Cork, the Republic of Ireland's second most populous city, is one of 12 UNESCO Learning Cities globally. Becoming a learning city requires a sophisticated audit of education, learning and other socio-economic indicators. It also demands that cities become proactively engaged in delivering to the objectives set by the "Beijing Declaration on…

The Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning proposes a strategy for lifelong learning for the next quarter-century. In this article, four of the Inquiry's commissioners--Leisha Fullick, John Field, Teresa Rees and Helen Gilchrist--reflect on some of the report's key themes. Fullick discusses the role of "local responsiveness" in…

University College Cork (UCC) and excluded/disadvantaged communities on Cork's Northside undertook a partnership project. The partnership process exposed real divisions and differences among the partners and stakeholders on the link between participation and partnership and on the continuum of issues ranging from the more traditionalist model of…

This booklet explains the features and benefits of learning communities and summarizes Australia's experience with them. Part 1 traces the history of learning communities from the 1970s through the present, presents several definitions of the term "learning community," lists reasons for becoming a learning community, and explains the…

These proceedings presents addresses, 60 concurrent sessions, and business meetings from a conference that evolved from a vision of people coming together--like a town meeting--to start building "communities of interest and practice." Part 1 includes the presidential-elect address on his theme for the next conference, "Pathways to…