We have discussed education systems in Tanzania and broader East Africa extensively here on Vijana FM. One common trend in discussions has been about accounting for education outside the classroom. That is, how can we account for practical learning that is taking place external to formal schools and jobs?
One way to do this would be to look at methods of learning outside formal schools and jobs, and finding ways to make those methods formal. Another way to do this would be to look at formal academia itself, and find ways to extend its reach into informal, unaccounted-for methods of learning.
Both of these methods of preserving learning external to formal schools and jobs surely need to be treated in specific regional contexts. The nature of learning in East Africa is an altogether different culture from West Africa, or Europe for example. Therefore, while the methods of preserving practical learning in informal situations could potentially be applied in multiple contexts, the extent of each method would need to be adjusted to suit a specific context.
Considering this, what is the potential of an open framework for academic work in East Africa? I was brainstorming what this open framework could look like, and here is what I suggest it contains:
- An easily searchable database of academic works either by East African authors or about East Africa.
- A description of each academic work including: (a) abstract, (b) citation information, and (c) contact information.
- Open submission protocol for public, which should include moderation.
This could be a potential project that we are looking into, so your feedback would be appreciated! Some food for thought:
- Do open systems of recording knowledge have use in East Africa?
- What kind of papers would be deemed appropriate for academia?
- Do existing research databases such as JSTOR and Brill Online account for informal learning?
- In what ways do existing universities work with informal industries?
- What are the other ways in which we can account for learning outside the classroom?
- Is it fair to make available anyone’s complete work online for open use, or do abstracts provide an appropriate amount of information?
I think the reason why most current institutions are fairly tight is because of the fear plagarism. You need to ensure that the author’s intellectual property is safe, so providing just the abstract seems to suffice. But how will you ensure that someone who is interested in a paper will be able to first contact the author, and second recieve the paper? What protocols would dictate this?
A great deal of knowledge that is created in any society is recorded and stored in forms that are sometimes universal across societies or distinct to an individual society. To that end, I agree with the heads-up on paying attention to contexts such as geographical/cultural (as mentioned in the article).
Therefore, whether formalizing the informal learning or expanding the reach of formal to include the informal, one is faced with a serious cryptographic problem. In both situations, there will be an underlying need to understand the “new” or “alien” entity, in our case, the informal learning. I say this because the methods mentioned above are both from the viewpoint of the “formal.” In other words, the “formal” is the host of the party and the “informal” is being hosted. As a tangent (a valid one to consider), what about making the formal learning informal or expanding the realm of informal to also include the formal?
Anyway, back to our problem of deciphering the crypt, that is informal learning/knowledge. In this problem, the key is context (also mentioned in the above post). Context reveals the meaning of things which would otherwise not make sense. In our case, context should be the interface between formal and informal. Without it we run the risk of dismissing a lot of informal work simply because we misunderstand it, therefore defeating the whole purpose of trying to preserve informal learning. We are especially at this risk, given the two methods outlined above, which are both formal-centric.
Let me try to demonstrate this. There is a wealth of medicinal knowledge in the different tribes in our countries and there are usually a few waganga in a tribe who are well versed in them. It will be very easy for instance, to dismiss knowledge of a plant that has been used as a malaria remedy for ages on end in a tribe simply because the mganga said that we have to go and pick this plant at midnight while naked, covered in fresh ashes and walking backwards toward the plant in question. The “absurdity” of process/method of extracting the plant overshadows the more interesting and powerful punch line; that the plant has been curing malaria for ages on end. Even the seemingly absurd method itself potentially holds very important information on how early civilizations created theory; how they tried to make sense of the world and universe (This example is entirely hypothetical, but there are many real ones just like this one).
Will this “formal-centric” open system for storing knowledge be open to informal learning in its entirety? What I mean is will it be able to stomach the seeming absurdities (in the lens of formal learning) that come with this wealth of informal learning?
@SL – Good question: A “formal-centric” system of sharing knowledge is not likely to be perfectly open to informal learning, because as you discuss, it is likely to be biased in terms of what the “formal-centric” view considers as learning methods.
A system of sharing knowledge effectively would therefore need to be adaptable in different contexts.
Let’s take Vijana FM as an example: The primary method by which we record and share what we know is the use of digital technology. That is, people can read, watch, or listen to stuff that is hosted on this website. While some of this stuff may be deemed as “knowledge”, it is still distributed in a way that is not completely accessible to those that would claim to know and indeed be willing to engage with this stuff.
But what if the “stuff” could be disseminated in multiple ways to suit a diversity of learning methods? Say through the local radio station or school? Would this create wide-reaching potential for such a system of sharing knowledge?
@AK – Solid take and direction on laying out the whole system (recording and disseminating). I completely agree with the points you raise on the use of media (especially popular media).
I should also add that most of the informal learning experiences are “recorded/stored” in forms that hide in plain sight. Take for instance language or any product of informal learning. Looking at vocabulary, phrases and even idioms of different languages at different points in time can tell you a lot about what is happening. Even better, if you take a product that results from informal learning experiences, you can potentially decrypt the methods/process by which it came about and in this way knowledge was stored in the product.
When I say “push the envelope” on dissemination I am talking about using things like products of these informal learning experiences as the media for disseminating knowledge. People use them anyways so it is actually more of a matter of making people aware of the knowledge embodied in these products than anything else.