This discussion is very important to me.

Why is it important? I am in the middle of preparing my doctoral research proposal (Due in less than a week) which will likely be entitled "Sufficiency Economy as a model for international development."

I am working with Christina Jordan to help her develop Opok Farms on this model and am working with the Kenyan members of onet to find an appropriate group there. This will be my research. This is a very Participatory and Sustainable development model.

I need all the discussion I can get here at onet as there are few people here where I live who are language capable enough to have discussions of this material.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Do you think that higher education should be involved in community development?

Linda great discussion well i think that it is vital that higher education be involved in community development its only this way that realistic development that are sustainable can be achieved and also maintained in communities.

Linda "Blessed by Gulu!" Nowakowski said:

Do you think that higher education should be involved in community development?

Great question--on many levels.

I'll first start with talking about public schools in the U.S. (that's my knowledge base) that deal with elementary and secondary education. It's important, I believe, for all U.S. citizens to understand that these schools are government run. As such, these schools partially focus on making good citizens out of the students. The students learn to value the flag, national anthem, and Pledge of Allegiance. Students also are required to take a government class, in which they learn the workings of the American system. Furthermore, all of the textbooks are selected by government officials (as everyone who works for the public school system is, ultimately, a government worker). The texts are known to be slanted toward the "Woo-hoo America" point of view, thus focusing more on Manifest Destiny than the plight of the Native Americans who were forced onto reservations. Should students be priveledged enough to be in the National Honor Society, community service is required as the program wants students to learn how to "give back" or "pay it forward" in order to be "good citizens."

If we look at the burgeoning charter schools, we see the focuses imposed on the students change. Schools run by GM and other car companies (yes, they have schools now!) focus on why technology is good. They also make sure to use their products throughout the learning process. Schools run by National Heritage Academies (www.heritageacademies.com) have the following focus, as quoted from their website:

National Heritage Academies believes great schools develop both a student’s heart and mind. Our moral focus program is designed to support our parents' efforts to teach character at home by reinforcing and modeling universal human virtues, such as compassion, respect and integrity. A different virtue is featured each month of the school year and is supported by curriculum in the classroom. Additionally, teachers model behavior that exemplifies the virtue and recognize and praise students when they do the same. Classrooms are selected to perform a skit at a school-wide assembly that highlights the virtue of the month. The moral focus creates a school environment that is not just physically safe, but also emotionally safe. Students are taught to respect their classmates, make smart decisions and to resolve disputes in a manner that displays strong character.

Charter schools are evermore important to look at than private schools, in my opinion, as they are free to the public and offer low-income parents a new choice besides public education. While the quality of education from school to school is important, also important are these behind-the-scene focuses that the schools have. Community service is just one area that will differ from charter school to charter school.

We then move to higher education, which again has both private and government-run sectors. I, again, have a knowledge base almost completely in the public sector.

Should community service be a part of college learning? More and more schools are saying yes. In fact, many English programs (Eastern Michigan University is one) folds in a community focus as part of their first-year English composition classes. The Honors Program and Phi Theta Kappa, again, both require community service. Many schools also have a commmunity service sector of their co-curricular programs. Students are invited to participate in Habitat for Humanity, along with other community projects.

This stems from a more social-based point of view in the academic sector. When I was in my Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English Ph.D. program at the University of Arizona, one of the required readings was Freire's The Pedogogy of the Oppressed. The book focuses on the relationship between community/society and education. That program, while within the English Department, was heavily saturated in socialist and Marxist literature and perspectives. As such, community service was seen as necessary within post-secondary education.

(I've been saving as I go, FYI, so I don't accidently lose all of this that I'm writing. Sorry if you didn't want such a detailed response, by the way.)

At this point, I've yet to state my point of view, though.

Community development, in my mind, is a part of community service, which is why I focused on the broader issue. In my mind, college is about opening students' minds to new ideas. It's about giving them the tools to lead thoughtful and productive lives of their choosing. And while almost all instructors have some kind of agenda (it's hard not to as we're all human and have our own point of view), I don't think college should be a place where an agenda is the focus of the school itself.

Then again, I take that back. In opening students' minds, I think intrinsic in that is our teaching students how to be accepting of other points of views and willing to acknowledge that there is more than one answer to so many questions. Intrinsic in education itself is the point of view that learning and teaching are both good things and that curiosity and a thirst for knowledge should both be embraced and encouraged. And with all of this comes the fact that we, as humans, need to help each other attain our goals. My job as a teacher is to help my students. Students, when studying together, help each other learn. It's within this helping attain goals that communities and bonds are formed. Community development, then could be said to be necessary in education in that they're developing their own communities on a continuous basis.

You, of course, were speaking of community development of a different sort, though. With that type of community development (and community service in general) in mind, my answer has to be that it belongs in education when it suits the needs of the lessons that need to be learned. In my developmental English classes, adding a community service component of any kind would be detrimental to the class, as the students already have their hands full with learning how to construct a correct sentence. Classes in sociology, though, would most likely benefit from focusing in part on community development.

My main concern is that education doesn't become secondary to the community development.

I hope that all makes sense and is at least in part what you were looking for as a response!

Also, I have to admit that I haven't been on O.net for quite some time. Your PM, though, brought me back as I agree that this is a necessary topic to discuss.

Good luck on your dissertation proposal!

:) Kim

Linda "Blessed by Gulu!" Nowakowski said:

Do you think that higher education should be involved in community development?

Absolutely and it should start in pre-school with at least two meals a day and lots, and lots, and lots of colorful stimulation.

Grade school (Grades K-8) at every level should continue the process of feeding and learning surrounded by lots, and lots, and lots of potent, powerful, and diverse stimulation that is still colorful and human resonant.

High school (Grades 8-14) should be clustered around small group learning that is project-oriented and filled with day-to-day realities of growing as a learning process, designed to make compassionate community members of all humans.

Then all members of the community ought to have equal opportunities to have a free higher education. Instead of teaching community members to be soldiers who destroy community, we need to teach all our community members to build community. Not everyone has to go to college to be a doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief, but nurses, cooks, mechanics, vet techs and cops should all be able to have at least some higher educaiton.

I reckon the meaning of your question was more along the lines of "Ought colleges, universities and other academics be able to help, or even encouraged to, lay out and promote community development."

Again, my answer is, "Yes," but I think academics have to get off their high horses and realize that talking about a problem or a project won't move dirt, and most usually, won't even make the goal clearer, or the project simpler.

Less explanation is more.

Everybody involved in building community needs to stop playing politics and other ego games with community development and all other avenues of joining together as a community. Each person must make a personal commitment to cooperation with the whole and to consensus without dispute, except in matters of transparent conscience.

P'omidyar is a fair example of the sorts of games we need not to be playing with community.

All hierarchical games are neuroses disguised as discourse, leadership, or management.

I have led an organization for more than 14 years with a goal of helping kids living in inner city poverty be starting jobs and careers.

Thus, I've put a lot of time and thinking into what's being discussed in this particular thread.

We're really dealing with a very complex problem, thus I've tried to help create understanding by using maps and charts. You can see some in the Tutor/Mentor Institute section of http://www.tutormentorconnection .org

Why maps? Maps can include layers of information. For instance, they can show where poverty is most concentrated, and they can show where poorly performing schools are most located. They can also show other indicators of need and/or contributors to poverty, such as concentrations of ex-offendors, high crime rates, and low levels of employment opportunities.

Poverty maps can show all of the areas of the world, and can show the relative difference in income level in small geographic areas. This difference is important. Poor people in the US may have more income than poor people in Africa, but the gap between rich and poor is greater in the US, and thus the concentrations of poor in US cities represents a problem.

There's lots of other uses of maps, but one way I use them is to focus a dicussion. If we're talking about helping people in poverty, one of the complexities is that we need to be providing help in many, many locations, all at the same time.

Why charts? People who build tall buildings, or who add an addition to their homes, use blueprints to show what they want done, and to show the various sub contractors on a project how they need to work together, and how one part of the project has to be accomplished before another is srarted.

If we're talking about helping kids in poverty, are we talking of helping them get the skills and networks that assure they will be working in jobs by age 25? If we are, then there will need to be a variety of age appropriate actions by many different sub contractors who each are available at different stages of a youth's development.

If we combine these two ideas, then we're talking about a problem that needs long-term, comprehensive solutions in many places for many years.

How do we create these blueprints? How do we create public understanding and investment in such projects? Howe do se keep them going for many years?

I don't think we can until universities, and the business community, are fully engaged. Of the two, the university is the key asset because it has a constant source of renewable energy coming on campus every year - it's students.

The question then is, how do we engage universities. Here's a link to an article writen by Dr. Richard Cherwitz of the University of Texas: http://insidehighered.com/views/ 2005/03/09/cherwitz1

If we can find ways to engage universities in every community, we have a way to create a distributed leadership and a student service corps that could provide brain power to developing blueprints for complex problem solving, and manpower to implement those blueprints in many places.

You can read an article I wrote about this at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/ 2007/03/out-of-box-thinking-need ed-to-improve.html

Linda, if you run into any other students looking for PhD projects, I'd like to find a few to work with me on this project.

The Integrated Studies program that I am studying in had been under the direction of the Faculty of Liberal Arts. It was not developed for this purpose and it had been faltering. During this past year the program was moved to the Faculty of Management Science and the Dean got busy promoting it. Agreements have been made and signed where some of the Master's and Doctoral research will be over seen on site by non-academic community leaders who have acted as the source of wisdom for these communities for a long time. Many of the research projects are dealing with projects where the community has defined a problem they are facing or need help on and they have selected and are, as a community, funding the person who is doing the research work.

These are the Research Proposal Topics developed by 13 of the 19 new graduate students in the Integrated Studies Program here.

• A study of the communal consumption system at Rajathani Asoke: Its organization, motivation and maintenance
• Buddhists and politics: A case study of Santi Asoke's political involvement
• A case study of Sisa Asoke’s model school for individual and community development
• Sufficiency Economy as a model for international development.
• Development of social responsibility in waste management at Duay Hua Jai Garbology Institute: A case study
• The impact of diet and stress management on the aging process: A case study
• The development of sustainable community health promotion models in Ubonrajathani, Amnatcharoen, Yasothorn and Mukdahan provinces: A case study
• Human resource development for a self-sufficient community.
• A study to develop a model of “Entrepreneurial Society” in Ubonrajathani province
• An implementation of a grassroots development model to eliminate poverty in southern Isaan
• The Asoke “Meritism” training program to reduce farmers’ debts: A case study for the purpose of program improvement
• Implementation of Integrated Logistics Support for the Royal Thai Navy
• Sufficiency Economy as practiced by the Ubon Ratchathani farming community

Clearly, not all of the programs are focused on community or regional development but most are. One of the things that has been interesting to me, coming from the US where the religion, values and ethics are kept as far away from education as possible (at least officially) is that as we discussed these proposals, almost all of them are driven by precisely that. (Which brings me to the topic of the 3rd conference that I will be on a planning committee for which is the First International World Moral Forum in Feb. This is being designed to balance the World Social Forum and the World Economic Forum. More as it develops.)

The other thing that I find particularly inspiring (mind-boggling) is that all of this is being driven by an economist in the business school?

Kind of off-topic but then again not, The 3rd international conference on Gross National Happiness "Towards Global Transformation. World Views Make A Difference" will be held 22-28 November 2007 in Thailand. Other conferences I will be attending are 1) "Happiness and Public Policy", 18-19 July 2007 Bangkok, Thailand 2) "Economics with a Buddhist Face", 1st Conference of the Buddhist Economics Research Platform, August 23-24, 2007 in Budapest, Hungary.

This is an exciting place to be right now. How my life has changed in the last 17 months and this community is in no small part responsible. Thanks from the bottom of my heart.

As I develop my research proposal, this whole concept of participatory, sustainable development is central and now, since that meeting, I have been thinking about how I might be able to engage my undergraduate students.

One thought that is in my mind is applying to UNESCO and the Thai Ministry of Education for financial support that would enable me to take 5 students to Uganda March, April and May next year to assist me with my research and to assist in the set up of Opok Farms. This idea works on so may levels that I am overwhelmed - well almost! It can provide these students with an English strengthening term. It can expose them to different culture. And I don't mean this to sound cruel, but it can give them a reality check on how fortunate they are. These kids are not wealthy except in an African perspective. All of the feedback that they get is from the west and it makes them think that they are on the bottom and encourages them into a consumerist mentality that is destructive to their culture and ...well...I am sure you can guess all the things I think about this. I thought that as part of the criteria to be eligible for this trip, they should spend their term break living in one of the sufficiency economy communities here in the province and then they will be able to go with some knowledge about maybe how to compost, recycle, etc.

Ok...the count-down is on...120 hours til I have to submit the proposal....

This is a list of the universities in Uganda:

• Makerere University Kampala (MUK)
• Mbarara University of Science and Technology
• Ndejje Christian University
• Bishop Tucker Theological University
• Nkozi University
• Bugema Seventh Day Adventist University
• Mbale Islamic University
• Nkumba University
• Kampala International University (KIU)
• Namasagali University
• Busoga University
• Kyambogo University
• Makerere University Business School (MUBS)

How cool would it be to find a Faculty of Agriculture what would like to work with us? Christina said that the people in Gulu are heavily and actively Catholic. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to work with their spiritual leaders to provide then the incredible social, mental and spiritual support that they will need as they begin this new journey?

Hello Linda this is indeed great idea and hope that your plans fall in place and you produce a workable document that works and the good thing about is that you cross cutting the cultural boundaries. I think that in your earlier question where you asked that should higher education really count. I will say yes and no because if i could take the case for Kenya today we know that those who drop out of school after primary level dont have employment and this goes th same to thos efro secondary and Evenn University. Right now the govt has to grapple with the problem of youth who are 85%unemployed and at the same time 90% of this lack skill necessary to spur them into doing something productive. They have thus realized that at whatever level of education one is there is need for that technical training to prepare one for the job market or the entreprise development of an individual to improve their economic status. More later thats my take on it now and hoping that your list will also incoporate a few Kenyan members especialyy from Maseno University and Egerton too.

Be careful with involving students. The amount of paperwork and red tape involved in that is pretty hefty.

:) Kim

I just sent this PM to David F., but I think it applies here, too:

You might enjoy checking out the following discussion:

http://www.omidyar.net/group/iss ues-education/news/43/?e=newcomm ent&page=1#comment0

While it's under one of the education groups, it's very much about enviromentalism and community service.

:)

Writing that reminded me of one way our community (TCC) helps its students: It has a "give a book/take a book" program in which people donate books that are put on a shelf in the student activities/dining area. Those who want to read a book can take whatever they'd like, without having to give it back. As many of TCC's students can barely afford gas, this is one nice way to help them read outside the classroom.

Thanks a lot Linda for the invitation.

I feel before we progress we need first be able to define "higher education". From what point does education start to be higher and what characterises the lower level? I understand that one of the millenium development goals is free basic education for all children and judging from that universal convention one can theretofore urgue that any educational progress attained above the basic is higher education, hence very essential.

Different countries have different education systems tailored to serve their particular needs. Governments have continued to offer educational grants on bilateral fronts where these bilateral concessions are aimed primarily at fostering development in one way or another. Looking at East Africa for instance, I have seen a considerable shift where people have started investing in self-education en mass.This trend has led to spawning of multitude of learning institutions particularly for higher education, most wacky. In a way "higher" education has even become a scarce resource, not even a means to an end.

Economic dynamics of our age dictate that every society must improve on its technology/ies to succeed in wealth creation and this can only be achieved through improving the existing as well as gaining new skills and knowledge. Education of whatever sort is the only recourse.

Do you think that higher education should be involved in community development? Wow what academic and brainy conversations going around this topic. My hat off to you for initiating it. My answer to the above question: yes and no. First what is the defination of higher education in third world countries? I see a multiple level of education depending on desire, inclination, goals, and abilties. Some need only a little education to achieve their goals and others need extensive education to achieve theirs. Some are capable of higher education others are not. But there should be options and availabiltiy that is the key. In an agricultural society you might look at the Amish blueprint for education and agricultural productivity. Good luck Linda.

Thanks Richard and Susan,

Since both of you addressed "What is higher education?"

I think that the UN has defined higher education as tertiary education. I think what they are driving at is getting colleges and universities to work with the communities to solve the development problems that the communities are defining. It certainly seems to me that it has to have a better chance than the top down/corporate model that has been used for the last 60 years.

Richard said:

Economic dynamics of our age dictate that every society must improve on its technology/ies to succeed in wealth creation and this can only be achieved through improving the existing as well as gaining new skills and knowledge. Education of whatever sort is the only recourse.

I feel like I have laid a trap and caught you in it Richard, though I do want to say that it was not intentional.

Part of the idea behind Buddhist Economics is to take a couple of steps backwards and redefine "utility/welfare".

Western economics has not always looked at "welfare" as something that can be defined by consumption. At the time of Aristotle, in his writings on economics, utility had a bit broader definition. It included physicial, mental, spiritual and moral aspects. I think that if you look i nany major religion/spiritual philosophy you will find that the ideal of a good life is not based on consummerism but rather on a balanced, sufficient, moral and spiritual life. Western - oops... I don't want to get caught generalizing too much so let's say American - life has worked pretty diligently at separating those aspects of our lives. Greed has replaced moderation.

Someone on some thread here on onet at one point said that the people in their country were so poor and ignorant that they didn't even know they were poor. I read that and literally flipped the switch on my computer to get away...didn't shut it down properly because I might have lost my temper and canceled and gone back and said things that were hurtful.

If people don't think they are poor, then they are not poor. In my mind, they are richer than most of the people I know because they have their priorities right (in all likelihood).

The word wealth derives from the Old English word weal meaning wellness. Wellness cannot be measured in money. I know that money helps you get there...I KNOW THAT! But I want to see people get well rather than wealthy.

Development does require education. It doesn't always require school. Development has to be balanced - body, mind, spirit and morals. Corporations by their very definition are at best amoral if not immoral and they are dragging people along with them all for the mighty $.

This ties in with the last conference I am working on: The World Moral Forum. Let me share some copy on that with you.

A basic question of whether and how and to what degree education should be involved in the public sphere, let alone economic development. For me it isnt a question - it must be. The second two questions are where we work things out.

Have you been in contact with anyone involved in the community development society or involved in the community informatics movement?

Appalachia as a Global Region: Toward Critical Regionalism and Civic Professionalism H Reid, B Taylor - Journal of Appalachian Studies, 2002

I found this pretty inspiring.

Betsy's email is etaylor@uky.edu. They are allies working at a theoretical level on sustainable just development sensitive to an understanding of culture and the environment.

Another article by her: http://www.ipg.vt.edu/TempPapers /taylor.pdf

Linda, I'm sorry I've been busy and haven't been able to contribute to this conversation. I hope you don't mind , slightly off-topic, I just discovered from this link that Riane Eisler has a new book, "The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics." I'm sure you're really busy, so you may want to delay clicking on the links at The Agonist post, but I'm sure you'll find it interesting when you do.

My general prejudice is, of course higher education should be involved in community development. The details are a bit tricky.

Have you encountered status issues about your education background? Has anyone told you, "You can't say that yet--meaning until you've gotten your Ph.D.? Status is a real issue with higher education. I've been very impressed by the amount of practicum experiences required at Busoga University for a B.S. in Social Work. But I"m also mindful of the balancing act the university must follow in relation to the government.

I'm not quite nailing the source of my discomfort. It's got something to do with academics defending their prerogatives and independence.

I encouraged a student who completed her coursework and is awaiting graduation from Busoga University to create a blog as a way to expand her network. A professor somehow found the blog--I suppose by Googling her name-- and demanded that she take it down.

So while I can see a whole range of very engaging learning activities for students at Ugandan Universities, I also sense there will be resistance. I believe the way to proceed may be by involving faculty with their peers.

[Edited by group owner: Linda "Blessed by Gulu!" Nowakowski on 10 May 2007 21:49 PDT: Fixed the link]

Thanks Linda for your wonderful insights.

According to Marx religion or any of spiritual phillosophies is basically "opium of the masses", and therefore completely out of any question directed towards economic wellbeing. Marx also argues that economic base determines the entire superstructure thereby implying that it is not religion, spiritual phillosophies nor any other cultural element that determine "wellness"or the lack of it but rather the vise versa.

Looking at Maslow, "wellness" is attainable at the peak experiences level. This is probably when society has achieved most value which in the realistic new world order is only measurable by money or capital and the reason for which we can hardly succeed in glancing afar from comsumerism or much worse materialism. This level of economic development also gives credit to Aristotle's famous contention that "everything above life is politics" as long as individuals and societies continue to plunging into politics after accumulating wealth or achieving relative "wellness".

Linda said:

Development does require education. It doesn't always require school. Development has to be balanced - body, mind, spirit and morals.

I totally agree with this Linda.There is even a greater necessity for education in development in the globalisation era. For societies to interact "profitably" on international scale there is a great need to harmonise/universalise specofic cultural aspects, which could be achieved through education.

"Corporations by their very definition are at best amoral if not immoral and they are dragging people along with them all for the mighty $."

If my recollection serves me right it was president Rutherford Hayes who collected Abrahim Lincoln's most celebrated definition of Democracy by affirming that it is "...government of corporations by corporations for corporations...". President Calvin Coolidge declared that America's only business is "big business". Indeed none would have any problem with such definitions or declarations, but what do you think would happen when somebody like Theodore Roosevelt gives a fitting advise to officials abroad to "coo like a dove and carry a big stick"!?

Almost two years ago Micheal Maranda elsewhere affirmed his inclinitions towards "...learning by doing.", and I thought what effective way of learning. However, on reflecting on implications thereof, for instance; time, space, and diversity, I thought it a less efficient way of learning.

One need diverse knowledge and skills to fit in diverse trades and environments. This is efficiently achieved in the lecture hall or classroom.

Linda, I've been in meetings for a few days and getting ready to head out of town for 5 days. I've got this on my watch list and will revist...promise.

Ooh Ooh (she is waving her hand before allowing others to speak!)

I got half way down and just had to interject - eek Linda, I hope you've not yet submitted your proposal (if you posted it above i didn't read it yet) - we have an opportunity with the Opok Farms project to completely design a new school system! webbed... solar power computers...

Linda, your students could come next spring/summer to help design/set up the school.

The scenario of a post-war village populated with child-headed households begs for some serious innovation in delivering education at all levels. The target population of kids will have ALL experienced severe disruptions in their education at one point or another, if not for most of their lives. But they are still very open to learning and if they get a chance to go back to school typically just pick up where they left off. Some of the youth are too old and/or have too many responsibilities to go back, yet they don't have the skills base to be able to meet their responsibilities. An integrated and community sustaining approach to vocational, language, practical numeracy and life skills training - while at the same time contributing productive inputs to community development is pretty much the direction I'd like to think in. Linda does this speak to you at all?

btw- on your list of universities above you missed Gulu University, which has been open for about 2-3 years now.

Where are you Linda? I have come back to you. This time, with a few issues:

Firstly, I wish to understand rational self-interest. Does it exist? Where and what is it in society?

Secondly, I am keen on coming into terms with the extent to which the Americans have succeeded in the redefinition of "utility".

And thirdly, could one be right to argue that it is on the principle of utility that the said Americans have found the moral courage to usurp moral authority to (I will cite two cases though examples are legion): (a) assail Iraq with an aim to "liberalizing" oil markets and keeping oil prices within reach? and (b)dethrone Saddam's regime and execute him in a bid to "democratizing" the Iraqi society?

Does there exist any moral ground for defence of any actions that hurt even the most "evil" in our society?

I hope the moral forum will address issues of this nature.

Looking back at the times when education sector had not gained full liberalisation in Kenya, the then government introduced an education system that envisioned sustainable development, where more practical subjects like Agriculture, art and craft, electricity, Power and mechanics, music, etc were taught both at primary and secondary levels. I guess the government, which had many issues with "development partners" and other key international lenders like the Brettonwood instns, esp on the account of its unwillingness to inch for implementation of certain prescribed policies e.g SAPs and its poor human rights record, had foreseen its incapacity to fend for the growing needs of its rapidly growing population. I must say that the education system yielded positive results since, though the government was not any worse than Mugabe's, managed to conduct its affairs with relative peace without International Aid. This education systems is currently under gradual reforms.

I think higher education is not really necessary in community development, but this depends on the level of literacy that a given community has attained so far.