Adult education programmes of NGOs operating in Non-Western contexts: a review of empirical literature

ABSTRACT

Adult education is a key component of worldwide collaborative efforts to achieve social justice aims, such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Such collaborative efforts require the involvement of all sectors, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In particular, given the prevalence of globalising and neoliberal influences on development, NGOs providing adult education programmes must navigate complex political and financial hurdles in addition to cultural differences. To evolve our understanding of the role NGOs and their efforts play in international development education, this systematic literature review investigates adult education programmes of NGOs operating in Non-Western contexts. Findings indicate programmes require stakeholder commitment to social justice, concerted efforts to adapt to social and economic contexts, and intentional cultivation of local and international partnerships. While findings align with a general understanding of effective practices within different cultural contexts, this synthesis of empirical work provides a foundation for deeper understanding of how to implement such culturally relevant practices and improve the path forward for NGO adult education programmes and partnerships.     

试析我国非政府组织的中国特色与成因

非政府组织（NGO）是一个介于政府体系和市场体系之外的庞大的社会组织体系,又称为第三体系或第三部门。与西方发达国家的非政府组织相比,我国的非政府组织具有自身鲜明的特色——政治参与的非政治化,党在非政府组织发展中的特殊地位,与政府以支持和配合为主的关系等。存在这种差异的主要原因在于中西非政府组织产生与发展的路径、担负的历史任务不同。对这些问题的阐释将使人们对我国非政府组织的基本情况有一个更为明确的认识。     

The rise and attenuation of the basic education programme (BEP) in Botswana: A global–local dialectic approach

Using a global–local dialectic approach, this paper traces the rise of the basic education programme in the 1980s and 1990s in Botswana and its subsequent attenuation in the 2000s. Amongst the local forces that led to the rise of BEP were Botswana's political project of nation-building; the country's dire human resources situation in the decades following Independence in 1966; and its propitious economic climate in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Global forces included the global circulation of the World Bank's educational discourse on the primacy of primary education as a public ‘investment’ option and Botswana's desire to be a member of the influential transnational social structure. BEP's attenuation can similarly be traced back to both local and global forces. Local forces included the growth of youth unemployment, and a sluggish economy. Global forces included the globalization of neo-liberalism which called for cost-sharing/recovery measures, and, ironically, Botswana's ‘promotion’ to a ‘middle income status’ country. While conceptually the attenuation represents a case of policy reversal and in some ways a sense of ‘loss’, empirically, the attenuation has not been of material consequence to access to ‘basic’ education. This is attributed to the ambiguous position (best captured by the term ‘doublethink’) the Botswana government¹ has adopted in relation to the issue of school fees.     

Widening equity and retaining efficiency: Considerations from the IBSA southern coalface

Access to higher education is a key challenge of the 21st century state. The link between higher education and personal and socio-economic development has intensified the need for ensuring that greater numbers of citizens have expanded access to and have been provided with quality higher education. The article seeks to explore how initiatives for increased access to higher education are experienced in India, Brazil and South Africa. As signatories to the IBSA declaration in the spirit of South–South cooperation, the three countries have publicly declared their commitment to enhance equity by, for example, widening access to higher education. We review the way in which the three countries have implemented key equity initiatives and draw lessons from their practice. Notions of ‘effectiveness’ and ‘efficiency’ are used to understand the extent to which each of the individual systems is responsive to the equity agenda. We find that while there have been notable attempts to implement the equity agenda in the quest for making their systems more ‘socially effective’. This is countervailed by a more pervasive ‘efficiency’ doctrine, underpinned by a market-driven economic paradigm. It is concluded that the innovative practices in each of the countries suggest important strides in the equity agenda but also that much still remains to be done. While the article represents a starting point for the much-vaunted South-South collaboration, tentative findings suggest that a more deliberately articulated policy framework characterized by greater inclusion of those previously excluded is necessary in each of the countries if significant and sustainable development is to be achieved.     

Vocational Education and Training for women and youth in Palestine: Poverty reduction and gender equality under occupation

This article explores the possibilities and limitations of attempts to improve economic and human development of marginalised groups Women and Youth, within the overall political and economic context of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt). This is carried through the particular cases of two successful models of Vocational Education and Training (VET) provided by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), both of which come from explicitly Christian traditions of thinking about social justice and the role of a holistic approach to VET placing human well-being at its heart. The article draws on human development approaches, from a rights based approach and a capability approach. This article draws attention to the challenges related to the overall economic and political context, and its limitations at overcoming marginalisation, reducing poverty and enhancing wellbeing. It illustrates the effect of the human development approach on expanding the effects of VET within such context, increasing labour force participation rates, employment and income generation of youth and women. It highlights the programmes’ efforts to enable marginalised youth to develop their capabilities in order to achieve their choices, illustrating that VET and the efforts of NGOs provide an important mechanism to respond to the overall challenge. Finally, the article draws attention to gender-related challenges and suggests employment-enabling policies.     

Discursively complex identities of New Zealand teachers of writing in times of contestation and change

Changes in political, social and educational curriculum policies over the past four decades have created discursive shifts in writing theory and practice for New Zealand primary teachers. While these policies have historically privileged a particular view of writing over others, very little is known as to how teachers engage with experienced discourses of writing.Three broad conceptual metaphors, taking a ‘writer’, ‘text’ and ‘social’ perspective, frame the writing theories and practices and provide a context for the development of heuristic markers used to analyse the teachers’ interviews. Discourse analysis revealed teachers’ complex identities and knowledge or lack of, available writing discourses.     

NGOs,Pluralism and Advisory Services—Timor Leste

Abstract

Purpose: This article analyses the role, approach, issues and opportunities faced by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the promotion of agriculture in Timor Leste from independence through to the countrywide roll out of a public extension service in 2009.

Design/methodology/approach: The research draws on semi-structured interviews with NGO personnel, local, national and international, actively involved in agricultural development to ascertain how organisations engage with communities, their objectives, inputs, coverage and impacts. The analysis is based on the framework developed by Birner et al. (2009) for pluralistic advisory services, and the discussion is framed by contemporary NGO discourse.

Findings:This article argues that NGOs have a central role in agricultural development, with particular advantages that can be built upon, however there must be explicit acknowledgement of the complex nature of the NGO and civil society, and a critical awareness of the need for strategic thinking, communication and coordination for effective aid.

Practical implication: NGOs play a central role in agricultural development. There is a need for a more nuanced understanding of the opportunities and limitations of the NGO sector, both as service providers but also more broadly as part of civil society.

Originality/value: Funding directed to the NGO sector for implementation of development projects is prolific. There is substantial discourse on partnerships between NGOs and other actors. However, little of the debate appears within discussions on agricultural service provision.     

Assessment for learning in the accountability era: Empirical evidence from Scotland

In many European languages, the words ‘assessment’ and ‘evaluation’ are synonymous, but in English the two terms are used differently. Educational ‘assessment’ is learner-focused and part of professional pedagogy, relating directly to the accountability of practitioners and schools to learners and their families. Educational ‘evaluation’ is understood to be a parallel and linked process, relating to the quality of national policy and of provision and practice in establishments, part of accountability to the wider public. In Scotland, assessment policy has been focused on aligning ‘assessment for learning’ and ‘assessment for accountability’ for nearly a decade and policy guidance has been based on the principle that formative and summative uses of information can apply as well to system evaluation as to school-based assessment. Self-evaluation has been increasingly emphasized, promoting better understanding of the role of continuous review in supporting and improving education. In theory, the two processes of assessment and evaluation should align without difficulty as ‘intelligent accountability’ and together should act as a powerful driver for improved educational outcomes. However, achieving alignment in practice, which requires good professional relationships and mutual trust in different communities of practice, as well as shared understanding and expectations, has proven to be very hard to achieve. This article will show the progress that has been made with alignment; indicate where there have been difficulties and why; and suggest that several important factors need to be acknowledged if alignment is to be achieved.     

Negotiating meanings of gender justice: Critical reflections on dialogs and debates in a non-governmental organization (NGO)

In this paper, we reflect upon how dialogs and debates in a non-governmental organization (NGO) – CARE India in the context of a girls’ education project shaped staff members’ understandings of gender justice. As CARE India staff shared their experiences in the field, in the organization, and in domestic spaces during gender training sessions and other forums, their different politics in these spaces shaped how they translated global discourses of gender justice to produce fluid, contested, and contextual understandings. While these dialogs included the voices of diverse social actors in identifying the capabilities needed for gender justice in education, they were often reframed by local NGO actors.     

“I don’t talk or I decide not to talk? Is it my culture?”—International students’ experiences of tutorial participation

Active participation in university tutorials seems to be commonly argued as one of the learning difficulties of non-English-speaking background (NESB) Asian students enrolled in Western English-speaking universities. These students are often portrayed as being passive in class and this is commonly attributed to their background culture. Using Australia as a setting, this paper challenges these misconceptions through the lens of the contextual approach or ‘small culture’ approach. It is argued that NESB international Asian students’ participation in Australian university tutorials is influenced by the classroom context in which they learn rather than by their cultures. This paper also provides a framework for teachers, who are the most important and powerful member in the ‘context’, to critically reflect on their pedagogical practices.     

Values, virtues and professional development in education and teaching

This paper addresses conceptual issues concerning values in teaching and the professional education of teachers. Proceeding from rejection of a common (empiricist) account of values as subjective tastes, the paper distinguishes three common (more and less restrictive) concepts or senses of value, here referred to under the labels ‘principled preference’, ‘principled commitment’ and ‘principled disposition’. The paper proceeds to argue that, in light of certain distinctive features of teaching as a profession, the key values of teaching should be regarded as ‘principled dispositions’ (or, in another term, virtues). It is further argued that such professional teacher values are best appreciated under the three aspects of ‘intellectual virtues’, ‘procedural virtues’ and ‘moral virtues’ and the paper concludes with a brief exploration of the implications of this analysis for professional teacher education.     

A framework for revitalisation of rural education and training systems in sub-Saharan Africa: Strengthening the human resource base for food security and sustainable livelihoods

Recent studies of the current state of rural education and training (RET) systems in sub-Saharan Africa have assessed their ability to provide for the learning needs essential for more knowledgeable and productive small-scale rural households. These are most necessary if the endemic causes of rural poverty (poor nutrition, lack of sustainable livelihoods, etc.) are to be overcome. A brief historical background and analysis of the major current constraints to improvement in the sector are discussed. Paramount among those factors leading to its present ‘malaise’ is the lack of a whole-systems perspective and the absence of any coherent policy framework in most countries. There is evidence of some recent innovations, both in the public sector and through the work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations (CSOs) and other private bodies. These provide hope of a new sense of direction that could lead towards meaningful ‘revitalisation’ of the sector. A suggested framework offers 10 key steps which, it is argued, could largely be achieved with modest internal resources and very little external support, provided that the necessary leadership and managerial capacities are in place.     

God's antipodean teaching force: An historical exposition on Catholic teaching religious in Australia

From the 1850s to the 1970s the teaching force in Catholic schools in Australia was dominated by priests, female religious and brothers. This paper details the scope of existing research on these teachers, the demands of their religious vocation, their own education, the atmosphere which they established in the schools, leadership opportunities, and the ‘darker side’ of their way of life. Such expositions can promote reflection on the possibility that teaching can be influenced by discourses of ‘vocation’ and ‘the giving of service’, every bit as much as it can be by ‘industrial’ and ‘labour’ perspectives.     

Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) – The case for Recognition of Prior Learning sites and knowledges in South Africa's transforming education system

By definition and purpose, education is the development of human capital towards meeting the individual and social needs of learners and their societies. This transdisciplinary collaboration parallels the underpinning principle of Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1990) to South Africa's post-colonial legitimation of alternative sites and enskilment canons. Central to both is legitimation of knowledge acquisition from communities of practice or sites and ‘knowers’ (Mphahlele, 1992) ‘outside formal institutions’ of teaching/learning. Considered and termed ‘informal’ and by deduction, less legitimate for meritorious enskilment, the 62 and 65 decrees a transformative paradigm and method of validating these sites and their skills production. SAQA highlights the fact that the pedagogical approach of such sites is context- and learner-centred with demonstrable socially valuable skills. This post-colonial mandate thus centres the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as an acknowledgement of multiple foci of skills production, decreeing their overdue certification, as in our case study of the Van Wyk situation. The approach confronts and deconstructs the colonial marginalisation of human capital from outside ‘formal’/official institutions. It is part of the ideological framework of redressing the race and class exclusion mechanisms of artisans and others from the landscape of skills possession. It subscribes therefore to the canon of different ‘ways of knowing’ (Mosala, 1998). Van Wyk's narrative exemplify the merits of ‘outside-institutions’ learning and enskilment to various levels of complexity. The objective of such legitimation is that certification provides credibility and legitimacy, thereby widening the marketability of apprentices' skills. The social recognition and accorded certification thereof carries uncontested confirmation of expertise.     

Refuge from crisis: refugee women build political capital

For women who have escaped political crises, NGOs can provide a healing space. This study explores nonformal and informal educational processes that occur in NGOs founded and staffed by refugee women who have resettled in the United States. Interviews and documents demonstrate that the refugee women gain knowledge and skills through participation in the NGO, find their voices through the supportive environment of the NGO and networking with others, and take opportunities to make social change. The results of this research indicate that women gain political capital through NGO participation and that increased support of NGOs can therefore result in increased democratisation.     

Educational expansion in Ghana: Economic assumptions and expectations

The neo-classical ‘human capital theory’ continues to be invoked as part of the rationale for educational expansion in the developing world. While the theory provides a route from educational inputs to economic outputs in terms of increased incomes and standards of living, the route is contingent and relies upon a number of key assumptions. This study examines these assumptions alongside student expectations of their educations in the context of Ghana using data collected from a survey conducted at higher education institution and from the Ghana Statistical Service's ongoing living standards surveys. Data indicate that students have high economic expectations but that trends in wages and employment are leading to ‘wage compression’ which may ultimately make expectations difficult to fulfill. The relatively low private costs of education, particularly higher education, may mean, however, that educational investment remains very much a ‘rational’ choice in economic terms. However, the study finds that key assumptions of successful human capital investment went largely unsatisfied in Ghana.     

Educational and indigenous justice in Africa

This article examines the way in which some of the most discriminated against, disadvantaged and marginalised groups on the African continent, are re-defining education through strategies aimed at recognition of rights and social justice. It uses Fraser's analysis of social justice – distribution, recognition and participation – to examine the demands of the indigenous movement in Africa for rights to education. Over the past 10 years the concept of ‘indigenous’ has become embedded in African regional resolutions and reports while communities self-identifying as indigenous have been shaping new political and educational spaces for their participation and decision making about their development and their education. Taking the example of the East African pastoralists and the Maasai of Ngorongoro District in Tanzania, it looks at indigenous communities’ initiatives to define and achieve a qualitative education which is relevant and meaningful for their lives today. It concludes with a discussion of the potential for the indigenous movement in Africa to ‘reframe’ education for the benefit of not only indigenous communities but for all learners.     

Selling ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’ ‘Thought and Politics’ and the legitimisation of China's developmental strategy

This article examines China's senior high ‘Thought and Politics’ (sixiang zhengzhi) texts, analyzing how these seek to legitimize the regime's developmental strategy. It is argued that their overriding emphasis on the strengthening of the state is premised upon the imperative of securing China's position within global order conceived in Darwinian terms. While the school curriculum cannot be seen simply as an instrument with which the party-state shapes and moulds popular consciousness at will, it is assumed here that it does play a significant role in the political socialisation of young people. ‘Thought and Politics’ serves as a benchmark of ideological correctness within what remains a highly centralised system of curriculum development. The article begins by briefly analyzing the shifts and continuities in China's developmental strategy, and of the roles assigned to education within that strategy. The importance traditionally attached to schooling's moralizing function is noted, as is the relatively elitist character of the audience for the ‘Thought and Politics’ course – senior high school students. After considering how and why a discourse of state-centred patriotism has become central to the Communist Party's efforts to legitimise its authority, the implications of the ‘Patriotic Education Campaign’ for the broader school curriculum are reviewed. The main discussion then focuses on the way in which the current texts for ‘Thought and Politics’ justify the national developmental strategy in terms derived from this patriotic discourse. Some potential implications of this combination of patriotic political socialisation with a highly labour-repressive developmental model, setting the case of China in comparative and historical context.     

What can teachers do to raise pupil achievement?

Improving weak teaching may be one of the most effective means of raising pupil achievement. However, teachers’ classroom practices and the teaching ‘process’ may matter more to student learning than teachers’ observed résumé characteristics (such as certification and experience). There may also be important differences in teacher characteristics across government and private schools which may help explain the large documented public-private achievement differences often found in studies. This paper delves into the black-box representing ‘teaching’ to uncover the teacher characteristics and teaching practices that matter most to pupil achievement. This is done using unique school-based data, collected in 2002-2003 from government and private schools from one district in Punjab province in Pakistan. The data allow exploitation of an identification strategy that permits the matching of students’ test scores in language and mathematics to the characteristics of teachers that teach those subjects. Within pupil (across subject rather than across time) variation is used to examine whether the characteristics of different subject teachers are related to a students’ mark across subjects. The data are also unique in asking all subject teachers questions pertaining to their teaching practices and these, often unobserved, ‘process’ variables are included in achievement function estimates. Our pupil fixed-effects findings reveal that the standard résumé characteristics of teachers do not significantly matter to pupil achievement. Perversely, however, teachers are found to be rewarded with higher pay for possessing these characteristics, highlighting the highly inefficient nature of teacher pay schedules. Our findings also show that teaching ‘process’ variables matter significantly to student achievement. There are important differences across school-types.     

Gender discourses in an NGO education project: Openings for transformation toward gender equality in Bangladesh

This article seeks to illustrate how various actors participating in a non-governmental organization (NGO) education project in two Bangladeshi communities represent different framings of gender. Teachers, as critical actors in this education project, utilize multiple discourses of gender equality and when viewed in relation to community members’, parents’ and students’ ideas of gender equality, we argue their discursive practices can create spaces for transformation. The use of multiple discourses suggests that specific local adaptations of women in development (WID), gender and development (GAD), post-structural and rights and capabilities approaches may all be useful in the work toward gender justice as these approaches inform the different meanings of gender equality in the communities. We conclude that NGOs play a critical role in making micro-level changes in schools as well as have a broader impact on communities and national agendas by engaging different actors’ uses of gender equality discourses.