpose of community learning and development is to develop the capacity of individuals and groups of all ages through their actions, the capacity of communities, to improve their quality of life. Central to this is their ability to participate in democratic processes.Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger Communities, Scottish Government Guidance for Community Learning and Development, 2004 seen at the Community Learning and Development, Scottish Government Website.
Community education encompasses all those occupations and approaches that are concerned with running education and development programmes within local communities, rather than within educational institutions such as schools, colleges and universities. The latter is known as the formal education system, whereas community education is sometimes called informal education. It has long been critical of aspects of the formal education system for failing large sections of the population in all countries and had a particular concern for taking learning and development opportunities out to poorer areas, although it can be provided more broadly.
There are a myriad of job titles and employers include public authorities and voluntary or non-governmental organisations, funded by the state and by independent grant making bodies. Schools, colleges and universities may also support community learning and development through outreach work within communities. The community schools movement has been a strong proponent of this since the sixties. Some universities and colleges have run outreach adult education programmes within local communities for decades. Since the seventies the prefix word ‘community’ has also been adopted by several other occupations from youth workers and health workers to planners and architects, who work with more disadvantaged groups and communities and have been influenced by community education and community development approaches.
Community educators have over many years developed a range of skills and approaches for working within local communities and in particular with disadvantaged people. These include less formal educational methods, community organising and group work skills. Since the nineteen sixties and seventies through the various anti poverty programmes in both developed and developing countries, practitioners have been influenced by structural analyses as to the causes of disadvantage and poverty i.e. inequalities in the distribution of wealth, income, land etc. and especially political power and the need to mobilise people power to effect social change. Thus the influence of such educators as Paulo Friere and his focus upon this work also being about politicising the poor.
In the history of community education and community learning and development, the UK has played a significant role in hosting the two main international bodies representing community education and community development. These being the International Community Education Association, which was for many years based at the Community Education Development Centre based in Coventry UK. ICEA and CEDC have now closed, and the International Association for Community Development, which still has its HQ in Scotland. In the 1990s there was some thought as to whether these two bodies might merge. The term community learning and development has not taken off widely in other countries. Although community learning and development approaches are recognised internationally. These methods and approaches have been acknowledged as significant for local social, economic, cultural, environmental and political development by such organisations as the UN, WHO, OECD, World Bank, Council of Europe and EU.
Definition
Community education is often used interchangeably with adult education in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom. For example, night schools and classes in village halls or community centres had been key opportunities for learning in communities outside of traditional school. Community education bridges the gap between adult education, lifelong learning and community development. John Rennie, former director of the Community Education Development Centre in Coventry, wrote that there are five tenants to defining community education: (1) the best solutions come from collective knowledge and shared experiences involving the community, (2) education is a lifelong activity, (3) use of a variety of resources, (4) each person has a contribution to make, and (5) a sense of citizenship. In the 1960s and 1970s, the UK saw an increase in community development and community action organisations which had the potential to blur the lines between the responsibilities of adult education and community development. However, poverty and social disadvantage emphasised the need for adult education opportunities and a community approach supported the need to meet individual circumstances and to understand barriers to learning. Ian Martin, Honorary Fellow, Community and Society at the University of Edinburgh, has argued that community education "will allow genuinely alternative and democratic agendas to emerge at the local level."Martin, I. (1996) 'Community education: the dialectics of development', in Fieldhouse, R. et al. (1996) A History of Modern British Adult Education, Leicester: National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education, pp. 109-41. In a 1996 UNESCO report known as Learning: The Treasure Within learning throughout life was promoted as benefiting both society and individuals because it allowed them to respond to the changing labour market and social landscape.
History Community development and planning became more of a priority after the decolonisation of independent states in Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Caribbean, and the Second World War. Community development was first significantly promoted by the United Nations (UN) in the 1950s as a way to develop the socioeconomic prospects of low-income countries by supporting education, housing and healthcare infrastructure. The UN established a Regional and Community Development Division and a Community Development and Organization Section. In the 1970s, a shift in adult education saw practitioners experiment with more informal outreach work within local communities.L. Bidwell and C McConnell (1982). Community Education and Community Development. Dundee; T. Lovett Adult Education (1975) Community Development and the Working Class. Ward Lock Educational. The International Association for Community Development (IACD) was established in 1953 in the United States, and has since gone on to represent community development at the UN and partner with the United States, UK, Canada, Hungary, Hong Kong, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, Nigeria, India, Philippines, Georgia, Ireland and Kenya. The IACD includes community education as a way in which community development can empower people within their communities.
In the UK
England and Wales In July 1917 the British government, under Lloyd George, established The Ministry of Reconstruction. This governmental department aimed to address a number of political and social areas including employment, housing and industrial relations. In 1919, The Ministry of Reconstruction Adult Education Committee (AEC) published the Final Report in which it argued that adult education was a "permanent national necessity."Ministry of Reconstruction Adult Education Committee (1919). Final Report. Cmd 321. London: HMSO. The AEC was chaired by A.L. Smith, and members included historian and social critic R.H. Tawney. Tawney believed that adult education was a democratic bottom-up process, that acts as a space for individuals to challenge and change their community. In the Final Report the need for adult education is described as individuals desire for "adequate opportunities for self-expression and the cultivation of their personal powers and interests." The 1919 Final Report identified a number of challenges that education may help to improve and these include; international cooperation, gender equality, maintaining democracy, and employment and the quality of work.
The UK underwent a reform in social welfare during and after the inter-war period. Community centres were built in newly established suburban housing estates under the 1936 Housing Act and the 1937 Physical Training and Recreation Act, and the Education Act 1944 introduced the Youth and Community Service. In the Ministry of Education pamphlet A Guide to the Education System of England and Wales (1945) it is stated that:Ministry of Education (1945). A Guide to the Educational System of England and Wales. London: HMSO.
In a 1944 booklet entitled Citizen Centres for Adult Education by the Education Settlements Association (see, Settlement movement), posits adult education as vital to the "social reconstruction" of post-war Britain.Education Settlements Association. (1944) Citizen Centres For Adult Education. London: Sixpence. One of the main challenges identified in the booklet is provision of centres and states that "the primary function of any local citizen centre should be the progressive development of the individual as a member of a free society, through mental training, the encouragement of self-effort, and the exercise of personal responsibility."