ALP Seminario - Conclusiones


ALP
Minutes Local Seminar
Thursday 31 January 2008
Lothian Chambers, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh

Notes:

Attendees arrived and registered in time for a 10am start. We also welcomed Pilton Video who were filming the day for us.

Eilidh Bateman started the day by welcoming all the attendees and outlining the programme for the day, as well as drawing attention to the information available in the welcome packs.

Stan Reeves presented the Adult Learning Project and the various European partner organisations involved in phase 1 – the preliminary research. He highlighted his talk with a photographic slideshow. The key points were:

• The history of ALP – an association run by ALP students and friends of ALP in partnership with Community Learning and Development which was set up in 1979.
• A statement of the philosophy behind ALP – a belief that education should be a social experience and that the only qualification needed is the desire to learn. Much of its learning methods are influenced by the work of the Brazilian educator, Paolo Freire. ALP is committed to making its activities and programme of courses accessible to all.
• An outline of the current projects – e.g. Glory and Dismay: The Story of Scottish Football – an adult literacy course, The Welcoming, Boat and Communication – another adult literacy course, Democracy and Active Citizenship, Scotland for Newcomers, Paolo Freire Reading Circle, A Fayre for Women, etc.

Khursheda Ismoilzoda & Eilidh Bateman presented the background to the STEP project and outlined the activities so far:

• An introduction to the 3 project products – MOSAIC, Who Speaks and Participation of Migrants in Further Education – and an explanation of the aims of the STEP project.
• A brief introduction to the other 3 STEP partner organisations in Barcelona, Lunen and Kaunas.
• The background to and the process of the dialogical discussion groups we held and the general outcomes.
• An explanation of the first International Conference held in Kaunas, Lithuania in October 2007 – including the outcomes from this, like selecting the products to take forward, deciding on the format of the DVD, sharing experiences of the dialogical discussion groups.
• Reiterating the aims of the seminar and highlighting the expected results – like the creation of the website, the potential for continued networking and discussion, and the DVD.
  
  

After the coffee break, Jon Busby who is the Project Organiser for the Welcoming (An ALP project that brings together refugees, asylum seekers and people from Scottish and local minority ethnic communities – the aim is to welcome newcomers, learn together and improve English language and literacy.) along with Mile Gazic, one of the Welcoming participants, introduced the project and showed a short film about it.

• Mile Gazic highlighted how important the Welcoming had been for him since arriving in Scotland as a refugee from Bosnia. It has been like a family for him.
• Jon Busby pledged to send all the Seminar attendees a copy of the Welcoming film.

Participants from the multicultural dialogical discussion groups introduced the three project products, linking them to their own personal experience and in the format of a question and answer session with Eilidh Bateman:

1. Mariam Galandar a former Sudanese refugee, now living in Scotland for 11years, presented the MOSAIC Guidelines:
• She spoke about overcoming her own difficulties upon arriving with a young family. She feels very strongly that the welcoming stage is a crucial one in terms of how migrants can successfully orientate and integrate.
• She feels it is necessary and fundamental to establish a comprehensive system of welcoming and orientation based on a holistic approach of culturally sensitive counselling.
• She is very positive about learning from her experiences and acts as a kind of ambassador for new migrants – she is the current Chair of BCDP in Edinburgh (The Black Community Development Project) and also works as a Nursery Officer.
  
  

2. Mahboob Ditta is a Laboratory Technician and volunteer with the Welcoming. He moved to Edinburgh from Birmingham, although he was born in Kashmir and spent his early childhood in Pakistan. He presented the Manifesto from the Who Speaks project.
• He has had an overall positive experience of adult education – where the colleges have equal opportunity and diversity policies, provide prayer rooms for different religions, Halal food, and tutors from different cultural backgrounds
• He highlighted also that the Scottish Government has recently brought in new regulations that begin to give children of asylum seekers access to free higher education.
• He stressed that projects like the Welcoming should be set up in more towns and cities in the UK, as it provided a forum for discussing and sharing experiences and information about access to education among many other things. The Welcoming is a place where everyone has a voice – something which can be difficult for migrants to have.
• He suggested that cultural guidebooks should be produced and distributed to migrant and host communities – he based this idea on a small book he showed the Seminar, called ‘Customs of Minority Ethnic Religions.’
  
  

3. Alla Norrie and Joyce Juma-Phiri introduced the final product – the Documentation from the Participation of Migrants in Programmes of Further Education. Alla comes from Moldovia and works as a community literacy and language teacher. Joyce came to Scotland as a refugee from Malawi and is now the Access and Inclusion Co-ordinator at Stevenson College in Edinburgh.
• Language classes are fundamental for migrants, but must be appropriate and accurately meet the needs of the participants – Joyce experienced frustration on being obliged to take part in basic English language classes when English is one of the state languages of her home country – so she speaks it well.
• Colleges have an obligation to enrol a diverse student population, but immigration policy is constantly changing and this creates barriers to and confusion about educational possibilities – Joyce took 7 years to complete a 4 year BSC Honours degree at University because of the various barriers she confronted during her studies.
• Migrants can remain hidden in society because they are isolated, so opportunities and information should be promoted in the places where people actually go – like shops, post offices, etc.
• When we see good practice we should try and promote them and recommend them.
• Migrants in the UK can be talented, educated and highly skilled but have little or no access to employment – it feels like a waste.
• Educationalists seem to be doing the work of immigration officers more and more – migrants approach Further Education staff for information about rights and access but often all the staff can do is turn them away because of their immigration status.
• There should be a system developed for comprehensive recognition of prior learning and training courses that convert and update experience to make it culturally relevant.
  
  

During lunch one of our multicultural group, Rise Kagona, who is an internationally renowned African musician played his electric guitar and sang a couple of songs.

After lunch our special guest arrived to give an inspirational talk. His name is Bashir Ahmad MSP – a newly elected member of the Scottish Parliament who came to Scotland as a migrant from Pakistan 40 years ago. He talked about his early experiences of living and working in Scotland and about how he has achieved the position he now holds in the Scottish Parliament. He responded to questions afterwards – particularly about the forthcoming cuts to the community education budget in Edinburgh which will affect literacy and ESOL provision.

Alla Norrie presented an introduction to the theory and methodology of the dialogical discussion groups:

• Paolo Freire, the Brazilian educationalist developed the idea of dialogical discussion and his ideas have inspired community educators all over the world.

• Dialogical discussion is a two way process between student and tutor.
• The dialogical discussion group has the intention to change the world.
• They key principles are respect, love and tolerance.
• The methodology encourages the participants to share their existing and their previous experiences.
• It is a non traditional way of learning.
• It needs a good facilitator – whose role is very humble – he does not interfere but guides and co-ordinates the discussion.
• It is a good opportunity for different cultures to share customs, traditions, experiences, beliefs – and this can help break down barriers and change opinions.
• The dialogical discussion group is human – it can involve humour, dance, music, for example – it’s a flexible environment.
  
  

The seminar divided into three groups at this point to take part in dialogical discussions about the three project products. MOSAIC was facilitated by Deborah Byrne – Development Worker for Linknet Mentoring (an employability organisation). Who Speaks was facilitated by Eilidh Bateman and Khursheda Ismoilzoda and Participation of Migrants in Programmes of Further Education was facilitated by Stan Reeves.

MOSAIC - GUIDELINES

• Distinguish between those who planned and prepared to come and those who could not.
• Language is the universal symbol
• There need to be accessible services.
• Hosts need to be better informed about migrants and available services.
• Welcome packs should be issued to signpost to key services and these should be translated.
• There should be more engagement with local employers.
• Welcome packs should include tips on Scottish culture and etiquette.
• Space should be allowed for own cultures too.
  
  

PARTICIPTION OF MIGRANTS IN PROGRAMMES OF F URTHER EDUCATION - DOCUMENTATION

• “Am I a migrant if I am settled here?”
• Racial harassment – outside and inside institutions.
• More help with English
• Accredit prior learning.
• Need to be strong to keep on moving forward.
• Refugee teachers.
• More additional training to integrate qualifications.
• Vocational skills easier than professional skills.
• Appropriate transmission of information about educational opportunities.
• Further education and higher education act as gatekeepers – “What are your status and language skills?”
• Voluntary organisations and informal education don’t need to know status.
• Remove dichotomy between literacy and ESOL.
• More support in Higher Ed and Further Ed to improve English.
• Need more organised/voluntary support for English.
• More on civic systems.
• Home students and international students don’t get the same treatment – not a level playing field.
• Internationalising of HE and FE departments.
• How far should institutions engage in pastoral support?
• Train educational institutions to listen to difficulties of migrants.
  
  

WHO SPEAKS – MANIFESTO

• It’s important to make the most of differences as well as promoting equality.
• We need to develop more tools for integrating and sharing.
• There could be more printed information – shared information on different cultures.
• ICT and the internet can play a big role on sharing and integrating.
• Education as free and for everyone is the vision but hands are tied in HE and FE in Scotland as immigration related matters are reserved to Westminster.
• We need resources and ways to break down barriers before this can be free and for all.
• We need to approach education in a holistic way – looking at family and background. Sectors of society need to work together too.
• Perhaps there is no such thing as free! – learners always need resources, etc whether courses are free or not.
• Social support is important for learning too.
• We need to build the capacity of the migrant community to deliver the vision.
• What happens to the smaller groups of migrants in among the larger communities?
• The system is not tailored to the migrant communities.
• The government is saying at one point that they are spending to much money on translation and language support – and then saying its priority is to invest in “settled” migrants not short term migrants – confusing messages.
• Peer education in the community and online self help could be developed more.
• SURVIVAL is key, so teach Scottish English.
• We need to think outside the box – do we need any more forums or do we need to make more of the ones we have?
• Another issue is dealing with the host community feeling hostile about migrants getting all the resources – this can also be related to a deprivation of learning experience on the part of the host community.
• When we sit down and talk we realise we are facing the same problems as our neighbours.
  
  

The three dialogical discussion groups chose reporters to feed back their group’s contributions.

The Seminar concluded with brief review of the day and a reminder of the upcoming International Conference on the 29TH of February.

Initial feedback and thoughts indicate that the Seminar was a success.


volver