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

“In Africa, for the first time, I got a glimpse of the sort of pattern my life would take...that it would be dominated by writing and solitariness and risk...I learned what many others have discovered before me, that Africa for all its perils represented wilderness and possibility...School teaching was perfect for understanding how people lived and what they wanted for themselves. I never wanted to be a tourist. I wished to be far away, as remote as possible, among people I could talk to.”
-Paul Theroux

Yet another adventure beckons. An entire year passed in the blink of an eye. I sit and reflect on the moments, which have faded into a fondness, a nostalgia, a hankering for more; yet, we cannot accumulate experiences, only have them; only understand their transience, appreciate their beauty, and then, let them go. 

I will be moving to Senegal in September for what promises to be yet another interesting chapter in this mosaic quilt of a life that I have been weaving over these years. Back to teaching, back to the engagement with students, the critical reflection, the exhausting, demanding beauty of facilitating knowledge, not for oneself, but for others, a striving for selflessness. 

But first, 6 weeks in Uganda, traveling, writing, photographing, living, breathing, experiencing. People ask, "why are you going?" and the answer I give never quite matches what is moving in my heart..."Life." 

Educational Diagnostics

     What is needed to progress the aims of primary and secondary school education in the developing world is an anthropological approach, complete with the same expert intervention, analysis and diagnostics that have been recommended for programs in the health field, as well as with macro-level economic policy.
     The tools currently exist to improve schooling outcomes; what is needed now is diagnostics to see where exactly the stumbling points lie (as these are extremely context specific), which needs to be undertaken through a participative, anthropological, diagnostic approach. Innovation has been occurring in this area, through the proliferation of educational randomized control trials; however, these trials are not firmly embedded and do not become entrenched or scales once completed. Shining the light is very important; actually implementing change, scaling change, and sustaining change is another matter all together.
     Change is possible. As Banerjee and Duflo state in their masterpiece, "Poor Economics," "...concrete, measurable programs can be implemented to improve the lives of the poor, even in areas with poor institutions."

The Moral Limit of Markets

“This issue goes to the heart of fairness in our country. There has been much discussion recently about economic inequality, but almost no conversation about the way the spread of markets nurtures a broader, systemic inequality."-Michael Sandel, The Moral Limit of Markets, 2012

 

     The issue of fairness, of social justice, of equitable redistribution, the core rationales for modern,  liberal societies has been percolating in my mind; as I ride through West London on my way to tutor, the numbers of Ferraris and Lamborghinis is startling both in their excess and their symbolism in this great bastion of free market liberalization. And thus, the issue that Sandel brings to public light, of fairness. Is is fair that some should be driving $250,000 cars, when there are plenty of $20,000 cars which are perfectly capable of performing the same function, and people starving to death in other nations, and multitudes of homeless and destitute in this same city? What is the appropriate balance of free markets, governmental restrictions on personal liberties, private property rights, and moral excess? 

     Economic inequality is a fundamental feature of liberal economies. However, the gap continues to widen; and as this gap continues to widen, and societies are increasingly polarized, we must ask as a society, as a modern experiment in social relations, what kind of world is it that we wish to live in? What is fair? What is responsible? What is just? What is fairness in both the eyes of the rich and the poor (as well as the middle)? What is the point of excess, and what is the redistribution that must be enacted, at this point, to further our aims of basic social justice and equity? 

      How can this market economy, with its excesses, be legitimized in the eyes of the masses? As Dani Rodrik asks, how can a functioning market economy be "...compatible with social stability and cohesion?" 

 Nick Kristof, commenting on Sandel's work, concludes succinctly, “Market fundamentalism,” to use the term popularized by George Soros, is gaining ground. It’s related to the glorification of wealth over the last couple of decades, to the celebration of opulence, and to the emergence of a new aristocracy. Market fundamentalists assume a measure of social Darwinism and accept that laissez-faire is always optimal. "

The Limitations of Participation

The Limitations of Participation: What Else Needs Consideration? 




In being a proponent of a particular ideology, it is vital to understand the negative ramifications of overtly positive thrusts in development. Thus, a fantastic critique of participatory design that I have encountered before, but not so succinctly.....the dangers of local "duplicitous agendas." which was also highlighted in Banerjee et all's "Can information campaigns spark local participation and improve outcomes"(2006), in which localized participatory integration was neither effective nor truly egalitarian in nature; in dealing with human beings, at the local level, we must also understand the negatives of human/power relations that are intrinsic to us all, regardless of socioeconomic development,  and not look at the poor as simple, innocent recipients of our developmental agendas. Vogt and Clemons explain:


"On the other hand, what Chambers' (1994) failed to anticipate was Kapoor's (2002) concerns that "local controls" may not be without their own duplicitous agendas. Arguably, village politics often mimic the gross inequalities at the global level. Therefore, as researchers and practitioners, if we accept that globalization combined with decentralization of nonformal education introduces a complex phenomena, we must further agree that site specific research must be dependent upon localized social and political contexts of reform as much as on specific national or global directives (Crook & Manor, 1998)."
- Vogt and Clemons, 2004