CCL Learning Communities Retreat - ACTION PHASE

Day 2 of the CCL Learning Communities Retreat involved reflections by participants. Break-out group activities allowed all of us to review the characteristics of learning communities that were identified by the group as a whole on Day 1.

• Sustainability
• Innovation
• Inclusiveness
• Leadership
• Common good
• Accessibility
• Partnership

The break-out session also challenged participants to identify areas of focus that could advance a learning culture in British Columbia.

Tackling complex subjects such as defining the nature of learning communities is a messy business. And, despite the best intentions of everyone involved in the process, the outcome often results in divergent opionions on the nature of the beast, like the proverbial blind men and the elephant. In the case of this retreat, there was divergent opinion about the nature of learning communities, although not always openly or fully voiced.

One retreat participant suggested, and I've tested the theory, that if you Google (verb) the term learning communities you will primarily find reference links to electronic and virtual networks if you use Google in North America, and links to learning communities about place if you do so in Europe. 

He was right to a degree.  See what you think by trying the two links below ...

Results of a Google search on learning communities from Google Canada
Results of a Google search on learning communities from Google UK

What struck me about the retreat was the difficulty in getting beyond personal perspectives and moving towards any real kind of collective consensus on how to proceed beyond problem identification. Even the visioning process to conjure up and tell stories about what an ideal world, 20 years out, might look like in learning community terms, was too abstract, and ungrounded, and lacked a visceral problem statement that compelled attention.

John Abbott provided additional input on the afternoon of March 8 with a view to loosening the logjam of contemplation.  However, for me the storytelling approach, like myth-making, has passed its prime. 

Contemporary think is about reportage, I believe - using actual case studies and eyewitness accounts to highlight issues and to build solutions from the stimulus of need. From these stimuli emerge communities of interest and influence.

In this way, The Laramie Project scenes presented by student cast members from Lord Byng Secondary School became the most powerful and authentic stimulus of the two-day retreat. The student performances were based on current fact. The isuses raised were profound. And, clearly the need within their own school community to deal with issues of tolerance and inclusion were evident from the student reports and feedback to the retreat participants.

If I was to take away a single nugget of wisdom from the two-day retreat, it was a suggestion raised by a participant towards the end of the second day, to cast a wider net in our search for inspiration about the nature of learning communities and our quest to promote their formation.

With luck the CCL organizers will take this suggestion to mind, and will also search for authentic (and possibly, local) reportage that can provide the basis on which to point the solution of learning communities at a future retreat or planning meeting. Until then, learning communities for some may continue to be a solution in search of problem.

Comments

[Nancy]

HI David: Nice to meet you at the meeting. In your day one report on the CCL retreat you mention Imagine BC. The link to Imagine BC is http://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/imaginebc/
Imagine BC is doing two hours with Radio Noon on March 30 live from the Wosk Centre. The dialogue is on the Future of BC and the relationship between the economy and the environment. Join in. Next year's IBC topic is education and culture.
Thinking forward,
Nancy

[David Porter]

Thanks for your comments Nancy.

I've added the link to the Image BC event, and I'll also add more detail to the Day 2 report once I've reviewed the audio files.

Saludos.

D.