Community Education
Practice and Principles
IDEAS AND THOUGHTS FOR
CONSIDERATION AND
REFLECTION
ON
COMMUNITY EDUCATION
Conclusion –
looking at the definition of Community Education by CEN
 “Community education is a process of personal and


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
community transformation, empowerment, challenge,
social change and collective responsiveness.
It is community-led reflecting and valuing the lived
experiences of individuals and their community.
Through its ethos and holistic approach community
education builds the capacity of groups to engage in
developing a social teaching and learning process that is
creative, participative and needs-based.
Community education is grounded on principles of
justice, equality and inclusiveness.
It differs from general adult education provision due to
its political and radical methodologies.”
Locating Community Education
Community
Education
Education
Adult Education including 3rd level
Broader ideas related to Adult Education
Malcolm Knowles
Andragogy – working with
‘mature’ adults not Pedagogy
• As autonomous individuals self directed
• Experience
• Chosen to learn and therefore
are ready to engage motivated
• Focus is on problem - solving
• Learning must be relevant
• At centre of own learning –
learner contracts
Ivan Illich
Associated with the concept of
dismantling the idea and institution
of school
• Teaching is in need of ignorance to
justify itself and must create it - so
no amount of reform will change
that
Proposed a learner centered system
outside of institutions
• Learners connected through
conviviality
• Learner-centred education via the
web - Open Source
Transformation as a part of Adult Education –
Community Education
Paolo Friere
Jack Mezirow
 Education as an
 Transformation
 Phases in transformative
education process
intervention
 Liberation
Problem posing
 internalised oppression


Conscientization
 Social Transformation


Praxis

(Disorienting dilemma - Reintegration of new learning)
Learning

(RE-thinking assumptions –
perspective transformation –
change)
Community Education as Taking Sides
Jane Thompson
Michael Newman
• Women’s learning linked
• Adult Educators need to
to bringing about changes
liked to socialism and
equality
• Education should be
linked to social
movements for change
• Overtly linked to leftist
views of society (Critical
Theory / Frankfurt
School)
actively challenge oppression
and oppressive perspectives
• Sees Educators as needing to
teach defiance and methods to
be defiant in order to challenge
inequality and bring about
social change
• Overtly inked to leftist views of
society (Critical Theory /
Frankfurt School)
Community Education
Learner-Centred Approaches
IDEAS AND THOUGHTS IN
RELATION TO LEARNER
CENTRED
FOR CONSIDERATION AND
REFLECTION
What to pay attention to?
The Task
Learning / The
Programme or
Curriculum
Individual
Group
(Process)
Person / Learner
The Class / The
Group
Paying attention
Learners Needs
Learning styles
‘journey’ the
Learner is on
Learner taking
up a role in the
Class
Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs
Styles
Mezirow’s phases
Formal roles
Informal roles
•
•
•
•
Visual
• Maps,
diagrams,
charts
Aural / Auditory
• Heard or
spoken
Read / write
• Words in a
written form
Kinesthetic
• (Experience
and Practice)
VARK
Paying to the Individual (learner)
Paying attention to
 the needs of the Learner perhaps the lower ones in
Maslow Hierarchy for Community Education means
the learner will be comfortable / safe
 the Learning styles of participants means that
content will be delivered in a way that is more
acceptable to the learner
 the ‘journey’ the individual is on (Mezirow) means
that learning is wider than the classroom
 the individual taking up a role in the class / group
means that this can be used as learning
Paying attention to The Group at task level
Tuckman
(1975)
Stages
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning / Ending
Garland, Jones and Kolodny
(Boston – 1978)
Stages
1. Pre-Affiliation
2. Power and Control
(Trust Testing)
3. Intimacy (Mutual
support)
4. Differentiation
(Challenge and change)
5. Separation
Paying attention to the Group at a psychological level
Jarlath Benson
Bion
Will
Anxiety in Groups
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Mobilise power
Separate
Differentiate
Action
Compete
Judge
Love
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Unification
Connecting
Understanding
Fusing
Uniting
Relating
 Basic assumptions
Dependence /
Independence
 Fight / Flight
 Pairing
 One-ness*
 Me-ness*

The Group - Paying attention
 Paying attention to the stages of group development
(Tuckman and Boston Model) might allow you to
understand group behaviour and support the group
to understand it too!
 Paying attention to Psychological aspects will
support you to avail of behaviour in the ‘here and
now’ as a rich vein of learning and development
Paying attention to the Content
Content –The syllabus
and the programme
•
•
•
Material to be covered
Learning Outcomes
Exams to be passed
•
•
•
Projects
Tests
Assignments
Content –The People
Learners
• Their experiences
• Their desired outcomes
Tutor
• Insights
• Knowledge
• Principles and values
Paying attention – The Content
 Paying attention to the content means that the
learner will consciously learn what they agreed to
come and learn
Community Education
Social Action Model
WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES
IT OPERATE
WHAT TO PAY ATTENTION
TO?’
FOR CONSIDERATION AND
REFLECTION
Broad ideas of Social Action
 Max Weber (1864 – 1922)

An act which takes into account the actions and re-actions of others
and is therefore orientated in its course.
 Rational actions – leading to a valued long-term goal (principled)
 Instrumental – leading to short-term goals (pragmatic)
 Assumptions





We are social animals
How we behave effects others – negatively and positively
Society is unequal
In order to make society more equal we must engage in taking social
(as opposed to Individualised) action from the side of the less equal
These actions are about bringing about (positive) social
change (equality)
Models of Community Education - Lovett
Community Education as a
Service
Community Education for
Social Change
Community Organisation
Model
Community Action Model
Education to people in local areas
(often by outside providers)
Community ‘Development’
Model
Focus on addressing local social
exclusion with some instrumental
learning
Social Action Model
Working closely with local groups to Focused on academic education for
co-ordinate and provide local
the working class to create
services to address local problems
fundamental social change
Paying attention
 Paying attention to the
 Broad thinking of ideas of society links this work to wider ideas
of society and working to make society better (social change)
 The models of community education leads to a greater
consciousness of what the work is about
Social Action Model – Practice ideas
(Sowing the Seeds of Social Change)
Setting up the Course / Class
 Reaching disadvantaged learners
 Social Recognition and attention to barriers
In the Classroom
 Fostering critical reflection
 Experiential learning
Beyond the Classroom
 Preparation for community development and social
change
In the classroom
Making use of experience
 Making use of life’s experiences as learning
 Making use of life’s experiences as data for more
learning
Fostering critical reflection
 Moving from object to subject – Freire
 Looking at who we are, why we are like that and what
contributes to that?
 Moving from understanding to criticising (critique) Consciousness / Awareness raising
 Moving from critique to possible solutions
Social Action in the Classroom - Conclusion
The work is about:
 Supporting / Provoking Learners to reflect and think
about their assumptions and their life’s experinces
 Supporting / Provoking Learners to critique their
thinking and assumptions
 Supporting / Provoking Learners to use their experiences
to develop thinking at a social, cultural, political and
economic levels
 Supporting / Provoking Learners to try out new ways of
being and acting
 In Ireland this is about Consciousness (Awareness) raising and critical reflection
Social Action beyond the classroom
Preparation for community development and social
change
 Moving from possible solutions to actions
 Focus on the collective rather than the individual
 Focus on broader ideas of Justice, Equality rather than
personal progression
 Focus on long-term impact and change rather than short
term outcomes
 Getting involved
 There is a merging of the Class and the Centre /
Organisation – the Centre / organisation needs to be
involved too!!!
Social Action beyond the Classroom - Conclusion
The work is about:
 Knowing the issue
 Knowing the different structures
 Strategising where to get involved and building
alliances
 Linking the local to the National/Global and the
particular to the policy/idea
 In Ireland it is about Active Citizenship and
Community Development
Broad Conclusion
Community Education is about :
Reaching marginalised communities and individuals
1.
1.
2.
Related to access
Related to taking a Learner Centred Approach
Building their capacities to understand themselves and the
society they are in
2.
1.
2.
Related to taking a Learner Centred Approach
Related to Social action
Engage in taking action to change that society
3.
1.
Related to Social action
Bibliography
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