“ ...you are volunteering for yourself because you are taking your time to go
and do something instead of being paid for it, so there’s no-one earning
anything from you being there. It’s you and your brain earning something from
them ...you don’t volunteer for anyone, you volunteer for yourself. ”
Teaching skills were also generically transferred into civic contexts. These may be
informally acquired skills such as being taught in a Bible study class and continuing
to teach others, or more formally acquired teaching and training skills.
Conditional/basic competences
At the level of minimal civic competence, the ability to speak English for non-native
speakers was central in a number of biographies. For example, for Daya, a Somali
woman, learning English led to her participation in her children’s primary school. For
Audrey from the Philippines it has meant that she is able to communicate with her
neighbours. Rajani, a Tanzanian, was able to translate for others in her community.
More generally, this civic competence may act as a form of cultural capital in helping
communities access welfare resources, making the difference between being an ‘alert’
rather than ‘inert’ consumer of these services. As Kirana, a Bengali woman, states:
“ It’s all about systems and in order to live in Britain you have to know the
systems, explaining systems to people .. Ifyou have knowledge you share it
with other people. Ifyou don’t have it, you have nothing to share .. Ifyou have,
for example, chewing gum, then you share it, like you offer it to other people. ”
Clara, originally from Colombia, also used English to help others to negotiate welfare
services:
“ How many people in this street don’t know how to cope? They have trouble
and they need to explain that. They don’t know. How many people are sick?
They went to the doctor Tm sick’ ‘Watt's the matter with you?’ I don’t know
how to explain it’. But if you have an interpreter, you do.”
9.1.1 Networks
The beneficial influence of education on the size and maintenance of social networks
is well established, although less has been said concerning the effect of education on
the quality of these social networks. There are a number of ways in which our
biographies illuminated the relationship between learning and social networks. In
broad terms, taking part in education can:
- extend a person’s networks;
- enrich existing networks;
- repair or reconstruct networks;
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