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Themes

The ICAE World Assembly  “A World Worth Living In: Adult Learning and Education – a Key to Transformation” will focus on four main themes. ICAE have appointed convenors for each of these themes

Theme 1 – Adult Education as a Right and a Profession – Follow-up to International Agreements as the MDG’s, the EFA goals, and the CONFINTEA Agenda

Convenor: Heribert Hinzen

Regional Director, dvv international office for South and Southeast Asia, Vientiane, Lao PDR

Studied at the Universities of Bonn and Heidelberg, gaining a doctorate in comparative studies with a thesis on adult education in Tanzania. He has been working with dvv international since 1977 in headquarters and offices in Sierra Leone and Hungary, the last decade as Director of the Institute in Bonn. He is an Honorary Professor at the Universities of Pecs and Iasi. He is associated with the international adult education movement for long, currently serving as Vice-President of the International Council for Adult Education, and as Member of the Reference Group of Experts on Higher and EFA. He serves on the editorial board of Adult Education and Development, and as an advisory editor to the Asia Pacific Education Review.

Introduction to theme 1

We are still in 2010, just after CONFINTEA in Belem, awaiting the debates and outcomes of the September MDG Summit in New York, and looking for the results of an end of decade assessment on whether we are on track achieving all of the EFA goals.

The next major point in time is the year 2015. Then we will have reached the

-         End of MDG

-         End of EFA

-         Midterm of CONFINTEA

These three processes will be key elements of the ICAE advocacy work in the next years to come. Whether the results and outcomes are anywhere close to the objectives and aims that were expected at the start have to be closely monitored.

Theme 2 – Lifelong Learning for sustainability in a climate changing world

Convenors Robbie Guevara and Sara Longwe

Sara Longwe

I’m a fomer Chairperson of FEMNET (African Women’s Development and Communication Network) and represent FEMNET in the current Executive Council of ICAE.

“Sara Longwe is a feminist activist and gender analyst based in Lusaka, Zambia. She developed the popularly known Longwe Women’s Empowerment Framework in the global gender literature. She has used this framework in her numerous consultancies undertaken with African government gender departments, development agencies and civil society organisations on how to identify and address gender issues for sustainable women’s empowerment. She was awarded the Africa Prize for Leadership (The Hunger Project award) in recognition of her positive contribution towards the struggle for the empowerment of African women as a positive contribution to ending hunger in Africa”.

Robie Guevara

President, Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education
Jose Roberto ‘Robbie’ Guevara is a passionate popular educator who is committed to participatory, creative and experiential learning methodologies for ecological sustainability. He is the President of the Asia-South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) and was extensively involved with the ICAE’s Learning for Environmental Action Program (LEAP) during the 1990s. More recently he has been engaged in the development and evaluation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programs within the Asia-Pacific region and conducting research into learning partnerships for sustainability in Australia.. Robbie lectures in International Studies and International Development at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
Introduction
As we prepare for the coming ICAE World Assembly in June 2011, there is an organisational imperative to take stock and reflect on our thematic engagement with the field of adult and environmental education for sustainable societies. However, it is important to underscore that we do not have the luxury of time to sit back and reflect, as with each day the need to respond to the impact of climate change on humanity and the planetary systems that support life grows more and more urgent.
While by no means an exhaustive list of events, the following concept note is an attempt to collate the key events that ICAE has been engaged with in the field of adult and environmental education for sustainable societies. It is also an attempt to identify the key principles that have informed our practice and corresponding advocacy agenda of environmental education.

Theme 3 – No right to decent work without right to learn

Convenor: Paul Belanger
Introduction
The right to work” includes the right to the opportunity to gain his/her living by work which he freely chooses or accepts (…). It is essential for realizing other human rights and (it) forms an inseparable and inherent part of human dignity.” The right to work includes of course freedom of association/collective bargaining, freedom from discrimination, freedom from forced labor, freedom from child labor. However, in today’s context of economic incertitude and of introduction of new technology and environment standards in all areas of formal and informal economy, the full realization of this right could not be achieved without the right to go on learning throughout her or his life.
Indeed, meaningful work – paid and unwaged – could not be realized without opportunity for informal, non-formal and formal learning that fosters autonomy and agency. Read more

Theme 4 – Nordic folkeoplysning/folkbildning and worldwide challenges

Convenor Sturla Bjerkaker The Nordic term “folkeopplysning”(Danish/Norwegian) or the Swedish synonym “Folkbildning” is close to ”liberal education and learning”, “popular learning”, “popular education” and “community learning” but has also its special characteristics.

Secretary General the Norwegian Association for Adult Learning – the national umbrella for non-formal adult learning and education in Norway.

Former principal of the Nordic Folk Academy, Sweden, Former Secretary General of the Association for Adapted Adult Education, Norway, Visiting Director, NIACE, England (2003)

Board Member of the ICAE Executive Council and Member of the ICAE Finance Committee

Introduction

Scandinavia has a more than 150 years tradition of folkeoplysning/folkbildning. From the start of the folk high school movement in Denmark in the 1840th through the “invention” of the Study Circle in Swedish labour- and temperance movements in the very beginning of the 20th century (1902) you can follow a line up to our days where the development of democracy goes hand in hand with learning and enlightenment.

Because of this connection, many parts of the world have through the years showed interest in “Nordic folkeopysning/folkbildning”. That is why, when ICAE comes to Scandinavia, we will take the opportunity to enlighten this tradition in several seminars and workshops. Read more

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