Encounter with an elephant: the implementation of a community education policy

Abstract This paper stems from a larger project which documents the implementation and progress of a policy for community education in Derbyshire. The paper discusses the theoretical and social context which gave rise to the policy; the concept of community education; and the nature of the Derbyshire model. The title derives from the idea that the difficulties of defining exactly what community education ‘is’ are as great as those experienced by the blind men in describing an elephant in the ancient Sufi story. The paper's main focus is on the creation of over 100 new professional posts for Community Education Tutors. These were intended to support the implementation, and were pivotal to the development, of Derbyshire's policy. Tutors were charged with making and maintaining links between schools and local communities but, because of legislative changes and financial difficulties, their posts were disestablished after barely 4 years. The paper traces the thinking which went into the initial establishment of the Tutors’ posts and the events which led to their disestablishment. It also highlights some of the structural difficulties of their place within the various lines of professional accountability and responsibility. The second part of the paper describes, and draws on the results of, a survey undertaken with Tutors during their last few months in post. It comments on the Tutors’ backgrounds, reasons for taking up the posts, and perceptions of their main tasks, successes and personal satisfactions. It concludes by suggesting that, although Derbyshire's experiment in community education may appear to have been brought to a premature conclusion because of new political imperatives, its consequences cannot yet be known: individual encounters with Derbyshire's own ‘elephant’ will have set in motion new educational stories which will continue to unfold in the lives of professional educators and participants alike.