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October 18, 2006
Dr. Kathleen Flanagan, Coordinator of the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre, delivered closing remarks at the conference of the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA), which was held in Fredericton, October 15-18, 2006.
Good morning, everyone. It is a great honour to be here today to talk about the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre, and to connect the work of the knowledge centre to the issues of prior learning assessment and recognition.
The last few days have provided an extraordinary opportunity for those interested in the PLAR community to share and learn from each other.
I want to share with you some of the discussions that I heard. I heard a clear need for, and in interest in, a linked system around portfolio development and credential recognition. I heard exciting discussions about policy development (and innovative ways to share policy development), about quality assurance research which may lead to overarching guidelines that can be adapted and fine-tuned on the ground, on the frontlines. I have heard about the need for other areas of research – and new ways to share existing research – in areas such as the cost/benefits of PLAR, and an analysis of the opportunities for employment and further learning arising from portfolio development. There is a need for critical, informed, and thorough examinations of these issues. There is a need for new, untraditional partnerships between researchers and practitioners, between employers and labour, between the workforce and academia. I have heard about the need for ways to share promising practices and exemplary practices (and exemplary learners, some of whom we have met during the last few days). I have heard discussions about the need to identify, acknowledge, and applaud multiple engagement methods, multiple routes of entry, and multiple learning needs.
As well, it is clear that we must recognize and understand the human dynamic that is intrinsically connected to the PLAR arena - the tragedy of under-recognized and under-utilized knowledge and capacities. Rex Murphy spoke to this point with eloquence and passion. There is enormous human heartbreak at the spectre of a life not valued, of a life not lived to its full capacity. This heartbreak occurs, and wreaks further heartbreak, at the individual level, the family level, and the community level.
And the flip side of this is the unlimited possibilities that PLAR offers to draw out human talent that would otherwise go unrecognized, to credit and call attention to capacities that have been obscured, to leverage untapped strengths, and to maximize and utilize hidden abilities.
Everything that I have heard in the last 3 days indicates a good fit between PLAR and the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre’s activities and area of interests: the values, the respect for diversity, the strategies, the tools, the need to think nationally and act locally,
So how will this translate into action? As I indicated in my description of the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre, we have certain key tools at our disposal, tools with the capacity to build networks, foster knowledge exchange, disseminate and mobilize knowledge, and advise on research priorities. These are critical tools for moving forward the lifelong learning and PLAR agendas.
I would like to end by commenting on Rex Murphy’s key note address. Rex described very well, I think, the humanistic background and rationale for PLA. He mentioned that his father had left school at Grade 3, while that he himself had had the opportunity to complete a university degree. His father felt simultaneously a deep sense of shame for his own lack of formal education and considerable pride at his son’s academic accomplishments. Rex’s personal story is poignant, and it is one that is familiar both in Newfoundland and all across the Canada.
My own story is not too different. My parents were of a generation where it was necessary for large families to choose just one family member who could attend university. The resources were simply not available for all family members to have access to higher learning. And often the selection was based on inadequate criteria – gender, clearly, was a factor, as was a perception of scholastic ability that was very, very narrow. My own generation had an easier time of it. All of my brothers and sisters – and I come from a large family – were able to attend university.
Rex’s point was an important point, and it had to do with the unrecognized abilities among many people who did not receive academic credentials, but who achieved, nonetheless, an impressive knowledge base through experience, informal learning opportunities, and their own unstoppable quest to learn.
However I would like to use his story, to make another point, and that is:
During the 1960s, there was a tremendous increase in the opportunities for post-secondary education. There were incredible advances on a number of fronts related to post-secondary education. The advances included building new universities and colleges, developing accreditation programs, training teachers, developing a student loan and bursary program. Everything that is involved in growing an infrastructure. It was this infrastructure that offered me and my brothers and sisters, Rex Murphy, and an entire generation of Canadians, improved access to post-secondary learning. I like to think that adult learning is at that same critical juncture, where we will soon see the growth of an infrastructure with programs, policies, guidelines, and recognition for the value and significance of lifelong learning.
In closing, I want to thank Bonnie Kennedy and CAPLA for organizing an extraordinary event. I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say this has been a wonderful, informative and dynamic conference. I would like to take the liberty – if I may – of dedicating the conference to all the adult learners across Canada, in the hope that, through their own efforts and through the efforts of the PLAR community, their abilities and capacities will be recognized, celebrated, and leveraged.
I hope you feel as I do, inspired, invigorated, and ready to focus on the challenges ahead. Happy travels, drive carefully, and enjoy your sojourns back to your home bases.
Kathleen Flanagan
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