Author Archives: bkatz

A New Perception on Education

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With a switch in my schedule after the first week of the term, I landed myself frantically looking for a class to fill the rest of my schedule. I came across International Studies 399: Education and Development. With a pervious interest in education I thought there could be only good outcomes from taking this course, so, without hesitation I added it to my coursework.

 

I have always enjoyed working with kids, whether in the classroom or not. In fact, becoming a teacher was something my family advocated. Unfortunately I was turned off by this idea because of the horror stories I had heard from friends who became teachers; building strong coursework and even just the fear of not being liked or respected by my students ranked high on my excuses. Then, when I decided to go into International Studies, I debated focusing on international education. Again, education lost out. This time my excuse, as I found out through this course (INTL 399), was also invalid. I had opted out on international education because I was afraid it was too specific of a topic to study, and it would be difficult to apply to life after college (I think practically to a fault). This class proved me wrong; I found, through this class, that education can be used to address many issues especially in development.

Empowerment: In many developing countries women have little rights or do not know they’re rights in general. Extending and advocating education to women instills a confidence that allows women to take action in their own livelihood.

Poverty: Education is often looked at to having the ability to ‘pull people out of poverty.’ Whether education is formal in a classroom, or education is the teaching of vocational and technical skills, something that was not previously known has been taught which can then be applied for the better. I believe this is the epitome of the age-old saying that “you learn something new everyday.” Lastly, many governments have implemented incentive plans, in which families are given money in return for sending their children to school, Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program is one example. This is also two-fold in that it gets kids off the streets and often out of gangs.

Social Stigmas: Often discrimination and social stigmas plague developing countries and also developed countries, whether the victim is an ethnic group, a religion, gender, a disease or disorder, or even a lifestyle, to address the discrimination, first and foremost, awareness of the issue is needed. Awareness of the issue can be brought through education, then addressed with the proper information. Addressing social stigmas and discrimination can then also alive conflict such as religious wars, or even the debate of South American immigration in the U.S.

 

These are just three of many ways this class has changed my perception of education. I know understand education as a resource to alleviating many larger issues in developing and first world countries.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ~Nelson Mandela

 

 

5 Topics on the Post-2015 Education Goal Agenda

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In May 2015 South Korea will hold a Global Conference on Education, this conference will follow in the tradition of the 1990 EFA conference in Thailand and the 2000 EFA conference in Senegal. So what will be the talk of the conference?

Here are 5 topics NORRAG NEWSBite expects to be on the agenda:

  1. The fate of EFA EFA has been associated with its large goal to provide primary education in developing countries and in turn its fatal lack of success. Nonetheless its successes have been attributed to the EFA Global Monitoring Report (GMR) however, it is skeptical that the EFA GMR will continue without new EFA Goals [1]. There will also be discussion of what the new EFA goals, if any, will look like, the steps in constructing them, and their relation to prior EFA goals. 
  2. Data and Measurement of Outcomes The necessity to use more and better data for advocacy and accountability is greatly acknowledged but in collecting this data a push for measurement rather than assessment will be made. A focus on outputs rather than outcomes will be advocated, which should be measured differently than the traditional neoclassical economic fashion [2]. 
  3. Top Down Approach The traditional top down approach will be contested and the need for more bottom-up agencies will be advocated [3]. Large international organizations such as the World Bank, are dictating what is taught and how education is assessed. A bottom-up approach will add country context to insure specific educational needs are being met. 
  4. Quality vs. Quantity The EFA conferences held in the past and the MDGs have all placed large emphasis on the access and quantity of schools rather than the quality of education. In the past it has been a numbers game when it came to access and quantity of schools; experts fear that in the upcoming discussions quality will too, will become a numbers game [4].
  5. Equity, No One Left Behind The debate on equity is most centered around language and the decrease in successful education to those who speak a minority language. Many are taught in a language in which they do not speak nor understand. Therefore, education is adding to inequity and inequality ultimately expanding the gap between the majority and minorities [5]. Lastly, emphasis has also been placed on third world countries, but many of those suffering from inequity live in middle-income countries, therefore to achieve equity, a balance between focus on third world and middle-income countries must be discussed at the Post-2015 education conference.    

 

1. King, Kenneth. “The Global Education Conference-South Korea, May 2015: Debates About Education Beyond 2015 and the EFA Goals”. NORAGG NEWSBite. 4. Nov. 2013. Web

2. Langstaff, Stéphanie. “The Post-2015 Data Revolution for Education and Development: One Measurement to Rule Them All?” NORRAG NEWSBite. 7. Nov. 2013. Web

3. Langstaff, Stéphanie. “The Post-2015 Data Revolution for Education and Development: One Measurement to Rule Them All?” NORRAG NEWSBite. 7. Nov. 2013. Web

4. King, Kenneth. “Post-1990; Post-2000; Post-2015 – Education and Skills – North & South”. NORRAG NEWSBite. 10. Sept. 2013. Web.

5. King, Kenneth. “Post-1990; Post-2000; Post-2015 – Education and Skills – North & South”. NORRAG NEWSBite. 10. Sept. 2013. Web.

 

 

The “Dogooders” of the World

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Whether we recognize it or not we live in a capitalist world where everything from food to education has become a commodity. Capitalism, as described in the film “Schooling the World”, serves the few at the expense of the many [1]. The film “Schooling the World” is an exposé of education and how capitalism and it’s partner in crime, globalization, has imparted Western education on the rest of the world.

The film highlights the ways in which modern Western education is a “cultural steam roller” replacing a culture’s traditional way of education with the Western idea of education. Students begin to lose their own sense of culture in this shift from skill education (agriculture and other trade skills) to modern education; one scholar in the film highlights that students begin to forget their own language and traditions [2]. In large part the transfer of Western education has come from North Americans and Europeans traveling to the global South. This done by people themselves and, with all good intentions, believing they can help by teaching English or restructuring a developing nation’s education system.

Ivan Illich, an outspoken Austrian scholar, delivered a speech titled “To Hell With Good Intentions”, which he delivered to the Conference on InterAmerican Student Projects in Mexico in 1968. His speech went much like the title; critiquing North American students who travel to third world countries as volunteers or as he says “dogooders.” His speech bluntly raises an important conundrum that I often struggle with being a student of international studies, and a conundrum I found while watching the film. That struggle being: what right do I have to go into a third world country and help them “develop” their own identity? In his speech Mr. Illich directly says, “By definition, you cannot help being ultimately vacationing salesmen for the middle-class ‘American Way of Life,’ since that is really the only life you know” [3]. Our good intentions are over powered by our way of life and culture that is, subconsciously or not, imparted on those we intend to help but, as seen in the film, we end up disrupting. While the film and Mr. Illich both bring up a crucial realization, neither legitimately offer ways to which we can abolish this cycle.

To begin, at the end of his speech Mr. Illich asks that we “voluntarily renounce exercising the power which being an American gives you…Come to look, come to climb our mountains, to enjoy our flowers. Come to study. But do not come to help” [4]. Now I believe the goal of studying other cultures and traveling should be to gain a greater world view and multifaceted story of other places, but I must admit that I am one of those “dogooders” Mr. Illich can not stand. So how do we attempt to “do good” without transmitting our Western culture?

Many “dogooder” agencies take on a mantra that they will not send agency members to countries without an invitation from the host place and community; the host community also specifically requests the fields in which they would like agency members to enhance. A friend recently returned from a trip where she also struggled with the idea of entering a rural community to teach on women’s health when she was hardly a professional. She took comfort when she realized that she was not solely there to teach but to facilitate a discussion with women in her community, where the women could use each other as resources. I very much appreciate this mentality and hope that I myself can become a facilitator rather than a “dogooder.”

 

[1.Carol Black. (Director) Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden. 2010. Web.]

[2.Carol Black. (Director) Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden. 2010. Web.]

[3.Ivan Illich. To Hell With Good Intentions. 1968. Web.]

[4.Ivan Illich. To Hell With Good Intentions. 1968. Web.]

[5.Carol Black. (Director) Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden. 2010. Web.]