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member, Human Development and Harmony Cluster, Pamayanang SanibLakas ng Pilipinas
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1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism 2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine 3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission 5. Civics and Democratic Governance 6. Culture as Community Creativity 7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education 8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony 9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice 10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development 11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations 12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology 13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships 14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace 15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart' . |
Light Seeking and Light Sharing Education By Prof. Enrico D. Torres When he passed away, Prof. Torres was Chairman of the Council of Leaders of Lambat-Liwanag Network for Empowering Paradigms; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights); Founding Chair of Education Network (E-Net); and Chief of the Human Rights Office, Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) This was initially presented for critiquing to the convenors group of the Saniblakas Foudation last April 18, 2001 at University of the Philippines Manila and was later presented at and adopted by the Lambat-Liwanag Paradigm-Specific Conference on Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education held in June 2002 at the Philippine Normal University. THIS PAPER AIMS: To make a critique of the dominant paradigm of the present Philippine educational system, that is disempowering the teachers and students, and our broader society as well. It is disempowering due to its elitist character, depriving access to the majority of our people, particularly the children of the poor and the indigenous communities. It is likewise undemocratic, because of the mandated curriculum, textbooks and methodologies prescribed by the authorities in central office of education bureaucracy. And moreover, the dominant paradigm of education is teacher-centered, subject-oriented, competitive driven and grades-conscious all done in the structured formal school system. And it is also an alienating education, because of its failure to develop critical and creative thinking that are components of complex minds of the learners.
It also seeks to articulate a concept of an empowering paradigm of education,
with our hope to enhance the establishment of a more humanizing social order. This paper also includes a discussion on some participatory and discovery-oriented approaches to enhance effective learning. The focus of pedagogy of the teacher-facilitator is more on the process, on how to teach and not on what to teach, with considerations on the preparedness and capability of the learners; and that the teacher-facilitator may learn also from the students. And the last part of this paper deals on the appropriate paradigm in our present postmodern era, wherein the global concept of education is a dichotomy of the emerging paradigm of popular education. This empowering paradigm is pluralist in framework and it includes the part of ethnicity, religiosity, spirituality and the indigenous cultures.
We should be open to this paradigm shift, because we must realize that we are now living in a multiverse world.
We expect reactions and resistance from the defenders of the dominant paradigm, and we must be ready for this in fora, dialogues & discourses. Only in this way we can put to test, the validity, relevance and acceptability of the paradigm that we seek to offer as an alternative.
And relying on the convictions, dedication and initiatives of individuals, groups and communities, vibrating the same energies like ours-we can wait. And bearing in mind the humility of the great Athenian teacher Socrates, we should continue posing questions, and sustain our patience in this seemingly endless quest for the relative truth in education and all spheres of discourses to discover and rediscover the meanings and directions of our very own existence.
General Outline:
B. Promotion of seeking and sharing wisdom and knowledge as the basic process in education
C. Reinventing the teacher as a "sharing and learning facilitator" and of textbooks as channels of learning instead of authoritative "last word" on anything
D. Recognition and enhancement of sources of knowledge and skills and learning outside the school system
E. Promotion of less-structured education system for children that would encourage and enhance intuition, aesthetic appreciation and creativity, respect for self and others, love for all life, predisposition to team play and basic spirituality.
F. Critique and repudiation of the current data-memorization-based competitive driven grades-indicated, teacher-centered and commercialized educational system programs and policies. Light seeking and light sharing education (detailed outline) A. Seeking light as pursuit of reason and not of mere information, pursuit of wisdom and not of mere knowledge (1) The traditional view of education maintains that there are eternal truths to be found, and that the way to find them is through the application of human being's, power of reason. (Plato's rationalist theory of education.) However, knowledge comes into the mind through the gates of senses. We can learn from what our senses tells us and not from the use of our intellect divorced from sense -experience. And since our senses often deceive us, knowledge therefore is far more tentative instead of those eternal truths based on rationalism. Truth is relative to time and places, as truth is interpreted by humans within a particular historical context of their social mileu. (2) Second point of debate against Plato's rationalist theory of education: that education is a process primarily concerned with the intellectual development, and takes no account on the emotional aspect of human development. This theory of education dominated for a long time the Western World. For Plato, feelings or emotion must be suppressed, tamed or reduced to a subordinate role. As a consequence educators see the school's role in the transmission of knowledge; and the gauge of academic excellence is when their students or graduates top government testings or examinations; and the development of behaviour, values and attitudes as only secondary. (3) Third point of debate: the rationalist philosophers make a very clear position, that there is no room for any notion of individuality. In Plato's "The Republic" when he claimed that there are absolute values and moral truths, his process is to "indoctrinate" and not to educate. He wants to produce the kind of persons that those who are in power want; and certainly - not to produce persons who can make up their own minds about what they want to be or to do. (4) In Plato's rationalist theory, practical subjects and activities are devalued, it placed high premium on intellectual activities like mathematics and philosophy and degraded arts and crafts. B. Promotion of seeking and sharing wisdom and knowledge as the basic process in education The problem of humanization or becoming human is the main preoccupation in societies where there is increasing dehumanization caused by exploitation, injustices and oppression - and this is quite a complex process. And the process of education through participative activities and research is very essential in social transformation towards liberation and development. (1) The principal pedagogic approach is dialogue The challenge to build an egalitarian and humane society is very complex. No individual knows exactly how to do it. And no one has all the answers, but no one is totally ignorant. Each person brings to the dialogue his own perceptions based on his subjective experiences; everyone needs to be both teacher and a learner, and this is best done in groups, in the process of dialogue. For the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, dialogue requires an intense faith in human beings; their power to make and remake, to create and recreate; faith that the vocation to be fully human is the birthright of all people, and not the privilege of the elites. Founded on love, humility and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of mutual trust. Trust is established by dialogue; it cannot exist unless the words of both parties coincide with their actions. Nor can dialogue exist without hope. Hope is rooted in our human incompleteness, from which we move out in constant search which can be carried out only in communion with other people. As long as I fight, then I am moved by hope, and if I fight with hope, then I can wait.
Finally, true dialogue cannot exist unless it involves critical thinking, thinking which sees reality as a process in transformation, thinking which does not separate itself from action but constantly involves itself in the real struggle without fear of the risks involved.
For education to be relevant must focus on issues of importance to the participants now, and not in the vague or distant future. People will act on issues about which they have strong feelings. That is why if we want education to be transformative, we should start by identifying issues which the people in the locality speak about with excitement, hope, fear, anxiety and anger. Reflection and action are components of praxis and that complete the cycle of learning. What is our situation? Who are we? What are our common problems? What are the root causes of these problems - identifying the hindering factors for true liberation and development in society today? What do we need to do to change the situation? Where do we want to go? What choices are open to us? Until there is agreement on the goal, members of the group will not move effectively.
How do we get there? How do we achieve our goal? What procedures do we need?
As the group finds the best ways and means, routes and methods, necessary to get
started, members become more and more involved in initiating, clarifying, summarizing, and testing for consensus. C. Reinventing the teacher as a "sharing and learning facilitator" and of textbooks as channels of learning instead of authoritative "last word" on anything. In the traditional "banking approach" to education, the teacher is considered an authority inside the classroom to transmit information and knowledge to the students or learners. The learners are seen as "empty vessels" needing to be filled with knowledge. The teacher talks, the students listen and absorb passively. On the other hand, in the empowering view, the teacher is a facilitator or animator. The teacher works on the framework that the learners are recognized as thinking, creative persons with capacity for action. The aim of the facilitator is to help the learners - identify the problems, find the rootcauses of these problems, and work out practical ways to change the situation. The teacher as a facilitator main work is to help students to "unveil" their situation. They will remember much better what they have said and discovered for themselves, than what the teacher has told them. Therefore, the teacher-facilitator should not talk much, but should encourage discussion in the group, through asking the right questions. No one has all the answers to the questions, but no one is ever completely ignorant.
The teacher-facilitator needs to summarize when necessary and build on the contributions of the participants, once they have investigated the problem as deeply as they are able, and
learnt all they can from one another.
The teacher-facilitator puts emphasis on learning that is group rather than individual,
analytical and creative rather than mechanical, and "cooperative" rather than competitive. The
concept also inspires it to treat the learning process as a teacher-student partnership and
education as a means towards the realization and advancement of a better or more humane
society. The traditional teacher has been trained by the authorities in the education bureaucracy, of those who are in power, to be mere conveyors or implementors of the prescribed curriculum, textbooks and methodology. The traditional teacher then imbibed the authoritarian attitude of his/her school authorities - to produce docile, submissive and uncritical persons in order to maintain the status quo.
Knowledge learned by the students, and even the value judgement developed on what is
"right and wrong", "good and bad"; the "just from the unjust" are all based from the prescribed
curriculum, textbooks and methodology. The teacher and the learner should realize that education is not neutral. Education could function as an instrument to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the oppressive and exploitative social order and bring about conformity to it.
But education on the other hand could become a practice of freedom, this means both the
teacher and learner deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate
in the transformation of their world. The development of an educational pedagogy that
facilitates that process, inevitably will result to tension and conflict within our society - but
certainly, it will also lead to liberation and development.
Every teacher is always a pupil, and every pupil a teacher. Each person, outside his
professional activity, carries on some form of intellectual activity, that is, he/she is a
'philosopher', an artist, a person of taste, he/she participates in the particular conception of
the world, has a conscious line of moral conduct and therefore contributes to sustain a
conception of the world or to modify it, that is, to bring into being new modes of thought.
(Political Writings of Antonio Gramsci) For education to be effective, the context of the learner should be the foremost consideration. The content and methods of education naturally follows from a clear identification of and identification with the learner. Equally important is the context of the educator. What does he know? What are his capacities and habits? How did he become an educator? What part of his knowledge is relevant to him? How does the learner know what is relevant to him? What can be learned from the learner? What is their common milieu? What is it about this milieu that brings them together at this particular conjuncture? What power relations operate between them?
Their common concern could be "taking careful account of the reading of the world being
made by popular groups and expressed in their discourse, their syntax, their semantics, their
dreams and desires." (Paulo Freire) D. Recognition and enhancement of sources of knowledge and skills and learning outside the school system
Encouragement of non-formal, informal and alternative learning systems, as well as self-
learning, independent, and out-of-school study programmes, particularly, those that respond
to the community needs, and provide adult citizens, the differently abled, the out-of-school
youth and the indegenous peoples. (Article XIV, Section 2(4), 1987
Philippine Constitution) Alternative education defines itself as a process in which the people are able to name the reality that oppress them; analyze this reality; and collectively work for the interest of the whole society, rather than the interest of the individual. As such, alternative education is education for humanization of the people and the system. It is education for liberation. It is a response to the people's quest for a participatory process of acquiring and using knowledge. It seeks to bring to the communities descriptive knowledge and normative processes aimed at making people contribute to the effort for full development of individuals, communities and society. (1) Alternative education proceeds from the understanding that knowledge is the result of people's experiences or practices reflected upon. These experiences range from dealing with the forces and laws of nature, other persons, with the family, community and the broader society. These experiences maybe deformed in its interpretation of the cultural system if the powerful are made deformed in its interpretation of the cultural system if the powerful are made to do the naming of the reality. And with such deformed and distorted view of experiences, knowledge is thus warped and prevents the people's critical intervention into the reality. Therefore it is of primary importance in any educational process that people themselves identify and name reality according to common actual experiences. (2) Alternative education enhances critical thinking and encourages particular and specific phenomena to be viewed in the context of general, broad and historic realities. Alternative education is liberating because it enables people to grasp history from their standpoint, to learn lessons and to be critical of the myths taken as truths; and to rediscover truths on the basis of the people's experiences. (3) Alternative education is opposed to the alienating education of the dominant system because it is irrelevant to the actual experiences of the people. It is problem-solving, because it addresses the day-to-day concerns of the majority of the people. (4) Alternative education must be popular and made accessible to people with minimal money, time and resources. Community-based education considers the whole setting of the people, the area, their economic cycles or schedules - contrasted to the commercialized education in the urban setting owned by private schoolowners. (5) Alternative education must inculcate nationalism as a core value but integrated with internationalist humanism because we opposed bland and chauvinistis nationalism and xenophobia. We should discover and rediscover the rich traditions of the people before they distorted by the colonizers.
(6) And lastly, alternative education should lead to collective action for liberation and
development. Education is not only a process of knowing reality but of changing it. E. Promotion of less-structured education system for children that would encourage and enhance intuition, aesthetic appreciation & creativity, respect for self and others, love for all life, predisposition to team play and basic spirituality.
Learners should be given the opportunity to be educated in a less structured system- to
understand life itself, posing questions to our very own existence.
Learners should enjoy the process. All studies show that fun activities are the most effective
for learning. Lecture per se is not banking method if it is done with the use of the poster, role
playing, demonstrations and humor. Exposure and immersion method is quite effective in knowing and understanding ones historical roots. For example, studying the history, life and culture of the indigenous peoples of the Cordilleras. Living with them, knowing how they build the rice terraces, their beliefs in karma and reincarnation, drink the tapuy, eat and dance with them during the canao - and a lot of things to learn from the Igorots.
Work with them in the fondfields, praying to Kabunian
and the Bulol the rice god, to have bountiful harvest. Interviewing the pangat or the village
chieftain about the bodong (peace pact) with the nearby tribe. This is more effective than the
lectures inside the classroom or researching from the books inside the library. Dividing the class into workshop groups and assigning them to accomplish group project, so that they will appreciate collective work and practice leadership, resourcefulness and creativity. Example is knowing local history of towns and cities.
Then requiring them after
to share with the whole class their findings, analysis and recommendations. This methodology
seeks to prevent individualist and competitive values and instead develop cooperation. A paradigm means a model, a pattern of seeing things. A basis for our beliefs. We all have paradigms that guide us in the way we live and relate with others. How many of us have long harbored deep-seated beliefs in specific ideologies only to be confronted with new realities and unexplained phenomena for which our beliefs held no answers? The dawning of the industrial revolution ushered in the era of modernization, the era of scientific discoveries and inventions. Theories explained and predicted all things-from such paradigms on capitalism, socialism, dependency and political economy that guided human behavior. The Marxist scientific analysis and dialectical historical materialism became the prism that guided many revolutionaries. Everything were seen in plain dichotomies as exploiters and exploited, progressive and reactionary, black or white. Then came the fall of socialist states in Eastern Europe. Why?
And then the rise of Asian tigers, when theories said they couldn't? Postmodernism takes
off where modernism falters. Ephemeriality and fragmentation takes precedence over "eternal truths" and unified politics, explanations have shifted from the realm of material and political-economic groundings towards a consideration of autonomous cultural and political practices. (Harvey) Postmodernism reflects heterogeneous cultural and political practices. It involves fragmentation, indeterminacy, and intense distrust of all universal or totalizing discourses. David Black saw in the era of postmodernism, the emerging struggles of feminist movement, the environmentalists and indigenous causes. It recognizes also - spirituality and ethnicity - the indigenous folklores, rituals, the invocation of the spirits, the power of mysteries as parts of the authentic and legitimate sources of knowledge and growth. That aside from learner-centered approach, the postmodern concept of education is concerned with gender-fair orientation, biodiversity, and multiversity. The vision of education for social change is constantly shaped and reshaped, a tapestry, a crucible, a multi-faceted presence colored by its traditions, experiences and discoveries. Philosophers are beginning to realize that there is such thing as plurality of reason and even plurality of worlds constructed by various rationalities. Thus we can say that societies are not really a universe but a multiverse. This is the reason why in every society, there arises people's movements with competing claims. We cannot so easily say the 'other rationality' as inferior, ineffective or blind. It is rooted in their own participation from life experiences of the people. Through popular education, the people see that there exist other ways of looking at the world, of interpreting reality, which also means that there are other ways of shaping the world. Popular education and critical discourse The challenge for popular educators is to design an educational methodology that will allow for the emergence of a discourse society. The popular educator finds himself in an ideal discourse situation. He finds himself in the community that is a world different from his own. He comes bearing a message, an idea, a lesson that he wants to impart because he believes that the people need to know what he knows in order that the people liberate themselves from the oppression of the dominant rationality. In fact his coming to the people with his message will awaken the people to a kind of thinking that will challenge the oppressive reality that the dominant rationality establishes. The discourse situation of sharing these truths with the grassroots is a potential test situation because the encounter between rationalities will force each advocate of these rationalities to justify their positions to each other. If the discourse situation is true, i.e. if it is open to seeking out the truth from the realms of various rationalities, they may come to deeper understanding of issues involved in the discourse. The popular education situation may also be ideal for critical discourse because the popular educator comes to the people with convictions that may challenge the people's rationality. With the convictions that the popular educator brings to the realm of rationality of the grassroots, the people begin to rethink their own convictions, which they hold to be universal, are actually rooted in a particular rationality. With this realization, they are called to reexamine and justify their own convictions. Perhaps the antidote to this kind of discourse can still be found in taking on the attitudes that set one of the world's greatest educators and philosophers to philosophizing. Humility before the vastness of truth and the openness to discourse set Socrates on his path to enlightenment. He was the wisest of all the Athenians, but he had no answers, only questions. For Socrates did not have the answers. However, he did have the questions to awaken his fellow Athenians to question their most fundamental convictions. And because of humility of Socrates before the truth and his desire to know, awakened and critical thinking. A popular educator must learn this humility, and have the capacity to ask questions that awaken critical thinking. For the people must be critical thinkers, not only with the power to critique the dominant systems of rationality, but that of the alternative rationality being offered them and their own rationality that defines their way of being. This awakening is an empowerment that will help them realize that the convictions born of rationalities need to be subjected to discourse, evaluation and justification. Only in these process can we arrive at truths that can define our collective existence. F. Critique and repudiation of the current data-memorization-based competition driven grades-indicated, teacher-centered and commercialized educational system programs and policies The emphasis should be on learning rather than teaching. The more important question perhaps is not what is taught but perhaps how it is taught. If the process of learning is reflective, then the student will learn to think on his own. It is the teacher's task to guide the learning and the development of the pupil through providing experiences and opportunities for experience through which this kind of development may occur. Give your scholar no verbal lessons, he should be taught by experience alone. Let him know nothing because you have told him, but because he has learn it for himself. Let him not taught science, let him discover it. Does the teacher for example, encourage and model critical and creative thinking, which allows the students to think for themselves and perhaps even surpass the teacher? Critical thinking is governed by criteria, aims at judgment, is self-correcting and is sensitive to context. Creative thinking, on the other hand, is sensitive to criteria, also aims at judgment, is self- transcending and is government by context. Together they make up complex thinking. For Rousseau, the pupil is not to be seen as man-in-the-making but as a child, with childish interests and characteristics. We know nothing of childhood; and with our mistaken notions the further we advance, the further we go astray. The wisest writers devote themselves to what a man ought to know, without asking what a child is capable of learning. They are always looking for the man in the child, without considering what he is before he becomes a man. It must be learner-centered rather than teacher-centered nor subject-centered pedagogy. In the learner-centered approach, we put premium in the diversity and richness of the human species. The mind of the learner is freer, open and pluralistic. It rebuffs fundamentalism or structured way of looking at the nature of humans. Let us repudiate the current data-memorization, competition driven grades-indicated system. A child learns to think even before he goes to school, when he acquires the language.
Unfortunately, whatever thinking skills a child has are sometimes deadened by the classroom
routine. An "educated child" is not necessarily a thinking child. If the child does not learn
higher-order thinking at a certain stage, his ability to process information, to think creatively
and engage in critical problem-solving may remain elementary. Hence the docile, unreflective,
complacent and uncritical young people that the university educators complain about.
(Zosimo Lee, UP Philosophy Professor) Conclusion: The stuggle to establish a more humanizing social order is not an easy task, but rather complicated and difficult. The discourse society is threatened by those who use repression to defend the dominant paradigm. And in the face of such situation, we can only rely on the empowerment of the people, to keep a healthy discourse, to prevent violent confrontations between advocates of conflicting paradigms. Our hope is that the relative truth would emerge after the clashes of ideas backed by lessons from experiences borne out of social praxis. We can only respond with non-violent means to meet violent repressions. If we meet violence with violence - nothing is resolved, and instead more problems are created. The need for self- sacrifice and unity are quite imperative if we want to resolve social conflicts through non-violence. Lessons from the satyagraha movement led by Mohandas Gandhi in India, using civil disobedience and other forms of non-violent means has ended the decades of exploitation and oppression of the British rule. Gandhi has clearly articulated the rationale of satyagraha, when he said that: "An eye for an eye, will only make the whole world blind," and..." the use of brute force bends over the moral force of truth and reason." For the use of violent means by those who want to maintain the dominant and repressive paradigm, in essence, is deeply rooted to insecurities and incapability to meet discourses with reasons.
The extent of people's empowerment hastens the marginalization of those who advocate dominant
and repressive paradigm. Empowerment results to the increasing vigilance of the people in
safeguarding their fundamental human rights. Non-violence is the way of the future. The inherent
goodness of humans, their love for peace, dignity and harmony, in the end shall prevail.
References and Related Literature: Coordinating Committee for Nationalist Education, 1991, "The Nationalist Agenda for Philippine Education", 40 pages, Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines
Doronila, Maria Luisa C., 1989, "Some Research Prospects in Popular Education", pp.29-31, Teachers' Journal, Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines Freire, Paulo, and Faundez, Antonio, 1989, Learning to Question: A Pedagogy of Liberation, 142 pages, The Continuum Publishing Company, 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York, USA Garcia, Robert Francis, 1999, Of Maps and Leapfrogs: Popular Education and Other Disruptions, 126 pages, Popular Education for People Empowerment, Inc., Quezon City Philippines Mercado, Leonardo N., 1988, Applied Filipino Philosophy, 98 pages, Divine Word University Publications, Legaspi City, Philippines People's Action for Cultural Ties, 1987, Primer on Alternative Education, 31 pages, Quezon City Philippines
Rodriguez, Agustin Martin G., 2000, Popular Education in a Plurality of Universes: Grassroots
Education for a Discourse Society pp. 27-34, Popular Education Notebook, Quezon
City, Philippines
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Seeking light as pursuit of reason and not of mere information, as
pursuit of wisdom and not of mere knowledge
