Literacy is not an end in itself, but rather a means for participants to shape reality, accomplishing their own goals.Pat Campbell1
Literacy and learning occurs within complex communities and is interconnected with the social, economic, historical and cultural conditions of those communities. Adult learners come to literacy programs as proficient language users with a wealth of experiences, interests, ideas and concerns. They are not empty vessels to be illed.2
The concept of participatory education is a complex one – a concept that requires an open mind, reading, time, experience and soul-searching on the part of a facilitator. We offer here just a few introductory ideas about the participatory approach to adult learning. If you are interested in learning more, check the reading list at the end of this section.
Participatory education recognizes and honours the rich lives, skills, knowledge and experiences of adult learners. Instead of focusing on their deficits – on the skills and knowledge they lack, it encourages learners to become partners in creating a learning environment that is meaningful and useful to them. A participatory approach supports learners in taking small, gradual steps towards taking control of their learning and making positive changes within a safe environment. When learners are able to take control within their learning community, it gives them the opportunity to progress towards taking control and making changes in the broader communities in which they live. A participatory approach challenges facilitators and learners not to accept traditional power relationships and to share responsibility for learning environments and outcomes. This is not an easy process; it is one that involves gradual steps toward change. It involves a commitment to question the status quo – unjust situations that have, until now, been accepted by societies as unchangeable.
There is no curriculum in a participatory program; content is based on learners’ interests and experiences. This manual, Unipkausivut, is not a curriculum. Rather, it is a collection of resources that can be used to guide oral history and literacy projects. The intent of the literacy program may be to ‘study oral history’. But the very nature of listening to life stories of survival, hardship and triumph within one’s own culture will cause learners to reflect on their own important issues – issues such as personal and cultural identity, values, families and life paths. Learners will become engaged in seeing the connections between their own lives and the cultural, historical and social issues that are raised as they explore oral histories. So the content and progress of every literacy and oral history project will be unique – driven by the collective and individual interests and needs of the group.
Pat Campbell, a writer and researcher involved in the literacy field for many years writes about participatory education: