1. GRADUATE STUDENT SEMINAR
EDST -UBC
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBLITY
(CSR) AS ADULT LEARNING & EDUCATION
: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
Presenter: George Sarkodie
MEd Adult Learning & Education

2. INTRODUCTION
Background and Positionality
Booster ! Why this CSR in Adult Ed. Studies?
CSR as a contested field.
Definition ?
 Understanding?
Mode of operation?
‘‘Corporate social responsibility means something, but not always the
same thing to everyone …’’ (Votaw, 1972)

3. DEFINITIONS
 World Business Council for Sustainable Development: ‘‘The
continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to
economic development while improving the quality of life of the
workforce and their families as well as of the local community and
society at large’’ (WBCSD, 1999, cited in Werna et al. 2009, p. ).
The European Commission: ‘‘concept whereby companies integrate
social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in
their interactions with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis’’
(cited in Newell & Frynas, 2007, p. 673)

4. Def. Cont.
Industry Canada : ‘‘the way firms integrate social, economic,
and environmental concerns into their values, culture, decision-
making, strategy, and operations in a transparent and accountable
manner and thereby establish better practices within the firm, create
wealth, and improve society’’. (Industry Canada, 2005.)
Main Perspectives - (Idemudia, 2008)
Voluntary/philanthropic - charity perspective
Legal - accountability perspective.

5. LITERATURE
CSR in international development: CSR is now intertwined
with international development and the related goals of poverty
alleviation and sustainability (Blowfied,2005)
CSR as Western Imperialism: CSR practices in the North are
imposed on Southern partners (Khan & Lund-Thompsen, 2011)
SR as boundary-making practice : the complexities in
organization’s commitment to dos and don’ts. (Fenwick, 2011)

6. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How are adult learning and education discussed and conceptualized
in the literature?
What role does adult learning and education play in forming part of
the overall CSR agenda of Canadian mining corporations?
What roles do adult education and training initiatives play in serving
the public good of stakeholder communities?

7. BARRICK GOLD (world’s leader)
Domican Republic (Pueblo Viejo comm’ty.)
‘’All of the programs that we develop hinge on the axis of education
because in providing people knowledge, new ways of doings things
and adequate tools, we are developing their capacity to provide for
themselves and make positive changes in their world’’ CSR Rep in
D.R
 CAPACITY BUILDING - LOCAL COMMUNITY
1. Adult Literacy Program : graduated 400 students from 16 communities.
2. Teacher skills/communication enhacement program- 8 communities
3. Maths & Leveling program
4. Professional Development for educators
5. Digital Literacy program for teachers
6. Local partnership for youth training {Inst. Of Technical & Vocational
training }

8. KINROSS GOLD
 https://www.youtube.com/embed/wrefWwz-S28 (Mauritania)
 SKILLS TRAINING - LOCAL COMMUNITY
Student Apprenticeship programs
Organizational skills
Book keeping
Literacy and numeracy
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7vfw5_LKt8 (Russia)
 CERTIFIED WORKPLACE TRAINING
Mining equipment mechanics
Safety
Working heights

9. FINDINGS - AREAS OF CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENT
Biodiversity
Energy & Climate
Waste Management
WORKFORCE
Workplace health/safety
Workforce diversity
COMMUNITY
Socio-economic
sustainability development
Health programs
Employment-related
training

10. FINDINGS - ROLE OF ADULT ED. PROG IN CSR
 Role of Adult Ed. programs in overall CSR agenda.
Commitment to meeting local community needs
Building good stakeholder relationship
Making ‘positive changes in the world’ (Barrick Gold)
 Serving public good
Share roles assigned to governments and state institutions
 Building capacity or enhancing capabilities – freedom (Sen, 2010)
Creating opportunities for community members

11. FINDINGS- RELATED CONCEPTS
 Werna et al. (2009)
Business-Community Relations
Corporate Citizenship
Corporate Governance
Corporate Responsibility
Corporate Philanthropy
Sustainability
Community Investment
 Tripple Bottom Line (TBL) :economic prosperity, social equity and
environmental quality. (Elkington, 2004)

12. CRITICAL ISSUES
 ‘FRAMING’
How is CSR framed and used by organizations and how does this affect
research in the field?
 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT APPROACHES
What are the issues of power relations in decision making - how effective
is the voice of the community?
 LEGACY
What happens after mining (corporate) activities are over?
 CSR as location-specific.

13. CONCLUSION
THE FIELD OF CSR IS RIPE FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHERS

14. References
Blowfield, M. (2005), Corporate Social Responsibility: reinventing the
meaning of development? International Affairs, 81, 3, 515-524
Elkington, J. (2004), Enter the tripple bottom line, In A. Henriques &
Richardson(eds), The Tripple Bottom Line, Does it add up? Assessing the
sustainability of Business and CSR., Earthscan, London
Fenwick, T. (2011). Learning 'social responsibility' in the workplace:
Conjuring, unsettling, and folding boundaries.Pedagogy, Culture &
Society, 19(1), 41-60.
Khan, F.R. & Lund-Thomsen, P. (2011), CSR as imperialism: Towards a
phenomenological approach to CSR in the developing world, Journal of
Change Management, 11, 1, 73-90

15. Ref. cont.
Idemudia, U. (2008). Conceptualising the CSR and
development debate. The Journal of Corporate
Citizenship,2008(29), 91-110
Newell, P. & Frynas, G. (2007), Beyond CSR? Business,
poverty and social justice: an introduction, Third World
Quarterly, 28, 4, 669-681
Werna E. et al. (2009), Corporate Social Responsibility
and Urban Development: Lessons from the South,
Palgrave McMillan, New York