Learning History Workshop
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
As councils and organisations across the UK increasingly recognise the need to put together plans and strategies to tackle climate change there is an ever more urgent need to understand how to translate these into timely action on the ground. There is also a need to communicate and share experiences about the changes we are making. The Learning History workshop held in Bath on 25th and 26th February was aimed at those practitioners in Local Authorities and elsewhere who are trying to understand and make the necessary changes in their own organisations.
At the workshop, Learning Histories of well-known cases were presented and common themes across these examples explored. Learning Histories foreground a human story against a more conventional case account. Moments of doubt, lucky breaks, twists and turns - these all serve to confirm a lamented response to many ‘good news’ stories: i.e. that could never happen here! Indeed this response is true, but by working narratively, participants have the opportunity to work with these stories, identifying themes and linking them to their own experiences so that they draw learning that is relevant for their own situation in a way that can be helpful and empowering for all involved.
Featured Examples and Take-Aways
The following 5 examples of innovative work in local government can be downloaded. Click on each link to take you to a page where you can also leave comments if you were at the workshop. (Subject to joining and promotion to author status)
- Kirklees’ solar villages and
- Southampton’s district heating network
Later we will post a copy of the overall Learning History that will be based on data from the workshop.