Education is a Human Right...but who pays for it?

Education is a Human Right...but who pays for it? The short answer?  We all do. 

Read: Education for All (EFA) from the UNESCO site, Education is not only a right but a passport to human development. It contributes to fostering peace, democracy and economic growth as well as improving health and reducing poverty.

Or, read Education Counts: Towards the Millenium Development Goals (2011) published by UNESCO.  Education represents opportunity. At all ages, it empowers people with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to shape a better future.

And it is listed in the Indicators of Well-Being in Canada, where adult literacy — the ability to understand and then use information — is a fundamental skill. It is essential not only for participating fully at work, but for everyday life as well (e.g., for choosing products when grocery shopping). With a more literate workforce, Canada is also better able to compete in the global economy.


And as reported by Harmeet Singh in Strategy  (June 1, 2015), “In a developed country, you sometimes don’t realize that a lack of literacy skills can have a detrimental social, economic and even life threatening impact on a person – or an entire country for that matter,” adds Patrick Scissons, chief creative officer at Grey. “We wanted to raise the profile of the importance of literacy beyond just being able to read a book, menu or road sign.”  Check out the video spots here:  World Literacy Canada’s open book

Digital Divide: an eLearning inverse accessibility law

Self-efficacy and the digital divide combine as a definitive barrier to learner engagement. Accessibility is more than the ability to get on a computer.  The anytime, anywhere mantra for online distance education implies shortcuts and skills that don’t take into account under-represented learners, those who arrive with low self-efficacy and low technological fluency.  Learners who are already marginalized by their literacy level and socio-economic status are at risk.  Rhetoric and systems that are not accountable to the realities of learners are then charged with “increasing access for those who are already being served rather than broadening it to underserved groups” (Gunger & Prins, 2011, p 7).  This creates the digital divide.

We can look to a report, E-Mental Health in Canada: Transforming the Mental Health System Using Technology,  produced by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which examines strategic directions and eMental health possibilities. It raises limitations, however, one being the digital divide. As quoted in the report:  "The 2012 Canadian Internet Use Survey sponsored by Industry Canada found that 83% of Canadian households had Internet access at home. This demonstrates that approximately one in six did not have an Internet connection at home."  In addition, "Only 58% of households in the lowest income quartile had home Internet access compared to 98% in the top income quartile."  This reality "suggests a digital divide" with "the potential to reinforce health inequalities, as those who most need health care are those least likely to have access to services on the Internet – an e-Health inverse care law."

When it comes to education, considering that there are “more socially disadvantaged than advantaged sections of society…where, students who are teetering at the poverty level can seldom afford to buy and maintain computers and Internet service” (Moore, 2012, p. 214), it becomes then, an e-Learning inverse accessibility law.  As such, the concept of accessibility needs to be re-examined. 

Gungor, Ramazan & Prins, Esther. (2011). Distance Learning in Adult Basic Education: a review   of the literature. Institute for the study of Adult Literacy, The Pennsylvania State University.

Moore, Michael Grahame. (2012). A Rare Case of Research in Distance Education in Adult            Basic Education, American Journal of Distance Education, 26:4, 213-216, DOI:    10.1080/08923647.2012.732788

Adult Foundational Learning and the Economy of Education

There has been a call in the adult learning environment to streamline and reduce duplication, eliminate waste, and centralize the post-secondary system. The business model.

The problem is the survival mode in the face of such a climate can also change the climate within an institution.  No longer is even basic education honoured as a human right.  Disenfranchising people because their educational needs don’t fit neatly into time frames and business models, manufactures narratives based in rationalization and rhetoric. Recognition of values-based programming isn't considered worthy of costs, that is, unless the value is according to economy and a quick fix mentality.  

“But students want to get in and out and into employment right away.”  Of course they do!  Besides having many other things going on in their life, who doesn’t want to achieve something they have to sacrifice time and family and money in attaining?  Does that mean post-secondary institutions throw pedagogy, and the brain-based research involved in how humans learn and understand information out the window?   Or throw out any programming that doesn’t conform with the quick fix mentality of a business model? Does it mean ignoring educational needs in favor of the chimerical solution of online-anytime?  It shouldn’t. 

There needs to be a happy marrying of the two components, based on the paradigms of adult learning and proven educational  practices. A standing up for what is right and what works for learners.  Culture, diversity, literacy, numeracy, efficacy, learning barriers, learning disabilities, all should be considered in the delivery of any programming.   Accessibility that is decentralized beyond the technological panacea, and thinking in ways that provide a bridge between economy and education.  

Education is a human right.  But the pressure remains, who is going to pay for it? 

Changing Face of ABE: a photostory project - an ACIFA Presentation

Online distance technology is often heralded as removing barriers and providing access to education for all.   Distance education heralded as anytime, anywhere implies an equal opportunity to learn, which often does not take into account the holistic vision of learners and all that contributes to their academic success.  

The photostory research I am in the process of wrapping up came out of the tension between accessibility and students' reality.  Specifically students who arrive from the margins.  Specifically students whose skills are at pre-high school, with lower literacy and numeracy levels than the average distance student. 

What bothered me about the “anytime, anywhere” rhetoric, is that is is often spoken about without reference to instructors or pedagogy.  It caused me to think : what does it mean to the programming and students who arrive as emergent learners.  Especially those underrepresented learners, the ones with low computer literacy and even lower self-efficacy. Was online learning really the panacea for these learners, would it really “make everything better?”

If you're in Lake Louise for the ACIFA Conference, come talk about the changing face of adult basic educationg.  I'll be presenting on May 25 at 11:15 a.m. about this research, and how traditionally face to face instruction is translating to the online environment.  

Violence and learning - SWEET (Students who have experience extreme trauma)

Last week I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by Mavis Averill. She has done research on students who have experienced extreme trauma, or "SWEET," based on her experiences working for Boyle Street Education Center.  Mavis says, "Our work is to engage them long enough at school so that we may uncover their strengths and support them in looking at a new way of being; one which leads them away from crime, chaos and loss, to one which includes acknowledgement and the possibility of successful attainment of needed skills to go forward into a life that has more options than the one they came from" (Retrieved from LINK). 

This encapsulates so many themes.  Transformation.  Wellness. Basic education learners, or those who are under-represented by literature and programming. It speaks to modifying and adapting our approaches and programming to recognize the learner as a unique individual who  is more than a receptacle for information. 

One of the overriding barriers within educational environments is the idea that failing is the fault of the learner.  This kind of approach can feed the idea that survivors of abuse have caused their own victimization, as well as issues of power and culpability within teaching practices (Horsman, 2008). Awareness and information that brings to light the very real barriers caused by the experience of violence and trauma upon a students' learning is an often under-represented and not well understood.  

It would serve all educators well to become familiar with research like Mavis's SWEET and the information that can be found on Learning and Violence.net that comes from Jenny Horsman's research.  

Mental Health First Aid

Mental health awareness and the stigma and support to individuals with mental health issues is a huge part of living, teaching and learning.  It was a revelation, a holistic revolution, in my understanding when researching student wellness and mental health.   I'd not fully connected how adaptations, learner engagement, proactive assessment for learning difficulties and disabilities all intertwined with mental health.   It seems so obvious now.  Links to mental health through initiatives around bullying, social media ethics, cultural awareness, and a myriad of others is undeniable. 

It is a matter of choosing what kind of teacher does an educator want to be? We wouldn't tell a student sitting in the classroom who was having an epileptic seizure to just deal with it later and write their exam.  We wouldn't tell a student who needs glasses to just work harder at reading the material.  We wouldn't tell a student who came to us with a bleeding finger that it isn't our responsibility and send them on their way.  Yet, when it comes to mental health issues, they are often dismissed. 

Mental health awareness, mental health first aid, opens doors to viewing and teaching students as real individuals.  Whole, complex beings who require more to learn than being a receptacle for information.   I am now a Mental Health First Aid certificate instructor.  Once again,  how wellness and mental health awareness interconnects within teaching and learning has been reinforced. 

Attitude of Gratitude

Attitude and gratitude.  Positive psychology.  Wellness.  Aspects to the virtual environment that create new possibilities and new challenges. Positive psychology points to a connection between attitude, gratitude, efficacy and learning.  Where are the spaces that open connections to instructor, content and classmates in an online classroom? 

Thinking about student wellness that is mindful of the intersection between learner, instructor, curriculum, course, program, institution and even community embraces a holistic vision.    Especially for students who are isolated, at a distance, and not in direct contact with their instructor, engaging the whole person is essential to placing online learning within a real world framework. 

Using strategies that work in a face to face classroom and adjusting them to the virtual environment is using sound pedagogy.  Discussions, introductions, openers and closers, and relating learning to authentic materials and experiences are all are sound pedagogy.  Connecting students in the class to people, places and things outside of the class that can make learning relevant are essential.  Direct reminders or assignments that connect learning to the institution and the community at large enhance critical thinking and an understanding of citizenship. 

Does an attitude of gratitude enhance learning? Does getting students to state three things they are grateful for at the beginning of class make them 33% smarter, for instance (as I heard on a wonderful TED talk (Sean Achor) I listened to recently)? I'm not sure about the scientific validity.  But if it puts learners in a frame of mind that facilitates learning, why not?  If it puts them in a global frame of mind that benefits others, all the better.