Practical Knowledge

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Practical KnowledgePRIYA KULASAGARAN

opular education seeks to fill

the gaps left by more formalsystems, by encouraging

action, promoting social awareness andmaking complex issues accessible.PThis is nothing controversial, just factualhistory; how this information is going to

motivate you to do something is entirelyup to you, says independent filmmaker

Fahmi Reza.

It is a sweltering August afternoon in astuffy makeshift classroom, and Fahmi is

addressing his assembled audience of 20-odd university students.

The talk was initially scheduled to take

place within the nearby university campusin Shah Alam, but was cancelled at the lastminute; leaving the events organisers tospeculate that the lecture is too

controversial.

Weaving his research into a compellingmultimedia narrative, Fahmi continues with

a forgotten bit of local history.

In 1969, the Universiti Malaya StudentsUnion decided to do a road show to

educate the public on issues they feltshould be addressed by election

candidates.

While many political campaigns at the

time were focusing on race, these studentswanted to get people thinking aboutbroader issues such as public healthcare,

agarian reforms and basic democraticrights.

These multi-lingual rallies held by

students of various races drew crowds of

thousands, and made headlines every

other day.

Then May 13 happened, and everythingwas forgotten, he says.

Fahmi may not be an accredited professor,

but he boasts of what every teacher wants passion and rapt attention from his

listeners.

I feel that many students these days are just not aware of current issues, andpolitics is seen as a bad word.

The point Im trying to make is that beingpolitical is not about protests or joining

(political) parties, but about taking aninterest in whats going on and working on

improving the country.

Its an education on how average peoplecan change things for the better if they

just tried, he says.

The heart of Fahmis work, reinforced bythe history he puts forth, is a sort of

learning that is for the people by thepeople or what can be described aspopular education.

Informal learningThere seems to be no hard and fast rule of

what popular education is. Some say thatits roots lie in Enlightenment-era thinkers

and the French Revolution, while othersargue that informal learning practices

such as that of tribal communities haveexisted for thousands of years.

One notable figure who arguably provided

the foundation for the concepts evolutionis Brazilian educator and theorist Paolo

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Freire.

Most famous for his book Pedagogy of theOppressed published in 1970, Freire

developed his ideas on education and itsrole in empowering the disenfranchisedthrough his work with poor and illiterate

farmers in Brazil.

Rejecting the idea of students as mere

empty vessels to be filled up by teachers,he advocated a form of education that is a

practice of freedom, where learners dealcritically and creatively with reality anddiscover how to participate in thetransformation of the world.

Former Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

lecturer Assoc Prof Dr Chan Lean Heng isactively working on introducing popular

education as a learning methodology ineducational institutions.

She belives that the promotion of suchpedagogy will help achieve sustainablehuman development.

Its crucial for us to promote learning that

values action, so we can produce studentsand citizens who are socially responsible

and motivated beyond their self-centredgoals of individual wealth and success,she says in an e-mail to StarEducation.

In her presentation at a Unesco-Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational

Innovation for Development (APEID)International Conference last year, Dr

Chan further explains that populareducation uses creativity and participationto promote a rights-based agenda.

The main aim of popular education is toengage people by relating their daily

experiences to larger societal problems.

It also empowers people to act and effectchange on the issues that affect them,

she says.

Examples of how popular education hasbeen used in social movements throughout

the world are numerous and diverse.

For instance, the Highlander Folk School

based in Tennessee, the United States(US) connected literacy to voter rights byusing the United Nations Universal

Declaration of Human Rights as a startingpoint in their literacy classes for poor

African-American communities during thecivil rights movement there.

In Uganda, the Islamic Medical Association

of Uganda works with village imams(Muslim religious leaders) to engage

Muslim communities in open dialogueabout HIV/AIDS prevention.

On the local front, the Fallen Leaves forum

theatre project based in Batu Arang,Selangor, uses interactive theatre tohighlight the plight of marginalisedcommunities such as those living with

HIV/AIDS.

Another recent example is Chow Kit Kita,a community mapping project by

teenagers living in and around the ChowKit area, Kuala Lumpur.

Chow Kit Kita uses creative mediums such as photography tohelp teens understand the social issues in their neighbourhood.

File photo



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Fahmi, who is involved in the project, saysthat his team was inspired by the work of

Arts-Ed Penang, a creative artsorganisation that runs programmes to help

young people understand the significanceof cultural heritage.

With over 25 years of experience as acommunity organiser, MalaysianCommunity Communications Centre

(Komas) founder Tan Jo Hann is well-versed in popular education techniques.

Aside from carrying out social work withthe local urban poor through theCommunity Residents Association of

Selangor and Federal Territory (Permas)and serving as the councillor for the

Subang Jaya Municipal Council, he is alsoinvolved in training grassroots

communities across South-East Asia and isthe co-founder of the South-East Asia

Popular Communications Programme(SEAPCP).

Continuous processWhile he mostly deals with marginalised

communities, Tan believes that theconcept is relevant to all levels of society.

Critical pedagogy is crucial in gettingmessages across effectively fromhighlighting gender discrimination in the

office, to educating factory workers onsafety precautions, and instilling leadership

qualities in our youth.

The interative nature of popular educationmakes it a powerful tool to help peopleinternalise, he says.

Tan adds that educating for social changeis a continuous process rather than a one-

off lesson.

Its a constant cycle of analysing the rootcauses of a larger problem, brainstorming

solutions, planning a concrete action plan,and reflecting upon the strengths and

weaknesses of the plan after it is carriedout.

This approach is directly opposed to thetraditional top-down education so

people can have ownership of what theyare learning, rather than just being talkedat, he says.

He cites his work with the urban poor as

an example of this process.

When we conduct community educationsessions in slum and squatter areas on

their land rights, we dont just sweep inand bore them with legal statutes.

Our sessions involve role play, group

exercises, and mapping techniques so theycan understand complex law on their own

terms and contribute their own ideas, hesays.

As participatory learning is a key

component to this method of learning,creativity is central to the concept.

Art is an especially effective medium asthe mind retains visual information more

easily, says Tan.

This makes it cut across language barriersand educational backgrounds.

For example, when working with villagers

in Preah Vihear, Cambodia on land rights, Iencouraged them to draw out how

deforestation is affecting their income andwhat practical solutions they can come upwith to solve the issue.

Instead of lecturing them onenvironmental protection, this simple

method proved to be more effective. Thevillagers that I trained are now conducting

their own workshops and organisingthemselves to combat forest degredation.



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The issue of rightsFuriously drawing a picture of a large

spaceship on a piece of paper, lawyerEdmund Bon is on a mission to get

university students thinking about thefabric of society.

Imagine that earth has been destroyed,he starts.

You need to choose six people from a listof 25 to board this spaceship to repopulate

a new earth.

Your groups decisions must beunanimous; my advice is start your

discussions from a point of collectiveunderstanding before taking a personal

stand.

The session is part of Reconstituting EarthVersion 2.0, a workshop series held in

conjunction with the Malaysia Bar Councilsrights-education campaign titled

MyConstitution.

The two-year nationwide campaign aims toeducate the public on their rights and

responsibilities as citizens as set out bythe Federal Constitution.

As the groups deliberate over theirchoices, Bon explains the purpose behindthe exercise.

Its a warm-up before getting participantsto dissect the sort of values their new

society needs to function.

Then when they draft their ownconstitutions for these imaginary societies,they will be better prepared to tackle the

issues of the Federal Constitution, hesays.

After a few more exercises, the students

express their opinions on how the lawaffects their daily lives, sparking debate on

issues such as privacy, the InternalSecurity Act and cultural freedom.

Some say that this is subversive contentbecause we openly discuss explosiveissues, says Bon.

But why is it a bad thing to encourage

people to think about ways of making thecountry progress?

According to Tan, popular education serves

to fill in the gaps left by the moretraditional system in place in schools and

universities.

Not everyone has an interest in theacademic learning provided in schools, and

not everyone has the good fortune ofgoing on to university.

The least motivated in schools are the

ones who are the least engaged becausethey dont see anything meaningful in pure

classroom learning, he says.

Thus, the role of popular educators is tomake sure these people are equipped withskills to get them through life, and thatincludes having values and the ability to

build relationships with other people.

He adds: Education should be more than just reading, writing, and counting it

should be about being human.

The Malaysian Star, Sunday, 05 December 2010

http://thestar.com.my/services/printerfriendly.asp?file=/2010/12/5/education/7540732.asp&sec=educationhttp://thestar.com.my/services/printerfriendly.asp?file=/2010/12/5/education/7540732.asp&sec=education

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