Recruiting in the margins - Dialogic learning and democratic participation

written by Jesús Gómez

Information Society: from Social Dualisation to Information Society for all

We are living in the Information Society, a society of globalisation and communication marked by the revolution of new technologies. Today we are living the transition towards a second phase of the Information Society, which we call "the Information Society for all". In the Information Society knowledge and information are the main sources of productivity; consequently to know how to select and process information (intellectual resources) have became key to participate not only in the economic sphere, but also in the social and political spheres (Ayuste et al. 1994). Education has acquired an important role for social promotion, and therefore education has become a factor of social inclusion/exclusion.

The emphasis in intellectual resources has created new opportunities for democratization. However, the entrance to the first phase of the Information Society was characterized by an increase of social inequalities. The unequal distribution of educational resources produced a social dualisation (Flecha, 1999/1994). We, the people who had access to higher educational levels of schooling had greater opportunities to access the labor market and to participate in other spheres of the social life than those who had initial levels or no of schooling.

Nevertheless, as a consequence of the continuous educational level required to face the constant changes of society, adult education gained importance and during the nineties experienced a strong explosion. Some authors have called this new society: lifelong learning society, remarking the need of extending the learning process along our life span. Lifelong learning is now a policy at international bodies such as OECD, UNESCO, European parliament, and national governments. However, during the first phase of Information Society adult education programs were addressed to people with higher educational levels.

Today we are entering a second phase of the Information Society "the Information Society for all". This new trend aims to reach those who are in the margins, providing a quality education that allows their social inclusion. In this step forward democracy, the struggles of social movements have been essential, as well as the compromise of intellectuals building theory about these democratic trends.

Moreover, in this second phase society is turning dialogic. Dialogue is becoming central in our everyday life from our participation in the public sphere to our relations in the private domain.

As part of this growing dialogic tendency, the field of adult education is also witnessing a growing demand for democratization, from participants and also from educators. This movement claims for extending the education to non-traditional students, and claims for an active role of adult learners in the whole education process by stressing the egalitarian intersubjective dialogue. Adult education experiences based on egalitarian dialogue, show us the positive influence of democratic management and dialogic learning in accelerating the learning and fostering participation. In CREA, we have theorized dialogic learning on the basis of these adult education democratic practices. I will expand on this later on. Dialogic learning grounds the learning process in the community, reaching people who have traditionally been excluded from educational supply, and providing at the same time the tools for their participation in current Information Society.

 

Participation and non-participation in Adult ducation in Spain

There are some non-scientific researches that had blame excluded population of their lack of participation in adult education programs. They conclude that many people do not participate because they are not motivated for education and culture. These analysis reinforce a supply oriented to people who already participate. These researches started from deficit theories that emphasized the lack of participation in relation to the dominant culture. They base on the existence of two different levels of culture: the superior culture (academic culture) and inferior culture (popular culture). These theories have created stereotypes on a sector of people, barring their participation in adult education.

In opposition, from CREA we based our researches in social and educational critical science, stressing the importance of focusing on people´s competences to foster their learning process. We have created the concept of Cultural Intelligence to define the skills and competences everybody have. All people are capable of learning academic knowledge and skills through communicative, practical and academic abilities. Communicative abilities allow to transfer the knowledge we develop in a wide variety of contexts of our life to the academic context and vice versa.

CREA, from its origins in 1991 has developed researches aiming to contribute to overcome the social exclusion that suffer some sectors by providing a quality education for all.

Already in the mid 90´s CREA took part of an international research for the UNESCO about Participation and Non-participation in Adult Education. I´m going to present some important results we had from this project, since it gave us key elements to focus our work, as the need of a dialogic approach in education to reach those adults traditionally excluded from the educational process.

This research combined a quantitative and qualitative methodology, allowing us not only to get statistics on Spanish adult population who participate or do not participate in adult education, but also to deepen in the reflections, motivations and interpretations of these adults about participation.

First, I´m going to pointed out some statistics from the survey conducted in 1995.

- Participation rate: One out of six adults participated in a course in 1995. One out of two adults participated in a course since he/she ended regular studies.

- Participants´ educational level: the level of schooling is closely linked to people´s participation in adult education, a higher participation is concentrated in people who have higher level of schooling: 41% of people with university studies participate in adult education, meanwhile 21% of those who have completed secondary education level, 13% of those who have completed basic education, and 6% of people who have not completed the basic education.

- Participants´ age: there is a higher number of participants among younger people, and the participation decreases from 45 on. 24% participated among those who are from 16 to 25 years old, the 26% among those who are from 26 to 45, meanwhile only the 8% of those who are from 46 to 65, and 5% of those who are over 65 years old.

- Gender: the percentage of participation among women and men was similar, there was the 18% of participation among men, and 15% of participation among women. The difference among both groups was the kind of courses in which they participated, men participated in those courses connected to higher social positions.

- Motivations to participate: self accomplishment (39%) and improvement concerning job promotion (38%) were the main motivations to participate in adult education programs.

- Dissemination of information: 24% of participants were informed of the courses through their job, 21% through mass media and 17% by word of mouth (from family and friends). People with little or no schooling are more like to get the information of the programs by word of mouth (22% and only 13% of people who have university studies).

Meanwhile, among those who did not participate in adult education courses: 52% did not receive any information. People with higher educational levels received more information on courses. 58% of people who did not participate did not know any organization or center that provided courses.

Second, in the qualitative study we focused on people reflections, theories and interpretations of both participants and non-participants in adult education. I´m going to structure the results of the qualitative data in excluding factors and transformative factors. By excluding factors we refer to those that exclude adults from participation in education processes. By transformative factors we refer to those factors that foster people´s participation in adult education programs.

Factors that exclude people from participation in adult education

- Classification of culture in different levels: the superior level and inferior level. It deters the participation of those labeled as inferior. Due to being labeled, those people get a negative self-image. When they come to participate in courses, they miss value their contributions.

- Attribution of lack of motivation: another excluding factor is based on the assumptions that those "inferior levels" participate less because they are not motivated. This discourse justify that governmental and non-governmental agencies focus on sectors with higher educational levels of schooling, what contributes to close the circle of cultural inequality.

- Blaming non-participants of their lack of participation. Such blame justifies the focus on participants and the social exclusion of non-participants and builds barriers to non-participants.

- Deficit theories: another barrier to foster participation is the assumption that people who did not completed basic education do not have capacity to learn academic knowledge or to study.

- Hierarchical organization of education: when the educational offer is organized from top-down does not help to participation of people with few or no schooling, they do not take into account their needs and interests.

Factors that promote participation.

- Programs designed according to people´s needs and interests and motivations: many traditional non-participants reject the dominant offer of AE. The participation programs can not be an extension of the current supply. Instead, the participation should come from developing new offers based on culture, motivations, needs and interests.

- Programs oriented to cultural communication: there are no superior nor inferior cultures, there are just different cultures. AE´s programs must not be oriented to assimilating the hegemonic culture, they must be oriented to cultural communication among social groups.

- Programs based on people´s competences: when we base AE on competency instead of on deficits, we motivate participation.

- Programs integrated in community social networks: when adult education is integrated into a global community project dissemination of information about AE easily reaches traditionally excluded population. Channels of information are more effective through social networks.

- Community participation in organizing the educational project: the educational project should be organized depending on the community, in order to get a high level of participation, as well as strong involvement of the participants in social actions for the community in developing the project.

 

Reaching the margins. One example of a dialogic school for adults

La Verneda- Sant Martí is a school for adults that opens its doors to the community, becoming a learning community. It is organized by democratic principles and is based on the dialogic learning. This innovative and transformative model of adult education is recognized at the international level.

La Verneda Sant-Martí school for adults was created in 1978 in a context of big debates and important social, political and economic changes. The neighbors, who were mainly from the working class, decided to occupy an empty center to create a cultural project. Among neighbors´ claims was to build childcare center, a library, and a school for adults.

The participation in this adult school has increased considerably, since from its beginning it has been a community project. Nowadays it have more than 1600 participants, and more than 100 educators and community volunteers who work in a close collaboration to create new opportunities of learning, improve the school and the community. Activities supply goes from basic education to courses to prepare for the access exam to enter the university, computer skills or cultural activities according to participants´ needs and interests.

In this school the equality and solidarity are more than simple concepts, they are being carried out through a democratic organisation. The success of this adult school is thanks to the high involvement of participants, educators and members of the community in the decision-making bodies, cooperating to build the school they dream.

Dialogic organisation management

The democratic principles are the basis to organize the center, promoting the active engagement of participants, professors, volunteers and community members in decision-making processes on the basis of an egalitarian dialogue. Adult participants, no matter the schooling level they have achieved, have acquired through their life an important practical experience that often have not been valued by society. The organization and management of the school is democratic and involves the collaboration of educators and participants. There are two participants associations, Agora and Heura, who are present in all this process.

All the people involved in the school activities have the same opportunities to participate in decision-making bodies. There are four bodies of decision-making:

- Assembly

- School council

- Monthly coordination meeting (COME)

- Weekly coordination meeting (COSE)

The school assembly meets once a year and can be exceptionally called should any urgent matter require it. It works through deliberative democracy, since any person who attends it can present issues for collective discussion and solution. The school council meets every month and a half and constitutes a forum for the discussion how the management of human, material and economic resources is being carried out. In the monthly coordination meeting, both participants and educators coordinate the school´s activities, inform those present about those topics they deem relevant, and engage in collective reflection on different issues, ranging from education in general to specific philosophy that must guide the way the school run. For more specific, everyday management issues, there is a weekly meeting of those who work there on day after day basis, which is also open to participants.

Traditionally non-participants get actively involve do not only because their needs and interest are take into account but also because they have voice in democratic decision-making bodies to organize the center.

Dialogic learning

La Verneda Sant-Martí school for adults is based on the dialogic learning. Dialogic learning tears down barriers to participation by taking into account all people´s competences. It achieves to maximize the learning process, and a mutual learning among participants and professors. It is impressive to see how adults who started in La Verneda-Sant Martí in literacy classes are today at the university finishing their degrees.

The dialogic learning takes places in the class but also in all other spheres of the center when dialoguing about how to improve the school.

There are seven principles that serve to define the dialogic learning:

- The egalitarian dialogue: is established when the different contributions are considered according to the validity of arguments instead of the power position of people who make the contributions on the basis of a hegemonic academic knowledge. It is only possible when educators do not impose their opinion or point of view to the students, but open a space free for discussing, agreeing or disagreeing. A mutual learning is achieved by looking for good arguments to support their contributions. All participants and educator learn from others. At the same time, participants increase their self-esteem and their participation, since their knowledge and arguments are considered and valued by the whole group.

- The cultural intelligence: is a broad concept that includes the practical and academic intelligences as well as other language and action skills. The communicative abilities allow all people to transfer abilities and knowledge from one practice context to an academic context and vice versa.
Traditionally, the academic sectors of society have imposed their knowledge as the hegemonic one, meanwhile have not valued popular knowledge and considered non-academic people´s communicative skills as deficient, as a way to take distance from them.
These people are as capable as any university professor of learning the academic skills thanks to communicative abilities we all have. The differences between them lie on the contexts of development that affect people´s opportunities to develop their intelligence.
For example, Gypsies who did not have the opportunity to access education know a lot about mathematics; they have acquired this knowledge when traveling from market to market, where they work everyday, through communicative skills. Moreover, by using their communicative skills it is possible to transfer this practical knowledge into the academic field, and to learn new mathematic operations.

- Transformation: Dialogic learning reinforces the power of human agency to transform personal relations and social structures towards more democratic ones as result of inter-subjective interactions. By dialoguing is possible to go deeper into reflections and search for possibilities to improve personal and social life. In this sense, the dialogic learning goes outside the school walls, transforming the public and private spheres. As Paulo Freire said: "We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation".
It tears down the reproductive discourses of traditional modernity that justify the no-action on basis that education contributes to reproduce the social inequalities. Otherwise, it defenses a equal access to a quality education in order to overcome social inequalities.

- The Instrumental dimensionof learning is strengthen in the dialogic learning. Dialogue does not only consist of talking and discussing, but in thinking on reasons to argument contributions and also coming to productive conclusions and agreements. Furthermore, dialogic learning maximize the learning process of all kind of knowledge to be based on people´s capacities. Dialogic learning involves the acquisition of all instrumental knowledge as well as the necessary skills for the new informational society, as it is to select and process information, providing with the necessary tools for their social inclusion.
It is impressive to see the computer lab, where women who have never before used a computer and who are learning to read and write, learn to search on the net, in cooperation to other participants and the volunteer who is in the lab.

- Meaning creation.In dialogic learning new collective and personal meanings are created thanks to the intersubjective and egalitarian dialogue. People find new meanings on their lives to achieve new goals as well as to get involve in process of social transformation. In this sense, many adults find new reasons to continue studying, promoting the democratization of education or acting in the improvement of their neighborhood.
New meaning creation emerges when participants take a real protagonist in dialogue spaces, (re)building their personal and social identity, and fostering them as social actors.

- Solidarity is the only basis on which dialogic learning practices can be built up. Through dialogic learning, people co-ordinate their actions motivated by freedom, equality, democracy values rather than power. Thanks to solidarity is possible to coordinate participants, educators and community members in a close collaboration aiming to give greater opportunities to voice those who have traditionally been excluded by questions of educational level, gender, age, ethnicity or social class.

- Equality of differencesmeans the equal respect of different cultures and styles of life. In current society multiculturalism has increased due to the migration movements and the world-wide connection thanks to new technologies. In dialogic learning intercultural dialogue allows a mutual enrichment thanks to an equal respect of the different identities.
It refuses educational approach that on the basis of equality try to homogenize difference on the basis of the dominant culture. As well it refuses those other current educational approach that stress the emphasis of diversity, forgetting the claim for equality. Since they are racist educational approaches, based in the adaptation to the privilege culture or in the creation of ghettos.
Dialogic learning is based on equality of differences, equality to foster the equal right of everyone to education, differences to foster the respect to all cultures.

Participants' movement

In Spain, the same dialogic principles that increase participation are being adopted by the adult education. Adult participants´ movement has a strong influence in the adult education within the Spanish state. Participants in adult education have organized themselves across Spain to claim the right to education and the need for a democratic and transformative model in adult education on the basis of participants´ needs, interests and capacities. They are setting the basis of adult education for the 21^st Century, and adult education that includes all people.

CONFAPEA is the Spanish Confederation of Adult education Participants´ Associations. They are promoting dialogic learning and to democratic education at the state level. One main outcome of their work is the participants´ Bill of Rights defined through a process of consensus among participants of all the state. They claim, as it is possible to read in the preamble:

"Education, an inalienable right of adults, must serve as an instrument for emancipation, which will allow us to overcome social inequalities and power relations. Education depends on the recognition and the dialogue between different cultures and lifestyles that coexist in a given community. "

In this Bill of Rights participants voice their claims on how adult education has to be organized, making clear they must have to have an active role in the design of the whole educational process by participating in decision-making bodies.

The importance of the Bill of Rights needs to be pointed. In 1997 a representation of participants form Spain - presented the declaration of rights in Hamburg in the 5^th International Conference on Adult Education of UNESCO. A year later the European Union gave a grant to extend the Participants´ Bill of rights at the European level through the same process of consensus among participants they have done in Spain. It was given a Distinction Award by the Socrates Commission of the European Union, as "Best Dissemination Project between 1995 and 1999."

Participants in adult education have promoted the creation of the Democratic Adult Education movement (EDA), that have emerged recently in the Spanish state. The democratic Adult Education includes CONFAPEA, the Educators´ Network for Democratic Adult Participation (REDA) and the Spanish network of researches and scholars in adult education (Grupo 90). The democratic organisation is the basis to extend education to those who have been traditionally excluded, raise their voices without any kind of distinction by question of educational level, gender, age, ethnicity, etc. Participants in DAE movement work in co-operation to educators and academics in designing the education they want to for themselves and for the whole community. By opening a process of dialogue, DAE is an example of the dialogic tendency of our society.

In the first TRI-Conference, that took place in the year 2000, researches, professors, practitioners and participants we discussed for the first time together in a national conference the future of Adult Education. Participation and reaching all adults was one of the main issues discussed. We agreed that democratic adult education is one that participants are the main characters, that they do not need to have their voices supplanted by ours, but we need to work together. Today, from the dialogic orientations and philosophy of the EDA movement there are more participants´ associations and more school for adults like Verneda that are expanding their horizons and reaching the margins.