Facilitating Transformative Learning in Education: Rethinking Stakeholder roles and responsibilities through teaching about the Social Economy

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Facilitating Transformative Learning in
Education Rethinking Stakeholder roles and
responsibilities through teaching about the
Social Economy

• Annie McKitrick
• Janel Smith
• October 2009

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Content of the presentation

• Brief overview of CSERP.
• What is the Social Economy in Canada and around
  the world.
• Why it is an important concept in facilitating
  transformative education.
• Potential in community service learning.
• Discussion.

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Background

• Analysis of Canadian provincial and territorial
  high school curricula to explore what students
  bring to their post secondary studies.
• Focus on the organizations that are integral to
  the community service-learning and
  university-community research partnerships.

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The Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships

• Six research centers.
• A National Hub - University of Victoria.
• 79 affiliated universities (Canadian and
  International).
• 300 Researchers come from15 academic disciplines.
• 140 partner organizations including all three
  levels of government.
• 40 student researchers

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Overview of the CSERP Vision

• To build collaboration between researchers and
  practitioners to better understand and encourage
  initiatives at the local, provincial and national
  levels so that the Social Economy and its related
  approaches will be more widely understood and
  applied in Canada.
• To encourage the creation of an enabling
  environment for the Social Economy to thrive.

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The National Social Economy Hub jointly managed

• Dr. Ian MacPherson from University of Victoria
• Rupert Downing, of the Canadian Community
  Development Network (CCEDNet), a practitioner
  organization
• National board made up of the 6 regional nodes
  and national practitioner organizations.

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CSE Hub Organization
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Overview of the Social Economy

• The Social Economy consists of association-based
  economic initiatives founded on values of
• Service to members of community rather than
  generating profits.
• Autonomous management (not government or market
  controlled)
• Democratic decision making
• Primacy of persons and work over capital
• Based on principles of participation, empowerment.

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Definitions

• Canadian Practitioner Definition
• "The Social Economy includes
• social assets (housing, childcare, etc.), social
  enterprises including cooperatives, equity and
  debt capital for community investment, social
  purpose businesses, community training and skills
  development, integrated social and economic
  planning, and capacity building and community
  empowerment.
• The social economy is a continuum that goes from
  the one end of totally voluntary organizations to
  the other end where the economic activity (social
  enterprise) blurs the line with the private
  sector."
• Between the private and public economy
• the CCEDNet National Policy Council, Social
  Economy Roundtable Consultation Briefing Notes,
  2005

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One way to conceptualize the SE
Source Jack Quarter Southern Ontario node
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Values

1. Service to Community / Primacy of persons over
   profit provides goods and services for the
   public interest or to members, not a tool in the
   service of capital investment
2. Empowerment transformation of individuals or
   communities, to become more invested with power
   and authority however defined.
3. Civic Engagement / Active Citizenry / Volunteer
   Association concept of investing
   (non-monetarily) and active participation in
   ones community.
4. Social and Economic values and mission the set
   of values and overarching mission of Social
   Economy acteurs and organizations are both social
   and economic in scope.

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Characteristics / Structure

1. Profit (re)distribution limited or prohibited
   distribution of profits to members or invested
   back into the business, limited return on
   capital, not publicly-traded or available for
   purchase in the sense of the capital economic
   model.
2. Autonomous Management / Collective ownership
   self-management by members or communities, no one
   individual holds ownership over the organization.
   
3. Democratic governance and decision-making
   refers theoretically to the principle of one
   member/person, one vote (not one share, one
   vote).
4. Third sector / Self-governing Sector a middle
   way that operates for the most part operates
   between the public and private sectors, and is
   governed by neither sector.

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• Transformative/Civil Society Defining Principles
• empowerment of individuals and communities, and
• collective enterprise/action focus.
• contributes to the renewal of positive and
  active citizenship.
• ?principal focus on political function (though
  not excluding
• social and economic) of Social Economy.
• ?concerned with political measurement and impacts
  of SE
• as well as impacting and altering political
  structures.
• ?approached function and mission of SE and an
  alternative
• to neo-conservative, capital models of governance
  and economic
• activity, and doesnt accept as given the
  current political and economic
• structures in which we operate, i.e. goal is to
  transform sectors,
• re-draw boundaries of operation. Cont

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• ?primary focus prioritizes social change over
  economic/market
• Function.
• ?locus of activity transnational, communities
  and spaces
• conceived of generally as broader than geographic
  location,
• presents and searches for alternative views and
  practices
• of globalization, economy, and ways of practicing
  politics/governing.
• (McKitrick Smith 2008)

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Introduction

• Change in the nature of the state from
  interventionist to facilitative (Brock and
  Bulpitt 2007, p. 2).
• increase in reliance on the private and third
  sectors.
• increase in the number and coordination of social
  movements and organizations.
• renewed discussion around what it means to live
  in a democratic society and the ideas surrounding
  active citizenry, responsible citizens and civil
  or civic associations and society.

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Education

• one of the major tasks that education must
  perform in a democratic society is the proper
  preservation of young citizens for the roles and
  responsibilities they must be ready to take on
  when they reach maturity citing Kelly (1995),
  Smith (2001).

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Transformative learning

• Process of seeking to get beyond a
  pre-occupation with the attainment of factual
  knowledge in the classroom.
• Involving experiencing a deep structural shift in
  basic premises of thought, feelings and actions.
  It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically
  and permanently alters our way of being in the
  world. (Transformative Learning Center at
  OISE/University of Toronto).

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How does the concept of the Social Economy
facilitate Transformative Learning

• Education as a transformative experience helps to
  shape and define citizenship.
• Can also be understood to be connected to the
  practice of democracy and values of social
  justice.
• Calls for active engagement with, and seeks to
  strengthen, relationships and movements that
  embody democratic values and encourage collective
  action.

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Existing opportunities

• Service-learning or experiential learning
• Community education programs
• Community based research
• Citizen education

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Opportunities rethinking the community
service-learning partnership

• Role of university in partnership with Social
  Economy organizations to enable the development
  of transformative learning opportunities.
• True reciprocity and mutuality in service
  (experiential) education. (Marullo Edwards
  2000)
• Understanding the values of the Social Economy
  organizations and their transformative roles in
  society.

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Conclusion

• Ultimately, if we are to facilitate in schools
  some notion of an ethical culture to which an
  altered form of aesthetic education might
  powerfully contribute, it is important that the
  personal, social, and political implications of
  moral values for our lives and actions, in and
  out of school, become part of the curriculum
  (Beyer 2000, p. 85). This is the essence of
  transformative learning.

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Thank you

• Annie McKitrick secoord_at_uvic.ca
• Janel Smith janels_at_uvic.ca