In the Report by Feld and Wilson, Community Ed An Expose we learn that the role of community education is to create a closer partnership between school and community and that the community educator is committed to the idea that people learn from the total environment. The school is asked to help solve community problems and the people of the community provide the necessary special resources for the instructional programmes of the school. It contains the idea of lifelong learning. (from cradle to grave)
According to one community educator, community education is not a `preconceived package` of classes or activities but a process that evolves through a dialogue between school and community. Robert Berridge (C.E. Journal, Feb 1972, p25) is quoted as saying: "...it changes attitudes, behaviours and life styles of participants and builds an atmosphere of understanding and acceptance...community education has broad implications for social change within the concept."
In the book "Opening the Schools - Alternative Ways of Learning", W. Fred Totten, details the scope of community education:
"There should be no misunderstanding about the scope of community education. In the truest sense, it is the total learning programme for all people of the community...In many respects community education is a way of life - a movement towards the establishment of the good society..."
It also has ambitions towards a world education and world mindedness.
"We must be futuristic...Those of us involved in World Education...must constantly think, look and reach ahead towards building a new world...our actions in the present reality of crisis must be motivated towards solving these problems and realising our dreams for humanity. We have a responsibility to see pupils whole...we are all earthlings and must consciously abandon our provincial attitudes if we are to be world minded..."(Dr Mitchell, in his article "Can Community Educators Build World Mindedness?) (C.E. Journal, Feb, 1972, p23)
Community Education and the United Nations
The following extracts come from a series of UNESCO booklets entitled, "Toward World Understanding":
"In our time, we need to dedicate education to the service of the human community as a whole. The ideal to be pursued is that, whether in the home, the social environment or the school, our children should be educated to live with others and to prepare themselves for citizenship in a world society...the school must also equip him with a wider knowledge of the nations and people who make up that community..."
"The kindergarten.. has a significant part to play in the child`s education. Not only can it correct many of the errors of home training...it can prepare the child...for membership in the world society..."
"World wide organisation for the conduct of human affairs is therefore essential. No teacher with a sense of realism and even an elementary knowledge of world affairs will ignore this basic need or be indifferent to its consequences for education."
John Dewey supported these ideas in his teachings and writings:
"Formal education has a contributory role to play in providing needed information and promoting changed attitudes towards a new world order...Democracy in education...would mean the teaching of those values, attitudes and abilities most likely to contribute to the development of such a world order."
Dr Morris Mitchell connects world-mindedness with the United Nations:
"...and, finally, the teacher of community must find ways of relating experientially to the U.N. and UNESCO for they are the emerging concept of world community." (C.E Journal, 1972, p23)
Community Education and the Inquiry Method of Teaching
"The student, according to the `inquiry` concept, must view all knowledge as tentative rather than absolute, and `facts` are subject to continuous revision. No one is to be viewed as an authority on any subject - the student reads what he will and then `makes up his mind` in the critical light of his teacher and peers... many students are enthusiastic about it since bull sessions are substituted for hard academic work." (Dr Joseph Bean, author and lecturer)
It is reminiscent of Curriculum for Excellence, active learning, group work, interdisciplinary projects, talking and what passes for critical thinking - only it is not - for it is about building group consensus in the absence of a proper knowledge base. The point is to discourage individuals from working things out for themselves. Adults in community education are expected to work in groups in a similar manner. This is the process that is community education which is expected to result in the great transformational change towards a new world order.
The Soviet Union
"Contemporary community education in the Soviet Union can be traced back to the efforts of an early twentieth century pedagogue, A.S. Makarenko.. Makarenko`s `Gorky Commune` was a rehabilitation programme for some hundreds of homeless youths who were roaming the Soviet Union after the Civil Wars. The philosophy behind his programme focused on the fact that the parent`s authority over a child is only delegated to him by the community (State) and further, duty to one`s children is merely a particular duty toward the greater community...The family was secondary to the community. When the needs and values of the family conflicted with those of the greater community, there was no question which receives priority...the expressed purpose is to develop persons who possess the ability, expertise and motivation to obtain the pre-set community goals and objectives..."(Larry C. Helms, Regional Schools Supt. for Yukon, Alaska)
In Scotland the named person acting for the community intercepts between the family and the child. (There is no difference between this and the Soviet regime.) It is why there is never any mention as to what is to happen if the family conflicts with the named person. It is not supposed to happen.
Here is what the Children`s Minister, Aileen Campbell, has to say about CLD:
CLD has a powerful impact on the lives of learners and communities, supporting them to identify and work towards change. Whether that change takes place in an individual’s life, helps to create a resilient and enterprising community or contributes to better public services in a changing landscape.
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/CLDRegulationsMinistersLetter_tcm4-829887.pdf
You have to ask why are learners supported to identify and work towards change? Or we could ask, what is the planned future she is not telling us about and why is it never made clear?
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