This is just for archive purposes

Avril Bailey writes:

Hi everyone

I hope you are all enjoying a lovely summer and holiday time. Weather here has not been great ….lots of rain!

However ……when we were in Cyprus, Maureen Kavanagh of Aontas accompanied Liz and I to Cyprus as a learner. We discussed the possibility of attending the Aontas conference in Dublin as part of your visit. AONTAS is the Irish National Adult Learning Organisation, a voluntary membership organisation.

The date for the conference is October 21st. I have included some information about the conference which I received today. Aontas have not finalized the keynote speakers as yet but will let me know in the next week or so. They estimate that the cost of attending the conference will be €100-300 per person.

The EAEA (European Association Adult Learners) General asse mbly will take place on 20th October but this is only open to members. Although there will also be a presentation of the Grundtvig Awards on that day. I have attached some information on the EAEA just in case you are not familiar with the organisation.

Please read the information below and let me know your thoughts about attending the conference as part of next mobility visit.

I look forward to hearing from you all

Kind regards

Avril

Creating Intercultural Communities: AONTAS Conference 2008

cf: http://www.aontas.com/international/citizenship.html

The EAEA General Assembly 2008 and AONTAS Conference will take place in the Grand Hotel in Malahide on the 20th and 21st of October 2008 respectively. The EAEA (European Association for the Education of Adults) will take place on Monday 20th of October and feature the EAEA elections and the presentation of the Grundtvig Award.

The AONTAS conference entitled ‘Creating Intercultural Communities: The Role of Adult & Community Education’ will take place on Tuesday, 21st of October. 2008 has been designated by the European Commission as the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and AONTAS hope to build on the dialogue created during the 2005 AONTAS conference that marked the European Year of Citizenship through Education.

During the past ten years Ireland has experienced a rapid growth in ethnic, religious and cultural diversity, as a consequence of the most significant recent inward migration in its history. The changing demographic in Ireland offers new opportunities to create a richly diverse and multicultural Ireland and it also presents us with new challenges to our own thinking about Irish identity, integrating new ethnic groups and cultures, supporting migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers and creating intercultural communities. Adult and community education has played a key role in meeting the needs of our new communities ranging from the provision of language learning to creating opportunities to share and understand new cultural experiences.

The objectives of the Conference are:

• To explore the concept of Intercultural Dialogue in the context of a rapidly changing Europe.< /o:p>
• To provide a forum for discussion on the meaning of intercultural dialogue in an Irish context
• To showcase the role of adult and community education in promoting intercultural dialogue through examples of practice.
• To explore ways in which adult and community education can be developed to realise the core principle of Interculturalism as identified in the White Paper

All are welcome to this exciting event on October 21st and further information will be sent to AONTAS members in the coming months.