'Community is an elusive concept to define because of its subjective use in everyday life.
Nevertheless, it is commonly understood as group interaction among individuals who
experience a sense of identity through belonging (Ife and Tesoriero 2006: 97).
Community also incorporates obligations that imply active participation (Ife and
Tesoriero 2006: 97).'
'Lack of trust and confidence in personal experience has been linked to the growth of
institutions and reliance on specialist expertise. Ivan Illich for example, linked the trend
to undermining individual self-confidence in solving problems with the rise of
institutions such as schools and medical processes (Illich, 1976, & Smith 2006:21). In a
similar vein, Ife and Tesoriero have recently noted that reliance on the expertise of
strangers works against individual decision-making and erodes personal power and
agency (2006: 18).'
Foregrounding the importance of context and place to informal learning opens up the
possibility to talk about the pedagogies of place and place based learning. Gruenewald
asserts that place is profoundly pedagogical (Gruenewald 2006: 4). David Gruenewald
explains that:
“place-based education” or “community-based education” can be viewed as
umbrella terms for many traditions concerned with learners experiencing,
learning from, and contributing to local, community, and regional contexts.
Developing a coherent way of naming the traditions we are committed to is an
act of intellectual and strategic resistance; to me, it is nothing less than a
struggle for life in a schooling environment that is squeezing the life out of
learning. Articulating and demonstrating the merits – in a coordinated effort –
and policy makers that there are other ways of accountability. These other
ways of teaching and learning can help to engage and motivate learners in ways
that a standardized curriculum fails to do ( see eg. Melaville, et al, 2006).
Title: People, place and purpose : informal learning in community.
Personal Author: de Carteret P
Author Affiliation: Monash University
Added Corporate Author: Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE). Conference (2007 : Fremantle)
Source: In 'AARE 2007 International education research conference : Fremantle : papers collection' : [Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, 26-29 November 2007] compiled by P L Jeffrey. Melbourne : Australian Association for Research in Education, 2008
Source Title: AARE 2007 International education research conference : Fremantle : papers collection
reference list
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). "Foundations of Place: A multidisciplinary framework for
place-conscious education." American Educational Researcher 40(3): 619-637.
Gruenewald, D. A. (2006). Why Place Matters: the everyday context everywhere of
experience, culture and education. AERA, US.
Ife, J. and F. Tesoriero (2006). Community Development: community-based alternatives
in an age of globalisation. Frenchs Forest, Pearson Education Australia.
Illich, Ivan. (1977). Medical Nemesis: the expropriation of health, New Yoirk, Random
Press.
Smith, M. E. (2006). Beyond the Curriculum. Learning in Places: the informal education
reader. Z. Bekerman, N. C. Burbules and D. Silberman-Keller. New York, Peter
Lang Publishing.
Now this article was interested in exploring informal learning. It was particularly focused on the relevance of people and place in creating like minded groups that form sub communities. For example enrolling in a dance class. I was interested in this article because I felt as though connections could be made to online communities. In particular I was interested in the aspect of trust and confidence in personal experience. An advantage of Web 2.0 is the removal of immediate access to an expert forcing onto a participant self directed learning and active participation in problem solving.
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