Apologies for cross posting - please could we ask you to circulate the
invitation widely.  Many thanks


Invitation to the NRDC's
Third and Final Round of the Practitioner-led Research Initiative
Dissemination Event - The Resource Centre, London
Friday 7th July 2006

Dear Colleagues, 

The Practitioner-led Research Initiative has been part of the NRDC's
activities to engage practitioners in research. The initiative has
funded 17 small project groups of practitioners to carry out nine-month
action research projects and links them across the field of Adult
Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL. The initiative started in 2004 with the
first six projects all carrying out individual small scale research
studies under the theme of "New Ways of Engaging New learners".  Reports
from these projects have been published and are available on the NRDC
website.  

The Second Round of six projects ran from April until December 2005, a
covered a wide range of areas under the theme "Understanding Purpose and
Perseverance - Learners' Aspirations and Commitment to Learning".  These
project reports are due to be published during late May 2006.

The Third and final round of projects will come formally to an end in
July, and we are organising a dissemination event for projects that came
under the theme of "Creativity in Teaching and Learning" The Resource
Centre, Holloway Road, London on Friday the 7th July.  

At this event, the project teams will hold workshops and discussions
about their experiences of being involved in NRDC's work, and will
present some of the initial findings.  The projects address the broad
theme "and they include: 

*	City of Sunderland YMCA Foyer - Literacy and numeracy practices
in a peer education project for young people at risk
*	Essex County Council Adult Community Learning - Weaving reading
for pleasure into adult literacy curriculum
*	York College - Creative approaches to overcoming barriers to
leaning with young offenders on Skills for Life programmes - tried and
tested
*	Exeter Council for Voluntary Service - Soft Currency
*	Dewsbury College - Learners, tutors and action research:
instigating learner centred research in Skills for Life 

The 3 year overall Practitioner-led Research Initiative has allowed time
for practitioners to reflect, engage and discuss with both learners and
colleagues the issues that affect their own practice.  In addition
projects have helped contribute to a reflective research culture within
the Colleges, developing activities that created learning communities
that include learners, tutors and managers. 

This last event will be an opportunity to review the NRDC's practitioner
involvement in research as it grew through the Practitioner-led Research
Initiative and consider how this links with the issues raised in other
areas of NRDC research.

We would be pleased if you were able to join us at this event.  There
will be no charge for the event, however, this year the number of places
at the event is limited to only 100 and therefore we would be grateful
if you could complete the attached form indicating your interest as soon
as possible, as in previous years we have had a waiting list for events.


Further details will be sent closer to the day, however I am happy to
answer any immediate questions you might have and can be contacted in
the ways shown below.  We hope you will be able to join us and look
forward to hearing from you soon

Kind regards
Kathryn James



Kathryn James 
Literacy Research Centre
Institute for Advanced Studies
Lancaster University
Lancaster 
LA1 4YD
England

Tel:  01524 593665 
Fax:  01524 592914
E-mail:  [log in to unmask] 
Website:  <http://www.literacy.lancs.ac.uk>
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