The Family Learning Approach - UK National Commission for ...

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONSThis paper has mapped the development of family learning in the UK over the last 20 years or more,the wider international context and evidence from the research in relation to its impacts on adults andchildren. Much family learning appears to be based on the Kenan model. A further study may wish toexplore the extent to which other approaches have developed in some detail and how family learningpractitioners in the UK and in Sub-Saharan Africa can work collaboratively to improve practice in bothregions, perhaps through reporting on a number of detailed case studies.A number of key considerations have emerged from this review of the literature in relation to effectivefamily and community learning provision. Cultural appropriateness emerged as a fundamentalconsideration when planning and developing learning programmes, while the role of a coordinator in acommunity can be crucial to the success of a family learning programme in providing a link betweencommunities and educational institutions. By far the most important element of a family learningprogramme in Sub-Saharan Africa would be that learning is intergenerational, involving family –however that family may be defined – from at least one younger and one older generation, andpractice must be situated within families’ cultures.Research suggests that the more narrowly focused FLLN and more flexible WFL programmes providebenefits to families. Family learning provides a way to develop the skills of both children and adults inrelation to literacy, language and numeracy, while helping to develop other skills, such as confidence.Family learning presents one practical approach to two of the six EFA goals (to expand earlychildhood care and education, and to expand adult literacy by 50% by 2015) and to the MDG toachieve universal primary education by 2015, since it focuses on both adults and children. In somecircumstances, adult literacy may be more easily advanced where it is linked with early childhoodeducation and, conversely, early childhood education is better promoted in situations where it is linkedwith parental learning. Family learning may be used to engage both men and women in learning topromote HIV/AIDS awareness and education, an understanding of child development and theimportance of parental involvement in children’s education and for women, specifically, to promotematernal health.22 The Family Learning Approach / 2008