Peace and Environment News* June 1995
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Peace and Environment News * June 1995 |
Basics and Tools: A Collection of Popular Education Resources and Activities
CUSO Education Department, 135 Rideau St., Ottawa
Revised edition, 1988
Available at Octopus Books for $13.95
Reviewed by Britt White
Basics and Tools identifies participatory exercises and references that can be used in developing and implementing a popular education program. The book views popular education as not just a compilation of activities and techniques, but as a philosophy of education.
Traditionally Canadian classrooms are run by a teacher with superior knowledge of the given subject, who lectures at the front of the classroom to a group of students. It is assumed that students know very little about the topic being discussed, and their input is rarely sought. Structured lessons and lectures encourage passive listening. The teacher-student relationship is one of educated superior to inferior learner. Education becomes a one-way exchange of information.
Popular education seeks to change this structure. Teachers are replaced by facilitators who use tools and exercises to help individuals learn from their experiences and relate them to larger issues. Participants are empowered with the knowledge and skills to effect change in their personal lives and the community in which they live.
Popular education has some basic principles which distinguish it from traditional teaching methods. These are:
Empowerment: By providing information on issues, restoring confidence in individual abilities, and introducing learners to useful skills and tools to create change, popular education is an empowering and active process.
Learning and reflection: Learning is a continuous and lifelong activity. Popular education encourages personal reflection and insight in understanding previous experiences and in making change more effective.
History and analysis: The personal experiences, knowledge, and skills of participants provide the foundation for learning. Popular education seeks to link local experiences to historical and global processes, to connect individuals and groups to the past, the present, and the future.
Change: Making connections to one's own life can change a person's perception of the world. The change may not be immediate or apparent, but it will show itself through an individual's actions. Once individuals understand their connection to the world in which they live, they can focus on where change needs to take place.
Collective learning: Popular education assumes that everyone is learning together. Facilitators help others learn and help them develop better understanding and new approaches to problems.
Strategy and Action: Popular education seeks to eliminate the dependency, apathy, and sense of powerlessness that results from traditional paternalistic teaching methods. Learning is accompanied by strategies for action, and thus strengthens the ability of people to organize themselves.
Popular education seeks to provide individuals with the confidence and skills to create change. In the third world, the rural and urban poor have been the focus of most popular education programs. In Canada, popular education targets the underprivileged, ethnic minorities, and the middle class. Although the middle class is not economically poor, they have little influence over the policies affecting their lives and the world in which they live.
Basics and Tools is an excellent source of information on the history of popular education and guidelines for planning and implementing a popular education program.
Converted July 7, 2000 - Lg
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