The Professional Mentality

From a string of recent, excellent articles from The Atlantic, a line from "Gods Surgeons in Africa," discussing the training and equipping of surgeons in Sub Saharan Africa, and the immediate connection to the areas of all civil servants, and the strong cross-disciplinary connections to incentives, both on the surface level, and their deeper, psychological connotations:

""The professional mentality that you and I talk about is a luxury that exists only if you have enough money to allow people to dedicate themselves to certain things and certain principles."

Pritchett, Scott, and Bureaucratic Reality

From Lant Pritchett's "The Illusion of Equality: The Educational Consequences of Blindingly Weak States," a parallel to the reality of bureaucratic function here in West Africa:
What Scott terms "bureaucratic high modernism," according to Pritchett, "...blinds the state to the many observable social characteristics on which localized social processes had historically depended...to produce equal treatment of all citizens by the state's bureaucratic apparatus." I would add that in the reality of bureaucratic function, or nonfunction, the equal treatment so referred to is, in fact, a collective inability create and administer administrative outputs for these mentioned citizens. The differing organizational structures that have been implemented in the developing world, I would argue, are in fact the very "zombie" apparati that Pritchett, himself, earlier references. Organizational structures actively dissolving incentives for outputs through completely regimented, top-down decision making, restricted to those at the very top of the hierarchal bureaucratic pyramids. The end result: structures with no inherent meaning other than to mimic the functions in the Western world; function without actual output. 

Education as Liberation

Education as Liberation? 

The powerfully liberating effects of education have been well-documented by progressive educationalists over the years. Education, "As the practice of freedom," has encouraged participatory, progressive thinking, modeled around a foundation of collective critical analysis. However, we must be prepared, as progressive educationalists, to accept altering views of liberation, as our concepts, just as with our pedagogy, itself, are not necessarily grounded in the realities of our students' lives. 

In a recent working paper by Kremer, Friedman, Miguel, and Thornton (2011), the authors discovered that in Kenya, increased educational opportunities, and their related improvements in human capital (Schultz, 1961), does not necessarily translate into  "developmentally positive" outcomes, such as increased democratic participation and female empowerment, as expected, theorized, and modeled for decades. The trials held in Kenya were shown to increase political awareness of the young women, and decrease their propensity for early marriage and acceptance of domestic violence. As the authors concede, "…in our Kenyan context, this rejection of the status quo did not translate into greater political efficacy, community participation or voting intentions. Instead, the program increased the perceived legitimacy of political violence (1)." 

This unexpected outcome shatters the idealized image of education as necessarily leading to the "freedom" that we would expect; instead, the definition of "freedom" itself is subject to the same participatory reflection and pressures in ethnically divided societies with weak governing institutions. 

Thus, how to reconcile the popular drive towards critically reflective educational systems, which act to empower both educators and students in critically resource-deficient regions of the world, and the unintended consequences of critical reflection. Is it the role of a third party/outsider/expert group to make judgments on the outcomes of critical education in specific contexts that are not our own? Education empowers at the individual level; this is the great promise, but also the critical factor that undermines national, uniform standardization. 

http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/kremer/files/GSP-tracking-politics_2011-04-04-CLEAN.pdf 

The Path Through the Fields

An important article in this week's Economist on poverty alleviation and social development in Bangladesh, "The Path Through the Fields," (http://tinyurl.com/azttbnl) which has debunked some of the common myths of developmental economics, such as the primary fallacy that growth brings poverty alleviation (since disproved by such economists as Pranab Bardhan, who has shown that in India and China, most poverty alleviation occurred, in fact, not as a result of increased economic opening, but in fact, as a result of agricultural policy changes and other social factors). We must examine the analysis through an enlightened lens, that of social development over economic development, that of understanding the myth of economic growth as the end all for development, that of understanding the role of a functioning government as a mechanism for redistribution, not for wealth creation for the entrenched few.
What Bangladesh has, indeed, shown, is that poverty alleviation can occur with strong grassroots institutions, with the crucial role of a bold and innovative civil society, and with a focus on women's empowerment and women's advancement playing a fundamentally key role.

A fundamental question that I have raised previously that goes unanswered, however, is just how important the makeup of these civil society organizations is, and how this makeup effects their role in a country's transformation. 

South Asia is home to the largest, best organized, and most progressive indigenous NGO's on the planet, which have pioneered the route of social development for millions. Organizations such as Pratham in India and BRAC and Grameen in Bangladesh have developed incredible breadth and depth, and have acted as true agents of change for their nations. My question is: why have the majority of African nations  NOT developed their own transformative"super-NGO's," and what is the connection between host country ownership/development of NGO's and their actual, on-the-ground effectiveness? 

Slowness

Slowness, listlessness, so easy to get trapped into the quicksand of time, stepping outside, sitting, waiting, listening, open.....

"The end of suffering is achievable...through the unconditional freedom of the enlightened mind."
-Mark Epstein

The Pedagogy of Human Development

"Critical Internalization"

If people are being asked to change, if change is suggested as the superior option to one's current standing, and regardless of the positive developmental virtue/value of this change, a mindset needs to shift, a certain critical reflection and self-actualization must be implemented to determine the value of this change in personal, individualized life circumstances. No circumstance is alike.  This is the central, frustrating, indomitable tenant of all developmental economics. Thus, for all of the planning, for all of the technology, the ideas, the meeting, the finance, the "last yard" of developmental planning is always the hardest, and the most prone to oversight due to its complexity and individualized nature. Critical internalization is this last, fundamental step.
Critical internalization, though daunting, is not complex; it is amazingly simple, yet impossible to model, and impossible to clone. It is not costly; the sums demanded are only for the necessary human capital which foments viable human response. Critical internalization is not contingent upon fungible goods, depreciating and falling into disrepair, disuse, as currently litters so much of the developing world. Great intentions, poor connections. It is dependent upon only machinations of the human mind; virtue, value, judgement, reflection, and finally/ultimately, acceptance, rejection, modification.
How can we standardize developmental linkages to the individual, how can we measure the internalization of change, how can we observe individualized judgements?

Poverty and Power

The basic tenant of poverty is a lack of power.  A lack of power, of control, over the external circumstances of one's life. This lack of power is systemic, not individual, in nature. To gain power
is to lose poverty; to lose power is to become deeper entrenched into the physical and mental depravities that plague so many in the world. First, we need to define "depravity;" in this context, I refer
to a simple lack of comfort. Comfort as human development, if you will. This simple definition can be extended to all walks of life, and forms the cornerstone for greed and lust for power and control. We, as human beings, simply want comfort, and wish to avoid pain and unpleasantness. This is the human condition. This is also the situation that plagues so many of the systems designed to help alleviate the powerless conditions in the developing world. Once people get comfort, they are loath to give it up; our thirst for comfort becomes paramount, and clouds our judgements, our duties, and our capabilities to truly perform altruistic work. Only those few, who have done the near-impossible, and have overcome the addiction to comfort, have had the power to lead-by-example and truly influence change for the powerless. The list of these people is extremely short; the normal suspects, Mahatma Gandi, Mother Theresa, His Holiness The Dalai Lama; those who have transformed their own addiction to comfort, and have succeeded in breaking down the walls that the comfort divide builds between the powerful and the powerless. So much of our thirst for comfort, which controls out motivations and actions, also depletes the resources intended for the powerless. Again, this can be seen in the macro-level, through environmental resource depletion and trade barriers, down to the micro, individual level, as NGO workers power around town in air conditioned, new SUV's, basking in comfort that the powerless can not even imagine.
Power and comfort are intoxicating; this is the drug of inequality.


“Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects which must be saved from a burning building; it is to lead them into the populist pitfall and transform them into masses which can be manipulated.”"
-Paolo Freire

A Break and Some Reflections from Senegal

I have been away from this space for quite some time, moving, traveling, exploring, experiencing, but being unable to consolidate these experiences with the written word. There are certain times in life where experiences lend themselves to sharing, and certain times in life when a more nuanced, introspective tone dominates. It is not that thoughts, tribulations, pleasantries and discontent are not stirring the soul; but rather, that these movements are meant to only be contained within.

Some thoughts on current ideas and projects here in Senegal, Saint-Louis, where I will be posted for some time as an educational fellow.....


The Power and Dominance of Language

We commonly cite language as a developmental tool, a forger of opportunity, a bridger of wealth divides. For so many in the developing world, the great impetus for English language development is the chance, the opportunity for self-betterment, an individualized incentive that is perhaps the most powerful of all. 
However, we must be aware of the power of language as a tool for domination, as well. 

Bell Hooks notes, "Standard English is not the speech of exile. It is the language of conquest and dominance...it is the mask that hides the loss of so many tongues, all those sounds of diverse, native communities we will never hear."    -Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

Wade Davis further notes, "Language is not just vocabulary and grammar. It’s the flash of human spirit, it’s the vehicle by which the soul of a culture comes into the world. Every language is an old growth forest of the mind, a sort of watershed of thought, an ecosystem of possibilities.”

How can we measure progress from a stance of inherent domination? How can we assure that our efforts for development are not masked attempts at cultural colonization? How can we assure that language and education is, in fact, a liberating tool of self-actualization, a tool of freedom, and not a binding contraint, a cultural prison cell?

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed....

Re-reading Freire's historical account of learning, of critical thinking, of awareness, and the power of education to create reflection and true development....the words are so dense, yet there are  a few that truly stand out.....

“It is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained…the individual who has not staked his or her life may, no doubt, be recognized as a Person; but he or she has not attained the truth of this recognition as an independent self-consciousness.” –Hegel

“The radical, committed to human liberation, does not become the prisoner of a ‘circle of certainty’ within which reality is also imprisoned. On the contrary, the more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can better transform it. “ 

“It is a rare peasant who, once ‘promoted’ to overseer, does not become more of a tyrant towards his former comrades than the owner himself. This is because the context of the peasant’s situation, that is, oppression, remains unchanged.”

“A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in the people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a thousand actions in their favor without that trust.”

“Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects which must be saved from a burning building; it is to lead them into the populist pitfall and transform them into masses which can be manipulated.”

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, and with each other…In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing.”

“The banking approach to education, for example, will never propose to students that they critically consider reality. It will deal instead with such vital questions as whether Roger gave green grass to the goat, and insist upon the important of learning that, on the contrary, floger gave green grass to the rabbit.”

“Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged ad obliged to respond to that challenge. Because they apprehend the challenge as interrelated to other problems within a total context, not as a theoretical question, the resulting comprehension tends to be increasingly critical and thus constantly less alienated. Their response to the challenge invokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as committed.”

Uganda Reflections

Day 3 Education…Reflections

The disillusionment of working within the confines of a corrupted macro-level climate is palpable when speaking with local and, more-so, international NGO’s. What, then, I always ask, is the answer for the students, the most vulnerable citizens who lack political voice (primary and secondary level students), when changing the governmental-level inclusive/extractive political institutions is a long term project? What is the role of outside organizations? To give voice, to raise the level of collective action of the marginalized, and to lower the opportunity cost for these citizens in doing so. Keefer’s “voice surrogates” is a fitting term; how, then, do we act as surrogates within the confines of disillusionment? Is there a role for micro-level debate?

Disagreement with published figures, according to figures I interviewed yesterday, have meant that the literacy rate in this nation for students has actually decreased 10% in the last year (inflated initial figures, to appease international donors, are the culprit). Who is to blame for this preverbal dog and pony show? One thing that we can surmise, for sure, is that basic education is, indeed, a heavily politicized issue in the developing world;  and this politicization is an active engagement; and those who actively partake in the politicization of education have no interest in education, itself; it is merely a power struggle, and the issue at hand is inconsequential to those involved.

“…there are many who share our basic premise-that it is possible to make very significant progress against the biggest problems in the world through the accumulation of a set of small steps, each well thought out, carefully tested, and judiciously implemented.” Banerjee/Duflo, Poor Economics