Social Inclusion and Professional Development: communities of learners – raising some questions

Abstract

This article is a critique of the notion of ‘social inclusion’. It is argued that social inclusion requires a focus upon the development of ‘communities of learners’. For such communities to develop groups must have interests in common – they need to see themselves as ‘communities of interest’. They see each other as being valuable contributors to the group – they need to be ‘communities of equals’ and be prepared to engage with and contribute to open, critical discussion of ideas – they need to participate in ‘communities of dialogue’. The changes in ethos would be considerable: from a focus on learning as an individual activity to recognition of learning as a social activity requiring community development, which would involve moving from discussions about: Classes of students to communities of researchers: teachers would need to learn skills in promoting and participating in a research community, facilitating the identification of problems and introducing appropriate methods of studying those problems. Teaching organisations to learning organisations: teachers themselves developing the skills needed to facilitate communities of researchers, then ensuring that the organisational culture is flexible and responsive to the needs of the members of the communities of learners. Institutions of higher education to resource centres for learning: The main activities of such resource centres would be the identification of problems by communities of learners who could use the facilities to search for their solutions by designing their own programmes of learning within a negotiated curriculum. Such changes would lead to a complete deconstruction of present institutions of Higher Education