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NORTH AMERICAN ALLIANCE FOR POPULAR AND ADULT EDUCATION^[1]

Historical Background

The organization of the North American Alliance for Popular and Adult Education is based on efforts by a wide and diverse group of people from all parts of the North American continent over the past 13 years.  The coming together in the form of an Alliance is the result of socially committed activist adult educators in many parts of the continent struggling to find ways to make links with each other as a means of giving strength to their own work and the work of others in their unions, community centres, classrooms, and workplaces.  Organizers of NAAPAE draw strength from the knowledge that the history of women and men, slaves and free, native to Turtle Island, the aboriginal name for North America or from afar, in all our diversity have been using education to create, resist and deepen true democracy for over 500 years.  While these current organizational efforts are recent, our struggles for social justice are those of many years.

The current efforts are experienced in response to a world in crisis. It has been pushed along in part reacting to the economic changes taking place in the continent through new forms of free trade agreements between Canada, the United States and Mexico. It takes a page from an activist tradition in adult education in Quebec, the United States and other parts of Canada.  It has been strengthened by developments in social movements for civil rights, workers, women, ecology, peace, physical and mental abilities and international solidarity.  Like all worthwhile social movements, the coming together of the NAAPAE has been made possible by hundreds of women and men from many countries.  The facilitating organizers have come from the adult education and social justice traditions of Canada, the United States and Quebec, but they have been supported and stimulated by a remarkable network of popular and adult educators from countries all around the world. 

The weave which NAAPAE represents contains threads of Quebec women demanding a right to educational access and recognition of their own experience.  The weave contains the thread of educators in the U.S. civil rights movement.  Threads from the struggles against toxics in Yellow Creek and threads from community-based literacy classes in urban Toronto combine.  Threads of song, theatre, book and organizing speech combine with stories and late-night conversations with popular educators from Uganda, Chile, India, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Mexico, Guatemala, France, Sweden, Poland and more.  The loom and its parts are represented by organizations such as Highlander of Tennessee, Institut Canadien d’education des Adultes of Quebec, The Lindeman Centre of Chicago, The Doris Marshall Institute of Ontario, loose networks of popular educators in places such San Francisco, Vancouver, Saskatoon, Dekalb, Illinois, New York and by the structures of the International Council for Adult Education. 

An account of this brevity cannot do justice to either the richness of the discussions or the many other times when thoughts about organizing such national or regional networks have been discussed.  This account is  meant to represent the specific organizing events that have had a direct relationship to the eventual agreement to form NAAPAE.  We welcome additional information, interpretations and reflections.

Early Highlander - ICAE connections, 1977

The beginnings of the recent synergy which led to the eventual setting up of NAAPAE, it might be argued, can be traced to the particularly close links established around 1977 between the newly created International Council for Adult Education and its Participatory Research Group based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the Highlander Centre in Tennessee.  The energies which flowed around these organizations and their networks have been intertwined over the years and have been an important source of support for grass roots based networks of adult education in North America since the late 1970s.  In 1977 Budd Hall and Ted Jackson of the ICAE’s Participatory Research Group went to Highlander at the suggestion of the late Jack London of The University of California in Berkeley.  Budd Hall, whose vision of adult education had been strongly influenced by work in Tanzania in the early 1970’s, had been interested in finding a ‘radical’ adult education network. Jack London, who had also worked in Tanzanian and had responsible for Budd’s being hired there, told him about Myles Horton.  Ted and Budd met with John Gaventa, Juliette Merrifield and Sue Thrasher of Highlander and began to work together in a variety of ways.

Anaheim, California U.S. AAACE Meeting, November 1980

In November of 1980, Budd Hall attended the meeting of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) in Anaheim, California.  After leaving that conference where the social change sessions drew about 25 persons and the military education sessions drew 500, Budd wrote a letter to a number of adult educators in the U.S. wondering about alternative forums for social change oriented adult educators.

“Breaking Ground” Conference, April, 1981

In the meantime, Deborah Barndt and dian marino who were working with the Participatory Research Group had established strong connections with the Sandinista popular educators in Nicaragua and had begun to make many links with others in Quebec, Canada and the U.S. around the newly emerging concepts of ‘popular education’.  In April of 1981, The PRG organized a conference called ‘Breaking Ground’ which featured work from the Literacy Crusade in Nicaragua and the popular education tradition of Quebec.  Paul Belanger of Quebec and Francisco LaCayo of Nicaragua were the featured speakers.  The conference was a challenge to adult educators in Canada and a placed an emphasis was on the use of where music, art, and dialogue for building the capacity for political analysis and coalition-building.  There were about 30-35 persons who participated in that meeting which began to build relationships amongst activists in North America.

The Camp Algonquin meeting, January, 1982

In the spirit of the pioneer and visionary U.S. adult educator, Eduard Lindeman as well as Myles Horton of Tennessee, Tom Heaney, of Northern Illinois University and Aimee Horton of Chicago had been thinking as well about the links between adult education and social change.  In January 30/31, 1982, Tom Heaney invited a number of persons to spend some time together at a modest summer camp outside Chicago called Camp Algonquin.  Among those present at that meeting were Lynda Yanz from the PRG in Toronto, and Budd Hall from the ICAE also in Toronto, Phyllis Cunningham, Tom Heaney and others from Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois, Blanca Facunda of Puerto Rico, John McFadden of Sacramento, California, John Gaventa of Highlander, Larry Olds of the College foir

Working Adults in Minneapolis, and Amy Horton.  There was much talk about the need for social change oriented adult educators to work together more effectively.  The Nicaraguan experience was examined in some depth and the role which the Frente Sandinista had played in the dramatic changes in Nicaragua discussed.  Also first discussions about the implications of gender in the popular education movement in North America were initiated by the women’s caucus at the Camp Algonquin event.  The participatory research network from Toronto and the newsletter and information network of Highlander were the only organizational forms for people to link with.

Adult Educators Meeting (Latin American Popular Educators meet North Americans at Highlander, March, 1983 )

This meeting was a direct result of the lack of a North American regional presence and the lack of an organized voice grass roots, activist  adult education at the World Assembly held near Paris the previous November.  John Gaventa of Highlander, Lynda Yanz with PRG in Toronto and Larry Olds with the College for Working Adults in Minneapolis were all present at the Paris meeting.   In Paris they agreed to organize the meeting to be held at Highlander in the spring.  The three were joined in the organizing by Tom Haney, then with Northern Illinois’ programs in Chicago. 

Initially  the purpose of the meeting was just  to get representatives of the various grass roots organizations working for empowerment  and social change from across North America together to establish a North America wide network.   But an the opportunity arose as a result of Highlander’s and other’s contacts with the Nicaraguan Literacy Crusade and the development of an effective popular education network in Latin America, the Latin American Council for Adult Education (CEAAL).   The March 25-27, 1983 included the first meeting between Latin American Popular Educators and representatives from North America took place.  The three  Latin American popular educators who were in attendance Francisco Vio Grossi of Chile, Felix Cadena of Mexico, Ernesto Viacillos from Nicaragua spoke to the group about their experiences.

In the week preceding the meeting had participated in planning for a conference for popular educators from North America/South America to be held in Managua in the late summer.  (Ten people from the U.S. and ten people from Canada subsequently made up the North American delegation to that conference.  They reported that “the trip was truly inspirational”.) 

35 people as well as the three guest from Latin America and 8 members of the Highlander staff participated in the meeting.  Two issues that were important in the discussions were whether or not we could use the term popular education as the name for our work, and the issue of the limited representation of people of color at the meeting. 

The meeting was unsuccessful in its purpose of establishing a network for North America.  But one concrete outcome of the meeting was a task force that developed a proposal for funding to explore the feasibility and desirability of a network of adult educators focusing on empowerment. The proposal was prepared by Sue Thrasher of Highlander and Judy Austermiller of the Center for Democratic Alternatives, but was not funded.

Paulo Friere in Massachusetts, July, 1985

Amhurst, Massachusetts, July 25-26, 1985 was the scene of the next event which contributed to the strengthening of a base for both participatory research and popular education.  Peter Park, who had been at the 1983 Highlander meeting with organizing support from Mary Brydon-Miller, invited Paulo Freire to come to Amhurst for a meeting which attracted several hundred social change educators from Quebec, English-Speaking Canada and most parts of the U.S.  This event provided increased information about popular education and increased visibility for some of the institutions involved.

Early Efforts at Network-building in Canada, Geneva Park, 1985

At the same time that other efforts were underway elsewhere, adult educators in English-speaking Canada were promoting the concepts of popular education.  Rick Arnold and Bev Burke had worked in Costa Rica with CUSO supporting the central american popular education network called ALFORJA.  They subsequently did a speaking tour across Canada and wrote the first Canadian published handbook on Popular Education.  Somewhat later they combined their energies with Deborah Barndt to work on the book, A New Weave, which came out in 1985.

As a result of the workshops and publications, the concept of popular education was gaining more visibility.

In May of 1985, at Geneva Park, North of Toronto, Deborah Barndt, Barb Thomas and Bev Burke together with others invited about 80 popular educators from all over the province of Ontario with the intention of exploring how a popular education network might be started.  In the end 50 participants showed up including Jane and Hubert Sapp of Highlander, Valerie Miller from the Nicaraguan experience and Laura Vargas Jara and Annabelle Torres of ALFORJA took part as well.  Like the earlier events in Chicago and at Highlander in the U.S., this event may have been ahead of its time as the understanding of the complexity and potential of popular education, but it did raise important questions about race, class, gender in popular education work which are now central to all such organizing.

It is important to note that in the follow-up meeting to the Geneva Park conference, Rick Arnold, Bev Burke, Deborah Barndt, Barb Thomas, D’arcy Martin and Catherine McLeod decided to work towards the creation of the Doris Marshall Institute.  

The Third World Assembly of Adult Education in Buenos Aires, Argentina

In December of 1985, the ICAE held its Third World Assembly of Adult Education in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The theme of the World Assembly was “Adult Education, Peace and Democracy” but the Assembly was really about the full-blown emergence of the Latin American popular education movement on the world stage.  In workshops, demonstrations with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, speeches by President Alfonsin, powerful sessions with music, dance and poetry, adult educators from North America as well as from elsewhere were bathed in the popular education ethos and process.  It was at this Assembly that the question of an organized voice for popular and adult educators from the North American continent was first raised.

Ian Morrison of the Canadian Adult Education Association and Jack MacKenzie of the U.S. Coalition of Adult Education Organizations in their capacities as Member and North American Vice President respectively of the ICAE Executive, floated, at a meeting of North American participants, the idea of creating a North American Consortium to fill the place in the ICAE international structure reserved for regional organizations.  The idea was put before the group that such a Consortium could be formed by  representation of the then four national members of the ICAE (from Canada, the Canadian Adult Education Association and the Institut Canadien d’education des Adultes and from the U.S., the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education and the Coalition of Adult Education Organizations).

Perhaps moved by the democratic and participative spirit of the Buenos Aires event, the participants from North America raised many issues about the unrepresentative nature of the ‘official’ delegation from the United States and English-speaking Canada.  There were deep concerns about who could speak for North American popular education in a setting like the one in Buenos Aires where other parts of the world were represented by strong advocates of social transformation and change.  There was little support from the meeting for a North American Consortium as outlined by the then Vice-President and Executive Committee member.

In spite of the initial negative reactions to the idea of the Consortium as outlined in Buenos Aires, the national member organizations of the ICAE continued to work on the proposed structure for a North American Consortium. A framework for such an organization was eventually agreed upon at a meeting in Washington D.C. by the national member organizations.

October, 1989  Atlantic City, New Jersey

Aimee Horton, of the Lindeman Centre in Chicago and Jack Mezirow of Teacher’s College, Columbia University organized two meetings in Atlantic City.  The first was at the meeting of the U.S. Commission of Professors followed by a second at the AAACE event.  The purpose of those sessions was to discuss how to reclaim the once vital role of the adult education movement during the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s in fostering democratic social action.  Participants included a diverse group of professors, students and community-based adult educators.  Out of these meetings came many expressions of discontent.

A Steering Committee was formed to organize a follow-up workshop:  John Gaventa (Highlander Center), Budd Hall (ICAE)-nominated in absentia, Aimee Horton (Lindeman Centre) and Jack Mezirow (Teacher’s College).  The workshop was to be held at Highlander in Tennessee.

The Fourth World Assembly of Adult Education, Bangkok, Thailand, January 1990

1990 was the United Nation’s International Year of Literacy.  The theme of the 1990 World Assembly was, “Literacy, Popular Education and Democracy:  Building the Movement”.

At the Executive Committee meeting of the ICAE which took place on January 8 and 9, Ian Morrison, informed the Executive of the creation of a North American Consortium and that it would, from now on, be the ICAE affiliate for North America.  The ICAE Executive replied that it was the right of the ICAE Executive to recognize and accept all potential affiliates to the ICAE and that the appropriate way to gain such affiliation was to apply for recognition as any other new organization.  He was told that such an application could be tabled with the new Executive Committee that would meet at the end of the World Assembly.

On January 16, a North American regional meeting was held as part of the design of the World Assembly programme to give participants from the geographic regions to share ideas and discuss issues of special interest to their regions.  As in Buenos Aires, Ian Morrison, Member of the Executive Committee for North America chaired the meeting.  There were 30 persons present for what was a vigourous discussion of the limitations of the North American Consortium, as outlined by its proponents.  After considerable debate, John Hurst, who was in Bangkok at his own expense in support of the emerging environmental programme of the ICAE, moved a test of a ‘sense of the meeting” motion calling for a meeting of North American organizations, with special reference to popular education organizations to revise the constitution of the proposed North American Consortium to include in its voting membership diverse adult education organizations, especially popular education organizations.  The ‘sense motion’ passed by the good majority of North Americans present at the meeting.  In addition to John Hurst and Ian Morrison, others who were at the Bangkok meeting included:  Jacques Proulx, Shauna Butterwick, Ed and Charlene Gleazer, Lynda Yanz, Phyllis Cunningham, Jacqueline Cook, Alan Thomas, James Draper, dian marino, Joyce Stalker, Peter Waite, Cathy Wright, David Deshler, Elaine Burns and Marcie Boucouvalas.

In a number of subsequent ad hoc meetings of North American participants, it was agreed that such a meeting should be held in Chicago, Illinois with Franciso Vio Grossi, the incoming President of the ICAE.

The incoming North American Vice-President, Jacques Proulx and Beverly Cassara, Members of the Executive were urged by the ICAE leadership to do all they could to support the emergence of a structure for North America which would represent a broad base of democratic adult education in the region.

Popular and Adult Educators on the move, Highlander, March 23-25, 1993

Twenty-five educators and social activists took part in the Highlander meeting.  The largest group were the university-based adult educators seeking recognition of the transformative objectives of adult education and the need to either change the existing professional organizations or create a new space for action.  The second group were representatives from the debates and discussions in Bangkok; they were seeking a means to represent grass roots voices within the ICAE structure as well as provide support for such persons where they work.  A third group was a smaller group of local community-based activists.  From the Bangkok meetings John Hurst, Jacqueline Cook, David Deshler, Phyllis Cunningham and Jacques Proulx (ICAE Vice-President) were able to be present.

The resulting discussions were problematic and complex and raised issues of culture, race, class, gender, asymmetrical relations of power and representation.  The meeting agreed upon a mission statement which set in place a new structure.  The mission statement said that, “The North American Educators of Adults for Democratic Social Change is an organized open community of educator social activists in North America who are dedicated to the advancement of education for democratic social change”.

Aimee Horton and Tom Heaney of the Lindeman Centre in Chicago and Ameenah Muhammed of the Congress for Working America in Milwaukee were chosen as co-convenors and Tom Heaney agreed to bring out a newsletter called “Wings of Change”.  Plans were for regional meetings to be held in various parts of North America and for groups to come together for an “Encampment” in a year to further explore the complex issues represented.  It is important to note that there were both individuals and organizations represented at the Highlander meeting as well as university and community-based activists.  Some tension present was related to different perceptions of the role of universities and communities in social activism.

John Hurst and Jacqueline Cook, in writing to Bangkok participants following the March 1990 Highlander meeting said, “We believe that this new organization has the potential to meet the concerns we voiced so strongly in Bangkok...Our recommendation is that we all join forces in shaping and creation of ‘North American Educators of Adults for Democratic Social Change’ and not continue with our plans to hold a separate North American regional meeting in Chicago...”

Salt Lake City, November 1990 and Chicago, March 1991

Aimee Horton and Jack Mezirow convened a meeting of a small number of NAEADSC members who were attending the AAACE meeting in Salt Lake City.  Among those present at the breakfast meeting were Phyllis Cunningham, John Gaventa, Budd Hall, and David Deshler.  Ontario, with its newly elected New Democratic Party victory and base of urban popular educators was asked to host the “encampment” which had been called for at the founding meeting of the NAEADSC.  Aimee Horton and Budd Hall agreed to work together to plan such an event for May, 1991.

The purpose of the event was to hear from the regional meetings which were to have taken place following the March, 1990 Highlander meeting and take decisions about the next steps in building a stronger network which could better support social change oriented educators.

A subsequent second planning meeting was held in Chicago and was attended by at least John Hurst, Budd Hall, Aimee Horton and Tom Heaney.

The “Seeds of Fire” Conference, Toronto, May, 1991

Held at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the University of Toronto campus, “Seeds of Fire” was the name chosen by the NAEADSC organizers for the coming together of representatives from the various regional meetings.  As at Highlander, participation was invited from both organizational and individual members from both universities and community-based organizations.

The “Seeds of Fire” conference continued the Highlander discussions about how to name the kind of work which so many women and men were engaged in.  After some discussion, the meeting concluded that the term ‘popular education’ best represented the political, action-oriented nature of the movement and the name NAEADSC was simplified to North American Popular Educators (NAPE).  John Hurst and the Bay Area popular education network was asked to take on the NAPE coordination for the next phase of NAPE development and Michael Welton of Dalhousie University agreed to take on the Newsletter, which took its name from the meeting itself. (It should be noted that the meeting organizers owe a debt of gratitude to Frank Adams and Highlander for the name, “Seeds of Fire” which is the title of the Adams’ book about Highlander).  

November, 1991, Montreal

Jacques Proulx and Beverly Cassara organized a meeting which was open to both popular educators as well as representatives of larger national adult education organizations in both Canada and the United States to share information on their hopes that a way would be found to represent adult educators from North America within the ICAE by the next General Assembly of the ICAE in September of 1994.

The Paulo Freire Birthday Conference, New York City, December, 1991

It had been agreed that an organizational push for NAPE would be made at the large conference being planned by friends of Paulo Freire to coincide with his 70’th Birthday in New York City December, 1991.

Hundreds of community-based and academic activist educators were invited to the New School for Social Research in Manhattan, the same school where the U.S. Worker’s Education Association first met in 1932.  The meeting was notable for its broad diversity and representation of race, class, gender and sexual orientation.  The air was filled with intense debate about whose knowledge counted, who had the right to speak and about the different roles that educators from different locations play.

The meeting provided an opportunity for a number of the NAPE members present including Tom Heaney, Budd Hall, Aimee Horton, and John Gaventa to meet informally with popular educators such as Jose LaLuz of the International Ladies Garment Worker’s Union education programme, Michael James of the Mayor’s Office in San Francisco and Raul Arnove of Literacy California.  Questions were raised about the diversity and structure of NAPE and about the best way to support through a network or other means, the growing number of persons who identified themselves as popular educators.  Because these meetings were hurried, informal and literally squeezed into the hallways of the New School of Social Research buildings, it was suggested that an analytical meeting of a number of long-time activists be held in the Spring. Toronto was chosen as the site for this meeting March of 1992.

March 1992, Toronto, “Stopping to Think”

Present at the Toronto meeting were John Gaventa and Juliet Merrifield of Highlander and the University of Tennessee, Michael James (San Francisco popular education network), John Hurst,(NAPE, Berkeley), Aimee Horton (NAPE, Chicago), Jacques Proulx (ICAE Vice-President), Michael Welton (Seeds of Fire editor), Chris Cavanagh, Barb Donaldson, Elaine Harris, Maria-Elina Dufau-Kramarz and Budd Hall (last five from the Doris Marshall Institute Network).

Through discussion and reflection of the entire set of organizing efforts to date, it became clear that many earlier attempts at building a single network had faced difficulties for at least three broad reasons.

First, no single organization had been able to truly represent the diversity of popular education voices in North America.  Many of the people in the leadership of the conversations were white, males and individually-based.  The complexities of our different contexts and struggles make building diversity in a single new organization very difficult.

Secondly, in our haste to create networks, we had perhaps taken on too many agendas at once.  Some people felt the need primarily to build a network to link and strengthen popular education efforts at the grassroots level in the United States and Canada.  This is a slow and complex task, which many groups are already attempting at their local and regional level.  Other people felt the need to link popular education efforts to the university-based adult education organizations to help reform these fora, and to strengthen coalitions between academia and the community.  This, too, was seen as an important but long term task.

Thirdly, the previous efforts had focused on creating new organizations or networks without being clear whether the membership was to focus on individuals or organizations.

After full discussion, it was agreed that what was needed was not a new organization, but rather an ‘alliance’ of fully diverse already existing organizations, networks and community-based institutions.  This alliance would come together for purposes of strengthening local and regional capacities, to relate to broader continental and global changes and to be recognized as the North America region within the ICAE structures.

The Doris Marshall Institute Network, specifically Maria Elina Dufau-Kramarz, Chris Cavanagh, and eventually Ruth Groff, took on the task of doing the research into building the invitation list for the “Gathering Voices” event which was the founding meeting of the North American Alliance for Popular and Adult Education.  It was agreed that all existing national member organizations of the ICAE would also be invited to this event to bring together the previously separate streams of organizing for purposes of representing North America within the ICAE structures.

North American Popular Educators (NAPE), were encouraged to continue building a network open to all individuals interested in sharing information and experiences in popular education.  In the preparation of the “Gathering Voices” conference, NAPE, and John Hurst in particular was very helpful in providing names and addresses of community-based popular education groups.

February 6 and 7, 1993,  “Gathering Voices”

About 120 organizations were identified and invited to a meeting held north of Toronto at the Tai Chi Retreat Centre, including all North American national members of the ICAE.  There were about 40 organizations represented among the 35 or so participants including four of the seven ICAE national members.  Many other organizations including the Canadian Labour Congress, the Assembly of First Nations and others expressed support for the formation of such an alliance, but could not be present.

The meeting heard from popular educators about their concerns and issues.  They had a presentation on the ICAE by Anna Maria Quiroz, ICAE Secretary-General.

In an atmosphere of mutual support and concern where listening and respect for difference were highlighted, a ‘Basis for Unity’ was agreed upon, a structure for representation worked out and leadership identified for a Steering Committee.  Maria Elina Dufau-Kramarz of the Doris Marshall Institute Network and North American Popular Educators was elected as the first Coordinator of the North American Alliance for Popular and Adult Education.

Jacques Proulx and Beverly Cassara of the ICAE Executive expressed their support of the NAAPAE bid for recognition by the ICAE Executive as the North American regional organization.

Plans were also made for the organizing of the first General Assembly of the North American Alliance for Popular and Adult Education in Montreal in April of 1994.

Closing statement from the Preamble of the Basis for Unity

We are an alliance of organizations in solidarity with popular struggles around the world.  We believe popular and adult education for democratic social change in harmony with the earth is central to the struggle for a more just and humane world.  We honour and respect all regions and peoples of North America, recognizing that our differences and diversity are the source of our strength.