Workshop on Workshop on Teaching Human Teaching Human Development, Development, Oxford, 28-31 Oxford, 28-31 March 2007March 2007Jim ChalmersJim Chalmers

Discussing how to engage students in Discussing how to engage students in participatory actionparticipatory action

This presentation covers:

1.Educational goals. Problematising the framework. Problems of buy-in (different student experiences of modernity, different recipient experiences of development)

2.Engaging students: instrumentalities (classroom, fieldwork)

‘‘how to engagehow to engage’’Results/process:Results/process:

through reduction of experiential through reduction of experiential gaps (affinities) gaps (affinities)

through ethnographies through ethnographies & studies of effective ownership& studies of effective ownership

Next steps: Next steps: imaginative intelligenceimaginative intelligence

￫￫ participatory actionparticipatory action

Starting point: Starting point: passionpassion

1. Educational goals.

is monitored/assessed e.g. Do such actions improve others’ wellbeing, give others a sense of own power, enhancechoice-making, alter power relationships?

is monitored/assessed e.g. Do such actions improve others’ wellbeing, give others a sense of own power, enhancechoice-making, alter power relationships?

can apply in ways that guide the development process so not to create greater/ other fissures/inequalities

can apply in ways that guide the development process so not to create greater/ other fissures/inequalities

can apply in ways that narrow experience gaps between students/practitioners & recipients (‘universal contexts of experience’ )

can apply in ways that narrow experience gaps between students/practitioners & recipients (‘universal contexts of experience’ )

capabilities they can apply to their practice

capabilities they can apply to their practice

Students as change agents:supporting students develop emancipatory capabilities (agency)

Students as change agents:supporting students develop emancipatory capabilities (agency)

social social transformationtransformation

social social transformationtransformation

educational goalseducational goals

pedagogical approachpedagogical approach

participatorparticipatoryyactionaction

through through imaginativeimaginativeintelligenceintelligence(things (things grasped with grasped with insight insight throughthrough experience)experience)

Learning from Learning from each other each other through through ethnographies & ethnographies & investigating investigating effective effective ownership ownership scenariosscenarios

2. Problematising the framework. Problems of buy-in (different student experiences of modernity, different recipient experiences of development)

addressing pedagogical problemsaddressing pedagogical problems

Classrooms: complex systems of cultural practice; coordinating action with many students. To act, first we need to master intricacies of diverse cultural practices of teachers & students. Second, we need to supplant the conventional teaching framework of ritualised ‘transmission’ events, with open-ended, participatory inquiry.

addressing development problemsaddressing development problems: ownershipownership

(through stimulating practitioner affinities with livelihood strategies)

through engagement through buy-inOwnership of interventions

addressing social problemsaddressing social problems

Does modernity make it unlikely individuals want to act? What about “technological man’s unwillingness to feel”? (Herbert Read). Has imaginative intelligence (affinities, hope) been supplanted by ‘an essential estrangement’. Does imagery carrying empathy no longer communicate because ‘technological man’ no longer feels for others (because he does not care for himself)? If post-modern individuals have no need for hope, is there no longer the capability for feeling, no possibility for imaginative intelligence?

That pessimism validated by an essentialist view wholly unlike Nussbaum’s: an abstracted, wholly isolated individual; justifies ‘experience’ solely in terms of ‘truth’ individuals hear on TV & in the business streets. Truth as having a very different kind of meaning, located within (as an impermanent, indomitable dissatisfaction, & as an eternal longing to transform itself). (Nussbaum, Sen, Schopenhauer, Kant), And, this quality of truth is not lost on post-modern experiences where ‘truth carries in it the character of powerlessness’ (Schopenhauer).

Then, how to teach/learn/act on this truth?Then, how to teach/learn/act on this truth? How is the imagination is to be cultivated?How is the imagination is to be cultivated?

3. engaging students: possible instrumentalities (classroom, fieldwork)

towards social actiontowards social action

The nurturing of imaginative intelligence towards action links up with the formation of critical thinking & the other dimensions of human being (the nexus of intellectual, emotional, spiritual, artistic dimensions & narrative imagination - Nussbaum, 1995, 1997).

Note that simple rationalist strategic (technical) training limits capabilities for action.

......it’s always done towards "ends-in-view“; these arise in particular lived contexts (students/development partners). This means connecting topics to particular students’ interests, stage of cognitive development, etc., within the contexts that students/teachers/ development partners live through.Individuals elicit different lessons from a case study/imagery – grasps what is sought at a given time. A case study e.g. of livelihood adaptation to a GEF project has multiple entry points re. impact/ responsiveness).

evoking action through imaginative evoking action through imaginative intelligenceintelligence

Do an ethnography of an individual in the informal sector (e.g. floriculturist, organic almond grower, weaver)Map her world (in her terms, her language): viz. territory, stakeholders, power relations, etc.Do an analysis, focused e.g. on power, cultural meanings, gender equity, sustainable development)Evaluate how to gain the greatest good for all concerned in such situations as producing local product for distant markets.

ways of evoking action through imaginative ways of evoking action through imaginative intelligenceintelligence

The focus in this approach is on stimulating affinities with lived experience at the ‘local’ (ethnographic) dimensions of the buy-in process. This enriches understanding of the concept & its uses, in relation to the ‘distant’ aspects (viz. the discourse-shapers). Ultimately this helps assess impact/responses to policies & social conditions (re. justice, empowerment & domination).

Checklist of an action learning framework: Checklist of an action learning framework: core practicescore practices

The work teachers & learners do together is infused from the beginning with learner choice, design, & revision. The role of the teacher is that of facilitator & collaborator. The work is characterized by active learning. Peer teaching, small group work, & teamwork. Connections between the classroom work, the surrounding communities, & the world beyond the community are clarified/expounded.