by Jane Robb, Arinola Adefila, José Pablo Prado Córdova
In this series of essays, we use stories from the life experiences of the three international authors to air the pitfalls we come across while sharing knowledge and discuss how this can influence practice in higher education and what this might mean for life outside academia.
Part II: Use of cultural norms
Arinola Adefila, Deputy Director, Staffordshire Centre for Learning and Pedagogic Practice, Staffordshire University. Now based at Buckinghamshire New University.
Knowledge is a very powerful human tool, in many cultures knowing is understood to be continuous and lifelong, associated with a sacred respect for the elderly who have accumulated a treasure trove of knowledge through experience.
Modern education ecosystems seem to have systematically disregarded that notion. One advantage of this seeking of “enlightenment” is the acknowledgement of the innovation of associated with access to the experienced facilitators of learning, who are able to apply knowledge through observation and reasoning. The accelerated development of cyberspace and digital technologies has led to an explosion ground-breaking access to some types of knowledge – facts and evidence-based observation. In parts of the world where digital innovations are accessible, this democratisation of the ways knowledge can be verified and shared through various means of communication has helped humans develop rapidly. To encourage this kind of learning, we utilise reusable learning objects or didactic practices in formal education systems which have become valorised as investments. Benjamin Franklin is attributed the quote “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”, underpinning the swing from learning with age to learning for pay.
Some scholars (Bennett, 2019; Marginson, 2023) argue that an unhealthy fixation on types of knowledge can lead to a form of over-reliance on the knowledge production processes, which precipitates propensity towards rigidity, or parochial and insular systems. Knowledge used to legitimise exclusion and hierarchies is weak and does not enrich or support flourishing and innovation.
Appreciating the kaleidoscope of knowledge production systems and how cultural contexts, forms of power and learning environments refract, fracture and stimulate learning gain is important. This calls for reflexivity and spaces for sharing learning and knowing experiences. An example of a steep learning curve about validation of knowledge and unlearning is presented below.
I grew up in a multicultural country, in the shadow of the relics of colonial contours that continue to shape the sociocultural, economic, and political divisions of over three hundred- and seventy-people groups who speak five hundred and twenty-seven languages. The multicultural state has struggled to integrate into the geographical space of Nigeria psychologically and socially, the precolonial people groups still have no spatial shared experience. In addition, as a result of the shared Nigerian educational ecosystem developed by English colonisation, ‘valid’ knowledge comes to be conveyed, and legitimised by those with access to the English language and by default Eurocentric ways of knowing. Other knowledges are disregarded as lay or simple because they are not articulated in English or supported by Eurocentric epistemologies.
As a person with cultural roots in the southwest, I lived in northern Nigeria most of my childhood. Consequently, I was posted to the southeast for the National Youth Service, a mandatory year long period for University and Polytechnic graduates. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was established in Nigeria in 1973 by the then-Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, to develop common ties among Nigeria youth and promote national unity and integration. The cross-cultural postings were designed to remove prejudices and eliminate ignorance as corps members experience first-hand the many similarities among Nigerians of all ethnic groups. The year-long experience is hoped will develop a sense of corporate existence and common destiny for the people of Nigeria. The Nigerian state also expects youths to acquire the entrepreneurial skills during the posting and develop self-reliance.
As a geography-education student, I had learned a lot about the historical injuries of the past and had lived experience of discrimination and prejudice. However, many young Nigerians who lived in large cities with diverse ethnic groups, like I had, embraced multiculturalism. I had developed a significant sense of navigational capital because I had attended schools and civic organisations that exposed and educated me about the diverse cultures and epistemologies around the country. I soon found both my knowledge and capital were limited when I moved into a small village in southeast Nigeria. My posting was the traditional teaching type, I was posted to a new primary school where most of the young people could not communicate in English. I assumed this was my chance to develop self-reliance and be an innovative teacher.
As I was not culturally or emotionally prepared to teach young people I could not communicate with, I tried to focus on their learning journeys. However, there were so many complexities. The intersectional dimensions included social, cultural, and economic variegations that I did not understand. Over the last two and a half decades, I have reflected on the pedagogies, coaching and decisions I made in the classroom and beyond.
I remember a particular incident I had with a group of students who were constantly late for school and skipped school altogether on market days. I patiently discussed the value of learning with the boys and their mothers. I spoke of continuity and collaborative support and how important schooling was. Nothing in my view was more important than being in the classroom to “learn”, I said. I remember distinctly the blank face of one of the fathers. He tried to ignore me. At first, I thought it was because I had lived in northern Nigeria and the civil unrest and riots in the north had led to deep resentment of northerners in the southeast, many had lost their lives and property. As I turned to leave, he reminded me that the family had to live, and they needed to prepare their child for a world of work. I was in shock, that was exactly what I would do in the school, I silently retorted. It was as if I was saying, “That is my responsibility now, forget about the market days or learning skills of the trade that make you miss class.” I hold the pearls to all wisdom in the tiny classroom with limited resources, no books, and a foreign language.
Now, I wonder why the school day had to begin at 7:30am. It’s incredulous! I do not understand why I insisted on the same punishment for late-coming that Mrs White meted on me as a child. I wonder why we had to use English as a language of communication. I tried to use a little bright child whose family had been forced to flee northern Nigeria during one of the recurring religious/ethnic uprisings as a translator in my first few weeks in the class. We could communicate in pidgin English and the lingua franca of northern Nigeria, so she became the de facto teacher, speaking my words in the local language and gaining the power and control of the class facilitator. Her peers did not appreciate that. I also found that her grasp of the local language was poor, that her translation of “sun” to “moon” in the local dialect was confusing.
It is amazing how we imbibe cultural norms in our practice without much thought. I had learned a lot about the mires of colonial education and adapted my lectures to innovate in the classroom. At the first hurdle, I reproduced the coloniality in slightly different stripes. I was so focused on knowledge development and preparing students for the National exam, I almost entirely forgot about their learning. Learning that provides the tools for navigating the complexity of the modern world and enhancing personal contributions to society (Bennett, 2019).
The experience prepared me for teaching and learning in significant ways. I am now mentally better prepared for the cultural and emotional practice of teaching and learning. I continue to learn from the national service posting.
The central assumptions that knowledges are vested in the minds and principles of knowledgeable others (Smith, 2021) and that they, and only those with power can validate and legitimise knowledges has been used as a political wedge and weapon by humans over many centuries (Kohn, 2013). However, the courage to understand diverse epistemologies, economic needs and social cultural variegation does not detract from our inherent connections, shared humanity, and collective experiences. Indeed, it is the universal bond that draws us to seek understanding and mutual responsibility for improving the world we share. Education is the principal medium for enriching our understanding of the world and our fellow planetary citizens, we should not use it as a tool to exclude perspectives we struggle to understand.
Learning and unlearning are forever activities, the design of our current education systems has focussed on teachers and students fulfilling narrow objectives framed by indicators and metrics of employment and development. This does not allow any space for not-knowing or un-learning and, unnecessarily reinforces the teacher as the holder of objective knowledge i.e. truth. This stifles pedagogic innovation and transformative learning.
Contributors
Arinola Adefila is a professor of Social Policy and EDI. She has an established track record as a leading transdisciplinary researcher who examines transformative learning environments, just transitions and sustainable futures. Arinola is an educational practitioner, who believes lifelong learning should transverse sociocultural learning spaces enabling collaboration, and social action that tackle wicked problems. Prof Adefila’s transdisciplinary research focuses on climate change, conflict resolution and peace partnerships; she works with practitioners, researchers and civic organisations to interrogate pathways which promote socio-cultural cohesion and transformative learning.
Jane Robb has broad-ranging theoretical and practitioner knowledge of formal education and lifelong learning, with experience in public science communication in the UK and Europe, as a qualified teacher of chemistry and geography in the UK and a qualified Forest School leader. Her PhD applied behavioural theory to understand the use of natural resources in Guatemala and her peer-reviewed publications cover science communication, citizen compliance, heritage and natural resources. At the time of writing, Jane was a Lecturer in Outdoor Learning and Biodiversity at Staffordshire University. Now, Jane is developing an independent artistic practice alongside delivering and evaluating local creative health programmes. Her situation as both an academic and a practitioner across the arts and sciences lend her a unique lens through which to view lifelong and transformative educational practices.
José Pablo Prado Córdova is a tenured lecturer on social sciences and rural development at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. Interested in the intersection between ecology and critical theory, just been elected as board member for ActionAid International, and have published on conservation sciences, agrarian history and political ecology. Currently working on two 5-year research projects on agroecology, and social justice for Earth observation science in Guatemala. Member of the Development Studies Association in the UK and U of Edinburgh alumnus.
References
Bennett, D. (2019). Graduate employability and higher education: Past, present and future. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, 5, 31-61.
Marginson, S. (2023). Four elements of higher education as student self-formation. Research handbook on the student experience in higher education (pp. 41-57) Edward Elgar Publishing.
Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies (3rd ed.) Retrieved from https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/decolonizing-methodologies-9781786998125/
Kohn, E. (2013). How forests think (1st ed.) University of California Press. Retrieved from https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520276116/how-forests-think