The Scottish Community Education Council (SCEC) was set up by the Government in 1982 following the Alexander Report which had recommended the establishment of a national agency to advise the
Secretary of State for Scotland
The secretary of state for Scotland (; ), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Scotland Office. The incum ...
on all matters relating to community education; and, to promote community education. SCEC was a non departmental public body. It focussed upon three broad themes - promoting lifelong learning; confronting social change; and, releasing local dynamic and liberating resources.
SCEC's first chair was
Elizabeth Carnegy, who had previously chaired a government committee into professional community education training. The council had four directors Ralph Wilson 1982–86, Dorothy Dalton 1986–90, Esther Robertson 1990-93 and Charlie McConnell 1993–2002.
SCEC provided information, publications, training and consultancy services to community education practitioners. It was later given the function of validating and endorsing professional
community education
Community education, also known as Community-Based Education or Community Learning & Development, or Development Education is an organization's programs to promote learning and social development work with individuals and groups in their commun ...
training. In the nineties SCEC opened a European office in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, which became the hub of a European wide network of information services - called Eurodesk. SCEC also hosted the International Association for Community Development, the main international organisation for practitioners in this field. SCEC published three professional journals, research and practice publications and a regular supplement in Scotland's largest selling paper the Daily Record, ran conferences and training to support practitioners and trainers of community educators. SCEC played a lead role in creating a UK wide training standards organisation for community learning and development. This was called PAULO, named after the Brazilian community educator
Paulo Freire
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher whose work revolutionized global thought on education. He is best known for ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'', in which he reimagines teaching ...
. After this the term community education was replaced by community learning and development to describe the sector.
Following devolution, the new Scottish government decided to split the agency up, with its core advisory and professional validation and endorsement functions being located within a new agency called Communities Scotland. The professional validation and endorsement function was extended following the Government's report Empowered to Practice and this led to the establishment of the Scottish Standards Council for Community Learning and Development.
See also
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Community learning and development
Community education, also known as Community-Based Education or Community Learning & Development, or Development Education is an organization's programs to promote learning and social development work with individuals and groups in their commun ...
*
Community development
The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activist ...
References
McConnell Charlie. Community Education: The Making of an Empowering Profession.1996; 1997. Scottish Community Education Council. Edinburgh. {{ISBN, 0 947919 75 9
Education in Scotland