Education Education and the State Education is and

Education

Education and the State Education is and can be used to – CONTROL ……. dissent – MAINTAIN ……status quo – GLORIFY………skilled labour force – ORGANISE……. thought patterns – VISUALISE……a certain lifestyle/success – SUBDUE………. critical thinking

Education……Learning CONTENT -------------PROCESS “OR” “AND”

What is so popular about Popular Education (Pop-Ed)?

In a nutshell, Pop-Ed. . . • • • critiques conventional modes of thinking opens itself to critique restores people's dignity and humanity poses questions about our very existence is a venue for "inter subjectivity“ recognizes the equal importance of the nonrational • engages the intellectual as well as the other spheres of being human • is creative and reflective • is averse to any totalizing framework

TOOLS USED IN POP-ED ARE • • CREATIVE VARIED (e. g. MTV, GDA, PHOTOS) RELATED PROVOKING CHALLENGING EASY TO USE FUN

POP – ED NEEDS GOOD FACILITATION

ELEMENTS OF FACILITATION – OBJECTIVE – INSTRUCTION – ACTIVITY – FEEDBACK (REACTION TO ACTIVITY) – PROCESSING (LINKING TO REALITY) – SUMMARY

A GOOD FACILITATOR: • Keeps the group focused on task and process • Remains as objective as possible • Is an informed guide helping the group to chart its course and accomplish its goals • Listens more than talks • Adopts various learning styles • Is able to gauge peoples’ learning ability and adjusts accordingly Contd.

Contd. • Encourages everyone to participate while remembering that individuals participate in different ways • Protects members of the group from attack by others • Is gender and culturally sensitive • Energizes a group or slows it down, as needed • Periodically, does a recap of what has happened in each session and helps the group to make connections between the sessions. • Summarizes the learning • Is also a student at all times, learning from others

Popular Education has been used as a tool to raise people's consciousness to become more aware of how their personal experiences are linked with larger social problems. Paulo Freire’s seminal work “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” about the empowerment of Brazilian peasants through literacy, illustrates and explains this theory.

Reflections: Rights Based Approach to Development • • • Participation Accountability Non-discrimination Empowerment Linking to standards