The Fable of Vocation

Abstract

Fatima is the Director of a community-based Adult Learning Centre. The Centre was formed some years ago, when government legislation supported such initiatives and provided some (minimal) funding and guidelines to facilitate their establishment. The Centre aims to serve the learning needs of adults in the community. It is run, as much as possible, as a participative, consultative organisation, involving a wide range of community members in advisory networks, voluntary assistance with the Centre’s operations, tutoring work for the Centre, and as members of its Management Committee. That Committee formally makes the programming and financial decisions but, in reality, it delegates programming responsibility to Fatima, as Director — operating more as an advisory and monitoring body and a forum in which Fatima and other members can raise and debate new initiatives and ideas, analyse programming failures, and review the overall balance of activity.