March 17th, 2010

Jan Sjunnesson on Adult Education

Transcript

Sandeep: Good Morning Jan. We will start with the objectives of Adult Education and its relevance for society?

Jan: Adult Education in Scandinavia, which I know most about (because I am an Adult Education Teacher) is to provide people – who have dropped out either voluntarily or for some reason have not completed their high school degree – the ability to do it in later years of their lives.

The second objective is that it provides stakeholders, who in Scandinavia are popular movements such as labour movements, democratic popular movements, etc, a way to find leaders and members and have a voice in society.

Sandeep: Adult learners learn differently from other learners. What are the peculiar characteristics of an adult learner that needs to be kept in mind when you are dealing with them or are working with them to enhance their skills?

Jan: An adult learner is an ADULT. That means that you can’t treat that person as a juvenile person; who is without rights to integrity, voice and respect. The other thing is that an adult learner knows more about life, as such. If you are 25, 35 or even 45 (years of age), you have so much more experience. So when you teach adult learners you must provide some kind of contextualisation of the knowledge and skills you are teaching to them.

“Treat them as Adults” means that you “Treat them like Adults”, even though, they don’t know many things that may be elementary for many people – reading, writing, doing arithmetic. Their learning has to be contextualised so that that they do not feel that they are being put down like a 10 year old.

Sandeep: This is something that we find is picking up more and more in schools also -contextualisation of education for school going children, contextualisation for his environment, contextualisation for his community and his surroundings. So this is a best practice that is also now percolating down from Adult Education to making education more meaningful for children also.

Jan: Yes, but I would say that there is a power over younger people. Young people are not allowed to protest. Or I would put it as- young people are not as easily bored as adult people. So if you do rote learning with someone who is 38, the person will be very bored very quickly; whereas if that person is 12, you have some power. And, we know that young people, actually, sometimes like rhyming and rote learning. They like to play around with it and so it is not that difficult.

But a man sitting and repeating something (will be difficult for him). Maybe if you are very dedicated, for instance, learning Sanskrit, you must do some rote learning to some measure. But I would ensure that the Sanskrit student has a very good context to put that Sanskrit knowledge into.

Sandeep: What are the more prominent philosophies of Adult Education that you know of? Sweden has got a very good system that you come from, but there are other systems around the world, which also work. How are they different from each other? Could you elaborate on that?

Jan: No, I don’t know in that sense. But, I would like to distinguish between two kinds of Adult Education. One is the so-called Folk Education and the second is Adult Education.

Sometimes these get mixed. I come from what you call folk education, which was something done first in Denmark in the 1800s by priests and a pedagogue called Grundtvig. He started residential rural folk high schools in Denmark and these (later) spread to Norway, Finland, Sweden; where young people – first men and later women – were allowed to take this as a secondary school degree, but in a fashion that was outside the academic establishment. It was rooted in folklore (Grundtvig was very much a folklore person) and also later in popular movements that I mentioned (the Labour Movements, the Temperance Movements, the Evangelical-Christian Movements in Sweden and also the Farmers’ Movement).

So folk education, which is different from Adult Education, has the characteristic that they want to foster their own leaders, they want to have a say in society and they don’t want to go through an academic establishment or any kind of professional schooling but their own residential folk high schools.

The second, what I call Adult Education, is what is provided by municipal governments in the West. In Sweden, municipal Adult Education is actually a replica of the Secondary School System, but at an adult level. But the same diploma (Secondary School Diploma) can also be taken at the folk high school. The folk high schools usually have an idealistic political philosophy (i.e. can be a part of the sports movement or any kind of cultural or club ideas that one may want to put forward in society). It has that kind of ideological flavour to it, whereas municipal Adult Education, does not as it is only for the provision of a second chance in life.

Sandeep: Skill based!

Jan: Skill based, but getting that secondary school diploma. That’s the goal of Adult Education in the municipal regime. Folk high schools have this – we want to have our own leaders who can put forward our own ideas.

Sandeep: What are the major challenges to Adult Education seen in India and how are we dealing with it?

Jan: I would like to see an Adult Education movement in India. I know you don’t have it. I know that the dropout rates of people in the primary schools are high. And how many people those go to secondary schools and tertiary education is not that high, even though you are so many people. But there should be, I think, a provision for people who are above 20, to be able to get that 10^th standard diploma or 12^th standard diploma later in life.

Who will do it? I don’t think that the municipal Adult Education concept is something for India. India has enough problems with its elementary education system and secondary education system. I can’t see it taking on the responsibility of educating adult learners.

But I think that the folk education system, where you foster leaders who have their own kind of independent schooling, residential rural colleges, like we had in Sweden in the 1800s-1900s, could be more efficient for India. It could be the Dalits, it could be the farmers; it could be workers’ movements, it could be any kind of group in India. You are very good at organising people to some extent, especially, of course, in West Bengal and Kerala, for civil society participation. But, the schooling system does not match that kind of participation. I don’t see any, what I would call, folk or adult education of people in those movements in India. You had the Centre for Science and Environment in the 1980s and 1990s in India, when you did surveys on India’s state of environment.

You also have ASER, Annual State of India’s Education, put out by Pratham; where they have about 30,000-50,000 volunteers going out to villages and asking mothers if their children know how to read and write. And if the mother says yes, they actually test the child – a little bit in maths and a little bit in English. Now, if you build on that; Pratham now has on its database about 100,000 volunteers. These volunteers could be enrolled in some kind of residential or non-residential form of Adult Education. These volunteers are themselves almost illiterate, yet they go to the villages and ask these schooling questions.

So I see that there are avenues in India. You have very good ideas. Some kind of organisation (is required) around the execution of ideas (organisations like) Pratham have. You need to have a slightly longer term perspective on this, because getting an Adult Education system means people to investing 2 – 3 years, maybe, (at a time) in their life when they might have children or might be living with their parents or not with their parents. And how (do) you support them? And all these ideas, you know, how would you fund this system?

Sandeep: That’s correct Jan. Who would be responsible for running an initiative like this?

Jan: Well, I don’t see at the moment anyone else than these (movements) – if you call Pratham a movement. I don’t know what the other centres for collecting education data there are, or bodies in that sense. But I would say that it should be, what I mentioned, farmers, civil society organisations, trade unions. Any kind of organisation that believes that they want to have a voice in society in 10 – 15 years and who (want to develop people who) are going to talk for their aims in Indian Society – Ambedkar’s vision for the Dalits, for instance. To some extent this has been done in UP.

But if the Dalit movements themselves could say – OK, we will build this residential rural collage outside Lucknow or somewhere in UP. There is 178 million people in UP, and starting in UP with the Dalits, there are 20% Dalits. That’s a lot of people. If you start with some residential colleges, I am sure there will be funds available from that movement itself. I can’t see the government doing this and going to the Dalits and saying – “Hey, come get a secondary school diploma!”

Buy if Mayavati looks to her future, or rather her next generation’s future she would, instead of building a statue, put out (this many) lacs or crore rupees for a residential college for the people. And then they (could) have some kind of collection money within that movement. That’s the way it started in Scandinavia. There wasn’t any government. There weren’t any big funds. It was farmers.

In Sweden and in Scandinavia we have a winter that goes on from November to March, which is the time we can’t sow or harvest anything. So it was very cleverly organised that the residential rural folk education colleges were open between October and March – first for adult males and then for women – where they could do some reading, writing, maths, but also to be able to conduct meetings, to chair a committee, to chair a meeting, giving people voice, taking down minutes, making a protocol after each meeting. All these things led to a huge amount, in 1950 a third of all the members of parliament in Sweden were educated in this folk education system. They didn’t go to college and universities or to the city’s secondary school; which was considered for the upper class. The lower class, in this case, the rural people educated themselves – started in about 1900, and by 1950 had reached this amount.

If you have this perspective, 1 or 2 generations out, I think, for instance, the Dalits could be the stakeholders that could launch this.

Sandeep: Thank you so much Jan for your time. That was very, very informative.

X-X-X

Mr. Jan Sjunnesson is an M.Ed, MA (Philosophy) and has a diploma in teaching and journalism. Living in Delhi since January 2010, he is a senior member of the management with Centre for Civil Society – a prominent activist group campaigning for the implementation of RTE, School Choice Program (Voucher program), etc. Jan’s 25 years professional experience covers journalism, teacher, school manager, teacher-trainer and folk education/ folk high school teacher and activist.

Tags: Adult Education, College, Dalit, Education, Farmers’ Movement, Finland, Folk high school, Jan Sjunnesson, Scandinavia, Sweden
Posted in Adult Education | No Comments »

March 14th, 2010

Listening is Respect

Listening is respect. I have often wondered why we have classes and awards for speaking skills but none for listening skills.

Speaking and listening are two sides of the same coin. Listening, in general, and particularly when communicating with children is neglected as speaking takes precedence. I know of schools that conduct lessons in communication skills that comprise completely on developing speaking skills (reflecting a common perception communication = speaking).

UN Convention on Children’s Rights lists listening as a part of the Child’s Right to Participate. By that logic, not listening to children is a violation of their rights. Since children communicate in a more than a hundred languages (Loris Malaguzzi), adults must learn to listen to these hundred languages.

Take a Moment to Listen

Take a moment to listen

To what your children are trying to say;

Listen today, whatever you do

Or they won’t be there to listen to you.

Listen to their problems. Listen for their needs,

Praise their smallest triumphs, praise their smallest deeds;

Tolerate their chatter, amplify their laughter.

Find out what’s the matter; find out what they’re after.

But tell them that you love them, every single night;

And though you scold them, be sure you hold them;

Tell them “Everything’s all right; tomorrow’s looking bright.”

Take a moment to listen today.

To what your children are trying to say;

Listen today, whatever you do.

And they will come back to listen to you!!

By Dr. Denis Waitley

Tags: children speaking, communication, developing speaking skills, hundred languages, learning, listening, listening skills, listening to children, Loris Malaguzzi, mother and child, mother listening, neglected skill, Skill, speaking, United Nations
Posted in Education, Reggio Emilia | 1 Comment »

February 28th, 2010

Lalage Prabhu on International Schools in India

Transcript

Payal: Very often one reads and hears about the sudden spurt in the growth of international schools in India, do you feel that there has been a sudden spurt in the recent years?

Lalage: Yes there has.

Payal: What do you feel is the single most important cause for this spurt?

Lalage: Its been globalisation, because pre globalisation it was not permitted to run schools with international curriculum in India. There wouldn’t even have been the clientele. Globalisation has meant that a lot of foreigners have come into the country and the existing schools, which were embassy based, no longer had enough space for all the children.

So, globalisation created the need plus the permission to open such schools in India. That’s why it happened in a rush. The need may well have been there before.

Payal: There was a time not too long ago when the mention of international education in India conjured up images of the British School, The American Embassy School and the Woodstock School. How is this new breed of international schools like Pathways and Lancers International School that you have nurtured and you are continuing to nurture; how are they different from their embassy predecessors?

Lalage: I think the Embassy predecessors, the schools that were here before, were very caught up within the area from where they derived their curriculum. Take the British School – it followed the British Curriculum, it expected a kind of British expat community to join the school. The American Embassy School is very American, the curriculum is very American and so Americans were expected to go there. Woodstock was slightly different because it has definitely had a great mix but again it was based on American curriculum.

I think the new schools, because the ownership is Indian, they are looking to provide a school that is different to the school that is normally found – the national school. They are also to some extent looking to profit – so that is different. And they have no obvious international group that they are affiliated with and the majority of their students will be Indian nationals. So there are much stronger Indian links to these schools than there were to the previous schools.

Payal: And this increase in the number of Indian nationals enrolling in these new international schools would also be, primarily, because of globalisation as you mentioned earlier?

Lalage: Partly because of globalisation, partly because of the much wider instance of Indian students moving overseas for their tertiary education and this idea of doing, at least, grade eleven and twelve in an international school in India is being perceived as a kind of bridge between the national system, learning a bit about global systems and then moving onto your university overseas.

Payal: Out of the many international curricula, which one do you think, is the most holistic as a learning experience?

Lalage: It has to be the International Baccalaureate because if you look at the plan of how the curriculum works it is centred on the learner; and from that learner profile does everything stem out. Its not looking at subjects, its not looking at knowledge; its looking at the learner, so it is more holistic.

Payal: Right, I think you make a point there, a major point. Because if you look at International Baccalaureate, the early years program that they have – the PYP is a very trans-disciplinary program. The disciplines are not as important as the learner and a holistic picture of learning that they have through these trans-disciplinary themes.

Payal: What are your views about a single syllabus throughout India, across the states and national boards?

Lalage: I think that it is something that probably would work very well for subjects like maths and science, which are the kind of subjects that build. You start at a certain level when you first start school and every year you are building onto and using what you have learned before as you get onto the next stage. Other subjects need flexibility because India is a vast country – every state is different – and they need to incorporate regional differences into their syllabi.

Payal: What are the challenges of setting up a truly international school in India? You have been instrumental in setting up two of the major international schools in North India. In your experiences what were the outstanding challenges when you were setting up these schools?

Lalage: I am not sure whether it is only in international schools, but I think that the biggest challenge is teachers. Finding the right kind of teachers, teachers with the type of open mindedness that they need to take on something new and then teach it. Another one is trying to meet Indian university requirements and teaching international curriculum at the same time and the third one might be educating parents to understand what you are trying to do,so that they feel secure that even though what you are trying to do is different, their child is not being compromised in any way through some kind of experiment that they perhaps feel you are carrying out.

Payal: Right, the teachers and the parents are such a crucial part of that learning community around the student that, yes, they need to be on board and they need to be thinking along the same lines as the school envisions itself to go.

Payal: Are international schools posing any kind of threat, real or perceived, to the schools following national curriculum?

Lalage: I don’t think there are enough international schools to pose a threat, either real or perceived. What I think it has done is that it has contributed to national schools working harder to improve practices. So I think, actually, it is having a positive effect on national schools and some national boards are looking at their own curricula and are reviewing them and not just sitting back and saying its done now and the same thing is going to carry on forever and ever. There has been a huge change in, for example, the way CBSE is looking at education and a lot of this has come from looking at international education.

Payal: There is a perception in some cities like Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad,where you have a sizable number of international schools following international curricula, that there has been a shift and there has been a movement of teachers from the national to the international schools. The national schools are finding it difficult to replace those teachers who had been trained, who had gained a certain level of maturity and understanding and experience and then they leave that school and move to an international school primarily because of the perks and the salary that the international schools can afford to pay.

Lalage: I am not sure whether it is the perks necessarily or the salary necessarily. The fact is that there are not enough teachers. The problem is teachers and its there anyway whether you have the international schools or not – finding enough good teachers to man your schools. Teachers who are looking to grow, they will move towards something that is different, because they want to experience something new and I think it is that which draws them more than the salary itself, salary of course is important. But I also know teachers who have gone into international education, learned a lot and then have decided to go back into the national system, perhaps in an administrative role than as a classroom teacher. This cross-pollination is, perhaps, a very good thing to happen.

Payal: And it is the sharing of good practices from one to the other and like you said it is bringing about an improvement and a change in the way national schools are thinking and working.

Payal: Thank you very much for your time and for sharing those pearls of wisdom.

Lalage: Thanks to you too.

X-X-X

Ms. Lalage Prabhu is the former Principal of the British School (New Delhi). She is also the Founder-Director of Pathways World School and was instrumental in establishing their IB program. She is currently advising Lancers International School on curriculum and school improvement.

Tags: American Embassy School, British School, CBSE, classroom teacher, Curriculum, Education, globalisation, International Baccalaureate, international curriculum, International school, International School In India, Lalage Prabhu, Lancers International School, national boards, national curriculum, Pathways School, Pathways World School, Payal Mahajan, Primary Years Program, PYP, teacher, trans-disciplinary themes, Woodstock School
Posted in Education, International Schools | No Comments »

February 9th, 2010

Rules for female teachers – 100 years ago

While reading a book on Formation and Management of Educational Institutions, I was surprised and humored to find the following rules supposedly applicable to female teachers in New Zealand in 1915.

You will not marry during the term of your contract
You are not to keep company with men
You must be home between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. unless attending a school function
You may not loiter downtown in ice-cream stores
You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you have the permission of the board
You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother
You may not smoke cigarettes
You may not dress in bright colors
You may under no circumstances dye your hair
You must wear at least two petticoats
Your dresses must not be shorter than two inches above the ankle
To keep the schoolroom neat and clean, you must: sweep the floor at least once daily; scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water; clean the blackboards at least once a day; and start the fire at 7am so the room will be warm at 8am

As my inquisitive nature got the better of me, I decided to find out how New Zealand’s teacher regulations had evolved over the last 100 years. Hoping that the internet might bring me joy, I was again surprised to find the above (or similar) so called rules of conduct attributable to the teaching profession in more countries that one. Not finding any authentic source to confirm if the above prescriptive rules did indeed enjoy any degree of authority at any time (sic there was no internet in 1915), it seems that the rules may be a product of a humorous person’s highly active imagination.

Having no cause to continue with my quest to find out more about New Zealand teacher regulations, I decided to post these rules here with the hope that it will evoke a smile and raise some brows.

There is a message here – one should not assume that all information one comes across is accurate / correct – even in academic literature.

Do let me know if you have come across instances where the information made available to you, though seemingly from a credible source or having been paid for by you was inaccurate or misleading.

In my next blog, I will write about the new set of problems being created by information explosion and the new skills required by the users of such information.

Tags: Information, information accuracy, information age, lighter moments, reliability of information, teacher rules in 1915
Posted in Education, Technology in Education, Web 3.0 | No Comments »

February 6th, 2010

Islam, Women & Violence in Kashmir: Between India & Pakistan

Featured Book

Author: Dr. Nyla Ali Khan Associate Professor University of Nebraska-Kearney

Let me say at the very outset that this is a much-needed perspective on a region that has come to exemplify conflict per se, thus crowding out all time-honored allusions to bahisht reverberating in the Mughal Emperor Jehangir’s eulogy, “if there is paradise anywhere on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.” For more than six decades now Kashmir has been one of the most conflict-ridden regions in South Asia.

Nyla Ali Khan is the grand-daughter of Sheikh Abdullah, the first Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. It is thus no surprise that the author offers us a uniquely etic, as also emic perception, her social location provides both the rationale and the commitment, and she does an excellent job of walking the tight rope. She states the context and her intent in the preface itself. “I belong to Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), a highly volatile South Asian region with rich reservoirs of cultural, social and human wealth… Despite my emotional investment in the issue, I have tried to veer away from the seductive trap of either romanticizing or demonizing certain political actors and initiatives”. [ix-x] She is not wary of treading controversial terrain and she claims the Kashmiri ‘national identity’ is a composite collective one, emerging from the silence of a people “…Caught between the rival siblings India and Pakistan….”[ix]

Reviewed by:
Jaskiran Mathur, Ph.D.
Chair Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice
St. Francis College, Brooklyn NY

Posted in Book Review | No Comments »