ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Ron Faris Biography</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <META content=FrontPage.Editor.Document name=ProgId> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2180" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY background=images/backgrd.gif> <TABLE height=592 width="101%" border=0 > <TBODY> <TR border="0"> <TD width="13%" height=51 border="0"><A href="http://members.shaw.ca/rfaris"><IMG height=50 src="images/Home.gif" width=150 border=0></A></TD> <TD vAlign=top width="83%" height=766 rowSpan=6 border="0"> <P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" align=right><FONT face="Benguiat Bk BT" color=#00cc00 size=6><B>About Ron Faris&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</B></FONT> </P> <TABLE height=960 cellSpacing=19 cellPadding=30 width="99%" border=0 > <TBODY> <TR border="0"> <TD vAlign=top width="100%" height=880 border="0"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Dr. Ron Faris is President of </FONT><FONT face=Verdana color=#00cc00 size=2><STRONG>Golden Horizon Ventures</STRONG></FONT><FONT face=Verdana size=2>, a consultancy focused on lifelong learning strategies, place-based learning communities and service-learning. He also plans and evaluates adult literacy within community initiatives that blend distance and face-to-face learning.</FONT><A href="images/rfaris.jpg"><FONT face=Verdana size=2><IMG height=248 hspace=5 src="images/rfaris.jpg" width=170 align=left vspace=5 border=0></FONT></A> <P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 100%; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Prior to obtaining his Ph.D. in Educational Theory (adult education and educational administration) from the University of Toronto he taught high school in British Columbia and Australia and in a factory classroom in London. He has taught at a distance at the University of Victoria since 1992 and at the new Royal Roads University in the MA Program in Leadership and Training (service-learning at a distance for mid-career students).</FONT></P> <P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 100%; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>In the summer of 2002 he visited Australia as an International Fellow of the RMIT University in Melbourne and keynote speaker at the Monash University conference in <EM>Electronic Networking and Community Building</EM>. In the autumn of 2002 he co-directed a British Council international seminar in Birmingham on learning communities. In 2003 he was a guest of the Swedish adult education movement. In 2004 he presented workshops on learning communities and towns across Victoria State in Australia. He teaches graduate courses on <EM>Learning Communities</EM>, <EM>The Social and Political Economic Context of Learning in Democratic Organizations</EM> and non-credit workshops on <EM>Lifelong Learning Communities</EM> for the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria.</FONT></P> <P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 100%; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>He was charter President of the Saskatchewan Association for Lifelong Learning (SALL) in 1971 and chaired the Task Force which created that province's unique brokerage model community college system. His associated Saskmedia Report integrated the developing college and educational communications systems with the existing regional library system. He was Executive Director of Continuing Education in British Columbia from 1973 until 1987, when he became Associate Executive Director of the newly-created National Literacy Secretariat. In 1990 he was seconded to the Privy Council team which wrote <EM>Learning Well....Living Well</EM>, a consultation paper which advocated the development of a lifelong learning system in Canada.</FONT></P> <P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 100%; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Dr. Faris has been monitoring global reform of education and training systems (and associated national commitment to lifelong learning policies and strategies) for over a decade, with a special focus on nations with a shared British education and training tradition.</FONT></P> <P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 100%; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Since 1990 Ron has monitored progress of the British government in its system-wide reforms and is now spotlighting its lifelong learning strategies. He has focused on a concept of lifelong learning which emphasizes lifespan development from the pre-natal/pre-school period to seniors. He looks at learning individuals, families, communities and organizations as he attempts to put flesh on the bones of a concept which both OECD and UNESCO have accepted as their organizing principle of educational reform.</FONT></P> <P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 100%; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>During the late 1990's Ron has been researching, teaching and consulting on learning communities (villages, towns, cities and regions) and community service-learning in Canada and abroad.</FONT></P> <P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 100%; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Dr. Faris places the issue of individual, social and corporate responsibility for lifelong learning in an historic and global context. He also brings the perspective of one committed to voluntary sector service - he served on the executive of the Canadian Association for Adult Education (CAAE) for over a decade and among his awards is the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal for Voluntary Services. His book, </FONT><A href="http://www.members.shaw.ca/rfaris/PE.htm"><FONT face=Verdana size=2><EM>The Passionate Educators</EM></FONT></A><FONT face=Verdana size=2> (1975), is an history of Canadian voluntary associations and their roles in adult educational broadcasting from 1919 to 1952. He co-edited, with Dr. Frank Cassidy, <EM>Choosing Our Future: Adult Education &amp; Public Policy in Canada</EM> (1987) as part of his role as Chair, 50th Anniversary Celebration of the CAAE.</FONT></P> <P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 100%; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>To contact Ron, send him email at </FONT><A href="mailto:rfaris@vanisle.net"><FONT face=Verdana size=2>rfaris@shaw.ca</FONT></A> </P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR> <TR border="0"> <TD width="13%" height=51 border="0"> <P align=left><A href="LC.htm"><IMG height=50 src="images/LC.gif" width=150 border=0></A></P></TD></TR> <TR border="0"> <TD width="13%" height=51 border="0"><A href="LL.htm"><IMG height=50 src="images/LL.gif" width=150 border=0></A></TD></TR> <TR border="0"> <TD width="13%" height=51 border="0"><A href="SL.htm"><IMG height=50 src="images/SL.gif" width=150 border=0></A></TD></TR> <TR border="0"> <TD width="13%" height=51 border="0"><A href="ER.htm"><IMG height=50 src="images/ER.gif" width=150 border=0></A></TD></TR> <TR border="0"> <TD vAlign=top width="17%" height=549 border="0"><A href="mailto:rfaris@shaw.ca"><IMG height=50 src="images/CR.gif" width=150 border=0></A></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></BODY></HTML>