prospecte

quarterly review of education

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Contents Vol. XII, No . 4> 1982

VlEW?01NTS/CONTROVERSI{

H o w important is learning mathematics? Douglas A. Quadling

The computer at school Gilbert R. Austin and Sarah A. Lutterodt^feá¿l T^-\\N<S

OPEN FILE

Learning and working

Reflections on education and work Andri Isaksson 441

The education of transition Stephen Castles, Patrick van Rensburg and Pete Richer 449

Education and work in Bulgaria Dimitar Tzvetkov 459

Co-operative production and technical education in the Basque Country Carlos Órnelas 467

Education and productive work in Guinea Amara Fofana 477

Education and productive work: the B u n u m b u approach Sam J. Lebby and Jack Lutz 485

A n Indian experiment in learning while earning R. P. Singh 495

Jamaica's work-experience programme Zellynne D . Jennings-Wray and Veronica Elaine Teape 499

TRENDS AND CASES

Bringing the press into the school: a Brazilian experience Dymas Joseph 513

Reviews

Profiles: Maria Montessori 523

Book reviews 531

Books received 539

Index 1982 542

ISSN 0033-1538

VIEWPOINTS

CONTROVERSIES

H o w important is learning mathematics?

' V ^ - ^ ^ X Douglas A . Quadling /'<?/ \£\

IK eo ¿°V'J It is a remarkable fact that, in almost every country, nmo^maiiesv]$$"/ occupies a central place in the school curriculum. \f^tfr de ^

At the level of primary school, there is general agreement~âTx>ut what mathematics should be taught—though there are differences of approach and timing, which is hardly surprising when one considers the diversity of cultures around the world. But w h e n w e turn to secondary schools, w e note a remarkable variety in the content of the courses. Despite the alleged universality of mathematics, it is pos­sible to find countries in which the secondary mathematics curricula have almost nothing in c o m m o n . A n d this must make us ask: 'Is mathematics really as important as is claimed?'

W h e n this question is discussed, there is often m u c h confusion about the sense in which the word 'mathematics' is used. So perhaps w e should begin by attempting to clarify our thoughts about this.

Survival mathematics

It m a y be helpful to distinguish three categories of mathematics. First, there is survival mathematics: that is, the mathematics that w e need in order to go about our daily business and make good use of our leisure time. S o m e people refer to this as 'the basics' or 'the core curriculum'; but this seems to imply that these needs are the same for everybody, which is clearly not true. City dwellers use different mathematics from those w h o live in a village; a lawyer's mathematical needs are different from those of a housewife (though neither would admit to 'using mathematics' in their work); if your hobby is pho­tography, you want different mathematics from a person w h o plays football. Survival mathematics is a reflection of our personal life-style.

Douglas A . Quadling ( United Kingdom). Mathematics tutor at the Cambridge Institute of Education. He is a former chairman of the Mathematics Committee of the Schools Council for the Curriculum and Examinations, and was President of the Mathematical Association for the year 1980-81.

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

412 Douglas A. Quadling

A n d yet it has certain c o m m o n features for all of us. First, w e almost always have to use it in a situation that requires an immediate response: paying a bus fare, deciding where a tree is going to fall, estimating the date for the completion of a contract, getting each dish in the oven at the right time, choosing the right camera exposure, positioning oneself to intercept an attack by the opposing forwards. Second, it is rarely carried out with paper and pencil (or even with a pocket calculator). Third, one is hardly aware that one is using mathematics at all. A n d this means that survival mathematics has little to do with formal mathematical instruction. T h e very process of taking a problem out of a textbook in a lesson called mathematics, and writing the answer in an exercise book in one's o w n time, makes it largely an irrelevance as far as survival mathematics is concerned.

This does not m e a n that mathematics teachers cannot help children to acquire the mathematics they need. But it is an illusion to suppose that this can be left to mathematics teachers alone. Other teachers, parents, elder brothers and sisters all have a part to play. In this sense, every teacher must expect to be a teacher of mathematics. For the most part, survival mathematics comes like most other survival skills—such as crossing the road, reading a m a p or telling the time—by experiment, using the experience of any older person w h o happens to be on hand to help.

Mathematics for use

Next, m u c h of the mathematics in the school curriculum is math­ematics for use. This extends from quite simple skills, such as decimal arithmetic, up to advanced topics such as the use of differential calculus to find m a x i m u m and m i n i m u m values. It describes all the mathematics that some people need in order to do their work success­fully, over and above what w e have already described as survival mathematics.

T h e difficulty with most of the mathematics in this category is that it is job-specific; only a minority of people will ever use any particular piece of mathematics. For example, engineers and navi­gators obviously need to k n o w some trigonometry, a subject that is of no use whatsoever for pharmacists and bank employees. Econ­omists need to understand statistics, but not electricians. A n d , of course, few children at school can be sure what work they will do in later life.

This presents us with a curricular problem: should w e try to teach every mathematical topic that might be needed later by some m e m b e r

H o w important is learning mathematics?

of the class? Since amongst thirty or forty children w e m a y find a wide variety of career possibilities, this would be a sure recipe for an overloaded curriculum. O r should w e restrict ourselves to some general topics—such as proportion, the properties of some c o m m o n geometrical figures, and substitution in formulae—with which m a n y of the pupils will need an acquaintance? If w e adopt this latter course, w e m a y find ourselves left with rather a small mathematics cur­riculum—especially since, as some recent research carried out in England has shown,1 most employees use m u c h less mathematics in their jobs than is commonly believed. A n d a corollary of this policy would be the need to incorporate more mathematics into subsequent specialized vocational training than w e do at present.

O f course, mathematics is also an essential tool for the scientist, and this has often been used to justify the inclusion of particular mathematical topics in the curriculum. Certainly it is desirable to have an interdisciplinary perspective in designing any mathematics curriculum. But this is an argument which can easily be carried too far. T h e usual assumption is that pupils should first learn the math­ematics, and then apply it in the science lesson. However, if this means that they are expected to learn it in an abstract form, divorced from the context which could give it meaning for the pupils and before they have the requisite conceptual background, they m a y well fail to master it; and the failure in mathematics can lead to frustration in the science lesson as well. M u c h science teaching in schools is too dependent on mathematical skills; for m a n y pupils these can get in the way of learning the science.

W e also need to recognize that mathematics for use is something which changes with time. A n obvious example is calculation with logarithms, which until quite recently was an essential accomplish­ment for anyone w h o had to carry out complicated calculations. Nowadays , when every person w h o has the need to do such cal­culations is likely to have access to a pocket calculator, this skill has become almost obsolete.

Mathematicians' mathematics

There are some w h o would claim that so far there has been nothing in this article about mathematics. 'Real' mathematics, they would argue, is about definitions, proof and abstract structures. Most curricula contain something of this kind of mathematics: for example prime numbers, geometrical theorems, sets. W e might call it mathematicians' mathematics.

414 Douglas A. Quadling

It would be wrong to imagine that a hard line should be drawn between this and the mathematics referred to previously. These is certainly a place for logical reasoning in teaching mathematics from a utilitarian point of view; for m u c h of the power of mathematics lies in the connection between facts, so that a little remembered knowledge can produce a large amount of derived knowledge. If mathematics is worth its place in the curriculum, it should certainly be learnt in such a way as to bring out these relations.

There are also other aspects of mathematicians' mathematics. Think of the pleasure which m a n y people get from solving math­ematical puzzles and playing games with a mathematical structure; or the sense of personal achievement which can result from inves­tigating number patterns (for example, that the answers to the sums i+2+i, 1 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 1 , 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 , etc., are respectively 4, 9, 16, etc., the successive square numbers), with their possibilities for making conjectures about the way in which the pattern continues, and even of trying to explain w h y . T h e n there are parts of mathematics which can only be described as 'delightful'. Quite small children enjoy trying to count as far as they can, by extending the numeration system (c. . . eighty . . . ninety . . . ninety-nine . . . tenty ( ! ) . . . tenty-one (!!) . . .'); and m a n y people can appreciate the fact that any m a p , however complicated, can be coloured with just four crayons, or that in the figure shown here (Fig. 1) the three points marked with dots lie in a straight line wherever the six points marked with small rings are taken on the circle—though establishing these facts calls for advanced math­ematics. It is not difficult to argue that all children should have a chance to experience this kind of mathematics, although by itself it could hardly justify the central place in the school curriculum that the subject currently enjoys.

There is also the argument that learning this kind of mathematics 'teaches one to think'. But the evidence for this assertion is uncon­vincing. It is of the nature of mathematics that its field of operation is very narrow, but that within this field one is tied by a strict logical regime; the forms of reasoning encountered in mathematics are rarely applicable in a wider context. Certainly learning mathematics gives practice in analysing the meaning of statements, marshalling evidence, discarding what is irrelevant, and so on; but so does learning a language, or studying a novel, or making sense of a political situation. Mathematics m a y exhibit the purest form of reasoning, but from an educational point of view this can be regarded as its weakness as well as its strength.

H o w important is learning mathematics?

A mathematics curriculum or mathematics in the curriculum?

Let us summarize the argument so far. Survival mathematics is important, but conventional mathematics teaching does little to develop it. Only a minority of pupils will make substantial use of mathematics in their careers, and even for them there is little in the way of a c o m m o n mathematical requirement. Mathematicians' math­ematics can give pleasure and satisfaction; but however inspired the teaching, some pupils are left unmoved by it.

Where does this leave us in considering the place of mathematics in the school curriculum?

There is no question of the importance of mathematics as a h u m a n intellectual achievement, or of its essential role in technological progress. There will always be pupils w h o want to continue to study mathematics for these reasons. S o m e are motivated by their hopes of following careers in which they k n o w mathematics will be necessary. S o m e just enjoy doing mathematics, and the experience of personal challenge and success that it affords; and its independence of literary ability can be an additional attraction. In these terms the discipline of mathematics will clearly continue to flourish in schools, as it has done for centuries past.

But the growth in so m a n y countries in recent years of mass education—and in particular, mass secondary education—presents us with n e w problems. Is it so obvious that mathematics has a central part to play in the education of all children?

Douglas A. Quadling

It is a curious paradox that the world is becoming simultaneously both a more mathematical and a less mathematical place to live in. At the level of personal skill, the demands m a d e on us are less than those m a d e on our parents and grandparents. Goods increasingly come packaged in convenient standard sizes. Filling the car with petrol requires no knowledge of litres or gallons: the p u m p will register the cost directly. T h e shopkeeper need not add up the prices of his customers' purchases: he has a calculator to do that, and the newest ones will keep a check on tax and stock levels at the same time—and m a y even enter the prices automatically! T h e navigator of a modern tanker does nothing so crude as drawing triangles on a chart: he enters his data on the keyboard, and the computer does the rest for him more accurately in a fraction of the time. Different societies are at different distances along the road to this 'ready-made revolution'; but w e can all see the signs of its advance. There can be no justification nowadays for giving children in school a diet of long multiplication and division sums, calculations with fractions, or complicated money sums. W h a t is important is to k n o w in any particular situation what calculation needs to be performed, and to be able to have a rough idea of what the answer should be; and, if one is in the position of having to do the calculation, to k n o w h o w to use the machine that will do it.

But on the other hand, m a n y of the achievements of the modern world would have been impossible without mathematics. T h e builders of the great temples, mosques and cathedrals, of the nine­teenth-century bridges and tunnels, of the first iron ships and aircraft, used little mathematics; but to design a modern tower block, jumbo jet or motorway calls for all the resources of modern computers and sophisticated mathematical models. Our economic life, too, is n o w ­adays controlled by mathematics—as is evident from the mass of numerical data carried by the media in their business and industrial reports.

This shift of emphasis must surely be reflected in the mathematics that is taught in school. Already there are signs in a number of countries of a greater interest amongst educators in the applications of mathematics, and this is to be welcomed. But w e must not m a k e the mistake of trying to take children at school the first one-hundredth of the route towards a P h . D . in aeronautical engineering or computer technology. For most pupils, what is important is not to develop techniques (beyond the survival level) but to gain some insight into the ways in which mathematics can extend our ability to understand, control and enrich the world w e live in: not mathematics for use, but appreciation of mathematics in use.

H o w can these ideas be translated into curricular reality? Cer-

H o w important is learning mathematics?

tainly not by a series of lectures extolling the importance of mathematics—though there is room for more professionally m a d e film and television material dealing with subjects such as disease control, alternative fuels, town planning or flood management which do not shirk describing the contribution that mathematics makes to their resolution. But for most of the time pupils need to be actively engaged. If 'doing sums' is not the answer, what should w e put in its place?

In a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, some teachers have been making increasing use of practical projects as an answer to this question. T h e aim is to pose problems which are within the experience of the pupils, which might be tackled sensibly without making excessive mathematical demands, and which illus­trate mathematics in use. Here are a few examples that have been tried, to give the flavour of such projects:

A counting problem. This arose from a real situation observed in an electronics components factory. Pupils are given a box of small components (1,000 or so is a suitable number; a local firm m a y be able to provide a school with rejects) and have to determine h o w m a n y there are. Weighing the contents, and then counting h o w many there are in a io-gram sample, is a suitable method; questions of accuracy involve discussing the variability in mass of the components, and the choice of a suitable amount to weigh out (would i gram or 50 grams be better?).

Designing a simple chair. Questions arise as to h o w one describes the shape. There is also the statistical problem of making a standard product for use by people of a wide variety of sizes.

Construction of a lampshade. Pupils are provided with the metal frame, and have to fit a paper shade to the right shape with a pattern of their choice. This can be done either by making certain measurements and calculations, or empirically. Subsidiary prob­lems include the choice of a piece of paper of the right shape and size from which to cut out the pattern, and the bending of the design that occurs when the shade is fixed to the frame.

How fast can you cycle? Pupils set up an experiment to find h o w fast each of them can cycle, and h o w quickly they can accelerate to their m a x i m u m speed. T h e mathematics that m a y arise from this includes reading and interpreting graphs of numerical data, measuring gradients, distinguishing average from instantaneous speed, and the inaccuracy in the data due to difficulties of timing with a stop-watch.

Traffic lights for a local road junction. Most towns have at least one notorious traffic bottleneck, and work must begin with a survey of the traffic flows with which it has to cope. Questions which then

Douglas A. Quadling

have to be settled include the desirability of having filter lights for vehicles turning right and left, and the best choice of timing for the green lights in each direction.

It will be clear that, if the curriculum is constructed on these lines, then the case for laying d o w n particular mathematical content falls to the ground. It makes no sense to choose a mathematical topic and then to look for 'applications' in real life: the problem has to come first, and then mathematical tools are selected for dealing with it. If pupils do not have the requisite skills available, then these must be acquired as a means of solving the problem in hand: but to go on to practise these to exhaustion will be counter-productive.

But h o w practicable is this as a blueprint for the continuing study of mathematics, particularly for those pupils w h o have no other incentive? Certainly few teachers at present choose to work in this way. This m a y be due in part to external pressures, for example examination constraints; if so, then w e m a y have to balance the increased motivation which comes from involving pupils in such activity against some sacrifice in syllabus coverage. Lack of confidence is also a factor: the majority of teachers are more at h o m e with text­books or work-cards, where there is less risk of being caught out of their depth. But for m a n y pupils the very process of translating a problem into print renders it artificial and irrelevant. This has important implications for teacher training. If w e believe that for some of our pupils 'mathematics in use' should be the guiding principle of the curriculum, then our training programmes for intending teachers (and our in-service programmes for existing teachers) need to reflect this, by providing students with encourage­ment to use mathematics for themselves in a range of practical projects. It has certainly been the British experience that the teacher-training college can serve very effectively as a laboratory for research and development of n e w ideas for the school curriculum.

S o m e of the work already initiated on these lines has stressed the value of undertaking projects related to an identified need in the school or the local community. Examples are U S M E S in the United States of America (Using Sciences and Mathematics for the Elementary School) and the O p e n University post-experience course for teachers on 'Mathematics across the Curriculum'. Others have stressed the importance of having a finished product or a policy for action which can then be tested in use, so that the power—and perhaps also the limitations—of the mathematical approach can be demonstrated.

This invites us to carry the argument one stage further. All the projects described offer scope for the use of mathematics, but they are by no means just mathematical projects. S o m e of them will benefit from the active co-operation of another department of the

H o w important is learning mathematics? 419

school, such as science, art/design or craft (for example, the school that developed the chair design project had an experimental prototype m a d e in the school workshop). S o m e m a y require the support of agencies outside the school. Is there therefore any good reason for consigning them to lessons labelled 'mathematics'?

T o do so seems especially inappropriate w h e n w e are considering the curriculum for older pupils in the secondary school w h o are nearing the end of their school careers. At a certain stage of education it can be beneficial to fragment the curriculum into separate disci­plines, so that the particular characteristics of each can be highlighted and exploited. But by the age of 14 or 15 it m a y be more valuable with some children to concentrate on the synthesis, to see h o w the disciplines can combine together in contributing to our understanding of the real world: life is not divided into subjects! A n d in no part of the curriculum is this truer than in mathematics, which can so easily appear to be set apart by virtue of its rigour and its special symbolism.

If arithmetic has as central a place in education as is often claimed, should it not—like its companions reading and writing amongst the three Rs—eventually become absorbed into the total curriculum? Perhaps the question which heads this article should not be ' H o w important is learning mathematics?', but ' H o w important are math­ematics lessons?' •

Note 1. A n account of this research is contained in a report, Mathematics in Employment 16-18,

published by the School of Mathematics, University of Bath.

The computer at school Gilbert R . Austin and Sarah A . Lutterodt

T h e amazing capabilities of computers and their potential for affecting people's lives have been k n o w n for m a n y years. In education, the possible applications for computers have been discussed and experimented with. But until recently computers have been large and expensive; their use in practical educational settings has gained ground only slowly, being largely confined to élite institutions in the richest countries of the world.

T h e development of the silicon chip has radically changed this situation. O n e chip, the size of a fingernail, can replace the functions of thousands of conventional electronic circuits and does so at a small fraction of the cost. Microcomputers, incorporating a few such chips, can perform all the functions of a computer for a corre­spondingly reduced cost. Whereas a conventional computer m a y occupy several rooms, a microcomputer is a table-top device whose size is determined by the size of its keyboard, rather than by the electronics it contains.

T h e arrival of the electronic chip and associated technologies has accelerated the growth of computer use in every field of h u m a n activity. Indeed computer technology has n o w become an integral part of the everyday environment in industrialized countries: at the check-out counter in the grocery store, at the bank, in the library, in offices. Microcomputers are even becoming a commonplace in middle-class homes.

T h e increased accessibility of computers has given rise to a tremendous n e w surge of interest in their potential usefulness in education. It has been estimated1 that whereas computer-assisted instruction (CAI) was used in about 54 per cent of a nationwide sample of schools in the United States in 1980, the figure will have

Gilbert R . Austin (United States of America). Director of the Center for Educational Research and Development at the University of Maryland. Has been a special assistant at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the head of an early childhood education project at O E C D in Paris. He has recently completed the editing of a book with Dr Herbert Garber on the rise and fall of national test scores.

Sarah Lutterodt (United Kingdom). Has worked in universities in Zaire and Ghanat now Senior Research Associate at the Center for Educational Research and Developmen; at the University of Maryland. She has published many articles relating to her work on science education in Africa and has contributed to a recent Unesco volume on physics teacher education worldwide.

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

Gilbert R . Austin and Sarah A . Lutterodt

risen to as high as 74 per cent in 1985. In Minnesota, a group k n o w n as the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium has distributed as m a n y as 1,800 Apple II microcomputers to schools in the state. In Maryland, a recent survey revealed that there is at least one micro­computer in use in each administrative subdivision and a number of subdivisions have plans that include acquiring between one and ten micros per school.

A similar computer 'invasion' of the schools, m a d e possible by the n e w technology, is taking place in developed countries other than the United States. But what of the developing countries of the world? W h a t , if any, is the role for computers in education in these countries in the 1980s? If one considers the great difficulties faced by edu­cational systems in most developing countries, it might seem out of place to dwell on the sophisticated advantages that the introduction of microcomputers might bring. Yet the developing countries cannot remain untouched by the transformation in ways of living, of working and of educating, that are taking place beyond their shores. Even in labour-intensive economies, computers m a y become rapidly the only 'appropriate' technology for certain purposes. It is likely that the m e d i u m for international exchange of information will increas­ingly be computer-based. At the interface with commercial partners, scientific colleagues or donor agencies, the developing countries must be part of the computer age. This imperative has, in its turn, impli­cations for education that cannot be ignored.

Although the questions m a y be differently posed in the two situations, the increased accessibility of computers in the 1980s gives rise to opportunities and challenges that must be of concern to educators in developed and developing countries alike.

Throughout this article, the principal focus of attention will be on the instructional use of computers in schools. Other important functions of computers in education, for example for administrative or research purposes, will not be discussed. T h e use of computers at other educational levels and in other settings will be mentioned at certain points, but will not be the object of detailed discussion.

Instructional uses of the computer

A major distinction can be drawn between situations in which the computer is used as an aid to, or means of, instruction and situations in which the computer is itself the object of instruction. T h e two will be discussed separately.

The computer at school

THE COMPUTER AS A MEANS OF INSTRUCTION

T h e acronyms C A I (computer-assisted instruction) and C M I (computer-managed instruction) are commonly used in the United States to describe two different functions of computers in education. In British writing the single acronym ( C A L ) (computer-assisted learning) is more familiar. Whatever the acronym, there are, in fact, a number of ways in which computers can be used to assist the educator. S o m e of these will be reviewed here, but in view of the rapidly expanding nature of this activity, w e make no claim to completeness.

In the tutorial m o d e , the computer is programmed to teach a given topic through a series of carefully prepared 'frames'. T h e format of instruction is similar to that of programmed texts, with the infor­mation and ideas being broken d o w n into a sequence of very small steps. Each step is presented to the student on the screen of the cathode ray tube ( C R T ) and the student is asked to m a k e some response. T h e content of the following 'frame' depends on the response the student makes. T h u s a correct answer m a y allow a student to m o v e quickly to a new teaching point, whereas an incorrect response m a y lead either to his being asked to respond again or to a sequence of instruction that will correct his error or provide appro­priate remedial instruction. T h e sequence of instruction is thus altered to correspond to the individual learning needs of the student.

In m a n y cases, the computer m a y also perform a management function ( C M I ) . Diagnostic tests can be set at the start of the instructional sequence and the student directed to the appropriate entry point, based on his results. Records of student responses can be kept, allowing the teacher to trace the progress of individuals or to diagnose difficulties that students in a group have in c o m m o n . Summative tests for each unit of instruction can be set and graded and the results stored for future reference.

T h e drill-and-practice m o d e of use of C A I is similar to the tutorial m o d e . Here, however, it is presumed that initial instruction in the subject-matter has been provided. T h e role of the programme is to ensure that the objectives are properly mastered, through repetition of content or skills. This m o d e is particularly useful w h e n the subject or topic requires mastery of skills, such as in mathematics or language use. A s in the tutorial m o d e , the sequence of drill-and-practice programs usually provides the possibility for branching to reinforce skills with which students are having difficulty, or to introduce supplementary material to meet the needs of individual students.

W h e n used in the tutorial or drill-and-practice modes the computer

Gilbert R. Austin and Sarah A. Lutterodt

is essentially performing traditional teaching functions, but it is doing so in a way that permits self-paced and individualized instruc­tion, with the benefit of a wide range of graphic aids. T h e quality of the instruction is, naturally, dependent on the quality of the programs, or software, that are available. Even with high quality software, however, the repertoire of responses that a computer can m a k e to student answers or queries, though substantial, can never approach that of a 'live' teacher. Computers are not likely to replace teachers completely in executing traditional teaching functions in conventional classroom situations. Indeed, the extent to which they will do so remains a matter for lively debate. It is certain, however, that w h e n used skillfully computers can be a very useful teaching resource. They can free teachers from a lot of tedious chores, such as drilling students or making tests. They allow students w h o have been absent for some reason to make up lost ground on their o w n , as well as providing alternative or supplementary material to reinforce a teacher's o w n presentation of a topic. There are, moreover, special situations in which C A I m a y be of special use.

Computerized instruction has been found to be particularly effec­tive with educationally disadvantaged students. T h e student interacts with the computer in private, so the threat of sanction by peer group or teacher is removed and the student's confidence is increased. Moreover, the computer terminal presents an environment that m a y be more stimulating to the student than the traditional learning setting. Motivation is improved and students w h o in the traditional classroom situation have a very short attention span have been k n o w n to be absorbed for considerable periods by instructional tasks presented on the computer.

In situations where qualified teachers are not available, the self-instructional possibilities offered by computers are also attractive. T h e United States A r m y has currently commissioned a functional literacy C A I package for personnel stationed at remote outposts. For similar reasons it has been suggested that C A I might be a useful adjunct to the correspondence courses that are so popular in Africa a m o n g those w h o have not been successful in climbing the steep pyramid of formal education.2

Computer-assisted instruction has a still more distinctive contri­bution to m a k e w h e n used in simulation, gaming or problem-solving modes. Here C A I can extend the capacities of the teacher in substantially n e w directions.

T h e computer has a unique capacity to simulate complex processes or events, providing a visual representation of scientific models that are otherwise locked in mathematical equations. Consider, for example, the kinetic theory of gases which postulates the rapid,

The computer at school

random motion of molecules in a gas; the frequent collisions of the molecules with each other and with the boundary walls are pos­tulated to be the cause of a number of measurable phenomena. T h e phenomena can be observed and the equations describing the mol­ecular motions written d o w n , but it has been difficult, hitherto, to provide an adequate graphical simulation of the model to assist students' understanding. T h e abstract and theoretical nature of the topic, therefore, m a d e it difficult to teach children w h o were still predominantly concrete thinkers. With the computer, a powerful visual model corresponding to the mathematical description is readily available, making it possible to teach the topic to younger pupils. Moreover, the computer model has a flexibility that was undreamt of by those w h o attempted to develop simple mechanical models to accompany the science teaching projects of the 1960s. Parameters affecting the behaviour of the molecules can be varied at will and the effects observed. Programs of this sort can be used for demonstration purposes by teachers or they can be 'played' with by students on their o w n . Through interacting with the model, testing its strengths and limitations, students can learn a lot both about the particular scientific model in question and about the strengths and limitations of models in general. Use of the computer in this type of way provides students with the opportunity both to enrich their understanding and to sharpen their intellectual skills in unprecedented ways.

At the other end of the school ladder, Papert3 describes h o w quite young children can be taught to use a very simple language, L O G O , to solve problems such as tracing simple geometric figures. Using a few c o m m a n d s , the child can instruct the computer to trace different figures. H e can experiment to find the effect of different sequences of c o m m a n d s or he can try to write programs that will trace a figure or pattern of his choice. In so doing the child develops his knowledge of geometry as well as his problem-solving skills.

Importantly, the task of solving given problems on a computer soon leads even quite young children to start posing their o w n prob­lems and searching for solutions. T h e possibilities for intellectual stimulus and growth arising from this type of use of the computer in education are clearly enormous.

Papert goes on to discuss longer-term projects which require students to solve a series of problems in achieving their goal. H e cites, for example, an eighth-grade student w h o set out to develop a program to teach eighth-grade algebra. This required him to generate equations with different coefficients. H e had access to a function that generated random numbers between o and 9 but wished to be able to use larger coefficients. H e first tried adding two random numbers. This approach suffered from two limitations; first, the m a x i m u m

Gilbert R. Austin and Sarah A. Lutterodt

coefficient obtainable was 18; and second, some numbers turned up with m u c h great frequency than others. T h e search for a solution of this problem in turn led to others, so that the student was in effect confronted with a series of mini-research challenges.

T h e use of educational games is another important m o d e for C A I . G a m e s are motivating for students across the spectrum of academic ability and, since the competition is between student and machine, they do not pit one student against another. R o w b o t h a m 4 describes ' T h e Element G a m e ' as a useful means of teaching elementary chemistry. Watson5 describes a game concerning the location of six windmills, on an imaginary island. T h e point of the game is that, having taken primary considerations such as wind direction and the lie of the land into account, participants should choose sites that minimize the cost of transportation to the local bakery. T h e computer informs the students of the suitability of their chosen sites and the cost involved. By playing with a program of this type and trying to improve his siting a student can learn a lot about the individual concepts that are involved in siting the windmills as well as learning about the complex process by which industrial location decisions are m a d e .

Probably the most important function of computers in non-educational situations is in the processing of data. This function can also be used in instructional settings. In science teaching it is not always feasible for students to perform experiments themselves. By manipulating data obtained in research laboratories they can learn h o w the data can be used to test a theoretical model, to determine the value of a constant, etc. T h e data-processing capability of computers also opens up n e w opportunities for teaching concepts in demography and other areas of the social sciences in which large data banks are involved.

T h e possibilities for C A I are clearly enormous. T h e m o d e of use that is appropriate will depend in any situation on the pupils, the subject-matter and the teacher.

It could be argued that the use of C A I in tutorial or drill-and-practice modes is likely to reinforce the development of highly convergent thinking or even 'mental laziness'.6 T h e learner's task can easily be reduced to mastering the trick of 'what was in the pro­grammer's mind'. Used in the problem-solving m o d e , however, the computer could be a very powerful stimulus to the development of intellectual skills. T h e challenge for educators in the use of c o m ­puters is to exploit their potential while avoiding the pitfalls.

It has been predicted that the introduction of C A I on a large scale m a y lead to substantial changes both in the role of the teacher and in the conventional organization of the learning environment. T h e

The computer at school 427

teacher, freed from m a n y tedious and routine tasks, will be able to concentrate on his role of nurturing the personal intellectual develop­ment of his or her pupils. T h e pupils in their turn m a y come to rely for most of their instruction on computer packages either in school or at h o m e , turning to the teacher primarily for encouragement and direction as well as to resolve particular learning difficulties. Whether or not these predictions are realized will depend on the quality of the software that becomes available, or the way in which educators are introduced to the computer age, as well as on what appears to be a long-standing and inherent resistance of the educational establish­ment to fundamental change.

It can also be hypothesized that the ways in which subject-matter is formulated for presentation on the computer will in turn react on, and alter, the ways in which subject-matter is traditionally formu­lated, in other contexts, for example in textbooks. In the tradition of science teaching the laws of motion are represented by a number of equations, supplemented by graphs. Both are essentially static in form. Students usually explore the meaning of the equations by substituting times and distances in order to obtain values for velocity or acceleration and vice versa. For each set of variables the equation yields an 'answer'. T h e student is not given a feeling for the continual incremental change in the variables that would take place in a real situation. W h e n these same laws of motion are represented on a computer program the progression in the motion m a y be easily shown. T h e textbook presentation of the topic will probably have to respond to the improved possibilities for understanding that the computer has opened up.

THE COMPUTER AS AN OBJECT OF INSTRUCTION

T h e expanding role of computers in every field of h u m a n activity has led to an ever-increasing demand for computer professionals and for technicians with appropriate qualifications. In so far as educational institutions serve the vocational needs of students they must address themselves to the task of providing computer-oriented instruction. Because of the expense of the necessary equipment, this task has, up until the present, largely been carried out in colleges and universities. T h e cheaper technology is n o w making it possible for schools to start to become involved in this aspect of computer education. However, since this aspect of the use of computers in education is necessarily restricted to a relatively small group of students and since the theme of computer education of professionals is such a vast one, it will not receive further attention in this article. Arguably, of m u c h

Gilbert R . Austin and Sarah A . Lutterodt

greater concern for the whole educational enterprise is the need to provide for the basic computer literacy of large sections of the student population.

In his keynote address to the International Conference on C o m ­puter Education in Lausanne, 1981, Professor Ershov7 argued that in a few years' time computer programming will have become a second literacy; that it will be as necessary then to be able to work with computers as it is n o w to be able to read and write. Computers will have led to a new 'harmony of h u m a n mind' that will 'greatly enhance the intellectual power of mankind'. If this is the case, then probably the first challenge that schools must face as computers become available to them is the development of computer literacy programmes.

Corresponding to the explosion in the use and availability of computers, there has been a shift in the meaning attached to computer literacy. Previously it denoted a 'knowledge that', an awareness of what computers could do, h o w they functioned, the different uses to which they could be put. Nowadays computer literacy is more commonly understood in terms of a working knowledge, a 'knowledge how' .

In a survey of computer literacy courses and interested organiz­ations, Johnson et al.8 collected a large number of objectives that are associated with computer literacy. These fall under six headings: hardware; programming and algorithms; software and data processing; applications; impact; and attitudes. These objectives are envisaged as a pool from which teachers can draw in constructing their o w n computer literacy courses.

In a recent address, David Moursund, w h o has been a major figure in the field of computer use in education in the United States, presented an interesting concept of computer literacy. H e argued that the goal of computer literacy should be that students at every level should turn naturally to the computer to solve any problems that they encountered in their studies if the computer offered an efficient way of solving it. In other words students should have a knowledge of when and h o w to use the computer, appropriate to their general level of intellectual functioning.

APPLICABILITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

T h e availability of computers in industrialized countries presents enormous challenges and opportunities to educators. There are m a n y ways in which computers could be used to improve education, and there are m a n y computer skills that the educational establishment

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must be concerned to provide for its students. Moreover, w e have pointed to changes in the school organization of learning, as well as in the context of that learning, that m a y be anticipated as the result of the introduction of computers. T h e discussion has, so far, centred largely on countries where, in spite of being in a period of relative austerity, the educational enterprise is well established and there are financial resources to be tapped. T o m a n y in the developing countries the discussion will have seemed very esoteric. Yet there are a number of ways in which the computer revolution will, and must, affect education in those countries, albeit more gradually than in the indus­trialized world.

In the first place it is important to note the wide variation that exists within the developing countries in the extent to which c o m ­puter technology is implanted. T h e Third International Conference on Computers in Education at Lausanne, 1981, suggested that developing countries fall into four or five categories in this respect. T h e future role of computers in education in each of the countries m a y be expected to vary according to the category to which it belongs. In Israel, a relatively well-structured programme for c o m ­puter education is already in place in the schools, with as m a n y as 12,000 secondary school students enrolled.9 In H o n g K o n g , the potential uses of computers in secondary-school science are being actively explored.10 At the University of Kuwait, some experimen­tation in the use of computer instruction for introductory math­ematics courses has been carried out.11 In India, C A I is being introduced for training purposes in a number of different industries.12

But these are fairly isolated examples, m a n y of which do not relate to the school system at all.

It would seem that the primary concern of the developing countries for the immediate future will be to train an adequate number of people to operate and maintain the computers that are already in use in business and industry and whose numbers are likely to grow. This concern was evident at an International Symposium held at Madras in January 1982 and is under active consideration by an international committee sponsored by Unesco. This task is likely to remain in the hands of post-secondary institutions and specialized schools. T h e need for, and provision of, computer education in this sense will clearly vary between countries such as India, which already m a k e extensive use of computers, countries which are oil-rich but poor in qualified manpower , and countries which are poorer in every respect and have only rudimentary facilities at the present time.

If computer literacy is to become as fundamental a set of skills to modern m a n as Ershov maintains, then clearly, as developing countries emerge into the computer age through the acquisition of

Gilbert R. Austin and Sarah A. Lutterodt

computer technologies, they will have a corresponding need to provide for the development of computer literacy. If modern sectors of ä country's economic life are functioning with the aid of computer technology then it is surely important that computer literacy should begin to be spread beyond the narrow ranks of computer professionals. T h e need is likely to be felt more acutely in countries which are rich in financial resources, and thus in the ability to acquire the hardware, but are short of trained personnel. O n e can envisage certain schools that are particularly generously funded emerging as centres of excellence, providing computer literacy for the small élite that passes through them and acting as a model for others to follow at some distance. Just as the first literacy has only slowly spread to the more remote and disadvantaged communities of the world, so the diffusion of the second literacy m a y be expected to be a slow and gradual process.

T h e need for developing countries to embrace computers as aids to instruction would seem to be a less pressing one. It is true that C A I has enormous potential advantages for education. T h e realization of these advantages, however, must depend critically on their being used in a suitable environment, under competent supervision. A rush to acquire hardware together with mediocre software, which is not matched to the educational needs of a particular society, might well do more harm than good.

There is another reason w h y educators in developing countries should concern themselves with the role of computers in education. It has been argued briefly above that far from being just another gadget in the array of educational technological aids available to the teacher, computers m a y well bring about profound changes in the way in which education is delivered. Whether it is desirable or not, it is a fact that the organization and tools of schooling in most of the countries of the world are imported items. T h e schools depend to a considerable extent on books published overseas; those published locally are often strongly influenced by their counterparts in the former metropolis. Teachers, if not themselves trained overseas, are most often trained by those w h o have done postgraduate work overseas and have been influenced by current educational thinking in developed situations. T h e changes that computers are bringing about in educational thinking in developed countries are certain to affect education in developing countries. Educators in those countries must be prepared either to resist or to accept and modify these changes.

The computer at school 43

Placing computers in education

Having considered the enormous potential for computers in edu­cation, it is n o w desirable to consider h o w this potential can best be realized. Attempts to introduce earlier technological innovations in the schools have not always lived up to their promise. In this second part of the article w e shall draw on this earlier experience in proposing strategies that might be used to introduce computers in schools.

LESSONS FROM PAST EXPERIENCE

In reviewing the impact that technological media and devices have had on schools, Tyler13 concludes that the innovations that have been most successful are those that are relatively cheap and easy to handle. Others14 support this, stating for example that cassette-recorders were m u c h more quickly assimilated by schools than the far clumsier tape-recorders. Other characteristics of successful innovations, noted by Tyler, are that they are attractive to teachers because they perform boring or distasteful tasks, or because they are recognized as a help in solving students' learning problems. Successful innovations are those that are perceived by teachers as aids and not as devices that will eventually replace them. T h e extent to which C A I meets these criteria m a y depend on the way in which its usefulness is c o m m u n i ­cated to teachers. T h e management function m a y be more appealing than the teaching function in the first instance.

In developed countries the incorporation of educational hardware in the instructional process varies considerably from teacher to teacher and from institution to institution. W h e r e it is available it is not always used, and where it is used it is too often used as a time-filler or in other inappropriate ways. In the final analysis it is the more experienced and abler teacher w h o is likely to use the possibilities offered by technological devices to greatest pedagogical advantage.

In developing countries the problems involved in the use of technological hardware have proved to be legion. Even where the capital cost of the equipment has been met, for example, by a donor agency, the useful life of the equipment in the recipient institution has too often proved to be short. T o the predictable problems of maintenance and repair are added problems of supervision and trained personnel. T h e technical assistance officer to w h o m the donation of such equipment is often tied m a y be at the end of his contract w h e n the gift arrives, leaving him little time to train local counterparts in its use. A frequent and predictable result is the misuse or lack of use

432 Gilbert R. Austin and Sarah A. Lutterodt

of the equipment. School principals, aware of the problem of misuse of equipment, m a y decide to keep it locked in a cupboard, only making it available on special request. T h e logistics of obtaining the equipment for classroom use m a y then prove a formidable obstacle to the teacher. Even in university settings the process involved in signing up for equipment in advance and then pursuing tardy technicians to ensure that it is at the right place at the right time makes the use of equipment as simple as an overhead projector a major endeavour. Besides, the use of most equipment of this sort depends on a supply of software. Even overhead projectors require transparencies and other projectors require a sufficient supply of film strips, film loops, etc. W h e r e foreign exchange for the replace­ment of such supplies is not readily available, use of the equipment m a y be expected to die a natural death. R E C S A M in South-East Asia reports that courses devoted to the in-service preparation of teachers served as a stimulant to the use of the overhead projector by participating science teachers. In-service preparation of teachers is indeed probably a vital key to the success of innovations in any context.

SOME PROBLEMS

Given the difficulties in bringing about innovation, the need for careful advance planning becomes apparent. Not surprisingly, the rush to introduce computers in schools in the United States and elsewhere is already encountering problems that need to be addressed. O n e problem is the lack of preparation of teachers. Teachers are being asked to handle a technology in which they themselves have had no formal training. Yet a good number of their pupils m a y already be familiar with it, having encountered computers outside the classroom. This presents the teacher with a potentially uncomfort­able situation.

T h e enthusiasm of administrators, students and parents (expressed, for example, through Parent Teacher Associations) often outstrips the ability of teachers to respond. In m a n y cases schools receive a microcomputer before the faculty has given any serious thought as to h o w it will be used. There is a risk in this situation that improper, shallow uses of the computers will predominate. T h e computers m a y be used by students to play games during the lunch hour or used in mechanical and uncreative ways during class time.

T h e likelihood of improper use is increased by the difficulty in providing appropriate software. Although m u c h educational software is being developed the quality is uneven. Teachers in different subject areas need to have access to adequately reviewed and evaluated

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software. It has been estimated that it takes a qualified person about forty hours to review one instructional program.15 T h e classroom teacher will clearly not be able to review m a n y such programs before using them. Various groups are growing up in the United States to provide a review service for teachers and this is certainly a trend to be encouraged.

T h e administration and supervision of available computers in a school gives rise to another major set of problems. A school of m a n y hundreds of students m a y acquire just a handful of computers or computer terminals. H o w should this resource be shared? T h e departmental structure of most secondary schools makes it difficult to share across departmental lines. In most cases, mathematics departments are the initial custodians of computers and it m a y prove difficult, in practice, to make them available outside this department. Even within a mathematics department there m a y be a problem in sharing the facility among the teachers and classes, and within a class among the students. Most uses of C A I require a one-to-one relation between student and computer. T h e use of two or three terminals in a class of twenty-five or more requires careful planning! T h e location of the computer hardware in a school m a y also prove to be a problem. If the computer terminals are located in a particular room in the building, then the class scheduled to use the terminals must m o v e to that room when its turn comes. Within the context of a typical school timetable, this would mean that the use of the facility would have to be allocated to particular classes at particular times. This would in turn limit the possibility for sharing, and inevitably reduce the flexibility with which the computers could be used.

T h e very attractiveness of computers to students, and their widespread use in games and other non-educational activities, m a k e the problem of adequate supervision a very real one. Floppy discs, on which computer programs are 'written', can easily be slipped into a pocket or handbag. Equipment m a y be used roughly if the game under way proves of great excitement. T h e alternative to locking up the equipment, thereby contributing to the obstacles for teachers wishing to use it, m a y be to have a teacher or aide in constant attendance.

TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY

T h e experience of earlier technological innovations, together with the research engendered by these and other attempts to introduce change in the schools, m a y be helpful in developing a strategy for introduction of computers in schools.

Gilbert R. Austin and Sarah A. Lutterodt

Fullan and Pomfret16 provide a useful framework for considering the factors likely to lead to successful implementation of innovations. These cover characteristics of the innovation itself and of the adopting unit, as well as of the innovation strategies employed. S o m e factors in each of these categories will be discussed in relation to the particular problems associated with the introduction of computers in schools.

Innovations are more easily implemented if they are characterized by a high degree of explicitness, yet not burdened by too m u c h complexity. B y explicitness is meant the clarity with which the features of the innovation are communicated; the complexity of the innovation is that perceived by potential users. T h e innovation involved in the use of computers in education possesses neither of these characteristics to any appreciable degree at present. T h e inno­vation centres around a particular device—the computer—but there is a plethora of possibilities for using this device and m u c h active experimentation being carried out. There is no consensus as to the most appropriate types of use of C A I , very few precedents to be followed, little in the way of advice to suggest, for example, h o w a small number of microcomputers can best be shared in a school.

Increasing the explicitness of the innovation could involve first a sharing of ideas and experiences a m o n g existing, successful users of computers and, second, the services of researchers w h o would help to distil the essentials of this experience and present it in the form of clear guidelines for others to follow. These guidelines would be practical and procedural, but would not be binding in any sense. Their purpose would be merely to present a sequence of tried steps that others could use in order to gain sufficient confidence to exper­iment in their o w n settings.

Fullan and Pomfret state that innovations are likely to be most successful where the organizational climate of the adopting unit, in this case the school, is healthy and where there is sufficient support for the innovation in the environment. It has already been stated that in the United States at least there is no lack of support for the use of computers in education by both schools, parents, students and administrators. There is a wave of interest and enthusiasm that could assist the innovation to take root. In countries where this support is lacking, the diffusion of information about the potential value of computers a m o n g the general population should be an important concern.

T h e need for a healthy organizational climate suggests that in selecting schools for trial of C A I school systems should focus on schools that are already working successfully. T h e exemplary school research tradition17 suggests that successful schools are in general

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characterized by strong leadership, explicit goals and high expec­tations of pupils. Exemplary schools are likely to be the most suc­cessful in absorbing the stresses associated with innovation and of supplying the example and leadership that m a y be of help to others.

T h e strategies used to introduce an innovation make an important contribution to its success. Fullan and Pomfret suggest four important elements of such a strategy: in-service training, participation, feed­back mechanisms and support. These will be considered in turn.

It has already been mentioned that, even in highly industrialized countries, the teaching force lacks knowledge about computers. If schools are to use computers effectively, then a massive in-service training effort is required. This training should include knowledge about computers, some knowledge of h o w to program them and, importantly, knowledge about the best ways of using them in school settings. T h e earlier discussion in this article will have m a d e it apparent that the last element, namely a knowledge of h o w to use computers in school settings, is still in an embryonic state. Different teachers, in different schools, in different countries are trying out different approaches so the best that in-service training can do at this point is probably to expose teachers to models that seem to be working well in comparable settings. It is important that this k n o w ­ledge should be adequately shared in the international educational community.

This leads to another element of a good strategy, that is the need for participation. Innovations work best when participants are involved in the decision-making surrounding use of the innovation. Ideally there should be some teacher involvement in administrative decisions concerning both the purchase of computers and their subsequent deployment in the schools; computers that are purchased in response to an expressed need are more likely to be used effectively. Educational innovations have also been found to be most successful when a process of 'mutual adaptation' occurs: the innovation is adapted to the user and the user adapts to the innovation. Since, in the case of computer usage, the innovation itself is not clearly defined (or explicit) in the first place, it would seem to be important that teachers see themselves as active participants in the search for optimum ways of using computers in their schools.

Innovative strategies should also provide for feedback. Especially during the early stages of introduction of computers in a school or school system, mechanisms should be established to monitor the progress of the innovation and make recommendations for modi­fication and improvement.

T h e fourth element of an effective innovative strategy is the provision of adequate levels of support. In the case of computer

Gilbert R . Austin and Sarah A . Lutterodt

usage this support needs to be multifaceted. T h e need for adequate software together with reliable evaluation information has already been discussed. Teachers also need to have access to a resource person w h o can give assistance with technical aspects of program­ming or software usage as required. T h e majority of teachers are not likely to become computer experts but they need access to such expertise. Adequate provision for maintenance of the hardware is clearly required. In addition, there needs to be proper logistic support. T h e problem of making terminals available to the right group at the right time must be faced and the responsibility for ensuring the smooth allocation of the computer resources in a school must be assumed. T h e mathematics teacher should not be expected to do this in his or her spare time.

A final element of any innovative strategy must be the existence of an adequate reward system. If teachers are to acquire the n e w skill of using computers as a teaching aid then they must be given an incentive to do so. T h e incentive could be in financial terms, or it could involve making time available during school hours to attend the necessary in-service training sessions. Those w h o are computer-qualified will need considerable financial incentives if they are to be attracted into teaching, as opposed to industry.

SOME POSSIBLE STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

In developed countries the computer revolution in schools is already well under w a y and the strategies outlined above for the successful introduction of computers in schools represent possible goals. W o r k is proceeding on in-service preparation of teachers and on software development and evaluation. Other of the conditions require more attention at the present time and there is certainly a need for overall strategies to be articulated.

In the developing countries, where the introduction of computers in schools is still to come, there will be considerable difficulty in even beginning to meet these conditions. In most of these countries there is a tremendous lack of resources, both material and h u m a n . Teachers with any level of computer expertise are not likely to remain in the schools. T h e software that is available is unlikely to be adapted to different cultures and geographic contexts and the problems of adaptation have not been addressed. Moreover, the general edu­cational level of the population in general, and of teachers in par­ticular, is such that there is not likely to be significant environmental support for such an innovation nor m u c h interest or commitment on the part of the teachers.

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Under these circumstances it would seem foolish to press for an immediate or generalized introduction of computers. But if, as one m a y postulate, the situation changes in the next few years, then there m a y , even n o w , be advance work to be done. Efforts to try out methods and adapt ideas, software, etc., from overseas could be carried out on a pilot basis in a very few institutions on a national or even a regional basis. T h e selection of such pilot institutions should probably be based on the presence of individuals with a proven interest in the role of computers in education. Such centres should remain attentive to developments taking place elsewhere, so that they can incorporate the experience of others in models for computer usage relevant to the needs and conditions of their o w n countries. Leaders in educational thought should reflect on its implications in the long and short term. Policy-makers should reflect on the import­ance of computer literacy for their respective populations. There is a considerable risk for those w h o are working in developing countries of becoming so embroiled in the intractable daily problems and issues that they do not take time or inclination to reflect on the broader situation or long-term trends. Study visits by key personnel from developing countries to observe model situations in developed countries might go some way towards creating the awareness a m o n g educational leaders of what is possible and its implications for their o w n situations. Alternatively, world experts could be invited on short visits to developing countries to demonstrate the enormous educational possibilities opened up by the use of computers.

B y reflecting on the extent and rapidity of the distribution of hand-held calculators throughout the world, one can get some idea of the future of computers. There is little doubt that technological developments are going to lead to a further substantial decrease in the cost of computers together with an increase in their durability and complexity. It is likely that sooner or later the computer will be as commonplace and accessible as the calculator or even the transistor radio. Their presence is going to be felt even in the remote villages, and urban slums, of developing countries. It is not too soon for policy-makers to begin to prepare for this challenge: to establish goals, to allocate resources and to develop strategies. •

438 Gilbert R. Austin and Sarah A. Lutterodt

Notes i. G . T . Gleason, 'Microcomputers in Education: The State of the Art', Educational

Technology, Vol. 21, N o . 3, 1981, pp. 7-18. 2. J. J. Wet and L . P. Calitz, 'Educational Needs and Problems in Africa and the Use of

C A L ' , in R . Lewis and E . D . Tagg (eds.), Computers in Education, North Holland, 1981 (Preprints, Third World Conference on Computer Education).

3. S. Papert, 'Teaching Children Thinking', in Robert P. Taylor (ed.), The Computer in the School: Tutor, Tool and Tutee, Teacher's College Press, 1980.

4. S. Rowbotham, 'Using a Microcomputer', School Science Review, Vol. 63,1981, pp. 7°-7-5. D . Watson, 'Computer Assisted Learning in the Humanities', in Lewis and Tagg (eds.),

op. cit. 6. A . Ershov, 'Programming, the Second Literacy', in Lewis and Tagg (eds.), op. cit. 7. Ibid. 8. D . C . Johnson, R . E . Anderson, T . P. Hansen and D . L . Klasen, 'Computer Lite­

racy—What Is It?, The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 73,1980, pp. 91-6. 9. B . Z . Barta, 'Computers in the Israeli Education System', in Lewis and Tagg (eds.),

op. cit. 10. D . S. Tung, 'The Potential Uses of Computers in Hong Kong Secondary Schools',

Hong Kong Science Teacher's Journal, Vol. 9, N o . 1,1980, pp. 11-15. 11. R . L . Ibrahim, 'Computer Assisted Instruction in Kuwait', in Lewis and Tagg (eds.),

op. cit. 12. T . Madhavan and S. Achuthan, 'Training Programs—Indian Institute of Management',

in International Symposium on Education in Informatics, Madras, Computer Society of India, 1982.

13. R . W . Tyler, 'Utilization of Technological Media, Devices and Systems in the Schools', Educational Technology, Vol. 20, N o . 1, 1980, pp. 11-15.

14. D . W . Allen and L . N . McCullough, 'Education and Technology. The Changing Bases', Educational Technology, Vol. 20, 1980, pp. 47-53.

15. Gleason, op. cit. 16. M . Fullan and A . Pomfret, 'Research on Curriculum and Instruction Implementation',

Rev. Ed. Res., Vol. 47,1977, pp. 335"97. 17. G . R . Austin, 'Exemplary Schools and their Identification', New Directions for Testing

and Measurement, Vol. 10, 1981, pp. 31-48.

Learning and working

Reflections on education and work

Andri Isaksson

S o m e historical antecedents

Linking education with work is no n e w idea. F r o m time immemorial the curriculum, whether formal or informal, has had functional origins: it has related to daily activities, to the fulfilment of basic needs. This, of course, was especially true of the h o m e curriculum taught by the parents.1

Even if this original viewpoint m a y seem self-evidently right, it was later gradually aban­doned in the school. In the Western world this was partly due to the influence of the ancient Greek life-style and philosophy. F r o m the fifth century B . C . onwards, as ancient Greek education grew more systematized both in theory and practice, school became the exclusive privilege of those w h o did not work, those working being precluded from school education, according to a rigid caste system. T h e Greek word skhole originally meant leisure. However, on a worldwide scale, the separation of education and work was mainly due to the influence of the great religions.

Despite appeals and warnings from some educators and educationalphilosophers w h o were far ahead of their time, the foremost among w h o m , in Europe, were obviously Comenius (1592-1670) and Rousseau (1712-78), no major breakthrough in relating the curriculum at least

Andri Isaksson (Iceland). Professor of Education at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. At present on the staff of the Unesco Secretariat, as regional adviser responsible for the Programme of Co-operation in Re­search and Development for Educational Innovation in South-East Europe (CODIESEE).

partly to daily activities and community needs took place until the nineteenth century.

Rousseau's ideas, however—even if never carried out on any large scale in practice—had sufficient influence on subsequent educational thinking in this respect to deserve a special mention here. T w o ideas expressed in or deriv­ing from his famous book Émile are especially relevant: (a) that children will develop their mental capabilities by working with their hands, and (b) that all adolescents, without exception, should learn a manual trade.

T h e breakthrough in work-education inter­action that occurred during the nineteenth century did not originate inside the school, however, but in society at large. It was the Industrial Revolution, 'combined with natural­istic democratic forces', that altered 'the whole face of work in the curriculum'.2

Before the Industrial Revolution, vocational education usually did not have a place in the school curriculum. This was because in the rigid traditional class society school was associ­ated with high status and work with low status. In ancient Greek society work was even linked with the condition of slavery.

Vocational education was not the province of the school. It took place outside the school, in apprenticeship. T h e young prospective worker enlisted with a trade master w h o was expected to teach him the secrets of the trade as well as literacy and good behaviour.

T h e Industrial Revolution changed all that. It 'shifted production from the h o m e to the factory, from handicraft to power-driven m a ­chinery'. T h e n e w capitalist master of the young uninitiated worker felt no obligation to take care of his personal education nor even

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

442 Andri Isaksson

of his vocational training except for the small fraction of the production process with which the worker had to be familiar. 'Vocational education ceased to be an incident of production and therefore a responsibility of the producer—it became necessary for the first time to look to the school to take this orphan into its curriculum.' Also, owing to the complexity of the new production process, vocational training was de­veloped into a formal school subject.

T h e early nineteenth century saw several remarkable experiments with regard to the integration of work into education. For example, the Swiss educator V o n Fellenberg (1771-1844) established on his country estate an economi­cally self-sustaining trade and agricultural school in which practical work had a prominent place. His experiment was considered a major success.

In many of the significant school experiments of the nineteenth century, work and manual training were valued not only for their useful­ness but also for their intrinsic value. Fröbel (1782-1852), the German educator and author of the kindergarten, was a pioneer in this respect. For him, 'just as play was the natural form which a child's spontaneous activity took, so too, at a more mature level, work was just as natural a form for this activity to take'. It was Fröbel w h o wrote, in his Edu­cation of Man: 'Lessons through and by work, through and from life, are by far the most impressive and intelligible.'

M o r e than anyone else, it was the American philosopher D e w e y (1859-1952) w h o gave the idea of 'work as a cultural rather than as a vocational aspect of the regular curriculum' its twentieth-century form and content. D e w e y believed that

a people's culture takes m u c h of its coloration from

the manner in which it makes a living. Therefore,

work should be one of the main axes of the curricu­

lum. But work should enjoy this prominence as a

liberal rather than as a purely vocational study. T h e

erstwhile academic studies should be integrated

with it.3

Kerschensteiner (1854-1932), the German edu­cator w h o was a contemporary and admirer of D e w e y , also deserves to be mentioned in this

respect. Kerschensteiner reasoned as follows: Since all children and adolescents are expected to work as adults, and since most of them will in fact do physical labour, then work, and especially manual work, should be a primary concern of all schools. Therefore, the public school should be an Arbeitsschule (work school). T h e basic aim of the school should be to edu­cate and train responsible citizens. Through work, the pupils will learn to co-operate with others, to take the needs of other people into account, to control themselves and to be diligent and attentive to the details and requirements of their tasks. Thus altruism will gradually replace egoism.4

T h e present-day endeavour to integrate work into the school curriculum dates from the 1960s and was strengthened in the 1970s. There were different reasons for this movement. O n e reason was a vigorous concern with equality and democracy in education, which in practice usually led to a reform aiming at a more comprehensive school, especially at the sec­ondary level. O n e corollary of this reform was an integration of general and vocational study, which was realized to varying degrees in dif­ferent countries, school systems and schools. A second reason was the wish to establish closer bonds between the school and the sur­rounding community or society at large. T o achieve this, one modality entailed making the curriculum more relevant to the practical prob­lems people had to tackle. This of course involved basically the world of work. Yet another reason concerned labour market devel­opments more directly, especially the need for directing great numbers of young people towards expanding industries or occupations (or, conversely, away from those sectors that could not absorb more manpower) and giving them the appropriate skills, while at the same time keeping open the possibility of their con­tinuing their studies.

Usually, in any particular national setting that saw a significant development in this field, there were several interacting social and pol­itical reasons or sources behind the movement towards integrating work and education in the

Reflections on education and work 443

school. A n d despite a remarkable convergence between the major undertakings in this field, each country, of course, devised its o w n sol­ution according to its particular problems and needs. In the wider perspective of educational history, the concern with integrating work into school education represents an attempt to break the traditional prevalence of the academic sub­jects, in order to arrive at a more socially relevant curriculum. This is done chiefly by finding a compromise solution involving a component of general education, sometimes but not necessarily organized as a cycle of discipline-based subjects, and a work/practical training component, which coexists with the general-education component in varying degrees of interaction and integration.

Trends and experiences

Let us n o w examine and discuss some emergent trends and new experiences in work-education interaction. W e shall base our study mainly on reports and other working documents pre­sented at international meetings on this subject recently organized by or held in co-operation with Unesco.5 Only very few examples can be examined here, but an attempt has been m a d e at selection so as to facilitate comparison or contrast with similar or divergent traditions, political contexts and socio-economic conditions.

In the United States of America, two types of interaction between education and work will be mentioned: co-operative education and vol­untary student work.

Co-operative education is a type of education provided by a number of colleges and junior colleges, especially in depressed urban areas. A s in other institutions of higher education, the students choose a main area of study, and various general and specialized courses are offered by the college. At the same time, the students go to work for specified, recurrent periods (sometimes up to six months, sometimes shorter) in different enterprises with which a contract has been entered into. There they are trained on the job in the fundamentals of the

type of work concerned. T h e college's evalu­ation of results takes into account both aspects: college learning and work experience.

Another type of work-education interaction, m u c h more wide-ranging and typical in the United States' historical and sociological con­text, is voluntary student work. Students fre­quently work during their summer vacation, and part-time work during periods of study is not u n c o m m o n . S u m m e r work can be found in all walks of life, even if the absolute necessity for it obviously depends on one's socio-economic status. T h e aim is to earn money . However, this work experience evidently has some edu­cational value. T h e experience is first hand, and however scant the training provided m a y be, it usually gives an insight into the relation­ships that govern work and production, es­pecially their social aspects. It is important to note that the experience is individual; it is based on individual initiative and direct contact. It is not general or collective.

T h e situation in Yugoslavia, Romania, H u n ­gary and Bulgaria m a y be taken as an example of what trends characterize the interaction between education and work in the socialist countries of eastern and south-eastern Europe. All four countries are preparing and/or im­plementing a reform of their respective edu­cational systems. O n e of the main objectives of the reform is, in all cases, to bring the school closer to life, hence closer to the many-sided world of work. T o achieve this, the reform aims at making school education polytechnic and comprehensive. Polytechnic education can be defined as 'general education providing a grounding in the essential principles under­lying production processes and in the use of the basic instruments employed in those processes'.6

It is important to note that in this sense poly­technic education is not synonymous with training in the different trades and professions. T h e polytechnization of the school as an objec­tive of the school reform is conceived of as a general principle, relevant to all school levels and types. According to this principle, for example, every secondary school should, as part of the polytechnic education it offers,

444 Andri Isaksson

provide all students with some training for work, as well as some general education which allows them to continue their studies.

O n e form work experience m a y take at the secondary-school level in these countries con­sists in the school patronage system.7 In this system, every secondary school is under the patronage of one or even more industrial or other enterprises. School-enterprise relations are stated in a bilateral contract which describes their mutual obligations, the tasks and the output plan to be carried out by the school, the material equipment needed for this purpose, tools put at the school's disposal by the enter­prise, engineering assistance, the workshops to be built, etc. T h e engineering staff and the foremen working in the patronizing enter­prise provide the schools with permanent tech­nical and specialized assistance. T h e students' productive activity is managed in such a manner that the demand of the enterprises for skilled manpower is taken into account. Here, it should be noted that this work experience is compulsory and collective. It is part and parcel of the secondary school programmes, and it is linked with the production system of the countries concerned.

In India, the traditional education system was replaced during the colonial era by a school system imported from a far-away country and an alien culture. This had the effect of creating a small group of educated people w h o refused to be contaminated by participating or having their children participate in manual work. T h e immense majority, the real producers of social wealth, remained without formal schooling, higher culture and leisure.

M a h a t m a Gandhi reacted sharply and consist­ently against this state of affairs. H e wanted to breathe n e w life into education in India by organizing it on the basis of the traditional crafts system, the craft thereby becoming a part of the way of life and value system of every citizen. Thus he hoped that the education system could lay the foundations of a just, egalitarian society, free from exploitation and liberated from socially debilitating dualisms like knowledge/action and work/leisure. For

various reasons, however, this programme failed to give the expected results.

During the last fifteen years, various govern­mental commissions have worked on guidelines for the reform of education in India. These commissions have proposed a close interaction between education and work or community service in primary and secondary education. T h e curricula of the ten-year secondary schools of the country very frequently include work components, especially in the fields of health, nutrition, housing, clothing, culture and leisure as well as community work and social services. This is a sign of progress even if m u c h remains to be done.8

T h e foundations of traditional education in Africa were also undermined during the colonial era by educational systems, practices and ideol­ogies imported from abroad. T h e effects were similar to those in India. N o w , after more than twenty years of independence, there is still controversy in m a n y countries about h o w to reform the educational system inherited from the colonial powers. However, the inter­action between education and work has been adopted as official policy in a number of countries, but, as is also the case in m a n y other countries and regions of the world, implementation difficulties are not infrequent.

In Nigeria, where the principle of associating work with education has been adopted as official policy, an interesting experiment has been taking place at the African Church Comprehensive High School at Ikere Ekiti, O n d o State. This general and technical sec­ondary school was created in 1969. In 1980 it comprised five sections—arts, science, agri­culture, technical and business studies—with a total of 1,600 students and 80 teachers.

Education and work are linked and inter­related at all levels. T h e students admitted to the school are requested to bring with them their skill and their tools. T h e school thus endeavours to build its work upon the great creative potential of the students.

Important training and production activities are organized through joint teacher-student clubs inspired by a traditional African system.

Reflections on education and work 445

Every m e m b e r of a club is a learner, a teacher and a worker. T h e productive activities of the clubs are aimed at providing training, at cover­ing expenses and ensuring profit in order to render the school self-sustaining financially.

Introducing the students to healthy work ethics is a basic goal of the school. This aim is not only pursued during the school terms: during vacation periods, the students are sent to various artisans in order to develop further their skills and k n o w - h o w . Creative education and training cannot be provided without the participation of peers w h o are themselves con­stantly confronted with the same problems and difficulties as the students.9

Discussion

T h e current general vogue enjoyed by w o r k -education interaction as a corner-stone of edu­cational policy seems to be closely associated with the world economic crisis. It is feared that diminished economic growth, the energy crisis, unemployment and world price pros­pects, especially those of raw materials, will lead to huge problems and perhaps violent conflict. There is uncertainty and apprehension about the future. During such periods people are eager for solutions. This seems to be a time for panacea proposals.

There should be no need for any further justification or argument for the social and pedagogic value of work-education interaction. It m a y even be said that the matter is self-evident. However, as is so often the case, the usefulness of this principle depends on its conception and, especially, on h o w it is im­plemented in practice. A number of points need clarification, particularly those related to the socio-economic and political aspects involved.

First, it should be remembered that inter­linking education and work does not in and of itself create n e w jobs (except perhaps a few for the trainers). Hence, it is obvious that work-education interaction per se provides no solution to the unemployment problem. H o w ­

ever, w h e n appropriately implemented in prac­tice as part of a coherent overall economic and employment policy, and given a m i n i m u m of favourable contextual conditions, this edu­cational policy principle can certainly form one link of the process that helps to reverse an unfavourable socio-economic trend, a process in which the reduction or abolition of u n e m ­ployment is an important component.

A second and a more fundamental point concerns social justice. W h o s e reform is the interaction between education and work? This question cannot be answered fully without making reference to the different socio-political contexts involved, some aspects of which will be discussed below. However, one general point should be made: '(education andfeducational systems have always had as their main function the reproduction of a socio-cultural structure. W h a t structure? Essentially the one that keeps intact the power and production relationships in society—the status quo. There is reason to believe that when the power élite of any society enthusiastically espouses interaction between education and work as a solution to society's eucational problems, its main motivation is simply that it sees such a system (which certainly m a y also help some other people at the same time, for example by providing a m i n i m u m of upward social mobility) as one of the more secure ways of venting some air, in order to avoid future trouble that m a y have unpredictable consequences.

O n e way of trying to limit the reproductive nature of contemporary educational systems is to adopt comprehensiveness in school edu­cation as a paramount principle of equality and democracy, and to fight a political struggle for it. T h e abolition of the dualism of general academic schools and vocational trade schools in secondary education is a great step forward in this respect. A logical continuation of such a step is to ensure that all students—and not only some or the majority—work manually in connection with their studies.

Another way to avoid being duped is to see to it that the aims of educational reform are m a d e clear to everybody. M u c h can be hidden

Andri

behind vague goals, especially if they are beauti­fully worded in a language that professes justice, has national connotations and rouses other feelings of belonging.

A third way is to create an alternative solution. This has been done from time immemorial, and the history of education shows us that most progress in education has been a long-term effect of such endeavours, especially when the school in question provided both (a) a better and more just pedagogic and social solution to felt needs, and (b) an experience to reflect upon for the lay and the learned alike.

M a n y people of goodwill have been and are experimenting with alternative education in the field of the interaction between education and work: to take a very few contemporary examples, the comprehensive high school at Ikere Ekiti in Nigeria, already described, the Serowe Brigades in Botswana and the Tvind schools in D e n m a r k m a y be mentioned. All these alternative schools have achieved some remarkable successes. All of them have met with great, sometimes almost insurmountable difficulties. This is no wonder. It is the domi­nating social relationships of a country that determine the nature of the productive work experience of the students. It is only in the con­text of a struggle against these relationships that alternative programmes can be implemented.10

Final remarks

At present, in m a n y countries of the world, people are seeking the means to realize the ageless h u m a n dream of making education harmonious by bridging the gap between the school curriculum, on the one hand, and the daily activities and obligations of people, as well as community needs, on the other. This quest for harmony, actively pursued in ancient and traditional societies, was later gradually abandoned mainly because of the influence which the great world religious had on edu­cation. Its revival has been attempted inter­mittently during the last three or four centuries, at first with scant practical results but since

Isaksson

the nineteenth century, with noteworthy suc­cess in certain individual cases. Its present vogue seems to indicate that modern societies, both developed and developing, increasingly feel the need for such harmony.

However closely the present trend for more interaction between education and work m a y be associated with the current world economic crisis, and whatever the prospects for finding some solution to that crisis m a y be, it seems likely that the said trend is going to be with us for a long time to come. So m a n y social, economic and political considerations seem to support this trend that it is difficult to see what changes in society and ideology could reverse it in the foreseeable future. Should elitism, for example, become more self-assured, undisguised and explicit in a country, this would probably alter the trend. But such a development does not seem likely. S o m e social situations thrive best in relative darkness.

It has been argued here that work-education interaction can and should be considered as something desirable and worthwhile. T h e ques­tion then arises of h o w it can be enhanced and expanded, its foundations m a d e more secure and its effects more profound. W h a t will be the place of consensus and conflict in this respect?

A s far as governments are concerned, estab­lishing a m i n i m u m national political consensus for developing the comprehensiveness of the educational system and encouraging the cor­responding educational practice, with an e m ­phasis on interlinking education and work, is a major and essential task. Governments could also give more support to promising alternative schemes relevant to this educational purpose.

Intergovernmental organizations competent in this field—Unesco and others—have an important role to play, especially by helping government officials, experts and enlightened readers in general to k n o w more about the concepts involved, the policies formulated in other countries, as well as various experiments carried out and the experience gained thereby. International discussions, particularly those or-

Reflections on education and work 447

ganized on a regional basis, and international publications are useful tools for achieving this end.

T h e public, and especially its non-élitist majority, should wage a constant political struggle for comprehensive education relevant to community and national needs. It should participate more in the work and management of schools. It should demand explicit goals, and it should encourage and defend experiments in operating alternative schools at the local and regional level.

It is essential that teachers and other edu­cational personnel act as the public's allies in such a struggle. Their main technical task in this regard is to devise, try out and con­stantly improve strategies, methods, materials and techniques appropriate for compehensive, work-related education. These should be adapt­able and problem-oriented—they should take into account the fact that h u m a n beings are neither similar nor very consistent.11

It is certainly no easy task to establish a socio-economically relevant and pedagogically sound educational system that emphasizes the interaction between education and work on all its levels. T h e necessity of wide participation, public pressure and various forms of non­violent conflict for bringing this about should not be underrated. •

Notes 1. This article isa modified and expanded version of an

article with the same title published in CODIESEE:

An Information and Liaison Newsletter, N o . 2 ,

April 1981. C O D I E S E E (Co-operation in Research

and Development for Educational Innovation in

Soudi-East Europe) is one of the co-operative net­

works of educational innovation operated by Unesco.

2. J. S. Brubacher, A History of the Problems of Education,

2nd ed., p . 268, N e w York, McGraw-Hill, 1966.

3. Ibid., Chapter 9, pp. 242-78.

4 . See W . Sjöstrand, Pedagogiska grundproblem i historisk

belysning [Basic Educational Problems as Illuminated

by History], pp. 117-18, L u n d , Sweden, Gleerups,

1970. 5. Especially the following two meetings : (a) International

Meeting of Experts on the Promotion of Productive

W o r k in Education, held at Unesco Headquarters,

Paris, 24-28 November 1980; and (b) Second C O ­

D I E S E E Meeting of Experts on Interaction be­

tween Education and W o r k , held in Budapest, 11-

13 November 1980.

6. Education in the Europe Region: Trends and Future

Outlook, p . 11, Paris, Unesco, 1980 (Document

E D - 8 0 / M I N E D E U R O P E / 3 , Third Conference of

Ministers of Education of M e m b e r States of the

Europe Region, Sofia, 12-21 June 1980).

7. Based on papers presented at the Budapest meeting

of experts mentioned in Note 5 above, especially the

report from Romania.

8. Based on the paper by G . B . Kanungo, ' W o r k and

Education in India—An Overview', presented at

the Paris meeting of experts mentioned in Note 5

above.

9. See the paper presented by Oyewole Jegede at the

Paris meeting of experts (see Note 5): 'Education for

Production as a Lever for Educational Development

in Nigeria: T h e African Church Comprehensive High

School, Ikere, Nigeria Experience'.

10. O n this item, see the paper presented by Martin

Carnoy at the Paris meeting of experts (see Note 5):

'Notes on Education and Productive W o r k ' .

11. See J. Galtung, The True Worlds: A Transnational

Perspective, p . xxiv, N e w York, Free Press, 1980.

T h e education of transition

Stephen Castles, Patrick van Rensburg and Pete Richer

These days, there is no need to campaign for the linking of education with production. In the last three decades, this principle has changed from an esoteric and—for m a n y policy­makers—outrageous demand to an established educational tenet. T h e trend has been away from humanist concepts of universal learning, and away from progressivist emphasis on the inner potential of the individual child. T h e n e w conventional wisdom is that school must prepare young people for working life, by providing them with basic technical and social skills, and that the best way of doing this is to introduce production in some form or other into the curriculum. T h e factors that contrib­uted to this change of attitude were the re-introduction of 'polytechnic education' in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, and its adoption throughout Eastern Europe; the worldwide educational debate arising from the Chinese Cultural Revolution; President Julius Nyerere's call for 'education for self-reliance' in 1967, which profoundly affected African educational

Stephen Castles (United Kingdom). Professor of

Political Economy at the Fachhochschule, Frankfurt am

Main, Federal Republic of Germany; editor of E d u ­

cation with Production,- co-author of Immigrant

Workers and Class Structure in Western Europe and

T h e Education of the Future.

Patrick van Rensburg (Botswana). South African

exile, founder of Swaneng Hill School and the Serowe

Brigades. Author of Report from Swaneng Hill,

T h e Serowe Brigades and Guilty Land. Director of

the Foundation for Education with Production.

Pete Richer, South African exile, former teacher,

administrator of the Foundation for Education with

Production.

thinking; and the introduction of 'work experi­ence' and 'social and life skills' components in secondary and further education in m a n y industrialized countries.

But, all too often, the apparent new consensus is nothing more than lip-service to what is seen as a methodological principle: the introduction of work into the curriculum appears as a way of increasing learning efficiency, on a par with, say, the use of audio-visual aids, or the replace­ment of frontal teaching with group work. T h e social and political implications of linking edu­cation with production are ignored or denied. A s a result of this prevailing approach, pro­ductive work is treated as one subject among others, rather than a structural principle that determines the contents of all subjects and the relationship between them. Productive work is seen as of secondary importance compared with the 'real' academic subjects, that is those which are certificated through examinations. Subjects relating to production and embodying a work experience component are reserved for 'academically less gifted' students. At the extreme, work experience schemes turn into a way of providing employers with cheap labour, and are condemned by trades unions (as hap­pened recently in the United Kingdom) . Pro­duction, and in particular manual work, is still regarded as inferior to mental work. Schools emphasizing production are seen as second-class institutions, to be avoided if possible.

This widespread approach to the role of production in education does nothing to change the functions of schooling in capitalist society: selection of a minority for leading positions, mainly on the criteria of class origin; rejection of the vast majority, through mechanisms de-

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

450 Stephen Castles, Patrick van Rensburg and Pete Richer

signed to instil a consciousness of individual failure; social control of youth; and preparation for wage labour, by passing on the required cultural capabilities and social attitudes.

But, w e argue, a full understanding of the political, economic and social implications of the principle of linking education with production can have far-reaching consequences. These transcend the artificial boundaries of the edu­cational enclave, and lead to n e w relationships between learning and working, between manual and mental work, and between work and poli­tics. Comprehension of these implications, and conscious striving for their realization, can m a k e the linking of learning with production into the fundamental element of an education of transition: a contribution to the development of social consciousness required for the trans­formation of society. It is to develop this potential that the Foundation for Education with Production (FEP) was established in 1980 by a group of African educationalists. In this article w e shall look at the theoretical basis for the foundation's work, and then describe its current activities.

Objectives of linking education with production

T h e principle of linking education with pro­duction only needs to be asserted where the two are in fact divided. In traditional African societies, there was no such division. Learning took place within the community in the rhythm of the daily realities of social life and work. There was no need for school or teachers: the community itself was the school and all its members were both learners and teachers. Here the division between education and production results from the dissolution of traditional modes of production through colonialism. T h e pro­cess was continued by the cultural imperialism of mission schools, which imposed an abstract religion, that is, one unrelated to the community (unlike African religions, which are an organic part of social life), and hence developed abstract learning. In Europe, the original division be­

tween education and production coincides with the destruction of traditional forms of production and community life during the period of'primi­tive accumulation' of capital.1 Lack of education only became a problem with the Industrial Revolution.

But this problem posed itself quite differ­ently to different classes. T o the n e w industrial bourgeoisie, lack of education of the workers was a problem because it led to lack of labour discipline and to social disorder. T h e solution was found in schools which instilled the work ethic, behavioural forms like punctuality and obedience, and some basic cultural capabilities (the three Rs). T h e earliest schools for workers in capitalism were to be found in workhouses, which prepared destitute children for the fac­tory. Indeed, the 'school of industry' was in m a n y places the first historical stage of the factory system. Although this was education for production, its contents were abstract and unrelated to social and economic reality. Chil­dren were compelled to accept obedience to authority as a religious precept, enforced by corporal punishment. A contemporary example of this type of preparation for subordinate labour is the Bantu Education of South Africa. In more advanced countries, the content of schooling has long since become more complex, as the need for skilled and specialized forms of labour has developed. But the abstraction of learning has remained. Unable to deny edu­cation to its workers, the ruling class has retained control by ensuring that its contents are as compartmentalized as possible. Students are m a d e into narrow specialists, with no con­cept of the totality of social and economic relationships that governs their lives.

For the working class, on the other hand, lack of education appears in a different light. F r o m its earliest beginnings, the labour m o v e ­ment has been conscious that capitalist control is based not only on economic and military might, but also on a monopoly of the knowledge needed to plan, organize and run the production process. T h e historical division between manual and mental labour is a powerful instrument of domination. So the labour movement demanded

T h e education of transition 4SI

access to education for workers, and set up its o w n study groups, reading-rooms and edu­cational institutions. Clearly, the demand could not be for merely more of the same education that was being dished out in church and state schools, but for a qualitatively different type of education, defined in a more modern context by Ngugi w a Thiong'o as follows:

Education should transmit a culture that inculcates in the people a consciousness that m a n through his labour power is the creator of his social environment and that in the same way that m a n acts on nature and changes it, he can also act on his social environment and change it and in the process change himself.2

T h e labour movement's demand for the bridg­ing of the gulf separating manual and mental labour was most clearly expressed by Marx , in his call for a 'totally developed individual, for w h o m the different social functions are differ­ent modes of activity he takes up in turn'.3

Every worker should take part both in pro­duction and in the planning and organization of production. Moreover, the producers them­selves should determine the aims of production, the distribution of the product, and participate in the social, political and cultural relation­ships ensuing from this type of production. T h e corollary was a system of lifelong learning, in which there would be no distinction between worker and student, teacher and learner. M a r x called for a broadly based polytechnic edu­cation, which would make workers capable of understanding and controlling the economic and technological forces of industrial society. This goal was to be achieved through a n e w type of learning, linked to productive work at all ages, and in which everybody would receive mental education, physical training and technological instruction.4 Rather than quoting the objectives of polytechnic education from M a r x himself, w e shall present them here as paraphrased and applied to modern post-colonial society by Ngugi:

Provision of mental education. This would aim at developing the mental capacities of the people. People should be taught their history, their art, their literature, their theatre, their dances first before

being taught other people's cultural achievements. Their history, art, literature, theatre, dances, should be interpreted from the point of view of the needs of the majority: the workers and peasants. In this context, political education is crucial. B y this I don't mean education for conformity but a political edu­cation that raises people's awareness and particularly their awareness of the social forces at work. This education should endow a people with a scientific understanding of the laws governing nature and society: that is, endow them with a scientific under­standing of the world.

Provision of physical education. This would aim at producing healthy strong individuals. This would produce vigorous minds and bodies fully prepared in their twin struggle with nature and with other m e n . This would include everything from the simplest gymnastics to military training. A people must be in a position to defend the gains of their history. T h e whole people should be in a state of military pre­paredness to defend their revolution. A standing army should only be the highest concentrated ex­pression of the military preparedness of the whole people.

Economic and technological education through involvement in production. Everybody ought to be involved in productive labour. Every child should be taught some technological skill which would enable him or her to engage in direct productive labour. T h e aim should be to turn everybody into a producer, so that the nation eventually becomes an association of producers w h o are masters of their natural and social environment. T h e aim is to pro­duce a producer, a thinker and a fighter all integrated in the same individual.5

Here is a clear statement of the importance of linking education with production, and of its social and political implications. T h e type of education envisaged is, of course, neither the product of M a r x nor of Ngugi. It is the ex­pression of the educational needs of classes struggling for emancipation. That is w h y edu­cation of this type—though in somewhat vary­ing forms—has arisen from every social rev­olution of the twentieth century, from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979. It should be obvious that education with production in this context is not merely a n e w element tacked onto the curriculum, but a structural principle governing

452 Stephen Castles, Patrick van Rensburg and Pete Richer

the structure of the whole learning process, and the contents and relationships of all the subjects.6

Phases of education for transition

But educational alternatives alone cannot change repressive and exploitative societies, as the early Utopian socialists dreamt. Rather, they must be linked to the struggle of national liberation movements, workers' organizations and other progressive groups. T h e relationship between education and social change is dialec­tical: in their economic and social struggles, workers c o m e to understand the need for greater knowledge of science and technology. T h e ensuing struggle to change, establish and control learning systems in a hostile environment be­comes an integral part of the wider fight for change. A n example for this relationship is the enormous interest in education to be found in all workers' and national liberation movements of southern Africa. T h e fight against Bantu education in South Africa has played a key role in the development of the struggle in recent years; it was a major factor in the Soweto rising of 1976. M a n y of the young blacks forced to flee their country after the rising sought secondary, higher and vocational education, understanding these to be vital weapons in the liberation struggle. Similarly, educational discrimination in Smith's Rhodesia caused m a n y people to join the fight for a free and democratic Z i m b a b w e .

However, if educational and social trans­formation are always closely linked, the precise form of the relationship varies according to historical circumstances. W e m a y differentiate between three stages. First, capitalist societies, in which the economic and political power of the bourgeoisie, and the resulting cultural hegemony, have not been seriously questioned. Second, former colonies which have thrown off foreign rule under the leadership of national liberation movements committed to the trans­formation of social and economic structures, but in which national or multinational capital

still maintains a large degree of power. Thirdly, socialist societies, in which economy and social relationships have already been reshaped to prevent domination by national or multinational capital. It is only in this third stage that edu­cation can fully take on the task described above: that of contributing to the further growth and development of economy and so­ciety, while at the same time helping to develop people's ability to control and plan production in their o w n collective interests. In other words, education here must contribute to the develop­ment of the c new m a n ' or 'totally developed individual' which is the aim of socialism.

T h e work of the Foundation for Education with Production is concerned with the first two stages of transition: our aim is to stimulate and support educational alternatives in capitalist countries, and to assist governments, parties and liberation movements that wish to change education in countries in transition from capi­talism to socialism. W h a t type of innovations are w e talking about? Essentially any edu­cational schemes which link learning with productive work, which reduce the gulf be­tween school and social life and between mental and manual work, which permit experiences of self-determined activity, and which allow con­trol by participants and the community. T h e organizational focus for such innovations varies: it m a y be within Third World rural develop­ment projects, or in citizens' environmental groups in industrialized countries; it m a y be part of the political education programme of a liberation movement , a trade union, or a peasants' organization; it m a y be a type of school that links education with production, or a producer co-operative that emphasizes the training and education of its members: it m a y be part of a community-run pre-school or out-of-school project.

Alternatives in capitalism

In capitalist countries, innovations tend to be m a d e outside the state education system, like the Brigades in Botswana, the North American

The education of transition 453

Indian Survival Schools, the Mondragon C o ­operative Experience of the Basque Country, the '150 hours' worker-education schemes in Italy. But often it is difficult to say whether a project is 'inside the system' or not in countries where state funding is passed on to non-state executive organizations. Both the Danish Tvind schools and the British R O S L A projects for unemployed school-leavers, for example, rely heavily on state finance, which always brings dangers of dependence, co-option and control. In m a n y cases, innovations m a d e by alternative projects outside the system are taken up by teachers, social workers and adult educators, w h o attempt to introduce reforms into state education. Despite opposition and repression from the authorities, such initiatives have had an important impact on schooling in the last few decades. In industrialized countries the current educational crisis, which reflects the deepening economic and social crisis, makes it difficult for those in power to reject out of hand innovations which offer n e w economic, social and cultural perspectives to the people. A n d such innovations, by showing the way beyond capitalist and technocratic forms of learning and working, act as a 'revolutionary ferment' that helps to change popular con­sciousness, and generate further pressure for change. Perhaps the best example of successful pressure for innovation within the system is the work of the M o d e r n School M o v e m e n t (Freinet Pedagogy) in France.

Alternative projects which regard themselves as part of the education of transition are likely to encounter serious difficulties. Explicitly or implicitly, they question the dominant struc­tures and values of society. Such projects are generally desperately short of resources, and are forced to compete with powerful economic and political forces in a hostile environment. T h e essence of the contradiction for alternative projects is that they attempt to show the way beyond the existing system by developing n e w forms of learning and work, and yet they have to survive within the very system that they negate. This dilemma, and the difficulties it causes, are well illustrated by the example of

the Serowe Brigades in Botswana, as has been documented in a previous article in Prospects.1

Economically, alternatives aim to develop n e w working relationships, qualitatively dif­ferent from the authoritarian structures pre­vailing in capitalist enterprises. All workers and students must take part in planning and management, but usually lack the knowledge necessary for this. A large educational input is therefore needed, especially in the early stages of a project, but this reduces time and resources available for production. T h e result m a y be poor productivity and inability to compete on the market. This can be catastrophic: no project can survive for long on political m o ­tivation alone, if it is unable to offer decent conditions to its participants. Badly conceived alternative projects can be harmful, causing resignation and passivity a m o n g their m e m b e r s . This problem can only be solved by long-term planning of projects, taking account of questions of technology, finance, markets, accounting and productivity. Special attention must be given to the question of starting capital, using government resources (where politically poss­ible), donor finance, or revolving funds based on existing projects.

T h e contradiction expresses itself on the social level in the problems of attitudes towards work, distribution and investment. T h e pre­vious socialization of most participants is based on individualism and competitivity. Often these values are linked to experiences of powerlessness and lack of control over the natural and social environment. Subjects like development studies, management studies and political education can help to change attitudes, but the process m a y be so long drawn out as to endanger the survival of a project. This situation is less likely to arise where the alternatives grow out of the experience and aspirations of the par­ticipants, rather than being imported models, alien to the people concerned. In any case, adequate preparation is essential, which in this context means planning conscientization as an integral part of the project.

Politically, the contradictory position of alternative projects manifests itself in conflicts

454 Stephen Castles, Patrick van Rensburg and Pete Richer

with governments or other dominant groupings. At the mildest, such conflicts take the form of lack of co-operation or funding, or of legal barriers to democratic and participatory struc­tures. In liberal-democratic countries, alterna­tives m a y be tolerated in the hope that they will either fail of their o w n accord, or be co-opted into the prevailing system—and diverted from their original aims. Reactionary or racist regimes often suppress educational alternatives, and arrest their members as a danger to state security. T h e n projects can only survive clan­destinely, or in exile, which compounds all the other problems already mentioned. T h e only solution to the political contradiction lies in a close alliance with workers' and peasants' organizations, national liberation movements and other progressive forces. A n y educational projects that try to work in isolation from the general struggle for transformation of society will fail.

Education in the transition from capitalism to socialism

In Third World countries that have thrown off colonialist or neo-colonialist rule, the re­lation between state and educational alterna­tives is a different one. Mental decolonization and the demand for a n e w non-élitist type of education are part of the liberation struggle in countries like the United Republic of Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Nicaragua. E d u ­cational transformation belongs to the pro­grammes of governments, parties and mass organizations. Here, innovations are likely to start within state education systems. T h e Tanzanian 'education for self-reliance' pro­g r a m m e , Nicaragua's National Literacy Crusade and Mozambique's n e w curriculum illustrate this. But the existence of the political will to change education does not mean that the basic problems of transformation have been solved. Such countries face political isolation and press­ure, the threat of investment strikes or with­drawal of skilled personnel by multinational capital, and, above all, economic underdevelop­

ment, which severely restricts educational re­sources. This dilemma is not new: it m a y be found in the history of every revolution since 1917. T h e conflict between 'polytechnic' and 'monotechnic' education, which was fought out in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1931,8

reappears every time a n e w social system has to decide on its educational priorities. T h e basic issue is whether to concentrate resources on a 'cultural revolution'—that is, on raising the cultural and political level of the whole popu­lation—so as to ensure the implementation of the social and political aims of the revolution, or whether to concentrate on the rapid train­ing of economic, administrative and military experts, to ensure rapid growth and state security. T h e first option m a y result in counter­revolution from outside: defeat by powerful external military and economic forces. T h e second option m a y lead to counter-revolution from inside: the rise of a n e w bureaucratic and technocratic élite, which cnanot be controlled by workers and peasants w h o lack basic edu­cation.

T h e only acceptable solution to the dilemma is to reject the false dichotomy, and to find ways of combining mass conscientization with rapid training of large numbers of experts. A lot can be learned from the solutions adopted to deal with this problem by countries like Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or Yugoslavia. Analysing such exper­ience and adapting it to the needs of newly liberated countries is an important task. A n attempt in this direction was the Seminar on Education in Zimbabwe—Past, Present and Future, held in August and September 1981 by the Zimbabwean Ministry of Education and Culture, in co-operation with the Swedish D a g Hammarskjöld Foundation and the Foun­dation for Education with Production.9 T w o hundred Zimbabwean educationalists, together with thirty foreign delegates—mainly from socialist countries—examined the problems of the education system, and discussed strategies for introducing socialist principles.

Zimbabwe has achieved national liberation, and has a government committed to building a

T h e education of transition 455

socialist society, but so far, economy, society and state apparatus are still essentially those inherited from the racist-capitalist Smith regime. Industry is dominated by multinational capital, working hand in hand with a local white bourgeoisie. T h e highly efficient c o m ­mercial farming sector is dominated by white-owned capital. Most blacks are still impov­erished peasant farmers, or poorly paid workers in agriculture, industry or services. T h e average white still earns thirty-nine times as m u c h as the average black. T h e state apparatus at the middle and lower levels remains dominated by officials appointed and trained by the previous regime, w h o can do m u c h to obstruct changes ordered by the n e w political leadership. T h e education system of Rhodesia gave a high standard of general and vocational education to all whites, while denying anything but the most basic schooling to the overwhelming majority of blacks.

T h e dilemma described in general terms above expresses itself for Zimbabwe in the following contradiction: the pre-condition for transformation is the education and training of large numbers of experts w h o are committed to a n e w form of development in the interests of the masses; but the very structure of the existing educational and social system prevents such education and training. In the period of transition, therefore, all the different modes of education must be seen as components of an overall and integrated strategy of education for socio-economic development. This strategy will require state intervention and participation in industry, agriculture and infrastructure, and in the provision of social services in both town and country. It will require the diversion of surpluses and profits obtained in capital-intensive sectors, towards promotion of more labour-intensive production. It will require the establishment of co-operative and collective enterprises in industry and agriculture, within a strongly supported programme of employment creation, resulting from the initiatives of the communities themselves. Education in schools, polytechnics, universities, teachers' colleges, literacy campaigns, adult education, distance

education, workers' and peasants' education—in other words, all education both in and out of schools—must be seen as closely interlinked and having the same socio-economic aims: namely to prepare workers and peasants for managerial and technical control of the economy and administration, and to provide leadership for co-operative rural development and the advancement of the urban poor.

It is against this background that the specific recommendations of the seminar were m a d e : curriculum must be Zimbabwe-orientated and mass-orientated. It must depart from colonialist models, and be concerned with Africa and the Third World. Shona and Sendebele are to be used along with English in all schools. E d u ­cation with production is to be a basic principle for all types of education. Z i m b a b w e should set up its o w n examinations board, as the present examinations—set and marked in the United Kingdom—are irrelevant to Zimbabwean con­ditions. Administrative and educational struc­tures are to be changed to permit democratic participation by students, parents and the c o m ­munity. A large-scale literacy campaign is to be launched to allow Zimbabwe's estimated 1.9 million illiterates full participation in econ­omic, social and political life. This campaign should be part of a programme of basic adult education, linked with skill improvement and the development of popular culture. Priority is to be given to education of those whose schooling was interrupted by the war, of w o m e n and of the dis­abled. T h e findings of the seminar are regarded by the Zimbabwean Government as a guide to policy-making. T h e next stage is an intensive follow-up process, in which the ideas will be discussed at provincial, district and local levels.

The role of the Foundation for Education with Production

T h e aim of the foundation is to provide an international network of resources to support and encourage educational innovation. There is a great fund of knowledge on n e w types of learning throughout the world, but this k n o w -

456 Stephen Castles, Patrick van Rensburg and Pete Richer

ledge is virtually inaccessible to those w h o need it: the governments, liberation movements, workers' and peasants' organizations, and cul­tural associations w h o want to make education an instrument of transition. It is easy for Third World educationalists to get advice and help in setting up Western-style elitist education systems, but it is m u c h harder to get infor­mation on mass-based pedagogy, for the groups concerned lack the resources to m a k e the results of their work k n o w n . T h e foundation aims to provide such information by: Publishing a quarterly journal called Education

with Production as an international forum for discussion on the linking of learning with productive work. T h e first issue was due out in November 1981.

Publishing a series of directories of alternative projects, and of handbooks on h o w to set up projects such as educational co-operatives, or schools linking education with production.

Preparing and distributing curricula, syllabuses, teaching material and audio-visual material for such projects.

Establishing a publishing and printing house to support the work of the foundation and of alternative education projects.

Providing advice and consultancy services for alternative projects, as well as for govern­ments and organizations concerned with edu­cational innovation.

Recruiting and training project leaders, teachers

and organizers. Conducting international and local seminars

and courses. Facilitating communication between projects in

different countries, and promoting mutual support.

T h e second part of FEP's work is the estab­lishment of national and regional committees. At present, F E P has the structure of a trust, controlled by a Board of Trustees comprising educationalists from several African countries. Day-to-day work is carried out by a secretariat based in Botswana. This structure is intended for an initial three-year period, during which F E P will stimulate the formation of national committees in various countries. These will

link up people involved in innovative projects in the country concerned, providing them with a forum for discussion and communication, both among themselves and with colleagues in other countries. A s they develop, the national committees will be able to expand projects and set up n e w ones, and to stimulate public interest. W h e n there are enough national c o m ­mittees in a region (such as southern Africa, the Caribbean, Western Europe—our main areas of work at present,10 they will be able to set up regional committees to improve co­ordination. However, this process is only just be­ginning. Interim national committees have been established in Zambia and the United Kingdom. A Zimbabwean Foundation for Education with Production has also been established, which co-operates with the international F E P .

T h e third area of work for F E P is the setting up of its o w n projects. These permit action research in developing and testing n e w ways of linking education with production. They can play a vanguard role in countries where edu­cational innovation would otherwise be lacking, and they provide opportunities for the training of teachers, organizers and administrators. O n e of the first activities of F E P after its estab­lishment in 1980 was to assist Z A N U - P F (Zimbabwe African National Union/Patriotic Front) in setting up the Rusununguko School—a secondary school combining education with production near Harare. This school was de­signed to take students and teachers w h o had been refugees or guerrillas in Mozambique during the Liberation W a r . It is based on self-reliance: students and teachers are constructing the school themselves, and are producing food for their o w n consumption. T h e Rusununguko School is managed by the Zimbabwean Foun­dation for Education with Production, which was set up for that purpose, but which is n o w also getting involved in further similar projects. F E P is also helping to establish an educational co-operative in Botswana. Young unemployed rural-urban migrants are being provided with land, equipment and materials, and being trained in building and agriculture. They also have courses in development studies, book-

T h e education

keeping and co-operative management. After three years, the instructors and teachers will be withdrawn, leaving the co-operative members as owners and managers of an enterprise that will give them permanent employment. F E P is in touch with similar projects providing education and employment for young people in both Third World and industrialized countries. A comparative action research project is planned to evaluate these models, and to m a k e their lessons available to others, in order to stimulate the growth of producer co-operatives providing both education and employment.

FEP' s three fields of activities are, in practice, closely linked. Together they form a strategy designed to show real possibilities of innovation and change, to encourage and assist groups that undertake such initiatives, and to provide op­portunities for joint analysis and exchange of experience. T h e pressure for change derives from the inability of conventional education to meet people's cultural aspirations, and to prepare them to deal with the pressing problems of economic and social restructuring. It derives from the inability of the economies of both industrialized and Third World countries to provide employment for a growing number of school-leavers. Only n e w forms of education that link learning with productive work can provide a solution to these problems. In doing so, they will develop a n e w social dynamic: they will not merely quantitatively improve education, they will provide a n e w type of learning involving attitudes of self-reliance and self-determination, as well as the ability to plan and control production and to do both manual and mental work. This is the role of the education of transition in reshaping society to meet popular needs. •

Notes i. It is significant that the first social-critical writings,

which embody plans for a n e w type of education, arise at this time. Sir T h o m a s More's Utopia is the earliest and best-known example.

of transition

2. Ngugi w a Thiong'o, 'Education for a National Culture', paper presented at the Seminar on E d u ­cation in Zimbabwe—Past, Present and Future, held at the University of Zimbabwe, 27 August to 7 September 1981.

3. Karl M a r x , Capital, Vol. 1, p. 618, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1976.

4. T h e 1866 'Geneva Resolution' of the General Council of the International Workingmen's Association, in Karl M a r x , The First International and After, pp. 88-9, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1974.

5. Ngugi, op. cit. 6. This concept is most clearly and practically developed

in the writings of N . K . Krupskaya and other early Soviet educationalists on the 'complex' or 'project' method. See Stephen Castles and Wiebke Wüstenberg, The Education of the Future, London, Pluto Press, 1979.

7. Patrick van Rensburg, ' A N e w Look at the Serowe Brigades', Prospects, Vol. X , N o . 4 , 1980.

8. See Castles and Wüstenberg, op. cit. 9. This seminar was the fourth in a series of seminars on

educational alternatives in Africa, sponsored by the D a g Hammarskjöld Foundation. T h e first, on ' E d u ­cation and Training and Alternatives in Education'a was held in Dar es Salaam in 1974; the proceedings are published in Development Dialogue, T-li^â, (ob­tainable from the D a g Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden). T h e second, on 'Another Devel­opment in Education', was held in Maputo in 1978 {Development Dialogue, 2/1978). T h e third, on ' E d u ­cation and Culture for Liberation' was held in Lusaka in 1980, with representatives of the main southern African liberation movements. T h e proceedings have been published by the Foundation for Education with Production, and m a y be obtained from our Botswana address. T h e proceedings of the Zimbabwe seminar will be published shortly.

10. Information on the work of the foundation m a y be obtained from: Foundation for Education with Pro­duction, P . O . Box 20906, Gaborone, Botswana (telephone: Gaborone 51376; telegraph: F E P G A B O ­R O N E ) ; M s Merryn Cooke, 15 T o m e s Road, Manchester, M 2 1 2 X F , United Kingdom; M s Wiebke Wüstenberg, Fachbereich Sozialpädagogik, Fach­hochschule Frankfurt, Limeskorso 9, 6000 Frankfurt a m Main , Federal Republic of Germany. Orders for Education with Production should be sent to the Bots­wana address.

Education and work in Bulgaria

Dimitar Tzvetkov

Education and productive work are two basic elements of the socialization of the younger generation. However, as the content and struc­ture of socialization through these two elements differ, it is essential that education and work be integrated, for only thus can both processes fulfil their educational function, each c o m p ­lementing and enriching the other. This is in fact the idea behind the Marxist-Leninist view that education (including physical education) and productive work should be integrated, and that this is the basic method of producing an integrated personality and increasing production in general.

Socialist schools have already acquired con­siderable experience in working on this idea and putting it into effect. Drawing on this experi­ence, acquired by Bulgaria and the other social­ist countries, w e shall examine a n u m b e r of problems and trends that w e consider sig­nificant.

General principles

A s a result of the technical and scientific revol­ution and of the far-reaching social changes that have taken place in our country, w e have begun to ascribe more importance to education for participation in work; in other words w e stress the formative function of the integration of education and work.

T h e traditional conflict between intellectual and physical activity is the source of the contra-

Dimitar Tzvetkov (Bulgaria). Director-General of the Centre for Research on Education, Sofia.

dictions that follow in the wake of economic and social progress. T h e age w e live in and our social life are becoming increasingly complex and wide in scope and m a k e it necessary for the individual to expand his cultural horizons con­stantly, and adjust rapidly to n e w conditions. Neither productive work nor education alone suffice to mould the gifted and balanced per­sonality that is required for this; only the combined effect of these two social activities can form character in this way. This approach is dictated by the sophisticated methods used in industrial and agro-industrial work, its ration­alization, and the complexity of the social relationships involved, which call for a higher level of general and vocational training.

Education is spiritually edifying, and expands one's political, moral and scientific horizons, shapes one's intellectual abilities and is the source of cultural and aesthetic aspirations and of one's scale of values, as well as being a preparation for vocational and social activities.

Participation in the production of goods changes the social status of the individual and his motives for acting as he does engender intellectual, practical and moral qualities. Pro­ductive work is a means of acquiring knowledge of the unchanging laws of nature and of society and at the same time it affords opportunities for direct contact with nature and for numerous and varied relationships with other people. T h e n e w kind of motivation and the change in behaviour that productive work induces can usefully complement the formative role of edu­cation.

T h e educational potential of work is limited, in so far as every physical activity inhibits the intellectual and spiritual development of the

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

Dimitar

individual and uses up his energy. It should also be borne in mind that the knowledge and the experience gained through work are mainly empirical and will not alone suffice to throw the light of theory on reality. Education and work are thus mutually beneficial, each compensating for the other's shortcomings.

T h e integration of education and of work in this manner, and, on a more universal level, of culture and of work, is the key to enhancing the social and moral qualities of the individual.

In the educational field (defined for our pur­poses as the assimilation of knowledge and skills as well as their application to real life), the inte­gration of education and work links theory to practical activities, endows vocational activity with meaning (scientific and social as well as personal) and makes purely theoretical k n o w ­ledge of social practices more tangible and relevant. Educational systems have always had to grapple with the dilemma of theory and practice. School endeavours to pass on to youngsters an abstract synthesis of conceptual­ized social experiences. However, in view of the constraints imposed by the age of school chil­dren, and even considering the possibilities offered by lifelong education, the link between theory and practice is far from strong. T h e importance of fully assimilating the cultural heritage is not sufficiently understood, and the knowledge imparted in school is imbued with formalism.

This is w h y participation in varied tasks, in all the social activities of the productive under­takings and units, and its integration with the culture that is inculcated at school is of prime importance in improving cognitive motivation and the usefulness of knowledge, and in con­tributing to a theory of productive activity. T h e integration of education and productive work links up m a n y aspects of theory and practice and thus contributes to the attainment of maturity, in spiritual as well as in practical matters, and the all-round fulfilment of the individual. Without this c o m m o n ground, edu­cation becomes a routine and an end in itself and work an ineffective social activity.

As far as one's health is concerned, the

Tzvetkov

integration of education and work makes for invigorating rest periods and it restores and stimulates physical and mental activity. Even though the practical and theoretical educational value ascribed to work as an integral part of the educational process is based on hypoth­eses—which have, as it happens, been corrob­orated by the experience of socialist schools, and by experiments carried out long before, by R . O w e n , for instance—the positive effect on health of the alternation of physical and intel­lectual work has been confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt by psychophysiological tests. This process of alternation is one of the con­ditions guaranteeing the physical and mental health of the individual and his capacity for work.

T h e integration of education and productive work implies the interaction of two extremes —whether seen as practical and theoretical education, education and work, or the school and the sphere of production—that are c o m p ­lementary and work together, although the school retains its function of leadership and co-ordination. T h e substance of their interac­tion is determined by the scientific, polytech-nical, moral and aesthetic principles of edu­cation and work.

T h e opportunities afforded by the integration of education and productive work vary accord­ing to the conditions obtaining in each country and in each situation. T h e conditions that are conducive to this process include an advanced general level of education that goes beyond elementary knowledge; the participation of all young people in productive work; a positive attitude towards education and work; multi­lateral connections between theory and practice; and the existence of an equitable system of laws governing intellectual and physical work. However, the most important are still the democratization of education, public ownership of the means of production, the guarantee of the right to work and the abolition of all forms of exploitation of child labour.

Education and work in Bulgaria 461

Current experiments and problems

T h e practical side of the integration of edu­cation and work involves all the activities pursued in today's schools. W e shall confine ourselves here to analysing various problems and trends that appear to us to be of topical interest.

PRODUCTIVE W O R K BY THE PUPILS

In Bulgaria our system of participation in pro­ductive work covers three different kinds of activity.

T h e first type covers the forms of productive work that are considered as an integral part and an extension of the polytechnical education dispensed by the primary schools, and that offer an introductory vocational training before the start of secondary school. This type of work helps the pupil to assimilate the basics of scientific, technical and economic knowledge, as well as teaching him operational skills with machines that are easy to handle, using simple techniques.

In line with the content of manual and poly­technical education (from the first to the eighth year), that of the subjects leading to a vocational activity (from the ninth to the eleventh year of the general secondary schools) and that of the first three years of the vocational schools, the pupils take a practical course in which they apply their theoretical knowledge and assimilate practical skills, a psychological barrier that must be overcome if they are to rise above the tra­ditional division of labour and avoid subjection to monotonous and compartmentalized tasks. T h e polytechnical orientation of manual edu­cation in primary schools and of vocational education in secondary schools is a prerequisite for improving professional qualifications, for greater occupational mobility and for the devel­opment of a constructive and creative attitude towards work. It is obvious that these concrete aims can also be attained by carrying out

practical exercises, but to m o v e on from such exercises to the creation of material goods will serve only to reinforce the motivation to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, while pro­ductive work, under the right conditions, re­alizes economic as well as formal and non-formal educational objectives that are m u c h more important than those pursued by poly­technical and vocational teaching.

W e should emphasize here that the inte­gration of education and productive work on the one hand, and polytechnical education on the other hand, although they both represent aims that are of significance to socialist schools, are nevertheless not identical. Within the frame­work of polytechnical education, productive work is not only one of the ways in which the pupils participate in production, on the other hand, polytechnical education does not cover all the abundant possibilities offered by edu­cational curricula in general.

Viewed as an integral part of the polytechnical and vocational activity of the pupils, productive work covers two hours a week from the first to the eighth year, and between four and twelve hours a week in the general secondary schools and the vocational schools. A period of full-time productive activity is organized at the end of the ninth and the tenth years of study.

This type of participation in productive work will become increasingly widespread in the future, as our objective is to improve poly­technical and practical training at primary-school level and to develop diversified vocational training in the secondary schools.

F r o m the first to the eighth year, the work takes place in school workshops' experimental plots; from the ninth to the eleventh year, in inter-school polytechnical centres or otherwise in special training workshops attached to pro­ductive undertakings. M o s t of these conclude contracts with the schools to ensure a regular output; however, difficulties arise with regard to the provision of raw materials, machines and tools, particularly in the school workshops and the inter-school polytechnical centres. It is for this reason that, after an initial practical training in the school workshops, the pupils, mainly

462 Dimitar Tzvetkov

from secondary schools, are sent to the pro­duction units where they produce material goods that are of commercial value. Other difficulties occur at this level: the compart-mentalization and monotony of the tasks, u n -familiarity with the equipment, the lack of vacant posts. Despite this, the experience gained in productive work in industrial firms and agro-industrial complexes has proved particularly beneficial from the economic and educational viewpoints.

T h e second type of activity covers productive work that is not directly linked to polytechnical and vocational education. It is devised and organized mainly by the school welfare as­sociations and by the management of industrial or agricultural firms. T h e aim of this type of activity is to carry out important economic tasks, such as the harvesting of fruit and veg­etables, of medicinal plants and wild fruits, the collection of household rubbish and other waste, helping out on building sites, the pro­tection and restoration of the natural environ­ment, reafforestation and the upkeep of parks. A n example of this is provided by the m o v e ­ment Pioneer W o r k for the Homeland, one of whose activities is the so-called Tioneer For­est—1300', that commemorates the 1300th anni­versary of the founding of the Bulgarian state. Concurrent with these short-term activities k n o w n as 'days of work', ' s u m m e r brigades' and 'work and rest camps', other permanent forms of extracurricular work are to be found, although not on a large scale. These are the 'school workshops and factories', the exper­imental plots, the annual agricultural brigades, the brigades that carry out all kinds of repairs on the school premises, in forestry under­takings, greenhouses, etc. T h e success of the 'Pioneer Factory' experiment, attached to the E L P R O M factory in Varna, of the agricultural brigade of Bregovo, a district of Vidin, of 'Management of the Forest' in the town of Biala, and of m a n y others deserves mention here. S o m e of these activities do not require very specialized qualifications, yet are of great value to the community, and the pupils them­selves take an active part in their organization.

All in all, they are very successful educational ventures.

T h e third type of activity includes the par­ticipation of the pupils in different tasks during the s u m m e r holidays, on an individual basis, which provides them with a source of pocket money. Although less widespread, this activity also fulfils several educational aims.

T h e above-mentioned forms of productive work are typical of all the socialist states, but each country tends to use different ones. Thus , for example, the s u m m e r brigades at local, national and international levels in the construc­tion industry and in agriculture, and extra­curricular work in general, are significant tra­ditions in the U S S R , in the G e r m a n Democratic Republic and in Bulgaria. W o r k carried out on the premises of productive undertakings or in school is characteristic of the G e r m a n D e m o ­cratic Republic and of Bulgaria. T h e U S S R has long experience of the permanent agri­cultural brigades. In the G e r m a n Democratic Republic, the pupils participate very early on in industrial and agricultural work. T h e percen­tage of pupils in the vocational secondary schools w h o participate regularly and on a routine basis in productive work also varies from country to country.

THE EDUCATIONAL ROLE

OF PRODUCTIVE W O R K

T h e main aims pursued in this field are as follows: to shape a creative and responsible attitude towards work and all workers, and form skills and practices relating to work that are socially useful, as a basic form of self-expression and affirmation of individual identity; to round off polytechnical and vocational training and inculcate organizational capacities, the ability to set oneself aims and to pursue them, to take decisions and to assess situations, and the desire perpetually to improve one's education and qualifications; to turn to account the oppor­tunities afforded by the all-round nature of work and of life on the collective farms in the development of the individual, as m u c h on the

Education and

moral and aesthetic as on the intellectual and physical levels.

T h e experience acquired in Bulgaria shows that in order to realize these aims a number of conditions, both of an objective and subjective nature, need to be fulfilled.

T h e performance of work that is economically profitable and truly useful from the point of view of society, and which involves direct participation in the implementation of the econ­omic plans in the industrial or agricultural domains, can be of assistance in attaining their objectives. This would also be facilitated by, for instance, a system of contracts listing the mutual obligations of the school and the pro­ductive undertaking, the specification of stan­dards to be met in this connection, and observ­ance of the objectives of the plan and the budget and of the technological standards that determine the quality of the output. It is obvious that these requirements are not always met, because quite often the pupils are assigned secondary or auxiliary tasks. However, there are m a n y schools whose output is considerable and whose profits are so large that they could justifiably lay claim to financial autonomy (examples are the vocational secondary school of the town of Plovdiv and the 'Kirov' tech­nician in Sofia).

Payment for the work is divided between the pupils and a fund set aside for such pur­poses as improving the school premises and meeting the cost of excursions. In some cases payment m a y take the form of meat, fruit and vegetables, which are used in the school re­fectories.

T h e educational role of work is dependent above all on the energy and the organizational abilities of the pupils. Active participation in the planning, organization, supervision and as­sessment of the work considerably enhances the social value of their experience, helps them towards maturity, and gives them a sense of responsibility and initiative. Management ex­perience, and the constraints and co-operation that are part of work and imposed by the working environment, shape the social con­science and the behaviour of the individual.

in Bulgaria 463

T h e effort involved, and the sustained physi­cal and mental exertion, are undeniable sources of satisfaction, given the resulting sense of achievement and the approval of society. Rest and free time can then be fully appreciated and the alternation of intellectual and physical work acts as a catalyst for recovery of the energy expended. This process has an extremely positive impact as it helps to reduce anti­social bahaviour on the part of young people, and to cut d o w n opportunities for wasting time.

T h e variety of productive work, the practical experience involved, and the acquisition of knowledge and training relating to several vocational fields before a definitive choice is m a d e also help to achieve the objectives re­ferred to earlier. In order to compensate for the monotony of unskilled work, provision has been m a d e for alternation between jobs and for training courses in similar occupations. In fact this is the same trend that has developed in production work itself in order to reduce the undesirable effects of unskilled work. In m a n y vocational schools in Bulgaria pupils are trained in two related occupations.

Other contributing factors include the inter­action between the teaching staff and the production collectives, the participation of the pupils not only in the productive but also in the socio-cultural activities of the undertakings, the participation of labour representatives in the educational work of the school and the educational influence of the best workers (tu­tors), which is often greater than that of parents and teachers. Their skill, their cmagic touch', their knowledge of h u m a n nature, their social status and the prestige that they enjoy all combine to enhance their influence and auth­ority with the pupils. N o n e the less, there is still a danger that the education of the young m a y take a negative turn, especially if their work is organized in an unsatisfactory manner, and if the level of consciousness and the cultural and moral qualities of some of the workers are mediocre.

Contradictions in this area m a y be resolved, and the workers' cultural level as well as the

464 Dimitar Tzvetkov

organization of work improved, if the pupils of secondary schools begin to play a construc­tive part in this process, which might gradually acquire more importance with time: they might improve the cultural level and organizational structure by making direct contributions where necessary, or their presence might stimulate the professional, educational and social conscience and activity of the workers.

T h e aim of the current educational reforms is to upgrade the constructive function of education within the framework of the econ­omic and socio-cultural development of the country. T h e integration of general and vo­cational education, and of education and work and the promotion of social activities and productive work are designed to improve the educational level of the workers as well as their working and living conditions.

Social and vocational guidance are of crucial importance. Yet despite attempts to modernize and rationalize technology in m a n y spheres of production, there continue to be important discrepancies between mechanized and manual work, and between intellectual and physical work. S o m e tasks that are socially useful do not call for high qualifications and have little appeal for this very reason. T h e automation of production plays a role in upgrading work that is intellectually satisfying to the detriment of intellectually undemanding work. Often, the negative attitude towards unskilled work spreads to the sphere of production in general, even though the latter offers greater opportunities for achievement and creation, not to speak of higher salaries or greater moral satisfaction than the intellectual sphere. Under these con­ditions, it is obvious that one of the main tasks of education is to create a positive attitude towards all work that is socially useful and towards all workers. Vocational guidance con­sists in the study and the realistic assessment of the interests and abilities of those concerned in relation to demand for executive personnel in the different occupational fields. T h e possi­bility of vertical as well as horizontal mobility within the sphere of work that is socially useful is also increasing. Accepting any kind

of work, including work that is unskilled but useful to society, need not m e a n that one is simply facing up to realities, nor does it imply that one is not doing justice to one's aspirations and spiritual needs. There are cases of indi­viduals whose work is intellectually unsatisfying and w h o nevertheless get a good deal of satis­faction from life. It is for this reason that the school system does not underrate the important problem of developing the spiritual aspirations and improving the cultural level of the pupils. It is on this basis that the right to work can develop into the right to creative work.

T h e educational and formative role of work depends to a very large extent on there being a variety of links between theory and practice. Today, as in the past, there are two conflicting views on this subject. There are some w h o feel that only work that is closely linked to the content of the education provided at school can be of use. In our view, the differences between the respective systems and logical structures of education and work would reduce the latter, according to this theory, to a mere demonstration and deprive it of its o w n principal content, which is the production of material goods for the benefit of society. T h e second view, according to which education should be based on the practical work done by the pupils (project-centred teaching, all-round instruc­tion, etc.), is equally unacceptable. O n e should not lose sight of the fact that education aims at presenting an overall view of society, that school is a preparation for working life and employment and that the latter is but one aspect of society.

T w o basic aspects of this relationship find expression in our educational practices. O n the one hand, education is linked to genuine prob­lems in life and in the sphere of production, to the personal experiences of the pupils, and to awareness of the part played by science in social and economic development, in improving production techniques and in upgrading the material and cultural well-being of the popu­lation. It is not only from their teachers but also from their o w n observation and experience, from practical work in the laboratory, and from

Education and work

the comparison of conflicting viewpoints, that the pupils acquire awareness of the link be­tween theory and real life. O n the other hand, the production process stimulates observation and analysis and encourages useful and con­structive proposals for the improvement of techniques on the basis of the scientific k n o w ­ledge acquired. This is the basis for the movement to 'rationalize' production and to develop technical and scientific creativity, a movement led by senior technical and edu­cational staff. They have not achieved a great deal so far although in some cases the pupils have been instrumental in accomplishing im­portant achievements, finding technical sol­utions, carrying out experiments and applying n e w technologies, increasing agricultural pro­ductivity, etc. Annual conferences at national level on the theme of scientific and technical creativity in schools bring to light a number of their experiments and often very useful ideas. It is no easy task to inculcate the notion that work is a necessity of life, an expression of scientific, technical, social and moral edu­cation. W o r k is the most important means of applying and implementing the knowledge that one has acquired, and of expressing one's creativity. It is essential that it should also become a source of n e w knowledge and of experience, that it should help the individual to understand the significance of the productive cycle, from its inception right through to its completion, that it should help him to under­stand the complex nature of technological, economic and socio-psychological phenomena. This process is part of the general tendency of a socialist society to transform the production unit into an enriching social environment, where the workers m a y lead satisfying lives which enable them to realize their full potential.

THE TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO THE PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT

AND THE INTEGRATION OF W O R K AND TEACHING

T h e integration of education and productive work takes place in two stages: at school itself, and after secondary studies.

W e have investigated a number of problems arising in the first stage, without however stopping to consider the differences between the age-groups (7 to 12, 12 to 15, 15 to 18); these correspond to clear-cut psychophysi­ological characteristics and are taken into account in the content of polytechnical education up to the eighth year and in the curricula of vocational and polytechnical education in the secondary schools (ninth to eleventh years).

T h e second stage begins with the transition period that leads to the exercise of an occupation and the resulting change of status.

Teaching and vocational guidance in second­ary schools are structured according to the real needs of the society. A n attempt is m a d e to match individual abilities and preferences with the needs of the society, which is not always easy or possible. O n e reason for the difficulties encountered stems from the contin­ual development of the social barriers within work that make it difficult to predict long-term labour requirements. This obliges us to search for long-term solutions and to avoid special­ization at a very early stage, to widen the range of vocational training and to devise oppor­tunities for greater occupational mobility.

Mos t of the workforce in Bulgaria undergo their vocational training in secondary schools. T h e current reforms in education provide for the establishment of a n e w type of single school system offering twelve years of study in three cycles, of which the first should provide a polytechnical and general training, the second a more comprehensive vocational training cover­ing the main subjects in pure and h u m a n sciences, while the third will cater for the first stage of vocational specialization and the tran­sition to working life. T h e first cycle corre-

4 6 6 Dimitar Tzvetkov

sponds to the first ten years of study, the second and the third to the last two years. T h e end of secondary-school studies does not imply that education is at an end. S o m e of the youngsters pursue their studies in different kinds of higher education establishments (com­plete cycles or shorter courses), and others go on to acquire different kinds of qualifications or else train for n e w jobs. Those youngsters w h o have not completed their secondary-school studies can continue their education at evening classes of either a vocational or a general educational nature. T h e 'lifelong' aspect of education is thus coming increasingly to the fore, thanks to the link between work and education. In this way the integration of these two basic social activities, education and work, becomes a way of life and acts as a stimulus for the working life of the individual in our society. •

Co-operative production and technical education

in the Basque Country

Carlos Órnelas

According to m a n y educators and social scien­tists, technical education can play a definite role both in increasing the efficiency of labour and in helping a given state to develop its productive capacity. F r o m a radical point of view, tech­nical education can also help members of the working class to increase their intellectual level and become more aware of the world around them. This latter kind of technical education should be fully integrated to the production of goods and services.

M a r x argues that the combination of edu­cation with paid productive labour should be one of the main constituents of the edu­cation of the fully developed non-alienated humain being. T h e kind of education de­scribed by M a r x should contain three principal elements: (a) mental and intellectuel develop­ment; (b) bodily exercise; and (c) technological training.1 In his major work, M a r x also argues that the development of schooling containing those three elements would be a revolution in education. Furthermore, co-operativism and the kind of education described above, according to M a r x , have one and the same origin, because:

Carlos Órnelas (Mexico). Professor of Education and co-ordinator of the Educational Research Unit at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City.

Robert O w e n , soon after 1810, not only maintained the necessity of the limitation of the working in theory3 but actually introduced the 10-hour day into his factory at N e w Lanark. This was laughed at as a communistic utopia, so were his 'Combination of Children's Education with productive labour' and the Co-operative societies of working-men, first called into being by him.2

Although there are not m a n y references in history to this kind of combination, nowadays there is a huge co-operative movement in the Basque Country in the northern part of Spain which has its origins in the creation, growth and consolidation of a technical school.

This movement of co-operatives has its head­quarters in Mondragón, an industrial city near Bilbao. It is composed of a network of eighty-three industrial enterprises and five agro-industrial firms, with over 18,000 worker-owners. In addition to these industries, the group has a huge consumer co-operative, Eroski, which has 105,000 associates (about 15 per cent of all families in the Basque Country). T h e movement also has six very important service co-operatives which integrate the whole m o v e ­ment. O f these, one is controlled and owned by w o m e n (Auzu Lagun). Another is Lagun Aro, a social security and medical co-operative that arose because co-operativists are (cor­rectly) considered self-employed and thus have

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

468 Carlos

no access to Spain's official social security institution. T h e Caja Laboral Popular (CLP) , or Popular Workers' Bank, is the financial and organizational institution of the movement. T h e Liga de Educación y Cultura (League of Culture and Education) co-ordinates forty educational co-operatives (ikastolas) associated with the network. Ikerlan is a modern co­operative centre for research and development which handles projects for the industrial sector. T h e prestigious Escuela Profesional Politécnica de Mondragón (EPP or Polytechnical Pro­fessional School) is at the centre of the m o v e ­ment. According to observers it is one of the movement's leading institutions and the place in which m a n y leaders and workers of the Mondragón Co-operative Experience ( M C E ) have been trained and educated. W h e n the founder of the school passed away in 1976 the institution was renamed after him. It is n o w the Escuela Profesional Politécnica 'José María Ar izmendiarrieta'.

Elsewhere I argued that the E P P is related more to the development of the co-operative network than to the overall capitalist system of Spain,3 in particular with regard to the reproduction of those student skills, values and attitudes needed by the co-operatives. I also attempted to demonstrate the contradictory nature of such a reproduction, and I concluded that, regardless of EPP's contradictions, a process of partial de-alienation is taking place. However, since the analysis was focused on the role of curriculum in that reproduction, I neglected to discuss other elements of the school. This article, therefore, outlines briefly the overall framework of the co-operatives and then focuses on the role of the school within them. Later on it discusses h o w the school operates, what the students learn and h o w they fit into the production scheme of the co­operatives.

Órnelas

The Mondragón co-operative experience

T h e co-operative movement began in 1956 with the foundation of Ulgor, which had an initial membership of twenty-three workers. T h e basic idea for the co-operative and the initial organiz­ational effort were developed by the Catholic priest D . José María Ar izmendiarrieta and five of his followers, w h o in 1952 graduated from the University of Zaragoza. E n 1953 he established a technical school, the immediate forerunner of the current E P P , with the stated aim of giving the youth of Mondragón vo­cational and moral education. Both the tech­nical school and later the functioning and organizing of the co-operatives were conceived to operate within the limits of the social doc­trine of the Catholic Church.4 Geographically, the M C E enterprises and C L P branches are located solely within the Basque provinces, although their products are sold all over Spain and in m a n y parts of Europe and Latin America. They produce a wide range of goods, from food to advanced machine tools; from steel to m e ­chanical robots; from household durables and bicycles to television tubes and equipment for steel mills and refineries. In 1980 the group had overall sales of more than 68,000 million pesetas (close to $1,000 million at current prices), manufactured exports of 13,504 million pesetas (over $207 million), and total invest­ments in the same year of over 4,000 million pesetas (over $58 million).

It is argued elsewhere that besides the m a n y features specific to Basque culture, the two most important aspects that help to explain the success of the M C E are: first, the creation of the C L P , an institution that not only provides financial, organizational, and managerial as­sistance for creating and consolidating co­operatives, but also central leadership and guidance to the whole M C E complex and even to the whole Mondragón community; and, second, the creation and subsequent expansion of the technical school, along with the importance of leaders and members assigned to education.5

Co-operative production and technical education in the B a s q u e Country 469

T h e same authors also argue that the most distinguished characteristic of the M C E is its democratic organization and operation, illus­trated by the following features: (a) the oper­ation of each firm is undertaken by its worker-owners; (b) workers participate in decisions about production, organization and general policy (in the larger firms through councils and assemblies); (c) the products of labour (earnings) are distributed according to a pro­fessional classification ranging from a m i n i m u m of one to a m a x i m u m of three times the base income within a given co-operative; (d) indi­vidual members of a co-operative are restricted to holding no more than 5 per cent of the total capital of a given firm; (e) profits are distributed according to individual job-rating points rather than ownership of capital (owners of capital, however, receive part of the surplus at a 6 per cent rate of interest on their holdings or more if enough profits are made) and a large reserve has been created for expansion and services to the community. It is widely recognized that the M C E has successfully combined both high technology and production lines with a d e m o ­cratic organization of labour and distribution of wealth. These dominant features, and the characteristics of Spanish society at large, set the contradictory framework within which the E P P operates.

T h e co-operative school

With the financial support provided by the C L P and other producer co-operatives, the E P P offers the working class better education and training at lower cost than the private school system and can attract more qualified faculty, w h o in m a n y cases prepare and write their o w n textbooks.6 Also, the E P P has diver­sified its curriculum and levels of schooling and degrees. These are: Oficialía or Professional Formation I, two

years after eight years of general basic edu­cation; degree: oficial (skilled worker).

Maestría or Professional Formation II, two to three years after oficialía or after bacca­laureate; degree: maestro industrial (tech­nician, foreman, supervisor).

Engineering, two years after maestría or three years after baccalaureate; degree: ingeniero técnico (technical engineer).

Table 1 supplies basic data on the student body and fields of study for selected years.

In order for the students to practise and learn to use machinery the E P P has created workshops. During the M C E ' s b o o m in the 1960s, the students began to use the school machinery informally (with faculty control) to manufacture parts for other co-o peiatives

T A B L E I . Student population at the E P P in selected years

Oficialía or Professional Formation I Maestría or Professional Formation II Engineering or Peritaje Industrial

TOTAL

1952-53

100

26

44

170

1966-67

609

312

no

1 031

1978-79'

516

400

237

1 153

Fields of study Mechanics Electricity

Mechanics Electricity Metal casting Drafting Chemistry

1. Data collected by Carlos Órnelas from official E P P records in November r978. Source: Unpublished memoria, E P P , 1966-67.

Mechanics Electricity Drafting Electronics

470 Carlos Órnelas

In 1966, almost simultaneously with the inaug­uration of a n e w building, E P P students began to work with n e w equipment ordered by other co-operatives. Soon a n e w co-operative was created, Alecoop (Actividad Laboral Escolar Cooperativa). As a part of the curriculum, in this co-operative students of maestría and engineering began to work in order to earn m o n e y for board and school tuition. With the growth of the co-operatives and the develop­ment of the E P P , Alecoop was separated from the school both juridically and physically in 1972, and transformed into another co­operative within the group. It n o w produces components and parts for other co-operatives as well as teaching materials on electricity and electronics that are sold throughout Europe. Alecoop together with A u z u Lagun also provides temporary manpower to other co-operatives of the group. This activity has the advantage that students of the E P P , members of Alecoop, become familiar with m a n y occupations and positions within the M C E division of labour. F r o m a Marxist viewpoint this is very important, given that training in several productive trades is considered a de-alienating process.

T h e role assigned to the E P P for the leader­ship of the M C E is to prepare qualified m a n ­power for the industrial sector of the co­operatives. However, the E P P also trains students for capitalist production. T h e school carries out these duties by: (a) operating in a similar way to an industrial co-operative; (b) curriculum instruction; and (c) channelling students to the co-operatives through Alecoop. This latter role is accomplished by combining formal schooling with paid productive co­operative labour.

MODES OF OPERATION

As in the producer co-operatives, in the edu­cational co-operatives of the group and at the E P P the main authority is the general assembly. It is composed of the whole membership and agreements are m a d e by simple majority vote. T h e principal functions of the general assembly

are to provide for the increase or decrease of capital, to call on the administration for clari­fication of accounts, to modify statutes and by­laws and to merge with other co-operatives, or to liquidate the co-operative altogether. T h e general assembly elects twelve members for the Junta Rectora, which is composed of representatives of faculty and other workers of the school and of representatives from other enterprises. T h e Chairman of the Junta Rectora of the E P P is also Chairman of the League of Culture and Education.

T h e EPP's Junta Rectora is the policy­making body of the school. It concentrates authority regarding: admission of n e w m e m ­bers; appointment of the director of the E P P as well as the directors of the different depart­ments; the study of n e w regulations and by-laws to be submitted to the general assembly meeting for discussion; study and development of plans for financial, academic, technical and social affairs of the E P P ; decisions about the purchase or sale of property and technical equipment, approval of all financial matters; membership dismissals or temporary suspen­sion of membership rights; and in general all other important business of the E P P . T h e Junta Rectora meets regularly once a month, but can meet as m a n y times as necessary if problems arise.

T h e activities of the Junta Rectora are super­vised, especially in financial matters, by a vigilance council whose three members are elected by the general assembly. O n e of the members of this body must be a student rep­resentative.

As in the producer co-operatives of the group, at the E P P there is a social council, the functions of which are to advise both the Junta Rectora and the director in matters concerning the fluctuations of capital, student membership fees, recruitment of both faculty and students, and in general all issues concerning the social activities of the E P P . T h e members of the social council have responsibility for making periodic reports to their constituency regarding the business of the E P P . T h e social council is m a d e up of representatives of students' parents,

Co-operative production and technical education in the Basque Country 47I

faculty and students. There are thirty-six student representatives, of w h o m three are elected to serve on the EPP's Junta Rectora. Students on these bodies have equal rights and duties with the rest of the members . T h e E P P also has an academic council composed of faculty members and the directors of the de­partments. Its function is to advise the director in setting policy regarding academic improve­

ment as well as periodically to evaluate the school's academic achievements. T h e director of the E P P , however, is responsible before the Junta Rectora for academic and administrative affairs, as is shown in Figure 1.

F r o m this discussion one m a y infer that the m o d e of operation of the E P P is in keeping with the democratic aspects of the M C E producer co-operatives outlined above.

General Assembly

elects ( Social ^ V Council I

Sets general policy for the E P P . Elects and removes members of:

' ' !

' ; 1

advises

supervises

Junta Rectora

Appoints and removes

advises

/ 1

elects

elects

I elects

F I G . 1. Formal organization of the E P P .

472 Carlos Órnelas

Within this context, curriculum instruction, the students' work and the combination of study with productive labour determine what the students actually learn.

THE CURRICULUM

In an article of this scope it is impossible to do an in-depth analysis of the curriculum at the E P P . However, it is worth while to outline the main characteristics of the curriculum by fo­cusing on the three elements of Marx 's in­terpretation of education mentioned at the outset. T o discuss h o w the students actually learn is necessary to outline our conception of the processes of interaction, perception, orien­tation and appropriation.

T h e connection of m a n with nature through production, according to Oilman,7 occurs through the use of his senses and of his natural and h u m a n powers. Natural powers and needs are those which m a n shares with every living organism. H u m a n powers are those he alone possesses (for instance, power to create a culture, to record history and to develop in­struments of work). T h e relations between m a n ' s powers and the world are the work of four interdependent processes, interaction, per­ception, orientation and appropriation. Inter­action is the immediate contact m a n has with nature, whether conscious or otherwise. Per­ception is the contact with nature m a n achieves by virtue of his senses. Orientation has to do with h o w m a n perceives things and what he understands of their purposes; it involves setting up a framework for his action in the world. Appropriation is that interconnection of our senses with nature in which the powers in­volved use the nature with which they come into contact for their o w n ends. Appropriation refers to the realization of some m a n or other's powers. It also means to utilize constructively, to build by incorporating the essence of any subject's fact. In these interconnected processes activity, or more particularly productive activity, is the chief means by which m a n appropriates natural objects.

These processes cannot be understood sep­arately but only as integrated into a wider process of learning, doing, working (productive activity) and creating. Only in this manner can m a n appropriate his total essence, that is, be a fully developed individual. T h e corner-stone of this integrated process should be productive activity. Activity in this framework is m a n interacting with nature using his senses and mind. This is the living process of objectifying these powers in nature. But activity used to obtain the material demands of life is more necessary and difficult than just ordinary ac­tivity. This is productive activity, the one which produces use values. Since the totality of one's senses and powers are needed, this ac­tivity requires planning, effort, skill, ability and concentration. N o other type of activity de­mands this m u c h . T h e question is h o w can m a n set up a learning process to achieve this goal, or devise an institution through which he becomes more in concordance with nature and society. W e contend that the kind of technical education practised at the E P P contributes to the achievement of these aims, even though it occurs in a partial and contradictory manner.

Bodily exercise as discussed by Marx is part of the E P P curriculum. There are periodically m a n y informal faculty and student compe­titions. This is important because collective activities develop a sense of co-operation and solidarity in the students and faculty. These kinds of activities use people's senses and natural powers in order to interact and to perceive nature. They also involve the use of some h u m a n powers, as people understand the purpose and logic of the games. Thus there is also an orientation that helps set up a frame­work for action.

Curriculum development has also occurred, as regards the growth both in the number of courses and in their sophistication. This is proved by a simple comparison between the time when the school possessed only the levels of oficialía and maestría and the current training of engineering and scientific personrel (see Table i). In 1955-56, by which time the school had already passed its critical period of creation

Co-operative production and technical education in the Basque Country 473

and consolidation and some of its graduates had even been certified as technical engineers {peritos industriales) by the University of Zaragoza, the curriculum contained four programmes: m e c h ­anics, electricity, chemistry and h o m e econ­omics. All programmes had the following sub­jects in c o m m o n for four or five years: h u m a n and religious formation, grammar and writing, geography and history of Spain, gymnastics and Formation of the National Spirit (a course designed to instil Francoist ideology). While all technical programmes in the curriculum con­tained mathematics, physics and chemistry, the rest of the courses varied according to speciality. In contrast, the h o m e economics programmes, designed specially for w o m e n , contained courses such as household economics, child rearing and nursing, kitchen practices and premarital prep­aration. Even though w e do not have the avail­able statistics at hand, because of the state of the Spanish economic and political conditions at that time, w e would guess that not m a n y w o m e n had access to education beyond el­ementary school, this was even more likely to be so for the daughters of the working class. By 1966-67, the h o m e economics programmes had discreetly disappeared and w o m e n had been integrated into other fields of study. M a n y of them had begun to work as co-operativists in Alecoop. That is to say, the conditions for ap­propriating the essence of their work were created.

By 1978, the curriculum had become very sophisticated. It included courses such as ther­modynamics, circuits theory industrial organiz­ation, enterprise economics and other similar subjects. Such courses are n o w taught by faculty w h o have undertaken graduate studies, whereas in the early years 'teachers had more enthusiasm than knowledge. However, they were able to develop courses from scratch, without good textbooks but with a high sense of responsibility and faith in the future'.8 Fur­thermore, within the E P P structure the Centre for Continuous Training offers courses to co-operativists in specific skill development pro­grammes. These aspects offer sufficient evidence to state that at the E P P due emphasis is given to

a process of continuing mental education and thus intellectual development. Therefore, this is a step further towards the appropriation of knowledge.

O n study and productive work

Only about half the students of maestría and engineering are engaged in productive activities in Alecoop. Although the rest of the student body does intense physical work when practis­ing with machinery, it does not actually produce goods or services to satisfy man 's needs. Our contention is that the latter do not appropriate the true essence or the labour process. In other words, they are engaged in the process of learn­ing, doing and working only in a partial fashion.

However, if schooling is integrated in pro­ductive activity or vice versa, both the school and the work place are setting up the framework for the students and teachers to use natural and h u m a n powers for learning, doing, working and creating use values. This is more likely to be effective if the kind of productive labour is realized in a co-operative environment like the one of Alecoop, which is constantly reproducing positive values and attitudes towards collective work. In this framework the appropriation of objects and knowledge appears to be more complete. T h e student members of Alecoop, as well as of the rest of the students of E P P , use both their bodies and their brains in schooling practices and activities. Nevertheless those in Alecoop use them for production. At school they complete the regular curriculum and coursework instruction, and at the factory they do a wide range of jobs, from janitor to as­sistant engineer. Moreover, at the factory they participate in the living process of production in m a n y ways. They rotate jobs, participate in plant design and operation as well as in the creation and consolidation of work teams and in other activities that require both experience and thought. Furthermore, as discussed above, there is active participation in the political life of the co-operative. Finally, both at school and

474 Carlos Órnelas

at Alecoop, they receive technological training that moves from the simplest to the most complex in theory and practice.

In this complex and manifold process the students use their senses and co-ordination to manipulate instruments of work and sophis­ticated machinery; they perceive nature and the nature of work by their physical states. Together with faculty they decide h o w to or­ganize labour and begin to orient their activity and create the necessary conditions of co­operation for work. T h e whole essence of the labour process is subsumed in the design of tasks and control of operations which require lengthy investigation and study as well as the use of past knowledge and experience. In this way students and faculty alike are 'capturing' the essence of the act of producing.

Howeverj to suggest that these processes work smoothly is not our aim. T h e basic contradic­tion involved in the combination of productive labour and schooling at the E P P and Alecoop resides in that for the most part they produce exchange values. That is to say, they produce for a capitalist market. This aspect constrains the fulfilment of the whole process of appro­priating knowledge because the simple act of separating the product of the producer consti­tutes the fundamental root of h u m a n alienation. Associated with this principal contradiction are other contradictions that result from the specific relations between the producer co-operatives and the E P P . These relate first to the strong links between the leadership of the C L P and other co-operatives and the E P P , and at the same time to the weak connections between the E P P curriculum and the producer co­operatives' activities. Second, there is a conflict between the tendency towards evolution (cre­ating and adapting n e w technologies and pro­cesses of labour) in the producer co-operatives, and the traditional inertia of schooling.

Nevertheless, diose secondary contradictions can be, and indeed, are solved by incorporating youth into the practical work of Alecoop. Those w h o have spent four to five hours per day at Alecoop are gradually learning the working of technology, the processes of labour and m a n y

trades that prepare them to become highly productive after schooling. M o r e important, little by little most of them are integrated into the production scheme of the co-operatives.9

Conclusion

In synthesis, w e cannot assert that a complete process of learning, doing and creating is oc­curring at the E P P because its development is necessarily constrained by the dominant larger society^ as well as its internal contradictions. In spite of that, on the basis of the democratic m o d e of operation of the co-operatives and the E P P , and on the incipient process of technical education (bodily exercise, mental instruction and technological training) combined with paid productive labour, it seems that at Mondragón's E P P a significant step is being taken towards an effective process of appropriation of k n o w ­ledge. In this framework, students of the E P P , members of Alecoop, are creating the necessary conditions to become fully developed indi­viduals. •

Notes i. Karl Marx , 'Instructions for the Delegates of the

Provisional General Councils in Saul K . Padover (ed.), Karl Marx on the First International, p. 27, N e w York, W . W . Norton and C o . Inc. 1972.

2. Karl Marxj Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production, Vol. 1, pp. 483-4, ed. Friedrich Engels, N e w York, International Publishers, 1967, 3 vols.

3. Carlos Órnelas, 'The Producer Co-operatives of Mondragón and the Combination of Study with Productive Labor', Education with Production Review (Botswana), Vol. 1, N o . 1, 1981. The data for the present work was collected from July to December 1978. I do not think it necessary to give detailed references to EPP's documents.

4. Quintín García, Les coopératives industrielles de Mon­dragón, Paris, Les Éditions Ouvrières, 1970.

5. M a n y authors share this viewpoint, among others: Alastair Campbell and Blair Foster, The Mondragón Movement: Ownership in Modern Industry, London, Industrial C o m m o n Ownership Movement, 1974; Alastair Campbell et al., Worker-owners: The Mondragón

Co-operative production and technical education in the Basque Country

Achievement, The Caja Laboral Popular and the Co­operatives in the Basque Provinces of Spain, London, Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society, 1977; Ana Gutiérrez-Johnson, 'Co-operatives and Justice: A Study and Cross-cultural Comparison of Preference for Forms of Equity among Basque Students of a Co-operative School-Factory', Cornell University, 1976 (unpublished thesis); A n a Gutiérrez Johnson and William Foote Whyte , ' T h e Mondragón System of Worker Production Co-operatives', Indus­trial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 31, N o . 1, October 1977, pp. 18-30; Ruth Fisher, 'El complejo cooperativo de Mondragón: estudio empírico de un sistema social', Santiago, Universidad Católica de Chile, Centro de Estudios Cooperativos, 1975 (mimeo.); Iñaki Gorroño, Experiencia cooperativa en el País Vasco, Durango, Vizcaya, Leopoldo Zugaza Editor, 1977; Robert Oakshott, The Case for Worker Co­operatives, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978; Javier Tercero Alfonsetti, 'El complejo cooperativo industrial de Mondragón', Comunidades, N o . 3, September-December 1966, pp. 119-52; García, op. cit.

6. At the time of the foundation of the school it was unthinkable that the state would support a professional school owing to prevailing economic and political con­ditions. Furthermore, Basque people dislike Spanish public schools because they are controlled directly by Madrid. 'Even the working class make sacrifices to send their children to private Catholic schools.' (Interview with Gabriel Mendizabal, 24 September 1978.)

7. T h e construction that follows owes m u c h to Bertell Oilman, Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society, 2nd ed., N e w York, Cambridge University Press, 1976; see especially Part II.

8. Interview with José M a . Mendizabal, 9 December 1978. This point was also confirmed in m a n y talks with veteran and n e w faculty.

9. Through interviews with factory managers and E P P faculty w e knew that a large percentage of Alecoop members become co-operativists in other firms of the network.

ork

Education

and productive win Guinea

Amara Fofana

It was in August 1959 that Guinea initiated the reform that was to democratize the schools so that they would not serve solely to impart knowledge but provide an education that tran­scends mere instruction. T h e n e w curricula placed greater emphasis upon the realities and problems of local, national and African life. A s school was henceforth to be part of life, it also became part of the overall development strategy of the nation. F r o m then on, one of the basic tenets of the reform—the linking of school with life—really began to be put into effect. Education should not be dispensed in a vacuum but should lead directly to an understanding of the world, a knowledge of society and the transforming of nature.

A fundamental choice

T h e Democratic Party of Guinea ( P D G ) has on several occasions defined the different stages involved in linking school to life. Schooling oriented to daily life', an idea that was devised immediately after the country became inde­pendent, already represented a break with the

A m a r a Fofana (Guinea). Professor of Educational

Psychology in Higher Education in Guinea, Director of

the National Institute of Education, former school

inspector; currently on secondment to Unesco's Division

of Structures, Content, Methods and Techniques of

Education.

former colonial system of education. 'School within daily life' is the stage where the schools, which have all been transformed into revol­utionary education centres (CERs), become in­volved in the process of education and national development. In the 'school for daily life' stage, which is yet to come it is intended that the school should generate the fundamental con­ditions needed on the one hand to deal with the contradictions prevailing within society and on the other to attain political, economic, social and technological objectives.

All three stages of the educational system in Guinea imply that education must be designed and dispensed with reference to the problems confronting the society of which the young are a part. For Guinea, true education is education founded on the experience of real life.

T h e productive work of the pupils is the corner-stone of this link between school and life. Similarly, productive work in farming, arts and crafts and industry has become a basic element of the training given to the young. Right from their inception, the aim of the n e w schools in Guinea has been to train and educate and subsequently to extend their activities to include productive tasks with their dual edu­cational and economic role.

Thus it is incumbent upon the schools of Guinea first and foremost to turn out competent producers w h o fervently believe in the revol­ution and remain psychologically permanently motivated by the need to produce all the m a ­terial and spiritual goods required for the bal-

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

478 Amara Fofana

anced development of the Guiñean people. T h e revolutionary education centres (CERs) there­fore serve to disseminate scientific, technical and technological knowledge and at the same time constitute production units.

In practical terms this means that the pupils receive their education through contact with real life and experience of productive work, as work has proved to be the most satisfactory method for acquiring scientific and technical knowledge. This prepares the ground for an eventual overhaul of content and teaching methods on the basis of creative activity re­garded as a factor that makes teaching more dynamic and a means of propagating knowledge and k n o w - h o w . If the educational system is to

fulfil a function such as this, radical reform of the content of education is called for. T h e n e w curricula are the result of reconciling the requirements for the economic and social devel­opment of the country with those for the development of an integrated personality, and they are designed to give the pupils an all-round training whose content, both general and vocational, is determined by the demands of economic development and social progress.

This training function is complemented by activities involving the production of the goods that are essential to the well-being of society, production taking pride of place in the youth training programmes.

T h e reasons for which productive work was

Fio. I. The educational structure in Guinea.

Education and productive work in Guinea 479

introduced in the schools are m a n y . T o counter the rural exodus, a process that deprives rural areas of the labour force needed for their development, w e have set up first-level revol­utionary education centres in each village, sec­ond- and third-level centres in each district and fourth-level centres (institutes of agronomy) in the administrative regions.

A further reason is that the shortage of funds in countries such as ours means that the state cannot afford to remunerate all schoolchildren as paid employees.

T h e possibility of drawing upon a labour force m a d e up of the youngsters in the schools and in higher education, amounting to nearly a quarter of the population of the country, was one that a developing nation such as Guinea was duty bound not to pass by.

T h e disdainful attitude towards manual ac­tivities in general, and especially towards agri­cultural work, that was engendered and fostered by the colonial education system has been totally overcome by the act of making pro­ductive work an established part of the edu­cation system at all levels. Even those pupils and students w h o have chosen a revolutionary education centre that does not specialize in agriculture will spend a certain amount of time on agricultural work.

Structure

In order to accentuate still further the revol­utionary education centres' relevance to life, they have been assigned specializations intended to give pupils at the second and third levels and students at the fourth level a scientific education and a professional qualification enabling them, after their twelve years of compulsory, free education, to go into either productive work or a higher education institution.

T h u s every C E R covers one of several specializations. Farming (agriculture, livestock breeding, fishery and craftsmanship) is the most important one, and is taken by the majority of the secondary-school pupils and 75 per cent of the students in higher education, agriculture

being the backbone of our economy, with 85 per cent of the population working in that sector.

Civil engineering (building and joinery), mechanical engineering and maritime studies (mechanical engineering, navigation and fish­ery) are taught in the secondary polytechnic institutes (IPSs), which produce, after three years of mainly practical study, skilled workers in the following trades and branches: fitting, boilermaking, mechanical engineering, general engineering, joinery, masonry, navigation, fish­ing, electricity, construction, plumbing, etc.

In all specializations the syllabus includes practical work (46 per cent), technical and vocational education (28 per cent) and general education (26 per cent).

Whatever the course, the teaching is centred mainly on the link between school and edu­cation, between theory and practice. Each level and course has a practical productive activity corresponding to it, with a bearing on life in the village, the district, the region or the country as a whole.

T h e first level is equivalent to primary school and covers the classes from the first to the sixth years. Teaching is carried out in the national languages. T h e productive work syllabus in­itiates the child in the main trades and other activities pursued in the village: agriculture, the raising of livestock, fishing, craftsmanship, health care, etc. . . . Far from being of merely symbolic value, the pupils' participation has a positive effect on economic output, matters of hygiene and the appearance and social and cultural life of the village.

A s far as the second- and third-level centres (secondary-education establishments) are con­cerned, the farming course is the most import­ant. Every CER^has the use of between 30 and 120 hectares of agricultural land. Productive work and vocational training account for 50 per cent of the weekly working time, while theor­etical education occupies the other half.

O n a nationwide basis, the centres at all levels must meet the 'production norms' set by the National Council of the Revolution. These norms must be met if the school is to be a dynamic sector of the national economy.

48o Amara Fofana

With regard to reafforestation, every first-level C E R is responsible for reafforesting one hectare per year, and the second- and third-level C E R s have a target of five hectares per year. A National Reafforestation D a y for all pupils and students is held each year on 30 June.

T h e 'thirteenth-year class' was instituted in order to reinforce the skills of youngsters w h o had completed the twelfth year and was a real apprenticeship centre in which training was focused essentially on the mastering of pro­fessional techniques. T h e thirteenth year was so designed as to cater for several twelfth-year classes with different specialities. Workshops, laboratories and experimental plots were pro­vided, and it was comparable to a school pro­duction brigade. W h e n the higher vocational schools were turned into foundation-course higher education institutions, the thirteenth-year classes were done away with.

Higher education in the countryside

President A h m e d Sékou Touré has often af­firmed that agricultural progress constitutes the corner-stone of the nation's strategy of planned, balanced development, its key element, whose rapid all-around growth remains without doubt the main basis of and the driving force for the dynamic, harmonious evolution of the people of Guinea.

In the countryside the student's role consists in assisting the peasantry in their various ac­tivities, which all aim at qualitatively improv­ing the political, economic, social and cultural realities of life. A s a social class they have c o m m o n aims and motivations and are or­ganized into Local Revolutionary Authorities (PRLs); all changes must be in line with their policies.

Higher education was anxious to make its contribution, and in 1975 the fourth level shut d o w n and moved to the countryside on the initiative of the students themselves. For ten months the students worked alongside the peasants, not only increasing agricultural out­

put, but also laying solid, non-material foun­dations for a symbiosis between higher edu­cation and the traditional farming community with a view to bringing about scientific and technological changes in the methods used by the latter.

In the countryside the student is at the ser­vice of the village and is responsible for im­proving beneficial local practices there and eliminating anachronistic ones, as well as cus­toms that jeopardize the development of society. H e also serves as a source of cultural inspiration for the peasantry. T h e Local Revolutionary Authority is so structured that it can act in a variety of ways, but it concentrates mainly on education, literacy training, health care and artistic activities. It helps to persuade the peasants to send all children w h o are of a suit­able age to school. In this respect it collaborates with the schoolteacher, if need be, assuming his role.

T h e farming activities pursued by the greater part of the population of Guinea are naturally of interest to the student in the rural environ­ment. H e can be of help in finding green m a ­nure, in preparing artificial manure, in identify­ing weed-controlling plants and the weeds, in preparing a m a p of the soils in the area con­trolled by the Local Revolutionary Authority, in identifying the factors that restrict agri­cultural output, in studying the microclimate of the area and in drawing up an efficient farming calendar.

O n e important factor restricting output in agricultural areas is soil degradation resulting from the illicit use of backward cultivation tech­niques. Other contributory factors include the practice of lighting bush fires, haphazard farm­ing on slopes and the deforestation of hilltops and the banks of rivers. T h e student's presence in the countryside puts an end to all these practices.

Other activities in which the student partici­pated during these ten months included helping the farmer to select and cross-breed animals, put up buildings, diagnose animal illnesses and build c o m m o n enclosures so as to sedentarize the herdsmen. Finally, he was able to exert

Education and productive work in Guinea 481

influence in the various trades in order to im­prove the professional skills of the workers. T h e Eleventh Party Congress assigned a n e w responsibility to higher education in Guinea: the two stages of higher education are each to be followed by a year's civic training spent working on the district farms (FAPAs) .

T h e students never really sever their links with the rural environment, and thus do not experience the slightest difficulty in returning there to live when their studies are over.

Material resources

Mention has already been m a d e of the es­tablishment of first-, second- and third-level centres at the village, district, regional and national level, as well as of a fourth-level centre (institute of agronomy). Thus the practice of carrying out productive work has become wide­spread, particularly in the rural areas.

In order to provide backing for the work of the centres in the sphere of production, the government has m a d e available to them per­sonnel and equipment on a large scale.

For the farming course the equipment pro­vided includes agricultural machinery (ploughs, tractors, power-driven p u m p s and motorized cultivators), hand tools, plant, livestock and of course arable land. For example, between 1968 and 1978 the government furnished the sec­ond- and third-level centres with 204 tractors, 17 power-driven p u m p s , 20 motorized cul­tivators, 12,000 spades, 10,000 hoes and 28,500 machetes. T h e estimated value of these production resources amounts to approximately 777,832,181 francs C F A .

T h e resources of the secondary polytechnic institutes include premises and workshops fitted with machine tools. These specialized centres offer activities in a variety of different areas, namely building construction, electrical instal­lation, water supply, the manufacture of cup­boards and of desks with benches attached, the repair of motors, the manufacture of parts for repairs to agricultural machinery, etc.

In order to provide suitable personnel to

staff the centres, steps were taken, well before the centres were set up, to train specialized staff in establishments created for that purpose. In the sphere of agriculture, rural teacher-training colleges ( E N R ) and national agricultural col­leges ( E N A ) were used, while in the industrial and technical sphere the training of the tech­nical instructors was assigned to the national school of arts and crafts ( E N A M ) and the national fine-arts school. For three years n o w , since these colleges were turned into faculties, the Faculties of Agronomy, Engineering, Vet­erinary Medicine, Animal Husbandry and so on have been turning out trained agricultural inspectors ( C T A ) , agricultural engineers, as­sistant-engineer technicians and engineers.

T h e teaching staff of the centres is sup­plemented by instructors from various pro­duction branches and sectors: administrators, economists, veterinary surgeons, engineers, etc.

In practice, weekly instruction is divided up between general and vocational training and productive work, as shown in Table 1.

T h e theoretical components of the curricula are taught in the field whenever possible. T h e alternation between practical work carried out on the farm or in the workshops at the centres and the theoretical formulation of facts already learned gives the centres a firm grip on then-surroundings. Not only is the centre life-oriented: it is also a part of life. Consequently, the pupil receives direct, positive help and par­ticipates in his o w n training. T h e teaching staff, at all levels, are called upon to supervise the work of the young at the work sites, and are therefore obliged to throw off their authori­tarian attitude, and act as group leaders c u m instructors. Seminars and courses are organ­ized to help them do this.

During the year, each pupil takes a test in

T A B L E I . Division of weekly instruction (percentages)

Level

ist

2nd 3rd 4th

General education

70

50 40

30

Vocational education

20

3D 30 30

Productive work

10

20

30 40

482 Amara Fofana

order to m o v e up one class, takes a certificate or baccalaureate exam, and is awarded a grade for production that corresponds to his or her work in the C E R .

Results of the activities

THE SECOND- AND THIRD-LEVEL CENTRES

Each second- and third-level centre has two kinds of budget. T h e first is a capital budget for launching the different operations (purchase of farm animals, seed, fuel, etc.). This budget consists of capital put up by the state, and the income from it goes towards a second budget that should gradually enable the C E R to be­come financially independent of the general budget, thus achieving the objective of making it a self-financing and self-managed production unit.

During the year 1977/78 the C E R s m a d e a net profit of 1,000 million francs C F A . Over the same period, the livestock owned by second-and third-level centres consisted of 650 head of cattle, 71 sheep, 77 goats and 143 pigs. T h e craft industry (basketwork) yielded an income of 20,150,000 francs C F A .

During 1978 alone, the centres devel­oped 3,687 hectares of land and produced 11,084 tonnes of foodstuffs of all kinds, part of which was for the consumption of the school that produced it, the rest being set aside for the domestic market and for sale for profit. Its total value came to 997,345,600 francs C F A .

THE FOURTH-LEVEL CENTRES

Over the period 1977/78 alone, the total s u m ac­cumulated by the fourth-level centres amounted to 167,503,240 francs C F A for the fourteen faculties.

Over the same period, the higher education institutions showed a balance of 369 million francs C F A . T h u s nowadays an increasing number of faculties succeed in financing the major activities envisaged in their production schedules. Yet over and above the financial

results, the socio-economic impact of the ac­tivities of the faculties should be stressed.

S o m e of the institutes of agronomy have introduced and developed n e w crops such as soya beans and sunflowers. They all organize education and training sessions for the benefit of the militants of the Local Revolutionary Authorities on techniques used in the spheres of agriculture and animal husbandry and on methods of fighting bush fires. In return, the student brigades take traditional farming tech­niques, adapt them to their projects and develop them. This sets up a flow of exchange of experi­ence between the traditional peasant community and the C E R . O n e of the merits of this technical osmosis is that it has led to the gradual estab­lishment of permanent intensive fanning in parts of the country.

T h e Faculty of Hydrology and Forestry has perfected a n e w technique for the construc­tion of wooden bridges, which can provide a permanent link between neighbouring regions. T h e Civil Engineering Faculty, seeking a sat­isfactory way to use local materials for con­structing dwellings, has succeeded in devel­oping concretes using latérite, with a proportion of cement of 10 to 15 per cent, whose resistance is close to that of ordinary cement/aggregate concretes. T h e Faculty of Social Sciences is carrying out research into oral and craft tra­ditions with a view to reinstating cultural and historical values.

O u r experience leads us to conclude that be­fore education and productive work are linked, both the educational and economic objectives should be specified in detail: productive work should be considered an integral part of training and an outline plan of productive work should be drafted at national and subsequently school level, taking into account the seasons, the labour force and the equipment available. If need be the holiday periods could be altered to fit in with the n e w situation. Satisfactory m a n ­agement of the products makes possible and promotes increased income; the effective par­ticipation of all concerned (including the teach­ing staff) in the different phases of production stimulates pupils and students.

Education and productive work in

If it is integrated in the education process, productive work definitely channels training towards creative activity, enhancing man's con­trol over the worldjaroundjhim. If education really is a factor for economic andjocial devel­opment, both the structure'and the content of teaching should be in line with the production targets of society. First and foremost, however, the introduction of productive work into the curriculum should be carried out within the framework of a comprehensive set of reforms that orient school towards life. B

Education and productive work:

the B u n u m b u approach Sam J. Lebby and Jack Lutz

A m o n g the educational reform policies and strategies commonly raised today by policy­makers and administrators in almost every de­veloping country is the integration of education into everyday life. For the purpose of this paper, the term 'integration of education into everyday life' means an educational system with a bias towards the attainment of economic vocational goals.

T h e recommendations of the 1976 Lagos Conference of Education Ministers stressed, among m a n y other things, the integration of school with life by cthe introduction of pro­ductive work as one of the elements in the edu­cation of the child'.1 This approach, although carried out differently by different countries, is intended to solve a fundamental problem that affects all of them. In the past m u c h more e m ­phasis has been placed on quantitative im­provements rather than on qualitative improve­ments within their education systems. T h e system is often characterized by a serious prob­lem of wastage of both h u m a n and material resources. In general, the c o m m o n desire cur­rently expressed by a majority of planners and practitioners is to make the education system as responsive as possible to the needs of both society and the philosophy of the nation, and

D r Sam J. Lebby (Sierra Leone). Acting Principal,

Bunumbu Teachers' College.

D r Jack Lutz (United States of America). Chief

Technical Adviser, Bunumbu Project, UNDP.

thus to try to place an equal emphasis on quality and quantity.

T h e need for educational reform has been expressed in a variety of ways by m a n y African countries since independence. In most cases the reform focuses on programmes that strive to accommodate c o m m o n desires reflecting both societal and ideological needs. T h e reforms are designed to launch innovative educational proj­ects that are intended to bring about improved social, economic and cultural conditions for the people. T h e typical strategy embraced by these projects is to present programmes, either for the trainers or for the students, that emphasize the practical rather than the theoretical. Another feature of such programmes is that they offer a range of learning activities that attempt to inte­grate school life with life in the community or, at least, with life in the surrounding environ­ment. Such programmes are often multidimen­sional in their thrust, with the hope that the recipients of the instruction will develop both manual and academic skills. In this way the programme in question takes into consider­ation the fact that not all students are destined to have further academic schooling and offers these students an opportunity to develop certain marketable skills. A n additional aspect of these innovative programmes is that most of them attempt to imbue in their students a spirit of pride in the activities being carried out, in that they are steps towards nationalism and de­velopment.

T o present just a few prominent examples of

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486 Sam J. Lébby and Jack Lutz

such innovative projects: First, in Benin, the underlying objective of the Regional Action Centre for Rural Development is to raise a cadre of trained personnel capable of equipping young farmers grouped in clubs with productive agricultural skills and techniques. Second, in Burundi, the objective of the educational reform at primary-school level is to prepare children in primary education not only for secondary education but also for entrance into the world of work. Third, Kenya's village polytechnics cater for the training of school-leavers, at m i n i m u m cost, for the development needs and opportunities of the rural environment. Also, the community skill training centres in Ethiopia are organized to promote increased productivity in agriculture, industry and other fields with a view to raising the standard of living. Such a link-up of school with the 'real world' has at least been accorded the significant role it should play in the development of a country. In es­sence, these innovative thrusts suggest one main point: that an educational system should place emphasis on reform with a special focus on the organization and utilization of h u m a n potential as well as on local material resources. T h e system then hopes that such emphasis will lead to the satisfaction of the needs of the society and to the attainment of national goals.

Origin and background of the project

In Sierra Leone, a Government White Paper of 1970 on educational policy recommended that priority be given to primary education with a view to improving conditions of rural living. This priority was to be achieved by expanding and diversifying the nation's agri­cultural productivity through the contributions which primary school-leavers were expected to make towards rural development.2 Additionally, the main policy objective of the five-year National Development Plan, from 1974 to 1979 (now extended by an additional three years) included, among m a n y other aims, the fol­lowing:

T o accelerate the expansion of primary edu­cation, especially as regards teacher education.

T o make the content of education in all sub-sectors more relevant to the economic and social needs of the country.

T o raise the level of literacy, by both primary and out-of-school education.3

Within the framework of these objectives, the idea of the U N D P / U n e s c o B u n u m b u Project was conceived. T h e project attempts to im­prove the quality of the primary education sys­tem through improved teacher-education pro­grammes. It is hoped that the product of such a programme will be trained to serve as agents of change in the communities to which they will be assigned as teachers. In this way the conceivers of the project, when they drafted the original project document/work plan, hoped that the outcome would be (a) a rural-biased curriculum for primary schools; (b) a cadre of trained teachers for rural schools, and (c) the use of the rural schools as community centres.

Following a feasibility study conducted by a team of U N D P / U n e s c o consultants in December 1973, the B u n u m b u Teachers' Col­lege was selected to undertake this experimental pilot project. O f the five teachers' colleges in Sierra Leone, B u n u m b u Teachers' College is the only one located in the remote rural en­vironment considered ideal for this sort of experiment. T h e college itself was organized in 1930 by the Methodist Church as a training centre for catechists w h o would go out to serve congregants in the m a n y small villages that surround the area commonly referred to as ' B u n u m b u town'. This town is also the site of the residence of the Paramount Chief, the person w h o oversees the civic affairs of one of Sierra Leone's several chiefdoms. After in­dependence in 1961 the government took over the college and converted it into one of the five primary teacher-training colleges m e n ­tioned earlier. B u n u m b u is situated approxi­mately 250 miles from the capital city of Freetown and 40 miles from the city of K e n e m a , which is the closest urban area to the campus. Roadways to and from the college site are poor and modern communications are non existent,

Education and productive work: the Bunumbu approach 487

as are the usual public amenities such as hos­pitals, post offices, shopping areas and govern­ment offices. Conversely, the area surrounding B u n u m b u is lush with cacao, coffee, and rice swamps. T h e diamond fields of Sierra Leone are not too far away. Although there are no restric­tions about the geographic origins of those seeking admission to the college, the majority of the students come from areas within the broad environs of the college. A s a result m a n y of the graduates return to villages that are then influenced by the programme of the college. Earlier surveys of these villages indicated that for m a n y of their children primary schooling was the terminal point of their education. For these reasons the project designers selected B u n u m b u as an ideal site for their experiment in trying to bring about a reform in primary education for rural areas. Embodied within the experiment was the aim of assisting pupils to become productive and contributing members of their o w n rural communities; hence certain aspects of vocational education—an unusual thing at the primary-school level—were in­cluded in the overall programme.

T h e planners also identified twenty villages within a twenty-mile radius of the college c a m ­pus to serve as 'pilot school villages' for the implementation of the n e w ideas being planned. With the assistance of the United Nations Capital Development F u n d , the United Nations Development Programme, the Catholic Relief Service, the Sierra Leone Government, Para­mount Chiefs, local village councils and the villagers themselves, a concerted effort to build n e w primary schools, through self-help ac­tivities, was organized in each of the twenty pilot school villages. Today each village points proudly to its n e w school compound, to its modernized classrooms and, particularly, to its 'special classrooms', designed mainly for the teaching of h o m e economics and practical arts. T h e school compounds and buildings also serve as centres for community activities for both adults and children. Each school compound contains its o w n garden where agricultural prod­ucts are cultivated and then sold in the local markets.

Headmasters and local education boards show pride in the fact that their school and their community have been selected to become part of the pilot school network. Village chiefs participate actively in pilot school council meet­ings where school and community programmes and problems are discussed. Headmasters par­ticipate actively in in-service programmes de­signed especially for them. Pilot schools become practice-teaching centres for college students and experimental laboratories for project inno­vations or proposals.

Once the school compounds and the pilot school villages were established, and once the pilot schools b e c a m e a focal point of village activity, the steps projected for the implemen­tation of the educational programme itself be­came easier to take. T h e programme, designed to integrate education with life work, required the three-cornered interaction of college, school and community. Each of these will be explored in some detail in the paragraphs that follow.

College-level activities

A s indicated earlier, central to the aim of the B u n u m b u Project the use of the m e d i u m of education to improve the quality of life of the people living in rural areas. Accordingly, the theme of the project is designated as 'Training of Primary-school Teachers for Rural Areas'. This theme presupposes the design of an edu­cation system that can prepare teachers to bring about changes in the community whereby both children and adults become effective and con­tributing members of their society through organized productive activities. Students at the college, therefore, are presented with a pro­g r a m m e of diversified activities ranging from h o w to organize a community council to h o w to select the best site for digging a water-well. They are taught h o w to organize village co­operatives, h o w to identify local skills, h o w to utilize local resources and h o w to operate cot­tage industries; their training also includes farm management, marketing of agricultural prod­uce, etc. Additionally, as strategies towards the

488 Sam J. Lebby and Jack Lutz

eventual improvement of the quality of life in the village, the students are taught h o w to identify health hazards, h o w to organize parent-teacher associations, h o w to plan social activi­ties, h o w to improve nutritional habits and h o w to follow the appropriate channels to attract the attention of government officers.

All of the above how tos are embraced by curriculum reform efforts called for within the objectives of the B u n u m b u Project carried out by Unesco. This reform did not break away completely from the traditional school subjects, but added to both the teacher-education and the primary-school curriculum an array of so-called 'special subjects' such as community development, adult education, rural technology, h o m e economics, practical arts and agricultural science. Today, all students at the college receive varying degrees of exposure to each of these subjects; more unusually, so do the primary-school pupils. T o the best of the authors' knowledge, the introduction of these subjects simultaneuously in both the teacher-training college curriculum and the primary-school curriculum is unique in West Africa, and was a major step in the plan to develop a 'new breed' of teacher.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

AND ADULT EDUCATION

In their community development training pro­g r a m m e students are expected to deal with simulated community problems, to carry out surveys, to take on various group projects intended to improve the campus environment or to assist the B u n u m b u town citizens in their community development endeavours. All students on teaching practice take on local c o m ­munity development projects. It is interesting to note that, even though students accept these projects as an 'assignment', within a brief period of time the assignment becomes a 'challenge'. A s a result small rural villages n o w boast of water-wells, public latrines and market­places, all of which have come about through students and community working together.

In the area of adult education students are given instruction and practice, not only in the techniques and rationale of adult education programmes, but also in the strategies to be employed w h e n organizing such programmes. A s a result, B u n u m b u graduates, once placed in schools as regular teachers, often also become adult education co-ordinators for the villages in question.

Every pilot school has an 'adult education co-ordinator' and in most cases this person is a Bunumbu-trained teacher. T h e B u n u m b u students are encouraged to organize lectures in relevant topics using local resource people for the benefit of adult community residents.

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

In the area of agricultural science students at the college engage in such activities as poultry-raising, general farming, the cultivation of oil-palm plantations and agricultural laboratory experiments. F a r m management and farm economics are included within their overall programme. These courses include, among other things, the local selling of farm products. Students are also expected to carry out activities in the agricultural science laboratory where they experiment with the problems of erosion, crop blight, correct use of fertilizers and insects harmful to the farm. Recently a group of students jointed with school pupils in saving a school compound rice farm from being de­stroyed by insects. College students on teaching practice work with primary-school pupils, starting at Class I in school farming activities.

ARTS AND CRAFTS

T h e main thrust of this programme is to pre­serve the skills related to local crafts, often restricted to one family, by exposing the college students to the intricacies of the crafts. O n occasion local craftsmen are engaged by the college to teach the students, w h o thus acquire skills in pottery-making, weaving, woodwork,

Education and productive work: the Bunumbu approach 489

and cane- and raffia-work. There is an emphasis on the use of local resource materials. Products m a d e by the students are sold at the local markets, and m a n y items of classroom and staff-house furniture are m a d e for the college through the students' woodwork activities. College library furniture used by the students is all ' home-made ' . Local weavers and up­holsterers have taught students h o w to construct simple looms and other craft tools.

RURAL TECHNOLOGY

This subject is a component of those activities designated as community development activi­ties, but, because of its 'linking' effect between the college and the local villages, the programme takes on added significance. Through the use of a rural technology laboratory, college students are taught to identify typical problems that prevent the improvement of village living conditions and then are given the freedom to experiment to find a solution. T h e experiments and solutions, however, must utilize local re­sources, local materials or easily found m a ­terials that can be 're-cycled' for a different use. Students are encouraged and, if necessary, even 'pushed' into being inventive and cre­ative in improvising materials to be used in local villages. At the time of writing the students are working on a plan to establish a series of village co-operative blacksmiths' shops, where local residents will be helped to develop the skill of crafting their o w n tools and implements. It is intended that the finished products be lent to villagers according to local needs. A further intention is to increase agricultural production and to lower the cost.

H O M E ECONOMICS

T h e introduction of h o m e economics into the primary-school curriculum is not original to the B u n u m b u Project, but the B u n u m b u pro­g ramme places priority on the role of w o m e n in the wider societal perspective rather than

on local h o m e management. Emphasis is placed on the contributions w o m e n can make towards community development through productive work.

In addition to being taught the usual c o m p o ­nents of h o m e economics (e.g. h o m e m a n ­agement, needlework, food and nutrition), students are offered instruction in a variety of other courses covering the establishment of cottage industries, local soap making, organ­izing child-care centres and varying the use of staple foods in preparing daily menus . Students are encouraged to produce woven, knitted and sewn items and household kitchen implements, and to organize themselves into both simulated and real cottage industry situations. In the case of the child-care centres, students are not only taught h o w to operate such facilities but h o w such facilities can help increase local pro­duction. With the assistance of a special Unesco grant, female students recently conducted an experiment in organizing village w o m e n for training sessions in the varying the use of staple foods in daily diets. This activity trig­gered the planting of ' h o m e economics' gardens in school compounds where attempts were m a d e at cultivating spices and produce required by the programme. Through these m a n y activi­ties the female students begin to see their roles as 'change agents' and community leaders. They begin to develop an image that can be carried over from the college to the community after graduation and after accepting teaching assignments. A n unanticipated, but interesting, outgrowth of this training effort is that local school boards often request certain practice teachers to come back to their school area to take full-time jobs.

In addition to the implementation of the above subjects, college curriculum designers continually search for ways of improving the practical aspects of the teacher-training pro­gramme. At present, for example, a n e w cer­tificate for teachers and a corresponding syl­labus are being structured within the basic concepts of rurally oriented primary schools. This n e w teacher-education programme con­sists of activities organized each year around

490 Sam J. Lebby and Jack Lutz

one main aspect of the three-year course. Accordingly, the first year deals with 'Skill Achievement for Communi ty Education', a programme concerned with the mastery of the basic creative, leadership and organizational skills needed for effective participation in vari­ous aspects of community development. T h e second year focuses on 'Content Achievement for Communi ty Education'. It is intended that the trainee be able both to organize and to master the relevant subject-matter. Finally, the third year is concerned with 'Professional Achievement for Communi ty Education'. This year provides for the acquisition of those pro­fessional competencies required by teachers. M o r e importantly, the skills, the content and the professional competencies will be devel­oped through work-oriented activities in as­sociation with projects and themes. These projects and themes will be assigned to various student groups, each consisting of about eight to ten participants and placed under the super­vision of three of four lecturers.

For example, some of the projects and themes for the first-, second- and third-year pro­grammes are: (a) 'Making Desks, Chairs and Playground Equipment for the Primary School'; (b) ' W h a t W e Need to K n o w for Everyday Living'; and (c) 'Starting a School Garden'.

Generally speaking, practice teaching is a vital component of the teacher-education pro­g r a m m e in all of the five teachers' colleges in Sierra Leone, as it is in teacher training pro­grammes the world over. However, practice teaching at the B u n u m b u Teachers' College is carried out differently from the way it is in most training programmes. T h e trainees are expected to undertake such community self-help development projects as the digging of water-wells, building public latrines, construct­ing roads and developing local market-places. In order to fulfil the requirements for cer­tification, student teachers are sent to c o m ­munity pilot schools where they carry out practice teaching for about twelve to fifteen weeks. T h e practice teachers, the school head­masters and the local Communi ty Development Council all play a role in determining and

selecting priority self-help projects. In some cases the practice teacher and his pupils carry out surveys a m o n g the local residents to help reinforce the selections m a d e . M a n y of the pilot schools actually designate certain school days as 'community self-help' days when all the school pupils together with village residents work on a project. At one site, school pupils can be seen carrying away sand and rocks while their fathers are digging a site for a n e w water-well. At another site the girl pupils prepare food for the m e n and boys w h o are laying cement blocks for the construction of a n e w classroom. At yet another site one will see school pupils in a stall along the road selling fruit grown in the school garden. In conjunc­tion with their community development self-help projects, the student teachers are required to conduct classroom instruction based on cur­riculum teaching units developed at the college under the guidance of 'the project'.

Primary-school-level activities

As one m a y infer from the above, the teacher-education curriculum has close links with the primary-school curriculum that is actually used in the schools. This link between the college and the school has been fostered through the participation of the pilot-school teachers in a series of curriculum-writing workshops at the college. At these workshops classroom teachers write the curriculum they will be expected to teach. T h e instructional materials thus pro­duced are then tried out in the pilot schools. Instructional materials are organized as teach­ing units around such titles as 'Watching Plants G r o w ' , Toultry-Raising' and 'Tales from the Countryside'. These titles are selected to create an interest for the children in both science and agriculture as well as to develop an appreciation of the culture of the communities in which they live. Another point worthy of mention is that the instructional units so designed are intended to enhance integration of primary-school edu­cation and the activities of the community. Moreover, the college graduates transmit to the

Education and productive work: the Bunumbu approach 491

pilot-school children the special rurally biased training they received from the programme at B u n u m b u Teachers' College. For example, it is not u n c o m m o n for one to find the pilot-school children engaged along with their teachers in planting oil palm trees and in laying out rice farms, cassava plantations and potato gardens. School headmasters recognize the age-old prob­lem of parents w h o criticize the school for such activities because they send their children to school to learn 'book' rather than 'farm'. In order to minimize this problem m a n y of the headmasters invite fathers to the school to show the pupils h o w to farm, to plant, to fertilize, to harvest, etc. This, in turn, fosters a feeling of importance in the father-farmer as a person and as a spirit of the importance of agricultural endeavours in contributing to the economy of the community.

Community-level activities

T h e Sierra Leone Government White Paper of 1970 on educational renewal (mentioned earlier) stressed the need for educational insti­tutions to serve as catalysts for community development. This policy statement was based on the assumption that schools that are alien to their environment cannot achieve their intended objectives.

T h e B u n u m b u Project appears to be one that actively promotes rural development through school-community integration by or­ganizing active Community Development C o u n ­cils ( C D C s ) , with community leaders as chair­m e n and college staff and/or pilot-school headmasters serving as secretaries.

Paramount among the purposes of these Community Development Councils are (a) to identify the felt needs of the community, (b) to make both youth and adults aware of c o m ­munity problems, and (c) to discuss as well as to suggest solutions to these problems. For example, it is through the activities of these community councils that the vital community self-help projects are planned and carried out.

In addition to its work with the community

councils, the college also organizes non-formal education programme through extension ser­vices supervised by the Departments of H o m e Economics, Community Development and Adult Education, Agriculture and Practical Arts. These programmes have favoured e m ­ployment for the rural youth and have served to change attitudes towards manual work. For example, some village youth clubs, organized by such extension services, have continued to render services to local farms after the departure of college supervisors. Adult education classes and public lectures are organized for the benefit of community residents through the pilot schools and through the community councils. A recent lecture in one village on the 'Rights of Land Owners' , delivered by a community attorney, aroused wide interest among village farmers.

All these activities are intended to encourage the college and the village people to work together to transform the villages into economi­cally viable communities; at the heart of such a transformation is the willingness of the people to respect the dignity of manual labour. This respect will be further reinforced if the manual labour and the ensuing productive work add to the prosperity of both the individual and the community.

Outcomes

In Sierra Leone the B u n u m b u Teachers' College is the only primary teacher-training college offering the type of programme de­scribed in this article. T h e programme and the project are still too young for them to be labelled a complete success. But, since the inception of the project in 1974, and despite m a n y constraints, there has been discernible evidence of a positive outcome in the efforts of the project to combine education with pro­ductive work. This evidence is discussed in general project reports which document such positive results as an increase in village rice production through an increase in s w a m p rice cultivation, the organizing of local youth clubs

492 Sam J. Lébby and Jack Lutz

with a concomitant decrease in youth u n e m ­ployment in rural areas, the increase in school revenues through the market sales of student-produced goods, a greater utilization of local resources through a college-organized rural technology laboratory, the establishing of vil­lage co-operatives through the efforts of the Communi ty Development Councils and a drift of college graduates to rural areas. These activities are not limited to the project and pilot-school areas only: follow-up evaluative studies show evidence of similar activities being carried out by B u n u m b u graduates w h o are assigned to schools in other sections of the nation. Various areas of the country have seen school pupils begin a tobacco plantation, a poultry farm and a community water-well, activities that received national attention in a newspaper article written about the productive work carried out by a B u n u m b u graduate teacher and his pupils in the northern part of Sierra Leone.

As mentioned earlier, the positive results connected with the project are coupled with the usual negative constraints, the most marked of which concerns lack of finances, of continuity of leadership and of governmental recognition of the teachers and college staff members involved in such an innovative approach to a more practical educational programme. These constraints manifest themselves in specific problems: college staff members w h o feel that 'the project' has increased their workload with no extra compensation; graduate students w h o feel that they are qualified for additional cer­tificates (Community Development/Adult E d u ­cation) and should thereby receive additional remuneration; pilot-school teachers w h o feel, by virtue of their pilot-school experience, that they should be admitted to the college as candidates for the Higher Teacher Certificate (a higher certificate programme offered at the college) but w h o fail to qualify for such ad­mission; graduate students trained for rural areas w h o take assignments in urban areas; resentment from some local government offices w h o feel that the teachers have encroached on 'their territory'; and the high cost of fuel and

spare parts needed to keep vehicles moving between the college and the schools. These problems, although nagging and obstructing, seem to be characteristic of this kind of inno­vation. Experience indicates that programmes are launched with enthusiasm but that the complexities soon become more pronounced. In the interim newer programmes have diverted attention away from the earlier one. This is understandable when so m a n y priorities are to be met. M a n y of the B u n u m b u Project's prob­lems will be reduced when the government establishes educational policies which are n o w being discussed related to rural development and vocational training.

Conclusion

In brief, there has been a demonstration of an awareness of the need, as well as coherent reasons, for the combining of education with the world of work. In using the approach of the B u n u m b u Project it has been possible to ident­ify felt needs and potential for further im­provements. Above all, the process involved in implementing the approach to 'integrating education into everyday life' is as valuable as the product itself. B y this process policy-makers and administrators are able to build and im­prove an education system and develop a system that renders both the youth and the adults capable of coping with the problems of the world of work—a world fraught with social, economic and cultural problems. T h e steps are small ones and the work involved is laborious; nevertheless, the improvements are discernible. Moreover, the intangible results of community residents working together with school pupils in a self-help effort are rewarding and grati­fying. A sense of pride and a spirit of ac­complishment has been engendered. T h e shades of opinions expressed variously by local c o m ­munity leaders seem to indicate encouraging results in the sense that young people, particu­larly those in the B u n u m b u area, are showing a favourable response to the educational reform advocated in this paper. Recently a village

Education and productive work

leader w h o was interviewed by a project evalu­ation mission team had this comment to offer: 'Before the project started, w e had m a n y prob­lems with our schoolchildren. They did not want to eat the food w e eat and they did not join in the community activities. N o w , as soon as school is out, they rush to help us in the fields.' As the village leader was offering this positive observation a B u n u m b u student walked by proudly wearing a white T-Shirt with the wording: ' I 'm a Community Developer from B u n u m b u . '

Those at the college w h o have been associated with the project since its beginning say: ' B u n u m b u is no longer a project—it is n o w a spirit.' •

Notes i. Conference of Ministers of Education of African

M e m b e r States, 27 January to 4 February 1976, Final Report, pp. 36-7, Paris, Unesco, 1976.

2. Sierra Leone Government White Paper on Education Policy, p. 3, 1970.

3. Sierra Leone Government National Development Plan 1974, p . vii.

A n Indian experiment in learning while earning

R. P. Singh

Several committees and commissions in India have stressed the need for vocationalizing edu­cation, and have also pointed out the fact that massive efforts are required for making the universal literacy programme a viable prop­osition. T i m e and again innovations have been tried—for example, the Bolpur experiment by Rabindra Nath Tagore, and Gandhi's 'Basic Education' scheme—but, for reasons not ad­equately researched, have not proved a success. T h e problem with all these experiments has been that they could not be replicated on a large scale. A n attempt was once m a d e to introduce basic education throughout the country, and the result was chaos. There was widespread public criticism, although the major deficiency lay in the nature of the scheme itself. Since time immemorial Indian society has been divided into three unbridgeable classes and Gandhi's scheme became identified with education for the poorer section of society. T h e result was a foregone conclusion: the middle and upper classes rejected the scheme, and as the middle class was m a d e responsible for its propagation it reduced it, the critics allege, to a farce. D r Zakir Husain, one of the principal architects of Basic Education, was so shocked at its in­adequate implementation that he declared on the floor of Parliament that 'Basic Education was a hoax perpetrated on the nation'.

It is necessary here to appreciate the radical departure from the existing English education that the Gandhian scheme represented. For

R . P . Singh (India). Professor of Education and head of the journals cell at the National Council of Edu­cational Research and Training.

example, Gandhian education was craft-centred and was oriented to social needs. Gandhi had assumed that the 'alien' government would not finance any education for the masses, and that therefore a parallel system had to be evolved which not only suited the people in general but was also self-supporting. Therefore Gandhi had to evolve a system that was independent of government control and supervision. It sur­prised no one except the diehards that his idea failed to come to fruition under government support in a free India, because the nation had changed its goal from one of a self-supporting, quiet village life to one of an industrialized nation on the Western pattern. T h e scheme of basic education as envisaged by Gandhi could hardly match these demands.

T h e M a d h y a Pradesh experiment is a total innovation within a Gandhian framework. It has as its basis craft, whereby the poor can both earn and learn. It m a y be recalled here that a vast majority of Indians are too poor to value education for itself; overcoming hunger is the basic requirement. Consequently, the pres­ent innovation meets both their primary and their educational needs. Universal education seems far away, so against this background the M a d h y a Pradesh experiment has the blessing of all sections of society.

The framework

T h e value of the experiment lies in the fact that it has been planned and executed on the basis of actual needs. M a d h y a Pradesh is one of the poorer states and its rate of literacy (28.72 per cent in 1981) is also lower than the

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

496 R . P. Singh

national average (40 per cent). T h e state shares with Orissa and Assam the distinction of having a high percentage of aborigines in the popu­lation. Its blessings include a vast land area, a low concentration of population, a mild climate and the existence of forests and minerals. Po ­tentially M a d h y a Pradesh is a rich state.

T h e decision to introduce a clearn-and-earn' programme was taken by an enlightened bu­reaucracy. They took into account the handicaps Gandhi's scheme suffered from. T h e first prob­lems that they attempted to resolve were: (a) lack of finance to support a vocationalization programme, particularly for the purchase of material and the payment of stipends to students for their work; (b) lack of outlets for the sale of finished goods; and (c) a shortage of motiv­ated staff. They were quite hopeful that in the economically weaker sections of society they would be able to generate both meaningful motivation and the resources to finance universal primary education.

T h e Department of Education decided to select two types of centres for the experiment: (a) the basic teachers' colleges, which had been running on Gandhian lines and which were given the n a m e training-cum-production centres ( T C P C s ) ; and (b) production centres located in the existing primary and secondary schools. With this decision the department was able to utilize the existing buildings and several other ancillary materials.

T h e other decision related to the production of material. W e all k n o w that hand-made goods lack the finish of machine-made ones; therefore the goods to be produced at these centres would not be able to compete with those that machines turn out. T h e decision therefore was to select only those items that even children can prepare with minimal training and also those for which a need exists. T h e department needs plenty of sticks of chalk, as well as jute mats, called tat-pattis, for sitting on the bare floors. (The department does not have enough chairs and tables—the most inexpensive ar­rangement for sitting is that of the tat-pattis.)

T h e advantages of these decisions are: T h e department does not have to look for a

market because it is both the supplier and the consumer.

T h e state has sufficient numbers of teachers w h o could both supervise and train students in this production.

L o o m s m a d e of wood are easier to handle than other kinds and inexpensive to maintain.

Children can easily learn h o w to produce tat-pattis and sticks of chalk.

As there is no fixed time for work, children can do it at their convenience. Children work mostly during their free time, which means when they are not engaged in family chores.

Production of goods means a monetary incen­tive, but this incentive is linked with learning. Unless a child learns, he is not given work and therefore he cannot earn. It is an important pre-condition.

Step by step development

In 1978, on 2 October, M a h a t m a Gandhi's birth­day, the department launched its scheme in collaboration with the Khadi Gramodyoga (a village industry project). T h e production centres numbered six in the initial stage and they were located in multipurpose secondary schools. T h e department offered to buy tat-pattis worth 1.5 million rupees. For this purpose it had advanced 2.5 million rupees to the Khadi Gramodyoga. In the first stage 613 tat-pattis and 215 chalk-stick boxes were produced. It m a y be noted that the department was quite unwilling to buy finished goods unless they matched in quality goods already available on the market at competitive prices. O n 'quality' and 'pricing', at least, the financial section of the department was not ready for compromises.

During the second stage, as the project picked up m o m e n t u m , the number of centres was raised to 101. T h e department offered in-service training to its teachers in supervising and instructing students in this work. T h e basic teachers' colleges, which already had faculty qualified to supervise and train instructors, were assigned this duty by the department. In short, the department roped in all teachers

A n Indian experiment in learning while earning 497

and centres that had the ability and competence to take care of this kind of work. Fifty-four girls' institutions were given the job of pre­paring sticks of chalk and the boys were asked to prepare tat-pattis. It is interesting that the work distribution also took account of sex differences, and of the availability of m e n and material. This is one reason w h y preparation of sealing wax was assigned to those centres where raw material for the sealing wax was available in plenty, that is in the forests.

In the third stage, in January 1980, prep­aration of sealing wax in the tribal area of M a d h y a Pradesh was added to the programme.

In the fourth stage, to achieve universaliz-ation of elementary education, a strain of non-formal education was woven into the scheme. Nineteen centres were opened specifically for underprivileged children.

In the fifth stage, there are plans for the introduction of furniture-making or woodcraft in the areas where sufficient wood is available. All schools need furniture like chairs, tables and cupboards. Considering the demand, and also the fact that M a d h y a Pradesh has vast tracts of forestland, the addition of woodcraft to the project is both viable and sound. Teachers are being trained for this purpose and the remuneration is being increased from 2.80 to 10.00 rupees per hour.

The non-formal dimension

W e have already seen that in the fourth stage a non-formal dimension was added to the proj­ect. T h e idea was: T h e children in the 9-14 age-group should be

covered by this scheme. These are those children w h o either never went to school or, if they did, dropped out soon after.

T h e drop-outs were to be offered a condensed course of study: i.e. the five-year course was shortened to two years.

T o provide education at a time which suited both drop-outs and children w h o had never entered a school. In other words a fixed school timetable was considered unimportant.

T o teach with the intention of making these children opt for the regular system. W h e n they wish they m a y enter regular post­primary classes. In a way this kind of edu­cation was a sort of bridging course, allowing the drop-outs and others to join the main­stream of the school system.

T o offer further courses if these children had taken the Grade 5 examination and passed.

Several special features of the M a d h y a Pradesh model of non-formal education have been talked about, including: T h e condensation of courses of study from five

years to two. Arrangement of classes according to the

students' choice of time and place. T h e use of existing formal schools, staff and

materials. T h e fact that the teacher is quite free to vary

his pace of teaching according to the require­ments of the children.

T h e system has no classes. Children are indi­vidually classified.

T h e non-formal arrangement costs less than half as m u c h as the formal one. Whereas in the formal system the department spends 102 rupees per child, in the non-formal one the total expenditure is about 40 rupees.

It is interesting to learn that the department has not changed the quality of courses while condensing them, but kept the same ones.

T h e teachers are given proper incentives. In the centres that are covered by the 'learn-and-earn' scheme teachers receive monetary incentives. In the non-formal arrangement teachers are paid for each student w h o passes into a formal class.

Children under the non-formal system are given free textbooks and exercise books at a cost of 25 rupees per head. T h e child has to learn eighteen condensed units and sit an exam­ination in each unit. T h e child has the freedom to take one unit at a time or all eighteen at once after the term is over. Table 1 charts the progress of the non-formal system—a part of which is identical with the clearn-and-earn' scheme—and shows that if the results are not very spectacular, they are at least encouraging.

498 R. P. Singh

Academic year

1975/76

1976/77

1977/78

1978/79 1979/80

1980/81

Centres

Primary

95 146 397 597

2450

3000

Pre­miadle

NA NA NA NA 2000

3050

Students

Primary

2306

2899

7000

8 500

29400

35400

Pre­miadle

NA NA NA NA 12 OOO

I60OO

Sat

Primary

370 608 335 850

2 800

—

Examination results

Pre­miadle

NA NA NA NA 1 200

—

Passed

Primary

202

56 55

442 i 204

—

Pre-middle

NA NA NA NA 600

—

T A B L E I. Number of students in the non-formal system

It also shows that these 41,000 children would not have been covered by the formal system had there not been a scheme like the present one.

Except for the people concerned, all others were highly sceptical about the success of the scheme. They had doubts about the quality of the goods and about their marketable value. But the scheme has shown that this scepticism was unfounded.

T h e department is n o w able to earn 15 per cent profit on the capital advanced and also to sell finished goods at a competitive price. T h e department finds that its o w n needs are being met without any difficulty. T h e children have started coming to school because for the first time they have realized that n o w they do not have to work elsewhere to supplement their families' meagre incomes. Because of their high motivation school has to remain open from 8 a . m . to 10 p . m . Teachers also like remaining at school because they also can earn substantial money through supervision.

T h e factors of success are: (a) the scheme is self-generating; (b) the demand comes from the parents and children, as the scheme has not been imposed on them; (c) the scheme is self-sufficient; (d) both teachers and taught have gained in social esteem; (e) as students cannot earn without learning their lessons, learning also takes place and is evaluated constantly; (f) discipline is built-in.

Additional causes of success are that the development is based on a survey of needs, the Department of Education has shown imagin­

ation and modified its rules to accommodate n e w conditions, and the scheme itself is both non-formal and highly innovative.

T h e Department of Education has prepared a few more projects based on the needs of the people. For example, they have two female lit­eracy schemes, called Tanghat' and ' M a h a -bharti'. T h e idea is that school programmes should be arranged to suit the time and incli­nations of the w o m e n . It has been found that w o m e n are ready to learn religious texts, and that they are willing to come to school at any time for this. Teachers would be expected to read out the scriptures and then to teach the alphabet, so that the w o m e n learn to read the text themselves. Books and supplementary readers are being prepared, in keeping with the dialect of the area. This is another feature of the attempted innovation.

A long list of fresh items to be prepared by high-school and Plus-2 level graduates is n o w ready for implementation. This list covers the school uniform and various other daily re­quirements. With the working capital that will shortly be m a d e available, one hopes a n e w direction has been shown to other state de­partments. Vocationalization as a scheme is growing. •

Jamaica s work-experience

programme Zellynne D . Jennings-Wray and Veronica Elaine Teape

Sinclair (1977) maintained that Third World countries lacked the institutional framework for conducting real-world assignments by pupils in factories and offices. Hence she focused on work-experience programmes in Third World schools of the type that involved pupils in agricultural and/or craft activities on the school premises. A m o n g the weaknesses of work-experience programmes of this type that Sinclair picked out was the fact that the objectives of these programmes were too ambitious, relating to solution of key socio-economic problems. Furthermore the programme results fell short of its objectives because of a combination of such factors as weaknesses of strategy, lack of teacher skills and motivation, lack of material resources and negative responses from the students and their families.

This article focuses on Jamaica, which in the school year 1975/76 implemented a work-experience programme of the creal-world' as­signment type into its ' n e w secondary'1 schools. M o r e specifically, it seeks to ascertain, in re­lation to the Jamaican experience: W h a t Grade 11 students, their teachers, prin­

cipals, work-experience teachers2 and work­station supervisors3 consider to be the most

Zellynne D . Jennings-Wray (Jamaica). Lectures in

curriculum development and education philosophy, Uni­

versity of the West Indies.

Veronica Elaine Teape (Jamaica). Senior teacher at

a Jamaicain secondary school.

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

important objectives and the most useful pur­poses of the work-experience programme.

W h a t factors proved the greatest hindrance to the achievement of these objectives.

T h e extent to which the work-experience pro­g r a m m e benefited the working lives of the students after they had left school.

T h e implications of the Jamaican experience for Third World countries.

W h y establish work-experience programmes?

T h e past concept of a secondary school in m a n y Third World countries was that of an institution complete in itself and devoted to guiding students through academically oriented courses towards examinations that ensured successful students either employment in the public or private sector or places at universities (Jones, 1977; M m a r i , 1977). T h e acute pressure of their various social and economic problems has caused m a n y Third World countries to re­orientate their concept of education and cur­riculum. Thus in m a n y such countries one de­tects an emphasis on what Elliot and Vallance (1974) term 'curriculum for social reconstruc­tion'. This curriculum orientation emphasizes the role of education in the context of society's needs and the individual's responsibility to society. It is a philosophy which pervades educational thinking in m a n y Third World countries. For example, The Philosophy and

500 Zellynne D . Jennings-Wray and Veronica Elaine Teape

Principles of the Primary School Curriculum emphasizes that the importance of agricultural diversification, planned tourism and the con­tinuing establishment of light industries cannot be ignored as national goals in Barbados. A n d the Montserrat Education Report (1972, p. 1) states that 'education should be concerned with manpower needs and the general, social and economic development of the society'. Figueroa (1971) has pin-pointed this stress in the West Indian educational system on meeting m a n ­power needs and on the promotion of the general social and economic development of society, and O r a m (1976) has m a d e similar observations with regard to the educational context in Ghana.

T h e curriculum for social reconstruction per­vades the thinking of Manley (1974) and is also implicit in Jamaica's Five-Year Education Plan (1978-83). T h e idea is to see the school as a bridge between the existing situation and the one towards which the society is aiming. Thus it becomes necessary to build a n e w content for curriculum directly out of the problems, issues and characteristics of the changing society. O f crucial importance to this curriculum is vo­cational education and the acquisition of prac­tical skills, as is evident from the following statement (Jamaica, 1977, pp. 7-8):

Educational programmes must include productive work as an integral activity of the school system, in order to: (a) maintain a balance between academic and practical skills in students' growth and develop­ment; (b) form positive attitudes in students and the society at large towards purposeful physical work; (c) prepare students for entry to the world of work.

What should work experience achieve?

T h e impact of this curriculum orientation has been the introduction of innovations into the school system of m a n y Third World countries so that schools, particularly at the second­ary level, became not only social and edu­cational communities but also economic entities. Hence, in the United Republic of Tanzania, for example, each secondary school has, as an in­

tegral part of it, a farm or workshop which both provides the food eaten by the community and makes some contribution to the total national income. This not only makes the community more self-reliant but, according to Nyerere (1968), it is also a recognition that Tanzanians have to work their way out of poverty. M m a r i (1977, p . 380) sees this effort at linking school with work as a reflection of the country's socialist policy, which demands the 'existence of a society where everyone contributes to the well-being of all; a society in which there ought not to be a gap between the leaders and the led, between the academic élite and illiterate masses, between the mental workers and the manual workers'.

T h e José-Martí N e w Secondary School is the supreme example of Jamaica's attempt to im­plement this kind of thinking. T h e school was a gift from the Cuban Government in 1976. It is the only one of its kind and it is the first all-boarding institution in which the entire school population is involved in a 'work-study' pro­gramme which combines academic and vo­cational work, with the greater emphasis on the latter. This school's curriculum aims at devel­oping in the young a healthy work ethic with a view to eradicating the stigma against manual labour so engraved in the minds of m a n y West Indians. Agriculture is the only compulsory practical subject in the school, and during the school day—which can last from 5.30 a . m . to 10.00 p.m.—both students and teachers take it in turn to tend to the piggery, dairy and poultry and agronomy farm units. T h e sale of the prod­ucts from their units enables the school to be self-sufficient.

In 1974 the Jamaican Government extended the life of n e w secondary schools by two years with the introduction of the Grade 10-114

programme, which is geared to increasing ex­posure to vocational skills. A n integral part of this further training is the work-experience programme ( W E P ) , which involves Grade 11 students being released for twenty-one days to get experience in the world of work. These students, then, are placed in work stations or agencies in both the private and public sectors

Jamaica's work-experience programme 501

to sample at first hand a realistic employment situation ctied as closely as possible to their vocational area of study' (Jamaica, 1978). T h e students are not paid but are covered by in­surance arranged by the government. Thus , according to the handbook, a student studying the child-care vocational option in the H o m e Economics Department of a n e w secondary school m a y be placed in a day-care centre, in the childrens' ward of a hospital or in an infants' school. A student studying the auto­motive mechanics vocational option in the In­dustrial Technical Department m a y find his work station located at a garage, a service station or in a vehicle maintenance department. T h e Work Experience Handbook (Jamaica, 1978, p . 2) maintains:

T h e W o r k Experience Programme serves as an effec­tive link between the school and the community. T h e community, in effect, becomes an extension of the educational milieu, making available to students equipment and resources which cannot be duplicated by the Ministry of Education.

T h e handbook maintains that the work-experience programme has benefits not only for the students but also for the school and the community. Students, it states, are helped to learn useful skills on real jobs and under actual working conditions, to develop necessary at­titudes for successful job performance, namely, punctuality, initiative and reliability. Students are also helped to develop a healthy work ethic and an appreciation of the dignity of honest labour. In so doing they learn to get along with their fellow-workers and discover the re­lationship between education and job success. Benefits to the school include not only the use of the skills and knowledge of qualified m e m ­bers of the community to supplement and enrich vocational instruction, but also the possibility for students to receive training and exposure with equipment and facilities that the schools could not afford. Moreover, it is argued, the programme provides an opportunity for e m ­ployers to participate in curriculum decision­making in the schools, particularly with regard to making suggestions for changes in the cur­

riculum to meet their specified needs. T h e W E P , then, is seen as involving the h o m e , school and the world of work in a co-operative endeavour for the good of the students. In fact, the educational planners also see the programme as a means of encouraging potential drop-outs to remain in school.

In terms of the employer, the W E P is seen as providing training for potential employees under the employer's o w n conditions. Thus the period of orientation as a paid employee might be shortened. T h e programme is also viewed as an avenue through which business, industry and agencies in the public and private sector can contribute a community service and assist in the educational enterprise.

Benefits to the community include enabling students to gain the knowledge and skills needed for employment in their o w n communities. T h e programme is also seen as bringing the school and community closer together in that it en­courages the student to feel an involved and contributing m e m b e r of the community. Fi­nally, the educational planners see the W E P as helping students to make sound adjustments to their chosen occupations, thereby reducing the number of untrained and frustrated youths in society. N o one would deny that these are noble objectives, seen through the eyes of the educational planners; but h o w do the 'clients' (i.e. the students, principals, teachers and e m ­ployers) view the programme?

H o w the clients view the work-experience programme

(WEP)

O n e of the present authors (Teape, 1980) gave a questionnaire, devised to ascertain what in their view were the main purposes of the W E P , to 120 students randomly selected from the Grade 11 classes in each of the four n e w second­ary schools in Kingston. T h e questionnaires were given after the students had completed their three-week period of work experience. A similar questionnaire was given to twenty ran­domly selected teachers of vocational and aca-

502 Zellynne D . Jennings-Wray and Veronica Elaine Teape

70

Percentages

m

0 i

ï s •§

il l II F I G . I . Responses of students, practical subject teachers and managers to most important purposes of the work-experience programme.

demie subjects in the same schools, and also to twenty randomly selected work-station m a n ­agers w h o had supervised the students during work experience, to four principals and to six work-experience teachers. Figure i gives a frequency distribution of students', teachers' and managers' views about the most important purposes of the W E P .

CONSTRAINTS AND PROBLEMS

Figure 2 suggests a number of possible expla­nations for the apparent conflict between the perceptions of the students and the managers with regard to the usefulness of the W E P in terms of developing good work attitudes and habits. T o the students, the greatest difficulty they experienced during the W E P was the fact that co-workers expected them to do the work that they disliked. M a n y students complained of having to do menial tasks like cleaning and sweeping up offices or factories instead of getting on with the job in which they were supposed to be getting experience. Again, per­haps the reason w h y students felt that the W E P did not enable them to find out whether their vocational choices were correct has to do with the fact that m a n y of them (55 per cent) felt that the work stations to which they were attached did not enable them to work in areas related to their vocational training. T h e fact that only 5 per cent of the managers seemed aware of this is an indication of the lack of communi ­cation between schools and potential employers (in fact the community generally). W h a t is more alarming, however, is the apparent lack of communication within the schools them­selves, because none of the principals—and even more surprisingly, none of the work-experience teachers!—felt that an inability to work in areas related to their vocational choices posed any difficulty to the students.

In order to ascertain whether the W E P had in any way benefited the students in their working lives, Teape sent a questionnaire to thirty-five randomly selected Grade 11 students w h o had graduated the previous year (1979)

Jamaica's work-experience p r o g r a m m e 503

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

- Percentages

•tí V 3 J 3 v*

- M u aj tyi rt b o

Kg

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F1 (A

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wer

e

xn

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M

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3

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oth

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0

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ork

£

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cu fi

0

B £ fi

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F I G . 2. Frequency distribution of responses of students, teachers and managers to difficulties students encountered during the work-experience programme.

and had n o w entered the world of work. Twenty students answered. O f these, Teape found that only two had obtained jobs, both at the same place at which they had had their work ex­perience.

Six students, unable to obtain employment, were doing further training courses at technical high schools and colleges, some on a part-time basis. Most of the students, however, were unemployed. Even students w h o were rated highly by both work-experience teachers and managers in relation to their performance in their vocational areas, as well as to their skill competence, work habits and attitude displayed on the job, were unable to obtain jobs. It was apparent that even when an employer recog­nized a student as a potentially good employee, lack of funds or the unavailability of a vacancy prevented employment.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Teape's findings suggest that the W E P in Jamaican n e w secondary schools has the po­tential for yielding fruit. For example, the scores given to the students by the managers in relation to their work habits and skill c o m ­petence were generally higher than those given by their practical subject teachers. This suggests that some students' skill competence either improved greatly ̂ during the^WEP or that they performed better in actual work situations. There are, however, a number of factors that militate against the effective operation of the W E P in Jamaica.

Organization of the secondary-school curriculum

A lesson that Third World countries can learn from the Jamaica experience is that any edu­cational programme—especially when it e m a ­nates directly from the political ideology of the government in power—needs to be carefully planned before implementation and integrated meaningfully into the schools' curriculum in-

504 Zellynne D . Jennings-Wray and Veronica Elaine Teape

stead of being 'tacked on' to it at the end. T h e work-experience programme is part of a cur­riculum package, the Grade i o - n programme that was introduced into the junior secondary schools in 1974 following the extension of the life of the schools by two years. T h e motivating force behind this was the ideology of democratic socialism of the government of the day, which embraced not only the need for mass education but also saw the necessity of tightly inter­weaving national policies for education and work in order that the economic production of the country, particularly, and its social de­velopment could be fully realized (Jamaica, 1978). T h e value of these objectives is not being questioned. W h a t is questionable, however, is the extent to which the educational planners and curriculum developers effectively trans­formed this political commitment to curriculum reality in the schools. A work-experience pro­g r a m m e of three weeks' duration at a workplace can hardly be taken as a serious attempt to interweave education and work. Half-hearted attempts at curriculum innovation can never be expected to yield fruit. A venture like work-experience has to become an integral part of the entire secondary-school curriculum, as in Cuba , for example, where students spend between two to six months of every year engaged in work-experience activities.

Research findings suggest the need for similar programmes in Jamaican secondary schools. T h e findings of Stewart (1976), for example, suggest that parental and teacher attitudes in Jamaican society are sufficiently favourably disposed towards the introduction into the Jamaican educational system of co-operative vocational education which would introduce children to the world of work at an early age. T h e Jamaican Government could, therefore, put more serious efforts into introducing work study programmes of the José Martí example into the mainstream of Jamaican education.

Need for government subsidy and centralization

of programmes

It is a misconception for governments of Third World countries to believe that schools can change almost overnight from a state of de­pendency to one of self-reliance. Caught up in the general economic squeeze, m a n y schools in Jamaica have had their purse-strings cut. In the face of the escalating cost of education, the frequent complaint is heard from principals of schools that they have not received their annual subsidy from the government for months and sometimes even years. Schools are, however, m a d e to feel that they should bear with the 'struggle' for self-reliance and find ways of becoming economically independent. M a n y schools succeed, especially those that have strong and supportive parent-teacher associ­ations, but there are m a n y others that are not so privileged. This call for self-reliance is taken on occasion as an opportunity for the Ministry of Education to 'stay aloof while individual schools struggle to implement a programme that has been thrust upon them—a programme that is costly both in terms of h u m a n and material resources but one that is seen as having sig­nificance for the economic productivity of the nation.

Educational planners saw the W E P as a means of enabling students to achieve exposure to and training with equipment and facilities that the schools themselves could not afford. T h e W E P , however, is very costly for the work stations. In her interview of the m a n ­agers, Teape (1980) found that m a n y of them felt strongly that the Ministry of Education should subsidize the W E P in order to ease the financial burden on the managers for the train­ing of the students. All of the principals, furthermore, expressed dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Education's lack of involvement and, seemingly, lack of concern with the programme. They felt that at least the ministry could give the students a small allowance to alleviate the financial embarrassment they suffered.

Jamaica's work-experience programme 505

Another thing that the managers frequently complained about was the students' lack of in-depth knowledge of the practical skills in which they were gaining experience. This could be due to the fact that the small cadre of teachers skilled in vocational areas that Jamaica has is spread very thinly throughout the system. Hence in any one school one is likely to find students being taught a particular vocational skill by a teacher w h o lacks adequate qualifi­cations. This suggests the need for Ministries of Education in Third World countries to centralize vocational programmes and equip particular schools with the necessary equipment, staff and other resources for providing special­ized training in one or two vocational subjects. Thus students wishing to specialize in electrical installation, for example, would attend the school that has that programme fully operative and has teachers with the necessary expertise.

T h e need for effective communication

T h e fact that none of the managers felt that too m u c h was expected of the students at the work stations, whereas a large number of both teachers and students did, coupled with the fact that the managers did not seem to realize that they were not providing the necessary supervision, suggests a lack of adequate c o m ­munication between the schools and the work stations. Employers seem to have little idea of what goes on in the schools from which their potential employees come. This being the case, one must doubt the extent to which the objec­tive of achieving a closer relationship with the community can be realized. According to the Work Experience Handbook (Jamaica, 1978, p. 8) the main factor in the success or failure of the W E P is the performance of the work-experience teachers, w h o are concerned with cthe total operation and functioning of the programme'. They are also expected to co­ordinate all work-experience activity both within and outside the school, and to be the vital link between the school and the work

community. T o achieve this a high degree of skill in interpersonal relationships and the ability to establish rapport with the students are seen as the essential attributes of a work-experience teacher. This, however, is not an easy task. T h e effectiveness of the work-experience teachers in the Jamaican context is called into question in the light of the fact that they seemed unable to recognize as a problem what to m a n y students was a serious cause of concern (that is, students' inability to work in areas related to their vocational choices). T h e heavy responsibility which rests on the shoulders of the work-experience teachers suggests the need for teacher-education colleges to institute special­ized programmes to equip them with the necess­ary skills and expertise.

There is, furthermore, a need for public education with regard both to the worth and to the functioning of the W E P . Media could be more effectively used not only to combat nega­tive attitudes towards practical and manual work in schools (and in the society at large) but also in order to persuade employers to accept n e w types of certification. In Jamaica, high value is attached to G C E certification. T h e average graduate of the n e w secondary school obtains a Secondary School Certificate, which employers generally consider inferior to the G C E ; they would give employment to the holder of the latter in preference to the n e w secondary school graduate. A n unwillingness to accept or a suspicion of n e w types of certifi­cation amongst employers is not a phenomenon peculiar to Jamaica, since M m a r i (1977) also pin-pointed the examination system, which does not adequately assess attitudes and the per­formance of manual work, as a problem in establishing the link between school and work in the United Republic of Tanzania.

Attitudes towards practical/manual work and the curriculum

Perhaps the factor that militates most against the effective working of the W E P is society's attitude towards practical/manual work. T h e

5o6 Zellynne D . Jennings-Wray and Veronica Elaine Teape

objective of developing in students a healthy work ethic and an appreciation of the dignity of honest labour is relatively low in the hier­archy of importance in the eyes of students, teachers and managers. It seems unreasonable, if not irrational, to expect a Three-week pro­g r a m m e to have any lasting impact on attitudes towards practical/manual work, particularly in a society that has very negative attitudes towards this type of labour. Such attitudes stem from the past condition of slavery of the Jamaican people. Manley (1974, p. 152) sums it up thus:

Thus the great majority of the Jamaican people came to the adventure of freedom with attitudes towards work that reflected the nursery of their historical experience. Instead of work being seen as a means by which a m a n expresses the creativity in himself while he earns his daily bread . . . work is seen as a condition imposed by a master upon a servant as the price of the servants' survival.

Clearly, changing "these kinds Jof attitudes is far beyond the capacity of the W E P .

It is also obvious that in spite of the attempt of the Democratic Socialist Government of Jamaica to promote curriculum for social re­construction, the people are aware that what is of real value in terms of their children's future occupational aspirations is what Elliot and Vallance (1974) term the 'curriculum for academic rationalism'. This orientation in cur­riculum is found for the most part in the island's traditional high schools, where emphasis is on academic success leading to employment in the higher-level occupations or to university en­trance. Jamaicans value education for social mobility (Figueroa, 1971) and they are fully aware that the insurance policy for this is academic success. T o gain entry into the few select jobs at the top of the occupational hier­archy, the Jamaican knows that he has to qualify by getting the correct n u m b e r of G C E or C X C 5 certificates, and the ones that will enable h im to meet university matriculation requirements are certainly not those related to practical skills.

In the Suggestions to Teachers in Senior Schools and Departments* (Jamaica, i960) it

was stated that the main purpose of senior-school education was that the students should gain a rich amalgam of general and practical education. A r m e d with this, school-leavers would be able to steer their way successfully through apprenticeship in trade, industry, c o m ­merce and agriculture. Yet Miller (1965) found that although the curriculum was dominated by practical subjects, only 5 per cent of the students said they liked practical subjects. T h e principals of the schools, furthermore, reported that at the slightest opportunity the students dropped the practical subjects and opted for the academic ones. Bacchus (1975) makes simi­lar observations in relation to the Guyanese education system. In his article, he shows h o w pressure from the upper-middle-class groups in Guyanese society, w h o were anxious for the schools to prepare their children to become society's élites, led to the perpetuation of a type of curriculum that educators considered irrelevant to the needs of society. But, as Bacchus said, this 'irrelevant education' was the major instrument by which m a n y indi-viduals^could acquire economic mobility and/or economic security. It also secured for the students entry into higher education. There­fore, popular preference for an academic cur­riculum was quite a rational strategy in edu­cation decision-making by parents and students.

In relation to the secondary high schools, there is no doubt that the n e w secondary schools are viewed as inferior institutions, their major emphasis being on a practical curricu­lum. T h e students themselves are very m u c h aware of their inferior status in the educational system and in the eyes of society generally. Hence it is not surprising that the W E P m a d e little, if any, impact on their self-concept.

T h e n e w secondary schools have, for the most part, a low social class intake: previous educational experiences have been basic or infant schools and government primary schools in which the students have been taught in overcrowded conditions, with inadequate physi­cal and material resources (Fenton, 1979). Children from the upper and middle class w h o have attended private preparatory schools, and

Jamaica's work-experience programme 507

those from the government primary schools w h o have passed the C o m m o n Entrance E x a m ­ination7 (CEE) , attend the secondary high schools. Since the children w h o attend the new secondary schools did not pass the C E E , a sense of failure pervades the school life of the new secondary student. Different types of certification also segregate the secondary-level students. Whereas the new secondary student takes the secondary-school certificate in Grade 11—and, since 1979, the Basic Pro­ficiency (CXC)—the secondary high-school student, is more likely than not to take the G C E examination or the General Proficiency level of the C X C . Although sixth-form work is not ruled out for the new secondary school student, it is a m u c h easier avenue for the graduate of the secondary high school, w h o then becomes well equipped for university matriculation. T h e new secondary school gradu­ate is more likely to enter university if he has done a training course in one of the island's seven teacher-training colleges, or in a single institution such as the College of Art, Science and Technology, the Jamaica School of Agri­culture or the Cultural Training Centre.

From what has been said it becomes apparent that, as long as the educational system in Jamaica retains its present structure, one can hardly expect a curriculum innovation like the W E P to have any major impact on the self-concept of students, especially those in the n e w secondary schools. For similar reasons one cannot expect the W E P to have any major impact on attitudes towards work, when at­tempts to counteract the stigma attached to practical/manual work are being made only in schools with a practical—and therefore 'in­ferior'—curriculum, whereas no such inroads are being made in schools where the focus is on academic curricula, to which society generally accords a superior status. Admittedly there are plans to rationalize secondary-level education in Jamaica—for example, the Five-Year E d u ­cation Plan (1978-83)—and in the Work Ex­perience Handbook (Jamaica, 1978, p . 2) it is stated that 'in future, the W o r k Experience Programme m a y be expanded to include the

high schools and comprehensive schools'. H o w ­ever, the programme has n o w been operative for five years with no such changes evident in that direction. Furthermore, educational plan­ners cannot expect that by the mere act of rationalizing secondary-level education they will succeed in eradicating overnight the stigmas and negative attitudes that have been per­petuated over the years by the present div­isions in the educational system. Curriculum innovations like the W E P cannot achieve their desired objectives unless they are accompanied by changes in attitudes and values that have their roots in the socio-economic foundations of the society.

T h e need for employment-generating strategies

M a n y Third World countries seem to believe that the provision of vocationally oriented cur­ricula rooted in the practicalities of the world of work is the panacea to their economic, social and educational problems. These programmes, however, as Oxtoby (1977) argues, cannot be expected to meet the desired objectives if they are not accompanied by structural changes and by reforms in labour-market practices, together with the introduction of specific employment-generating strategies. Nowhere is this fact more apparent than in the labour force situation in Jamaica today. Teape's finding showed that most of the n e w secondary school graduates w h o had been prepared for the world of work were unable to obtain work. This is not sur­prising, since the market in Jamaica in 1979 was characterized by both an increase in the number of young people seeking work and an increase in unemployment, against the back­ground of a decline in the availability of jobs. This was largely due to a slowing d o w n of economic activity in the productive sector. In October 1979 the unemployed labour force stood at 299,100, which represented an u n e m ­ployment rate of 31.1 per cent. T h e rate of unemployment also increased by 5.1 per cent between October 1978 and October 1979.

5o8 Zellynne D. Jennings-Wray and Veronica Elaine Teape

Unemployment hits the rural parishes hardest. In October 1979, the unemployment rate in one parish in Jamaica stood at 45.8 per cent! Unemployment is most acute among the 14-19 age-group. T h e school-leaver w h o has been prepared for the world of work, therefore, faces months of job-seeking, as is evident from the following statement: ' T h e period between leaving school and being placed in employment has become longer than pre­viously and in a growing number of cases has been exceeding twelve months' (Jamaica, 1980, p. vi).

Conclusion

This article has sought to highlight a work-experience programme in a Third World country, pin-pointing the factors that militate against the achievement of its desired objectives. A m o n g such factors are problems associated with curriculum organization at the secondary level, not least the negative attitudes that the society generally has towards a practical cur­riculum. Inadequate funding, largely due to governments' 'aloofness', against a background of pressure on schools to become more self-reliant; wastage of h u m a n resources in relation to programme organization; and the lack of effective communication both within the school system and between the school and the c o m ­munity generally—all these are proving to be constraints on the achievement of objectives. O u r discussion lends support to Sinclair's (1977) observation, referred to earlier, that Third World countries lack the institutional frame­work for conducting 'real-world' assignments by pupils in factories and offices. Before cur­riculum innovations like the W E P can have the desired effects, Third World countries will not only have to deal constructively with nega­tive attitudes and values in relation to practical and manual labour, but they will also have to find ways of initiating employment-generating strategies, so that students w h o have been prepared for the world of work will have the opportunity to enjoy the right to work. In

Third World countries like Jamaica, which are caught in the grip of political and social strife exacerbated by a vicious economic squeeze, these are gulfs which seem too wide to breach at present. •

Notes 1. T h e n e w secondary schools offer education to children

aged 12 to 17. Their intake is largely from the 'emerging middle and lower strata' of Jamaican society, while the secondary high schools, which admit children of the same age up to 18 or over, have an intake from the 'middle stratum' (see Miller, 1976)

2. T h e work-experience teacher is that m e m b e r of the school staff w h o has been appointed by the school administration to implement, operate, direct, co­ordinate and supervise the work-experience programme of a school.

3. T h e work-station supervisor is the person directly responsible for the supervision of the student's learning activities at the work station. T h e supervisor m a y be the owner or manager of the business or industry, the director of an agency, or an employee delegated by management.

4. T h e Grade 10-11 programme was introduced into the n e w secondary schools in 1974 after the life of the schools had been extended by two years. T h e pro­g r a m m e is practically and vocationally oriented and geared to equipping students with the knowledge and skills necessary for coping with the realities of everyday living. For example, there is a 'life skills' component, which seeks to prepare students for the world of living by making sure they have knowledge and experience of such matters as child and health care, nutrition, house­hold budgeting and simple electrical repairs, which it is felt they might not have obtained from other cur­riculum areas. T h e work-experience programme forms the experiental component in preparing the students for the 'world of work'.

5. T h e Caribbean Examinations Council ( C X C ) was established by agreement between fifteen C o m m o n ­wealth governments in April 1972 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, to conduct Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations. T h e first certificates were rffered in 1979, and were awarded at two levels: (a) General Proficiency: holders of this certificate are considered to have obtained the equivalent of G C E 'O'-level passes in the subjects taken of awarded Grades 1 and 2; (b) Basic Proficiency: holders of this certificate are considered to have satisfactorily c o m ­pleted a secondary-school course in the specific subjects.

6. Senior schools are the forerunners of junior secondary schools, which in turn have been superseded by the n e w secondary schools.

Jamaica's work-experience programme 509

7. The C o m m o n Entrance Examination (CEE) is usually taken by children in government primary and private preparatory schools at age 11 or over. This examin­ation determines who will gain entry to the government and government-aided high schools within the public system.

References B A C C H U S , M . K . 1975. Secondary School Curriculum and

Social Change in an Emergent Nation. Journal of Curriculum Studies, Vol. 7, N o . 2.

E L L I O T , E . ; V A L L A N C E , E . 1974. Conflicting Conceptions of Curriculum. McKutchen.

F E N T O N , S. 1979. Influences and Constraints on Decision­making in the Primary School Curriculum and Their Effects on the Achievement of Aims and Objectives: A Comparative Study of Montserrat and Jamaica' University of the West Indies. (Unpublished B . Ed. thesis.)

F I G U E R O A , J. 1971. Society, Schools and Progress in the West Indies. Pergamon Press.

JAMAICA. D E P A R T M E N T OF STATISTICS. 1980. The Labour

Force 1979.

. M I N I S T R Y OF E D U C A T I O N , i960. Suggestions to Teachers in Senior Schools and Departments.

. . 1977. Five-Year Education Plan (10,78-83).

Draft Two. . . 1978. Work Experience Handbook: Technical

and Vocational Education.

JONES, A . 1977. A Curriculum for School Community Participation. Carsea Journal, Vol. 2, N o . 2.

M A N L E Y , M . 1974. The Politics of Change: A Jamaican Testament. Andre Deutsch.

M I L L E R , E . 1965. Values of 12- and 14-year-olds in T w o Urban Jamaican Senior Schools. University*of the West Indies. (Unpublished Dip. Ed. thesis.)

•. 1976. Education and Society in Jamaica. In: P. Figueroa and G . Persaud (eds.), Sociology of Edu­cation: A Caribbean Reader. Oxford University Press.

M M A R I , G . R . V . 1977. Attempts to Link School with Work: The Tanzanian Experience. Prospects, Vol. VII N o . 3.

M O N T S E R R A T . M I N I S T R Y OF E D U C A T I O N , H E A L T H A N D

W E L F A R E . 1972. Monserrat Education Report. N Y E R E R E , J. K . 1968. Freedom and Socialism. Oxford

University Press. O R A M , R . 1976. Curriculum Development in First Cycle

Education: Some Implications of a Study of Teacher Opinion in a Developing Country. Journal of Curriculum Studies, Vol. 8, N o . 2.

O X T O B Y , R . 1977. Vocational Education and Devel­opment Planning: Emerging Issues in the C o m m o n ­wealth Caribbean. Comparative Education, Vol. 13, N o . 3.

SINCLAIR, M . E . 1977. Introducing Work-experience Programmes in Third World Schools. Prospects, Vol. VII, N o . 3.

S T E W A R T , T . 1976. The Attitudes of Parents and Teachers towards Vocational Education in Jamaica. University of the West Indies. (Unpublished Ph. D . thesis.)

T E A P E , V . E . 1980. A Study of the Work-experience Programme in Jamaica N e w Secondary Schools: An Examination of its Usefulness. University of the West Indies. (Unpublished B . Ed. thesis.)

TRENDS AND CASES

z

Bringing the press into the school:

a Brazilian experience Dymas Joseph

At a given m o m e n t , somewhere in the world, a teacher had occasion to mention—and even brilliantly illustrate—the fact that planets re­volve harmoniously around the sun, in a pat­tern of discipline and symmetry which has been repeated over millions of years. But suddenly a pupil (perhaps the least clever of the class) got to his feet and asked for explanations about something he had read in the newspaper: a superconjunction. This was something that was quite unintelligible to him—and here, in the classroom, he was even more perplexed, for what the teacher had said did not square exactly with what he had seen in the newspaper on that morning of 10 March 1982.

T h e teacher's reaction to the pupil's question was likewise a noteworthy, although less un­c o m m o n , phenomenon. Displaying great self-assurance and some irritation, he gave his answer after glancing at page 43 of the text­book, where there were to be found the very words in which he had just described the har­monious arrangement of the planets, together with a handsome illustration showing the sun surrounded by its orderly and obedient at­tendants. T h e book was reliable (after all, it was in its fourteenth edition!) and the teacher was not wrong to take it as a guide. But

D y m a s Joseph (Brazil). Graduate in philosophy and psychology, journalist, lecturer in the philosophy of education, founder of the Education Department of the Jornal do Brasil.

10 March 1982 was a special day—that the textbook had not foreseen—on which the nine planets of the solar system were due to change their positions transversely and all appear on the same side of the sun. A n d they had even m a d e an appointment for the event: 8.30 p . m . Brasilia time. ' T h e planets will not lie in a straight line,' said the Jornal do Brasil, 'but inside a heliocentric segment defined by an angle of slightly more than 60 degrees. Six will be visible to the naked eye, and three—Uranus, Neptune and Pluto—with the help of instru­ments.' Because of these words, there was a confrontation in a classroom, on that morning, between a teacher (who repeated what a book said was true), a book (which proclaimed that truth), a pupil (who wanted to k n o w the truth) and life (which is the truth in the world out­side).

T h e news given in the press (which reported the living truth), and reproduced on radio and television, momentarily modified, in respect of one exceptional event, the truth repeated by the book in its fourteenth edition. Unwarned (or perhaps misinformed), the teacher did not k n o w that a n e w fact had occurred and had m a d e it necessary to revise his methodical teaching plan, which had gone so smoothly the year before.

T h e pupil's question showed that he was alert to what was actually happening here and n o w , and was endowed with sufficient curiosity and scepticism to unsettle the dogmatism of a well-established, oft-repeated and all the more

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 4, 1982

514 Dymas Joseph

respected concept. A n unusual situation was created: for a m o m e n t , consecrated knowledge was put aside in favour of learning about something n e w that had recently attracted at­tention! Suddenly, the school, that stronghold of unchallengeable statements and concepts (some of which are only pre-conceived ideas), was going to be obliged to behave likewise in an exceptional way. T h e old agora of Athens was reborn, only this time the questioners found their answers, not in the subtle arguments of a master like Socrates, but in things that 'were there in the world for all to see once they had learned to do so'—as goes a song by a young Brazilian composer.

Learning to see

'Learning to see' is the same as the Learning to Be of the report by the International C o m ­mission on the Development of Education es­tablished by Unesco under the chairmanship of Edgar Faure,1 w h o admirably explains it in Chapter 4 , 'Challenges'. There he proposes that educators take on 'a fascinating task: that of discovering h o w to attain harmonious bal­ance between rational training and liberation of sensibility', in such a way as to be prepared for changes and to allow questioning without being alarmed by doubts.

Let us return to the classroom with the teacher, the book, and the pupil whose question about a topic of the day was answered by the teacher's facile repetition of what he himself had learned once and for all. W h a t happens in the mind of a child, an adolescent, if an item of information (so vividly projected by the media) conflicts with what he is taught in the classroom? Does it m e a n that the school is discredited, that it will have to change, or that school is dead, as Everett Reimer predicted?

Although it cannot be said that this is hap­pening in all the schools of Brazil, it is un­doubtedly the case in most of them. But is this true only here, or is it a universal phenomenon?

T h e thinking of John D e w e y (in the United States) and Anisio Teixeira (the great dissemi­

nator of his ideas in Brazil) m a y suggest a line of approach to the problem that the American educator put in a nutshell w h e n he said that school should imitate life and strive to be life itself. T h e effort to put into practice this idea, which almost became a slogan, ushered in one of Brazilian education's most brilliant periods, during which various educators m a d e decisive contributions towards the revision of teaching methods.

Nevertheless, the problem arises both here and in other parts of the world: it is no longer enough for school to be part of reality; it must become a 'receptive creation', capable of shaping (not so m u c h with the teachers as with the pupils themselves) the contours of a still unknown life—which will be the pupils' life years later w h e n they have left the classroom. T h e school must be the place where the future is invented, for it will be in the fragile yet strong hands of children and adolescents. T h e objective is not to perpetuate the contemporary way of living, for this will be quickly swept aside owing to the speed of communications, but to be equipped to make the most of life in the world of tomorrow, precisely because of the extraordinary alternation of balance-imbalance-balance of modernity which is a continual process of renewal and self-trans­formation.

Galileo urges us on in his forthright way w h e n he says that

science is written in that immense book which is always opening before our eyes (I mean the universe); but w e will never understand this book unless w e first learn to understand the language and to recog­nize the characters with which it is written. . . . Otherwise [he concludes], it is humanly impossible to make out a single word. Without this knowledge w e can only wander aimlessly through a dark labyrinth.2

T h e characters referred to by the irreverent scientist in the passage quoted above cannot be deciphered by the adult generation to which the teachers belong; they raise questions to which the teachers are unable to give answers likely to satisfy the young generation, which is busy building another universe—different

Bringing the press into the school: a Brazilian experience 515

habits, concepts, values—and is showing, with strong encouragement by the media, that it has its o w n peculiar (and disturbing) way of seeing and re-examining, judging and choosing, acting and reacting.

Education rarely prepares the individual to adapt to change. It is true, however, that the teaching-learning process is being constantly enriched by a very wide range of technological aids. It is also true that the school is tending to relinquish its claim to monopolize society's educational functions. It is in this context that the media, and particularly the press—which enables news to be used as a teaching tool—can serve as a pedagogical alternative.

The role of the Jornal do Brasil

With this perspective, one of the country's best-known newspapers published the following statement by its editor, J. A . de Nascimento Brito:

T h e importance of news, not only for the shaping of public opinion, but also as a living record of history in the making, has for a long time seemed to us at the Jornal do Brasil to imply that it has a valuable contribution to make to the theory and practice of education. Today, one nation is stronger than another not by reason of its military might, but because of the quantity of information at its disposal. In accord­ance with our vision of the perpetual renovation of the world, w e have realized that our social function would not be properly performed unless w e established a service to help the community of young people by introducing news into the classroom as a factor to be included in the teaching-learning process itself as this is progressively focused on what is n e w and original. Nothing could be more logical, therefore, than to create an education department to arouse the school's interest in news—living, dynamic, up-to-date information—and to enable it in this way to play its role more effectively as the agent of change and the basis of the country's development.

W e emphasize, in conclusion, that w e are conscious of our responsibility towards the Brazil of the year 2000, which will be^governed by the children and young people w h o m w e are helping to train today.

Towards an education department

T h e question before us comprised a simple idea: news is indispensable for shaping an evolutive vision of the things of this world and also for enabling individuals to participate as actors in the evolutionary process, and not just as objects.

In order to set up an education department in an enterprise engaged in journalism and the dissemination of news—the Jornal do Brasil—it was necessary to work out strategies for pursu­ing its various objectives. There were m a n y ex­periments, personal contacts, disappointments and frustrations, until finally the main theoreti­cal principles on the basis of which it was to operate began to emerge. A series of meet­ings between journalists, cultural promotion workers, pupils between the ages of 13 and 18 and a model-maker resulted in the idea of cre­ating a 'flying' editorial office which would take up quarters in a school for a given length of time.

According to this concept, the pupils would acquire some basic knowledge and skills in the fields of communication, editorial methods, creativity and team work, and would practise observing, researching into and collecting docu­mentation on the conditions prevailing in their community. They would also have to define the concepts of culture, community and the c o m m o n good.

T h e experiment began in March 1972 with forty-eight sixth-form pupils, all belonging to the same stream, selected out of a school popu­lation of 850 pupils. T h e work was to be carried out on experimental lines with this stream only and without altering the curricula or the school timetable. However, w e were allowed to use the classroom and ancillary school buildings out of school hours and to enlist the co-operation of the teachers.

During the first two weeks, w e explained, in the most informal and practical way possible, h o w a newspaper is m a d e , describing the re­spectives roles of the editor, the reporters, the

5i6 Dymas Joseph

photographers, the illustrators and the page-setters, and giving some basic instruction in the preparation of texts, headlines and captions. W e also organized exercises to develop the pupils' powers of observation and their ability to select and condense information, as well as games designed to teach them to pick out news­worthy items. At the same time, in order to make the conceptualizing work done at this stage more dynamic, w e introduced (with the help of the teacher of composition, communi­cation and self-expression) a wall newspaper for the use of the pupils in our group, with no restrictions as to content.

At the end of each meeting, w e also used (with the unhesitating support of the science teacher) the technique of the 'spoken newspaper', which consisted in inviting any pupils w h o so desired (and in fact they were all willing!) to deliver an oral progress report, lasting one or two minutes, on the work done up to that point. This gave us an opportunity to correct or improve their oral expression by showing them h o w to present their ideas more clearly and making them ap­preciate the virtues of concision, without, h o w ­ever, inhibiting their creative capacity. During this stage, w e concentrated on techniques of television and radio news reporting.

T h e spoken newspaper, as an exciting instru­ment for the self-evaluation process, was soon enriched by announcements of birthdays and parties and by bulletins that vividly revealed the children's interests as regards leisure ac­tivities, sports, culture and other, more un­expected matters. For example, w e were oc­casionally faced with surprising demands, some of which were deep-rooted, but they were always voiced in a relaxed and cheerful at­mosphere. W e also observed a great improve­ment in interaction within the group.

As for the wall newspaper, it was made of a panel of soft-surfaced material measuring 2 x 2 . 5 metres, on which the pupils could fix slips of paper (or whatever else they chose) containing news. This noticeboard was hung on one of the classroom walls, not next to the entrance door (so that it would not be thought of as something to be only glanced at in passing)

but on the opposite wall, which is the natural focus of attention. A rule was laid down at the outset; the wall newspaper was to be renewed every day so that no item of news would stay up longer than twenty-four hours (the purpose being to induce the pupils to read it every day). Later on w e came to the conclusion that some information had to stay up longer, such as examination schedules, announcements of fes­tivities, and so on. For this type of news item w e therefore reserved a space (on the right-hand side of the panel) which was headed 'Coming Events'. But our guiding principle was that the wall newspaper should look dif­ferent every day. T o that effect, the news items in the 'Coming Events' space were arranged in chronological order, with the events closest at hand shown in red, the middle-term ones stand­ing out against a yellow background and the rest shown in green. Every day, this column displayed a fresh illustration with a caption alluding to the next imminent event.

So as to ensure that the rule of 'looking different every day' was consistently observed by the wall newspaper, including the 'Coming Events' column, w e found it necessary to use expressions such as 'tomorrow', 'today', 'two days left', and so on, in the form of subheads, thereby allowing the news to stay up but re­newing its appeal from day to day and creating the impression that 'if you don't look at it today it won't be there tomorrow and you'll have missed something that practically everyone else knows about'. W e agreed among ourselves that, as the newspaper would be stale after twenty-four hours, something new would have to be assimilated every day. T h e accumulated material was given to a group of pupils entrusted with the running of a research and documen­tation section, which classified the items dis­played by the wall newspaper and other docu­ments supplied by their classmates, thus making up files for reference purposes. This part of the experiment was later repeated by the E d u ­cation Department of the Jornal do Brazil in other schools (involving pupils and teachers) in order to show h o w to organize and use files composed of cuttings from newspapers and

Bringing the press into the school: a Brazilian experience 517

periodicals. T h e library then m a d e room on its shelves, beside its books, for these files, which covered such questions as the Transamazonian highway, petrol, energy (this subject being broken d o w n according to the different forms of energy) and other matters arising out of work projects suggested by the teachers. Files soon began to be m a d e up as fresh news appeared in the press. A m o n g the subjects covered in this way were the space race, the death of Sadat and, more recently, the solar system (in­cluding the phenomenon of the superconjunc-tion of the planets). W e regularly contribute documentation material that the Jornal do Brasil has received but has not used, and w e also run a column in the Teacher's Newspaper (one of the publications of the Education Department), giving more detailed information on recent events of major importance, which is also col­lected in these files.

S o m e school libraries have collaborated in the execution of this project by making up files of illustrations which the pupils can use for their academic work. Here too, the Jornal do Brasil enriches these collections with photo­graphs stored in its o w n archives, but which happened never to be used in the newspaper; it donates one copy and keeps the negative.

T o return to the wall newspaper itself, another rule was established: the material was to be harmoniously set out on the panel. T o that end, a group was formed to be responsible for what the pupils had learned about page-setting, and every day it designed and m a d e a model layout for the wall newspaper. It was the same group that introduced a modification in the work project in order to make the wall newspaper more attractive: instead of simply pinning slips of paper torn out of an exercise book on to the panel, the group had the idea of mounting the slips of paper on coloured card­board, giving the effect of a frame, so that the news items were displayed in a more striking way. They then decided that one colour should be assigned to each day of the week, so that a change in the predominant colour of the panel would immediately tell the pupils that a n e w edition had come out.

W h a t did the wall newspaper display? All kinds of things. S o m e critical comments on a television programme; an invitation to trade a book or some sports equipment; the football shirt a classmate was wearing when he scored the winning goal in the last match; a poem; a made-up anecdote; an invitation to take part in a research project on the life of an anthill. W e could produce a long and fascinating list, but w e shall stop there so as to leave the pleasure of discovery to anyone w h o carries out an exper­iment of the same kind.

O n e important activity deserves to be re­corded here: the group that read the day's newspapers clipped out the most important news stories and pinned them up with a blank sheet of paper next to them, for their class­mates to jot d o w n their comments. At the beginning, the group cut out the whole article, but after awhile the pupils in the group saw that no one read an article all the way through because it was too long and the letters too small, given the distance at which the reader stood from the wall newspaper. So some vari­ations were introduced; they started by pasting up only the title or the subhead; then they saw that they should add on the lead and sublead, or the summary that always appears on the front page (which was, in fact, the n a m e given to this part of the wall newspaper). Sometimes they only put up a photo or an illustration with its caption.

Nearby they placed a folder containing the rest of the press article which had been cut out and which was thus m a d e available for a more thorough study of the question; the rule of providing a blank sheet of paper next to the news item (for comments and interpretations) continued to be observed.

Making a newspaper

By the end of the first month the pupils were enthusiastic. They were even asking to be given tasks in which they could make use of the instrument they were beginning to master. W e then went on to the next stage of the project:

5i8 Dymas Joseph

the students wanted a publication that reflected their o w n experience. W h e r e should w e begin? O u r suggestion was to make just the front page of a newspaper (like the Jornal do Brasil's, for example). First of all, w e distributed the roles of chief editor, editor, reporter, photographer, il­lustrator and page-setter. W e divided the class into groups (about six or seven in each one), each one to be responsible for one of these jobs, and w e studied the way in which the Jornal do Brasil had gone about setting up its front page. W e described the task assigned to the peuteiro (the person in charge of suggesting h o w the content of the materials to be published should be presented), explained the rules ap­plying to titles and captions, and identified the basic elements that go to make up a news item (who, what, w h e n , h o w , where and why) .

W e then distributed page-setting sheets (models on which page-setters and illustrators work). T h e result was spectacular: six front pages with 'photographs', different 'titles' and 'texts' hand-written by the pupils themselves. Each of these pages bore the newspaper's n a m e and a rough logotype. T h e experiment was repeated twice, once using a collage of photos, texts and titles from newspapers and periodicals. T h e last production was a front page containing news of the school community, for which a 'press agency' (operating like a telex ser­vice) received information supplied by other classes.

A newspaper had been born and was faced with all the usual problems of layout, editorial policy, distribution and circulation. It was a h o m e - m a d e production of a kind which was close to Célestin Freinet's ideal means of fos­tering such things as: the team spirit; an ex­perimental approach to problems; the organiz­ation and systematization of logical thought; participation in real work; the evaluation of one's work within one's o w n community; a critical mind; an aptitude for team work; the improvement of skills of communication and self-expression; group dynamics (aimed at the socialization of all the pupils); participation in community life (at the levels of the school, the immediate neighbourhood, the district, the city

and the world); curiosity and the active search for information; the habit of reading, research­ing and collecting documentation; and the free development of each individual's o w n idiom and modes of expression. In short, a project integrating art, education and communication, in which the school has become an open space and n o w thinks of its mission not as being expressly restricted to the transmission of k n o w ­ledge, but as including the discovery of the vocation, talents and potentialities of each in­dividual.

W e carried on with our experimental project, which reached its peak after almost three months of work done in the school, in the editorial office of the Jornal do Brasil, and even in the homes of pupils or teachers, apart from the special meetings held for the 'editorial groups'. (Some of these were attended by professional journalists or cultural promotion workers rec­o m m e n d e d by us.) W e had launched a venture and n o w pupils and teachers were ready to continue on their o w n , although they still needed some form of supervision, control and evaluation. T h e next stage in view was the publishing of a printed newspaper, for which w e had to determine the extent of our partici­pation, as well as trying to define what the Education Department of the Jornal do Brasil would be like and h o w it would operate.

At last, a programme

T h e experiment w e had conducted with the forty-eight pupils could clearly not become their main activity. W h a t w e needed was a programme, rather than a project, whose scope would be wide enough, in accordance with our original aim, to activate the entire school c o m ­munity of a large area of the State of Rio, which comprised over 2,000 schools.

Nevertheless, w e consider the work w e did to be of the utmost importance, since it helped us to develop a philosophy based on the idea that news can be used to galvanize efforts to integrate communication into the art and edu­cation process. In the context ofthat experiment.

Bringing the press into the school: a Brazilian experience 519

some of our present forms of action took shape: preparing teachers and pupils for carrying out projects like those of the wall newspaper, the spoken newspaper and the printed (or hand­written) newspaper; encouraging school li­braries to establish a research and documen­tation service, to be responsible for keeping files of cuttings from newspapers and period­icals; launching the 'Young N e w s m a n ' project, which duplicates (with a few modifications) the experiment conducted with the forty-eight p u ­pils, except that it is no longer concentrated in a single school, but is carried out by the pupils of several schools w h o come together for that purpose at the Jornal do Brasil; converting the 'editorial group' (which selected and displayed the news for the wall newspaper) into a news­paper-reading club.

W e reconvened the group that had planned the pilot project and reorganized the E d u ­cation Department on the basis of a programme reflecting the interests of fifth- and sixth-form pupils (between 15 and 18 years old) and providing for printed publications, projects, activities, the performance of services and c a m ­paigns (or promotion action). T w o publications were planned for: one for pupils and teachers, and the other for teachers only. T h e projects were designed to develop, within the school community, proposals related to subjects of public interest, most of which would be those dealt with in the Jornal do Brasil, for example, 'science clubs' and 'science fairs' (science and technology), an agricultural club, k n o w n as ' A Kitchen Garden in Every School' (health, food, agriculture), 'Ecological Reporter' (environ­ment, ecology), 'Young City' (political edu­cation of young people) and m a n y others. T h e activities were in fact less ambitious proj­ects, like, for example, the one w e called ' T h e Teacher Goes to the Theatre', in which the Education Department provides (for the use of teachers only) a free ticket for a significant play to be discussed afterwards with specialists. Another activity, called Ttfews School', con­sisted in publishing in the Jornal do Brasil material based on a news item enlarged upon by schoolchildren, for example, a n e w country's

independence; in the case of an event of this kind, various aspects (geographical, economic, historical, etc.) can be dealt with in depth and prepared for publication in the press with maps , statistical data and other annexes il­lustrating them for didactic purposes. Other examples were the 'Occupational N e w s Fair' and the 'Little Book Fair': during Book W e e k , some schools organize book exhibitions, talks with story-tellers and authors, w h o donate or sell their autographed books, exchanges of second­hand books, and so on. Yet another type of activity is the commemoration of events such as Health D a y , Pan-American D a y , or the anniversary of the birth or death of a public figure w h o has m a d e an important contribution to the development of education in civics and cultural subjects.

A s regards the performance of services, w e have set up a Section for Assisting Educational Researchers. It keeps more than a hundred files containing news clipped from newspapers and periodicals and texts written by the Education Department itself, as well as books and col­lections that the pupils can consult in a room set aside for them, where they can study and select the material they need. If a pupil wants to obtain a copy of a document, w e are able to supply it. Before a pupil begins his research, he is assisted by a professional w h o gives him advice as to the right way of approaching his subject.

W e also keep a collection of all issues of the Jornal do Brasil that have come out during the last twelve months, so as to enable the pupils to refer to the material already published. T h e recent establishment within our enterprise of our o w n documentation centre has enabled us to offer a wider range of services, since this centre is equipped with microfilm readers, a cross-referenced index of published news, a valuable collection of documents dealing with the history of journalism and a photographic library. Furthermore, pupils and even teachers can telephone the centre to obtain information.

Lastly, the campaigns are related to the major issues brought to the fore by the Jornal do Brasil or the community itself. Examples

520 Dymas Joseph

are the campaign called 'Plant a Tree', and another concerning child welfare which was conducted recently in response to Unesco's proposal.

N o w that w e have set up this flexible frame­work, which is renewed from year to year, w e are sure of having a philosophy of action and a programme of projects that are well worth following.

A closer look at the Education Department

of the Jornal do Brasil

In order to describe the functions of the E d u ­cation Department of the Jornal do Brasil w e must start by explaining the basic ideas underlying the Wall Newspaper of Brazil, the Teacher's Newspaper and the Section for A s ­sisting Educational Researchers.

T h e Wall Newspaper of Brazil is the kingpin of our efforts. Unlike the previous experiment, this wall newspaper is produced by us and printed on the same presses as the Jornal do Brasil. It consists of an unfolded double page, the two sides of which are treated as two distinct parts. For the content of one part, w e chose (with different groups of pupils) a subject that is related to the curriculum; the other part displays typical press material dealing with the most important news of the m o m e n t , provided that it has something to contribute to the pu­pils' school work. As in the case of the previous experiment, there is also a calendar on one side, showing the fortnight's most important dates and events. T h e Wall Newspaper of Brazil is published fortnightly and distributed free of charge, by mail, to all the schools and other educational institutions of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Its texts are short, printed in large type (as they are intended to be read at a distance of 2 or 3 metres) and well illustrated.

T h e idea of the Teacher's Newspaper arose from the need to give teachers a deeper insight into the subjects touched on by the news items presented in the Wall Newspaper, in order to enable them to deal with them adequately with

their pupils. It is produced in the form of a quarter tabloid, is also published fortnightly and comprises sixteen pages that are mainly designed to facilitate the introduction of news into the classroom. It also features a brief review of major events that have occurred in the field of education, bibliographical notes, summaries of pedagogical theories and teach­ing techniques, personality profiles of leading educators and press reports on miscellaneous subjects.

T h e Section for Assisting Educational R e ­searchers has already been referred to. It re­mains for us to describe the system which links together the three elements considered above and which (along with the activities, campaigns and projects) has made the Education Depart­ment of the Jornal do Brasil what it is. It oper­ates as follows.

Every process begins with a news item. This item, which is taken from the Jornal do Brasil—for example, the superconjunction of the planets—is presented in the appropriate language and typography in the Wall Newspaper of Brazil. This is hung up in the classroom and arouses the pupil's curiosity, inducing him to question the teacher about its content. M e a n ­while, the teacher has been enabled by his Teacher's Newspaper to answer the pupil's ques­tions and, using the suggestions made in that publication, to propose a line of research for the pupil to pursue. But where can information be found about the present superconjunction of the planets of the solar system, since it is too early for the information to be given in the textbook? Answering that inquiry is the func­tion of the Section for Assisting Educational Researchers, which will, if necessary, direct pupils to external services to help them find better documentation and m a y even tell them w h o is the right person to see ( 'Go to the National Observatory and ask for so and so at such and such a time, or telephone him at such and such a number') .

In this way a cycle is formed and the process is continually supplied with fresh material, since it begins by taking news from the Jornal do Brasil and ends by bringing it back to the

Bringing the press into the school: a Brazilian experience

Education Department, which is engaged, at the same time, in promoting activities (a visit to the Planetarium), writing up material of the ' N e w s School' type for the Jornal do Brasil, and encouraging young scientists to study the matter for the next annual science fair, besides providing school libraries with reference m a ­terial. In the same way, certain projects, such as the 'Young N e w s m a n ' project and its pro­duction of school newspapers featuring this kind of event, can benefit from the action taken to focus attention on news items. More and more examples can be quoted as the list of subjects lengthens. W e do not have space here to enumerate all the forms in which this programme is being carried out.

O n the strength of the results obtained by the Education Department of the Jornal do Brasil, w e feel sure that its various sections are con­tributing, through their interaction, to a recep­tive endeavour, ideologically oriented towards the development of a critical awareness of the world and the things around us. In these twelve years of work, each of these sections has made its o w n impact and acquired its o w n credibility, although they are all integrated into a process in which news is both the point of departure and the ultimate goal. •

Notes 1. Edgar Faure, Learning to Be, Paris/London, Unesco/

Harrap, 1972.

2. Galileo Galilei, 'Poetry and Philosophy: The Book

of the Universe', in The Experimenter.

Reviews

Prospects, Vol.

PROFILES:

M A R I A M O N T E S S O R I *

T H E O N G O I N G D E B A T E

T h e figure of Maria Montessori stands out above most of those w h o were involved in the N e w E d u ­cation. Rarely have attempts been m a d e to establish a set of educational precepts which would have such universal validity as hers, and very few others had such a powerful influence on developments in the world as a whole. T h e all-embracing nature of her ideas is perhaps all the more astonishing in view of the fact that in the initial stages of her research she concentrated on work with very young children, and only later extended it to include older children and the family. She regarded infancy as the critical phase in the evolution of the individual, during which the groundwork for all subsequent development is laid, and hence ascribed universal validity to statements about this period of life. Montessori was also an examplary figure in that she sought to establish a meeting-ground of theory and practice in the form of the Children's Houses and her didactic materials. N o other representative of the N e w Education put his theories into practice on the same scale; she initiated a varied programme on an international scale that remained without equal.

T h e truly remarkable thing is that the discussion surrounding her ideas is just as lively and full of controversy today as it was when they were first published. After 1909, when she first appeared in print (at the suggestion of her closest friends, A n n a Maccheroni and Alice Franchetti), her works began to be translated into all of the major world languages. T h e spread of her ideas was aided by a series of stimulating and elegantly articulated lectures held in all parts of the world.

Today the struggle to understand this p h e n o m ­enon—the relationship between theory and practice, individual and work, what was borrowed and what was original—is as intense as ever, as can be seen by the number of publications in the Federal Republic of G e r m a n y that have dealt with these questions in recent years.1 A truly comprehensive assessment was m a d e possible only by the re-issue of her complete works.2

This continuing discussion is not motivated at all by a reverent desire to protect and preserve the past, but by a genuine spirit of inquiry. This is so for two reasons. First, the attraction of Montessori's person­ality, which has survived in her work and gives her

* This article is the translated version of a chapter of m y book Die Reformpädagogik. Ursprung und Verlauf in Europa, Hanover, 1980.

[, N o . 4, 1982

524 Reviews

ideas a special fascination; second, the intentions behind her work, which were to provide the education of children with a scientifically valid basis and to re-evaluate constantly it by means of practical ex­periments.

THE KEY EXPERIENCE

Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Chiaravalle near Ancona, Italy, and died in 1952 in Nordwijk, Netherlands. In 1896 she became the first w o m a n in Italy to finish medical school with a study on neuro­pathology. For the following two years she worked as an assistant at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of R o m e ; among other things she was responsible for the care of mentally handicapped children. T h e time spent with these children and the experience of their still intact need and desire to play led her to inves­tigate possibilities for educating them. She dis­covered the works of the French doctors Bourneville, Itard and Séguin, and of Pereira, a Spaniard w h o had lived in Paris and known Rousseau and Diderot. She was especially impressed by Itard, w h o had sought to civilize the wild boy found in the forests of Aveyron by stimulating and developing his senses, and by Itard's pupil, Edouard Séguin. O n the whole she revealed little about her sources of inspiration, but in her writings she discussed in depth her efforts to come to terms with Séguin's works, especially with the book Idiocy: And its Treatment by the Physiological Method, which appeared after Séguin had emigrated to the United States and in which he described his method for the second time.3

Inspired by her experiences with the children at the clinic, w h o had played with pieces of bread on the floor for lack of other toys, and by the exercises for sharpening the sensory functions developed by Séguin, Maria Montessori decided to devote herself to educational problems. In 1900 and 1901 she had a position at the Scuola Magistrale Ortofrenica, an institute responsible for the training of teachers for special schools (for example, for handicapped and mentally retarded children). After a study of edu­cation she became involved in the modernization of a R o m a n slum quarter, San Lorenzo, by assuming responsibility for the education of the children. Her answer to this situation of need was the establishment of a Children's House {casa dei bambini), in which the children were to learn about the world and develop the ability to plan their o w n lives.

San Lorenzo was the beginning of a kind of renaissance movement which served to renew belief in the betterment of mankind by means of the edu­cation of children. Although Maria Montessori based her work on scientific principles, she nevertheless considered childhood to be a continuation of the act of creation. This combination of approaches is the truly fascinating aspect of her work: on the one hand she practised precise experiment and observation in

the spirit of science, yet at the same time she regarded faith, hope and trust to be the most effective means of teaching children independence and self-confidence. T h e Children's Houses that were established in the following years became at times holy places to which educators made pilgrimages—they were always shining examples pointing towards the solution of educational problems.

Reflection and meditation played an important part both in her personal life and in her educational programme. Without getting involved with other approaches and having to submit to compromises, she was sure of her claim to represent the needs of all children, and knew h o w to put her message across in an intelligent, clear and determined manner. Despite the clarity of her diction she was widely regarded as a kind of high priestess of the rights of children in an antagonistic world. Her individual fate surely con­tributed to the air of mystery surrounding her work—she gave birth to a son out of wedlock—though through her work she also found a way of resolving this problem in an exemplary fashion.4

Those closest to Montessori—above all Anna Maccheroni and for a time Helen Parkhurst—were completely dedicated to the task at hand. Her son, and later her grandson, Mario Montessori, also committed themselves to this work. But their c o m ­mitment had little to do with upholding family tradition; on the contrary, they were concerned with a m u c h broader legacy, the 'education of h u m a n beings'.6

MONTESSORI AND THE N E W EDUCATION

T h e work begun by Maria Montessori in San Lorenzo proved to be enormously fruitful. After being asked by Tálamo, the director of the building firm, to establish a youth centre to get the children of working parents off the streets, she created the 'miracle of the n e w children', w h o by means of their heightened child-ness influenced their parents favourably in turn. T h e 'true child' was living proof of the ongoing process of creation, of rebirth and renewal: whoever was ready and able to think the matter through discovered its deeply religious significance.

Maria Montessori was a true exponent of the N e w Education as an international movement. For her reform was not merely a mechanical process of re­placing old methods with supposedly better ones; she was m u c h more concerned with a process more aptly described by the original meaning oí reformatio: a remodelling and renewal of life.

It is not easy to determine Montessori's position in relation to the rest of the N e w Education. In contrast to most of the other approaches employed she was very heavily influenced by Rousseau. M a n y passages of her books read like variations on themes by Rousseau, and her criticisms of the adult world,

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which in her opinion gives no consideration to children at all, are also reminiscent of his attitude. Her complaints about wet nurses and the straps, frames, protective helmets and baskets which were employed to teach children to walk too early were inspired by Rousseau, as was her resultant conclusion: cIt is essential to let nature have its o w n way as far as possible; the more freedom children are allowed to develop, the quicker and more perfectly they will attain higher forms and functions.'6

She definitely had not carried out a systematic study of Rousseau's works—but just as she adopted a great deal of the critical discussion of culture and society of her o w n day, she must have read at least some parts of Emile, above all the first book. Her attitude towards other educators involved in the N e w Education movement , such as D e w e y , Kil-patrick, Decroly and Ferriere, is similarly difficult to ascertain. Although she met m a n y of them in con­nection with her work in the N e w Education Fellow­ship, no real collaboration with them came about. T h e only ones she even mentioned in her o w n works were Washburne and Percy Nunn—the latter above all in connection with her concept of 'absorbent mind'.

Percy N u n n , at that time president of the English section of the N e w Education Fellowship, met her when she gave a series of lectures in London. His ideas of m n e m e and hormic theory, presented in his book Education. Its Data and First Principles? helped her arrive at her view of the constructive function of the developing h u m a n mind, which determines the course of life in constant interaction with the environ­ment and in so doing takes on a definite shape itself.

She was also inspired by Ovide Decroly. Their lives and work had m u c h in c o m m o n : they were almost the same age (Montessori was born in 1870, Decroly in 1871), both studied medicine and both established educational institutions in 1907, the casa dei bambini in R o m e and the École pour la Vie par la Vie' in Brussels. Since both of them were active members of the N e w Education Fellowship they met and had discussions m a n y times.8 However, at the time of their meeting they had both already developed their concepts for the most part, so that the great similarity of their approaches was primarily due to their having both studied the works of Itard and Séguin.

T h e basic concept behind Montessori's educational work was that of providing children with a suitable environment in which to live and learn. T h e signifi­cant thing about her educational programme is that it gave equal emphasis to internal and external de­velopment, arranged so that they complemented one another. But the fact that external education was even given consideration, having been considered merely a consequence of the success of internal edu­cation by the idealistic schools of philosophy and

education, bears witness to the scientific orientation of the programme. Here Séguin's influence must have been decisive, as well as that of Pereira, w h o had established the role of the senses in the development of the personality. T h e idea that it is possible to form and alter h u m a n beings exclusively by means of manipulating their sensory input, which Diderot dis­cussed in his Lettres sur les aveugles and Lettres sur les muets and which inspired Rousseau's programme for training the senses, also played an important part in Montessori's theories.

T h e truly original nature of Montessori's ideas can only be grasped if they are compared with the method developed by the Agazzi sisters. T h e work of Rosa and Carolina Agazzi was one of the most remarkable attempts to make progress in the edu­cation of young children. It is important to us today because it occurred within the same environment in which Montessori developed her ideas. A s early as 1882 Rosa Agazzi and her sister took over a h o m e (il nuovo asilo) in Monpiano, Brescia, which is considered to be the first Children's House in Italy.9

Just as Montessori later did, Rosa Agazzi also sought to intensify and control the education of young children by means of altering their living en­vironment.10

Montessori introduced the education process by means of a set of standardized learning materials; Rosa Agazzi, on the other hand, insisted that objects collected by the children themselves carry out this function. In this way the objects were to be experi­enced more thoroughly and the process of abstraction only introduced after this first stage had been absolved. However, it would be incorrect to state that the difference between the two approaches was that the Agazzi sisters encouraged direct experience and Montessori abstraction; Montessori was also very m u c h concerned with the experiential stage. She nevertheless placed greater emphasis on introducing the process of comparison and abstraction, which is of paramount importance for intellectual develop­ment, in a controlled and intelligently planned manner, so that it would not be left to chance.

Like other N e w Educators, Montessori was aware of the fact that it is necessary to take the inclinations and interests of the children themselves as the starting-point if the educational process is to remain relatively free of conflicts. But she also recognized that these inclinations and interests must be en­couraged and deepened by means of exercises, and further that the success of this is dependent on awakening a feeling of responsibility in the children. This was her truly original contribution: she not only gave consideration to the inclinations and interests of the children, as was done by m a n y N e w Educators w h o based their work solely on this principle, but also sought to encourage responsibility and self-discipline on the part of the children.

526 Reviews

THE CHILDREN'S HOUSES

T h e Children's Houses were living environments specially adapted to children, in which they could grow and develop in keeping with their individual sense of responsibility. In the houses everything was adapted to the children and their specific attitudes and perspectives: not only cupboards, tables and chairs but also colour, sound and architecture. T h e children were expected to live and m o v e in this environment in a responsible w a y and deal with the tasks of creating and keeping order so that they could ascend a kind of 'ladder' towards self-realization.

Freedom and discipline interacted, and the basic tenet was that neither one could be achieved without the other. Seen in this way , discipline was not some­thing imposed from the outside but rather a challenge to become worthy of freedom. In this connection Montessori wrote: ' W e call someone disciplined if he is his o w n master and can therefore c o m m a n d himself to behave properly if a rule of life must be observed.11

T h e idea central to self-determination, namely that freedom is possible only if one submits to laws that one has discovered and decided upon oneself, which Rousseau formulated in terms of his volonté générale, was not expressly stated in her works. Around the turn of the century Italian philosophy was dominated by positivistic thought, to be sure, but idealistic and neo-Kantian tendencies were also represented by Alessandro Chiapelli, Bernardino Varisco and Benedetto Croce. It is not very likely that Montessori studied these philosophers to any great extent; nevertheless she had her children participate actively in the shaping of their living environment as well as of its rules and principles of order, and in this w a y justice was thoroughly done to the idea of moral autonomy.

But Montessori went even further: she systemati­cally developed the logical sequel of these ideas, namely their application and practice in real-life situations, an aspect which has often been passed over too lightly by educators. T h e programme she devel­oped to do this involved 'exercises in daily living', or 'exercices de la vie pratique', as she called them in the first of her lectures held in France.12 These included exercises in patience, exactness and rep­etition, all of which were intended to strengthen the powers of concentration. It was important that these exercises be done each day within the context of some real 'task' and not mere games or busy work. T h e y were rounded out by practice in being still and meditating, which formed the point of transition from 'external' to 'internal' education.

In her writings Montessori repeatedly stressed the importance of developing attitudes instead of just practical abilities; she wrote that practical work

should result in an attitude by means of contem­plation: 'disciplined behaviour becomes a basic attitude'.13

For her this was the real task of the Children's Houses:

The central feature of this development of the personality was free work which satisfies the natural needs of inner life. Therefore free intellectual work shows itself to be the basis of inner discipline. The principal achievement of the Children's Houses has been to instil discipline in the children.14

This statement was then given force by a comparison with religious education: This reminds one of the advice given by the Catholic Church for maintaining intellectual and spiritual strength, i.e. after a period of'inward concentration' one can attain to 'moral strength'. The moral personality must take its stabilizing strength from methodical 'meditation'; without this strength the 'inner being' remains scattered and unbalanced, is not its o w n master and cannot utilize its own powers for noble ends.15

In c o m m o n with Rousseau Montessori considered 'help for the weak, the aged and the infirm' to be an important task to be carried out during the stage of personal development in which 'moral relationships'16

define and mark the beginning of a n e w life as a moral individual. She thought that the proper time for this step was during adolescence, but in the Children's Houses it was prepared for in a n u m b e r of different ways. T h e earliest activities engaged in by the children were thus of decisive importance morally and physically for their entire subsequent devel­opment.

T h e sensitive phase contained in early childhood is a unique opportunity to encourage positive develop­ment , which must be taken advantage of. Montessori considered social training to be an important part of this early phase since self-determination must take its orientation from others if the individual is to attain perfection as a social being. In the final chapter of her book The Discovery of the Child she described this process:

N o child is disturbed by what another may have attained; on the contrary, the triumph of one causes admiration and joy in the others, and they often imitate him full of good­will. All of the children seem to be happy and contented doing 'what they can'; what the others do does not result in envy, embarrassing competition or vanity. A three-year-old can work peacefully next to a seven-year-old, and the younger child is content to be smaller than the older child, not envying him because of his greater size. They all grow in the midst of the most perfect peace.17

T h e didactic materials were also intended to aid this growing in the most perfect peace in order to attain a highly developed sense of responsibility. Constituting a part of the 'prepared environment' in the Children's Houses, they were methodically planned and standardized so that a child w h o freely

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chose to occupy himself with one of them would enter into a predetermined situation and be forced unwittingly to deal with its intellectual purpose. T h e best example of this is the cylinders of different lengths and sizes which were to be inserted into appropriate holes; only one solution was possible for each cylinder and the child could grasp the fact of an incorrect solution w h e n the cylinder slipped off and could not be inserted.

T H E D I D A C T I C M A T E R I A L S

A basic principle of the didactic materials was that the activities should be methodically co-ordinated so that the children could easily judge the degree of their success while engaging in them. For instance, in one activity the children practised walking along large circles laid on the ground in a variety of interesting patterns. While doing so they were given a bowl to hold filled to the brim with blue or red ink; if it ran over then they could recognize in this way that their movements were not co-ordinated and graceful enough. In a similar way all of the bodily functions were consciously trained.

For each of the senses there was an exercise which could be m a d e even more effective by eliminating other senses. For example, an exercise involving the identification of different kinds of wood by feeling their grain could be intensified by covering the eyes.

B y being done and discussed together within the context of the group, the relevance of these exercises for the social aspects of the children's education was increased. T h u s , the various activities were intended to interact, or, as Montessori expressed it, 'practical and social life must be profoundly combined in education'.18

If it was true of Helen Parkhurst, then it was doubly so of Maria Montessori, her teacher: she sought to develop the social aspects of education, although she gave her work a different emphasis than was to be found in certain sociologically based educational concepts which dealt with a different set of problems. This fact is mentioned in reply to those w h o one-sidedly dismiss the educational ideas of Helen Parkhurst and Maria Montessori as being hopelessly individualistic.19

T h e didactic materials were to function 'like a ladder', as Montessori expressed it m a n y times, which would allow the children to take the initiative themselves and progress towards self-realization. At the same time the materials were permeated with a particular spirit and intellectual attitude, which would be communicated to the children and mould them accordingly.

Thus, the sensory materials should definitely be regarded as 'materialized abstraction'. . . . W h e n the child is directly confronted with the materials he applies himself to them with that kind of earnest, concentrated attention

which seems to draw the best out of his consciousness. It really seems as if the little ones were involved in doing the best work their minds are capable of: the materials open n e w doors to their understanding which otherwise would remain locked.20

Using this approach, the teacher can withdraw from the centre of the educational process and operate from its periphery. His mos t important task is to observe in a scientific m a n n e r and employ his intuition in discovering n e w possibilities and needs. T h e development of the children should be directed in a responsible w a y in keeping with the spirit of science.

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF HER W O R K

Montessori was a m o n g the first to try and establish a true science of education. H e r approach was to introduce the 'science of observation'.21 S h e de­m a n d e d that the teachers and other persons engaged in education be given training in these methods and that the educational process itself be given a frame­work which would allow scientific controls and checks. ' T h e possibility of observing the mental development of children as natural p h e n o m e n a and under experimental conditions converts the school itself in activity, to a type of scientific environment devoted to the psychogenetic study of m a n . ' 2 2

T h e basic art of precise observation, which had been acclaimed m u c h earlier by Rousseau as the most important qualification for educators, includes precise perception and description. Montessori en­visioned a ' n e w type of teacher': 'Instead of talking he mus t learn to be silent; instead of instructing he mus t observe; instead of presenting the proud dignity of one w h o desires to appear infallible he m u s t d o n the robe of humility.'23 This kind of dedicated observation from a distance is not a natural ability; it mus t be learned,

and this process is a true introduction to science. If something is not consciously seen, it is as if it had never existed. T h e scientist's soul is filled with passionate interest for that which he sees. W h e n one has learned to see he begins to be interested. A n d this interest is the driving force behind the spirit of science.24

Montessori envisioned a procedure which today would be described as hermeneutic-empirical. Never­theless she herself did not succeed in putting any of these ideas into practice at all thoroughly in her o w n work . H e r experiments neither possessed a solid theoretical framework nor were they carried out and evaluated in a w a y that would allow them to be objectively confirmed. H e r descriptions were not free of subjective impressions and her conclusions were often biased in her o w n favour or even dog­matically phrased.

528 Reviews

Despite this she was extremely good at constructing educational situations, although they were often certainly more the expression of her inspiring personality than the result of careful thought and planning. H e r observations were conducted in a careful manner and involved a number of scientific procedures for ensuring objectivity, but basically she was possessed of a very personal and unique talent for dealing with and interpreting educational processes.

Her descriptions of educational phenomena and the conclusions she drew from them should be understood in this light. A little girl w h o attempts to find the right hole for a peg forty-four times before happily turning her attention elsewhere is described; but neither her intellectual and social background nor her subsequent progress is mentioned. Montessori dealt in a similar way with all manner of phenomena, awakenings and 'explosions'. If she is judged by her o w n standards for scientific and theoretical work in education, even though they were formulated in a vague and generalized way , then she hardly passes the test. T h e success of her work was due to other factors: her humility and patience and her (often mentioned) fascination with the wonder of life.

This imaginative ability, which goes above and beyond precise observation, is actually a philosophical w a y of life. Despite all her criticism of philosophy and philosophical education, she adopted the same attitude herself. In a passage discussing the necessity of training teachers in connection with practical educational experience, she wrote the following about students of biology and medicine and the role of the microscope: 'While engaged in observations with the aid of the microscope they felt that fasci­nation towards the wonder of life growing within them which causes the mind to awaken and devote itself to the mysteries of life with passionate en­thusiasm.'25

It is important to consider Montessori's sensitive openness to the 'mysteries of life' alongside her basically scientific approach. Failing to take both aspects into account, one is bound to become en­tangled in contradictions and to continue the still-flourishing controversy as to the value and meaning of her work, although even if everything were taken into consideration all of the differences of opinion would hardly be resolved.

S o m e of Maria Montessori's statements and con­clusions sound more like Pestalozzi in one of his philosophical momen t s than the objective analysis of a doctor of medicine. But it has been precisely her broad approach that has lent m u c h of her writing prophetic force, although it also tends towards ambiguity at times, and this accounts for her great popularity around the world, in India as m u c h as in Europe. Her influence was greatest wherever she personally appeared and gave lectures

and courses and gained a dedicated group of fol­lowers willing to experiment and continue the spirit of her work.26

PERCEPTION

Maria Montessori not only worked out a systematic method for developing the perceptive faculties, but also evolved a theory of perception that has m u c h in c o m m o n with Pestalozzi's approach. T h u s , in ref­erence to the didactic materials, she warns that 'the attention of the children should not be chained to the objects in question after the delicate process of abstraction has begun'.27 She intended her didactic materials to be so constructed that they would point the way beyond the immediate situation at hand and promote abstraction. If these materials do not encourage generalization they could tie the children d o w n to the earth with 'snares'. If this occurs then the child remains 'trapped within the realm of useless objects'.28

Montessori wrote:

In the world as a whole, more or less the same basic ideas repeat themselves again and again. For example, if the life of plants or insects is studied in nature, then an approximate idea of the life and insects in the whole world is obtained. Nobody is familiar with all plants. It is enough to see one pine tree in order to imagine how all pine trees are.29

Pursuing the same idea she wrote elsewhere: 'Is it necessary, w h e n one is confronted with a river or a lake, to have seen all of the rivers and lakes in the world in order to k n o w what it is?' T h e idea expressed here, as well as the w a y in which it is formulated, are in surprisingly close agreement with Pestalozzi. A n d just as he had, she warned against neglecting the forms of direct perception. ' N o description, no picture, no book can replace the real life of trees in the context of all the life which surrounds them in the forest.'30

She considered it of fundamental importance that 'the co-operation of inner attention' be gained. For this reason she sought to structure the motivational basis of the didactic materials in such a way that they would m a k e contact with the sphere of consciousness of the child. It is notable that Montessori explained this process in terms of an act of faith, a related process which, however, takes place on another level: 'It is not e n o u g h . . . to see in order to believe; one must believe in order to see.' A n d elsewhere she wrote: 'It is in vain that one explains or demonstrates a fact, even if it is an extraordinary one, if there is no faith: the realization of truth is not m a d e possible by evidence but by an act of faith.'31 There can be no doubt that she succeeded in linking this form of faith as inner knowledge and improved vision with her concept of science.

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SELF-REALIZATION THROUGH INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY

O n e of the key concepts of Montessori's educational system is 'independent activity'. C A person is what he is, not because of the teachers he has had, but as a result of that which he has done himself.' In another context she even introduced the idea of 'self-creation'. She applied this not only to sensory perception and the intellect but also to the co­ordination of all of the facets of humanness involved in the development of the personality.

This process can only be successful if it takes place in freedom, whereby freedom is understood as going hand in hand with discipline and responsibility. Children possess an intuitive understanding of the forms of self-realization by means of independent activity.

Children seem to 'feel' their inner growth, to be conscious of the achievements which mark and define their growth. Outwardly they appear happier as they become aware that a process of growth towards something higher and greater has begun within them.32

In most of the examples Montessori added in this context she spoke of the high degree of satisfaction shown by the children as a result of their indepen­dently achieved self-realization. She came to the conclusion that 'this growing self-awareness promotes maturity. Give a child a feeling of its o w n worth and it will feel free and no longer burdened by its work.'33

Seen in this way freedom must be first renounced and then w o n back gradually by means of self-realization. All individuals are dependent on one another and can therefore progress to self-realization only within the context of this interdependence. This process is accompanied by full awareness and re­quires that all of one's faculties be engaged, strength­ening them at the same time. This self-realization ultimately leads to self-education—autoeducatione —which is the real goal. Therefore reflection, medi­tative concentration yet at the same time intense effort are indispensable w h e n attempting to solve the problems posed by the didactic materials.

At this point w e have already arrived at what Montessori meant by the 'absorbent mind ' , one of the key concepts of her educational system, alongside that of 'normalization'. In keeping with her medically oriented terminology she referred to children as 'intellectual embryos'. In this way she emphasized the fact that children are involved in a process of development, as well as the parallel nature of intel­lectual and physical development. F r o m the begin­ning children are beings equipped with minds. Nevertheless, during the first stage of development following birth the physical aspect predominates, although these basic needs can only be properly satisfied if the intellectual being at their root is

recognized and accepted. 'In other words children must be cared for right from birth, giving attention above all to the fact that they are beings with a mental life of their o w n . ' 3 4

T h e education of children must be conducted in a balanced manner right from the start; otherwise the first impressions will produce distorted or biased forms of understanding, expectations and behaviour which then perpetuate themselves. T h e first im­pressions are not only permanently engraved in the children's minds; developmental structures also de­velop as a result of them, patterns according to which all subsequent experiences are dealt with and assimilated.

Right from birth children are naturally open to the world. For this very reason they are also in constant danger of losing their way , unlike animals, which have such a store of instinctual responses that a proper course of development is ensured; on the other hand animals are not free, since freedom is not a natural state but a condition that must be attained. 'Unlike animals, h u m a n beings are not naturally programmed with any co-ordinated sets of movements. They must learn everything themselves: they have no goals given them, but must search for them.'35 In this respect there is some similarity between M o n ­tessori's ideas and modern anthropology. Her book Anthropologia pedagógica36 was the first of her works to be devoted to questions of this sort.

W h e n she speaks of 'psycho-embryonic life' she is utilizing an analogy with the 'physical embryo' in order to emphasize that one's intellectual world must also be built up gradually by means of impressions and experiences. One 's environment and its organ­ization as regards its educational function is there­fore just as important as bodily nourishment is during the pre-natal phase.

The first task of education is to provide the child with an environment in which it is able to develop its natural functions. This does not mean that one should merely satisfy the child's needs and allow it to do what it likes; we must also be prepared to co-operate with a command of nature, with one of its laws, according to which develop­ment and growth proceed by means of interaction with the environment.37

T h e 'absorbent mind ' is at the same time ability and willingness to learn. It means that the mind is directed towards the events in the surrounding world and in phase with them, so that out of the existing great variety those aspects which prove to have educational value are different in each individual case: ' . . . in all ways mental development is the first step in the adventure of life'.38 T h e important thing is that the impressions received and mental openness match one another, so that the demands placed by the learning process correspond to the natural sen­sitivities and tendencies of each phase of devel­opment.

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Closely related to these anthropological concepts is the idea of 'sensitive phases*. T h e sensitive phases are periods of heightened receptivity in connection with learning by means of interaction with the en­vironment. According to this theory there exist specific phases during which the child is naturally receptive to certain environmental influences; these he must m a k e use of in order to master certain innate functions and achieve greater maturity. T h u s there are sensitive phases for learning to speak, mastering social interactions, etc. If these phases are given proper consideration they can be exploited to promote periods of intense and efficient learning. If they are not taken advantage of then the opportunities are irretrievably lost.

T h e harmonious progress of inner and outer devel­opment can also result in increasing independence: cIf no regressive syndromes manifest themselves the child will show tendencies which are clearly and energetically directed towards functional indepen­dence. . . . Within each individual a vital force is active which directs him towards realization of self. Percy N u n n called this force Horme.'3a

This is also the reason w h y Montessori expected so m u c h from an educational reform in accordance with her ideas. For her the child was a promise and a starting-point for the education of the 'new m a n ' . Her expectations were so high that she genuinely expected salvation to c o m e in that way . She also believed in renewal and the attainment of perfection:

If salvation arrives then it will begin with the children, since the children are the creators of mankind. The children have been vested with unknown powers which could lead the way to a better future. If a genuine renewal is to be sought after at all, then the development of man's potential must be the task of education.40

This faith in m a n ' s potential, which is increased by means of the 'absorbent mind' w h e n the correct educational methods are employed, is one of the corner-stones of Montessori's theory of education. T h e second important aspect is the attempt to mould this process in a spirit of scientific responsibility and to discover the weaknesses and turning-points of h u m a n development in order to direct it better. T h e process is not conceived as being linear but rather dynamic, exploding with awakenings, enlightenments, transformations and creative syntheses which lift it u p to n e w heights of evolution, the nature of which cannot even be guessed at. She wrote: 'Devel­opment is a series of successive births.'41

In this sense her o w n life and the development of her ideas were dependent on encounters, inspirations and rebirths; encounters with others of like mind were often m u c h more important than involvement with established theories. T h e great productivity of her work was in the last analysis due to the effects of the hormic principle in her life and thought. She

sought to influence the world in a controlled w a y through the harmonious combination of theory and practice; she looked for the confirmation of her theories in practice and shaped her practice ac­cording to scientific principles, thus achieving per­fection: that is w h y Maria Montessori's educational concept has been so successful.

HERMANN ROHRS, Director of the Institute of Education,

University of Heidelberg, and of the Heidelberg Research Centre

for Comparative Education (Federal Republic of G e r m a n y )

Notes i. Winfried B ö h m , Maria Montessori. Hintergrund und

Prinzipien ihres pädagogischen Denkens, Bad Heilbrunn/ O b b . 1969; R . C . Orem, Montessori heute, Ravens­burg, 1971; Paul Oswald and Günter Schulz-Benesch (eds.), Montessori für Eltern, Ravensburg, 1974; Mario M . Montessori, Erziehung zum Menschen, Munich, 1977; Hildegaard Holtstiege, Modell Montessori, Freiburg, Basel, Vienna, 1977; Theodor Hellbrügge, Unser Montessori-Modell, Munich, 1977; Paul Scheid and Herbert Weidlich (eds.), Beiträge zur Montessori-Pädagogik, Stuttgart, 1977; Rita Kramer, Maria Montessori, Leben und Werk einer großen Frau, Munich, 1977; Theodor Hellbrügge (ed.), Die Montessori-Pädagogik und das behinderte Kind. Refe­rate und Ergebnisse des 18. Internationalen Montessori-Kongresses (München 4-8 Juli 1977), Munich, 1977.

2. Cf. the following works by Maria Montessori, all published by Herder-Verlag: Helene Helmig (ed. and trans.), Kinder, die in der Kirche leben, 1964; Paul Oswald (ed.), Von der Kindheit zur Jugend, 1966; Paul Oswald and Günter Schulz-Benesch (eds.), Die Entdeckung des Kindes, 1969; Das kreative Kind, 1972; Schule des Kindes, 1976.

3. Maria Montessori, Die Entdeckung des Kindes, p. 29, Freiburg, Basel, Vienna, 1969. Her relationship to her teacher Séguin is dealt with in depth in Kramer, op. cit., p. 58, as well as in Hellbrügge, Unser Mon-tessori-Modell, op. cit., p. 68.

4. Cf. Rita Kramer, Maria Montessori. . ., op. cit., p. 88. 5. Mario M . Montessori, op. cit. 6. Maria Montessori, Schule des Kindes, op. cit., pp. 12—

14. 7. Percy N u n n , Education. Its Data and First Principles,

London, 1920; cf. Maria Montessori, Das kreative Kind, op. cit., p. 57.

8. This supposition would probably be supported by an investigation and publication of this correspondence, something that has not yet been done.

9. P. Pasquali, II nuovo asilo, Brescia, 1903.

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10. Rosa Agazzi, Guida per le educatrici deU'infanzia, Brescia, 1932.

11. Maria Montessori, Die Entdeckung des Kindes, op. cit.,

P-57-12. Maria Montessori, Schule des Kindes, op. cit., p. 105.

13. Ibid., p. 105.

14. Ibid., p. 107.

15. Ibid., p. 104.

16. Maria Montessori, Von der Kindheit zur Jugend, op. cit., p. 33.

17. Maria Montessori, Die Entdeckung des Kindes, op. cit.,

P- 333-

18. Maria Montessori, Von der Kindheit zur Jugend,op. cit., p. 38; Das kreative Kind, op. cit., p. 199.

19. I have already dealt with this matter in m y earlier

works: Rohrs (ed.), Schule und Bildung im interna­tionalen Gespräch, p. 57, Frankfurt a m Main, 1966;

Die progressive Erziehungsbewegung, p. 143. It has also been, dealt with in Paul Oswald, Das Kind im

Werke Maria Montessoris and Böhm, op. cit., p. 86.

20. Maria Montessori, Die Entdeckung des Kindes, op. cit.,

pp. 197-8. 21. Maria Montessori, Schule des Kindes, op. cit., p. 125.

22. Ibid., p. 120. 23. Ibid., p. 123.

24. Ibid., pp. 125-6.

25. Ibid., p. 133.

26. Cf. Günter Schulz, Der Streit um Montessori, Freiburg,

1961; Böhm, op. cit., p. 15. 27. Maria Montessori, Schule des Kindes, op. cit., p. 80.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid. 30. Maria Montessori, Von der Kindheit zur Jugend,

PP- 44-5-31. Ibid., pp. 216-17. 32. Maria Montessori, Schule des Kindes, pp. 92-3.

33. Maria Montessori, Von der Kindheit zur Jugend, op. cit., p. 40.

34. Maria Montessori, Das kreative Kind, op. cit., p. 61.

35. Ibid., p. 67.

36. Maria Montessori, Anthropologia pedagógica, Milan,

1910. 37. Maria Montessori,DaskreativeKind,op.cit.,pp. 82-3.

38. Ibid., p. 69. 39. Maria Montessori, Kinder sind anders, p. 77.

40. Ibid., p. 52.

41. Ibid., p. 16.

B O O K R E V I E W S

Education, Work and Employment, Vols. I and II

Jacques H A I X A K

and Françoise C A I L L O D S (eds.)

Paris, Unesco: International Institute for Educational Planning, 1980

Education, Training and the Traditional Sector

(Fundamentals of Educational Planning, 31)

Jacques H A I X A K

and Françoise C A I L L O D S

Paris, Unesco: International Institute

for Educational Planning, 1981

O n the threshold of the Third Development Decade,

it has become commonplace for people to talk at

length about the crisis in education systems and the

failure of education policies. Recently still regarded

as a panacea for individual poverty and national

underdevelopment, education policies are n o w more

and more often stigmatized as being at the root of

various ills: they are said to be a heavy drain on the

budget and therefore to reduce the resources avail­

able for productive investment; to be inappropriate,

leading to unemployment and frustration and hence

to political movements conducive to instability; and

to have no effect in promoting growth or even

checking the aggravation of underdevelopment, nor

in preventing the increase of inequalities of income.

W h a t is certain is that there seems to be hardly any

society satisfied with its education system and that

for some—the most impoverished—continuation of

the effort to extend schooling which got under way

in the 1960s is n o w financially out of the question.

In view of the ambiguity of value judgements

which refer only to the stated goals—and not to the

real determinants—of these education policies, any

attempt to analyse strictly and in detail the mani­

festations and causes of this 'failure', and any effort

to seek means of improving methods for working

out the objectives of education policies, should be

hailed with profound satisfaction. O n e such at­

tempt is the collective work in two volumes, Edu­

cation, Work and Employment, recently published by

the International Institute for Educational Plan­

ning, which brings together contributions from prac­

titioners of educational planning and theorists con­

cerned with the economics of education.

T h e first volume, edited by J. Hallak and

F . Caillods, comprises a series of factual studies

(carried out in Panama, Indonesia, Kenya and

France), brought together for the relatively modest

and limited purpose of helping 'to improve the tra-

532 Reviews

diticnal methods used in planning h u m a n resources', which, 'despite all the criticism levelled at them . . . [continue] for want of a better alternative, to be used in m a n y countries' (Vol. I, p. 9)- T h e traditional methods concerned are those still based on so-called manpower needs, looking upon the education system as a centrally planned industry whose prime function is to produce flows of manpower in the numbers and of ihe quality required by the economy. H o w can such needs be assessed? T h e central hypothesis of the method is (a) that employment patterns are determined by technological imperatives, and (b) that there is, for each job, one single type of education and training which is a necessary and sufficient conditicn for doing that job. A stable correlation might therefore be established between a job in a particular branch of production, on the one hand, and the level reached in a particular line of study in the education system, on the assumption that the labour markets can be left out of account. T h e authors' efforts are directed primarily to getting rid of this unrealistic hypothesis by analysing in the field the determinants of employment patterns and the recruitment policies of firms.

Martin Carnoy's contribution, 'Segmented Labour Markets' (Vol. II), is closely related to this series of studies] after a critical review of the theories of h u m a n capital, screening and job competition, he sets out the main hypotheses of the segmentation theories (which, in fact, underlie the case-studies in V o l u m e I) and proposes h o w they might be tested by econometric studies.

T h o u g h purporting to be pragmatic and oper­ational, the work leads to a fundamental—albeit unformulated—question: is it possible to foresee the manpower training need of the capitalist sector? O r , in more precise terms, is the problem merely one of improving cur knowledge of employment patterns and recruitment policies?

Another limitation which affects the traditional methods of planning h u m a n resources is that they are concerned only with the adaptation of the formal education system to the registered job market, that is, of schooling to wage-earning employment in the modern sector. Given the low absorptive capacity of this sector in the Third World countries and the fact that school attendance lends to nothing, can an education policy specifically designed for the non-capitalist sector of the economy be devised? This is the question dealt with by Kenneth King in ' E d u ­cation and Self-employment' (Vol. II), which should be read with the short work by J. Hallak and F . Caillods, Education, Training and the Traditional Sector, also published by the H E P , in 1981.

Henry M . Levin's contribution, 'Workplace Democracy and Educational Planning' (Vol. II), is somewhat different. First of all, it has a more limited object: the author addresses himself to a particular

interface of the education and production systems in the United States of America, that of workplace relationships, which are approached here from the angle of the dissatisfaction of 'overeducated' workers with the content of their jobs—a question that has so far been the subject of more talk than study. Secondly, the approach is more ambitious in that the author takes the opportunity to expound his views on the history of the relations between education and work—an approach that has at least the merit of inducing the reader to consider the problem of the planner's margin for manoeuvre in the centralized political control of education and the macro-social methods of analysis that m a y tell him something about the impact of his action.

Curiously enough, the implicit model of the edu­cation-employment relation underlying the ' m a n ­power' method is that of independent occupations with a corporative structure: for instance, to practise as a physician it is necessary and sufficient to be a doctor of medicine. This presupposes: (a) that there is strict correspondence between the holding of an academic qualification and the pursuit of an oc­cupation, a correspondence which is, moreover, not strictly technical but determined also by the social, political and economic set-up in which the profession is exercised; (b) that the appropriate standard of education is the only requirement for entering the profession; (c) that in the education-employment relation, professional earnings are involved only with respect to the control by the profession itself (subject to action by the political authority) of the outflow of graduates. T h e one-to-one correspondence m a y there­fore operate at very different levels of average earn­ings, depending on the bargaining power of the profession, for a particular level of demand for the product.

T h e same obviously does not apply in the pro­duction/wage-earning employment/educational back­ground relations in the capitalist sector. Hence the need, stressed by J. Hallak and F . Caillods, for abandoning the use of stable 'technical' coefficients (production/jobs and jobs/educational backgrounds) if the traditional methods of planning are to be improved.

If more realistic hypotheses are to be substituted for these simplifying ones, however, field research must be conducted at a very specific level (that of the firm) and, at the same time, on a large scale, having regard to the diversity of structures and the speed with which they evolve. But so far only very limited means have been allocated for such research.

T h e authors of the empirical studies collected in Volume I of the work, mindful of the narrowness of their fields of investigation, do indeed stress that their contributions are essentially of methodological interest and that their results cannot be interpreted or their conclusions generally applied until the analysis has

Reviews 533

been extended to wider, more representative samples comparable between countries. T o this m a y be added the difficulties introduced by the low reliability of the measurement of certain variables (such as wages), the uncertainty of classifications, and the possi­bilities of correlation with potential explanatory vari­ables not taken into account at this stage of research.

However, the methodological contribution (which will be of more particular interest to specialists) is not the only merit of these studies, from which w e m a y extract some findings that concur with those of studies carried out in other national or sectoral contexts.

First, the paid-employment pattern is connected with the product (branch), the technique used (vari­able within the same branch), but also with the socio-economic characteristics of the firm: its size (which determines a m o n g other things its weight on the labour market), the structure of its capital and its legal status (branch of a multinational company with state or private national capital, private firm . . .) , its rate of growth, etc. T h e ratio of supervisory staff, and the actual content of the jobs grouped in a single category of job classifications, appear to vary greatly from one firm to another.

Second, one type of job m a y be held by workers with different levels and kinds of education. T h e education criterion carries relatively little weight in the case of jobs filled by promotions within the firm, but m u c h more at the recruitment level. Conse­quently, a raising of the average educational level of the working population will be felt mainly at the point where jobs are filled through recruitment from the outside labour market. T h e relative proportions of persons selected from the inside and the outside markets depend very m u c h on the characteristics of firms.

Those same characteristics also explain differences in the educational level required of applicants for the same job by different firms: the authors note, for instance, that in P a n a m a , other things being equal, big firms are more demanding than small ones in the case of senior posts, but less so for subordinate positions, while multinationals are more demanding than companies with national capital.

M o r e generally, a large part of the formal sector attaches relatively little importance to academic qualifications and still less to technical vocational education. A s Kenneth King points out, 'the great majority of all factory skills in the Third World are not acquired through a formal educational setting at all' (Vol. II, p. 259).

Third, education and experience (cognitive vari­ables) are only two of the recruilment criteria con­sidered by employers: ascriptive variables (age, sex, family and ethnic origin, etc.) and behavioural vari­ables also count. While their relative weight varies with the m o d e of recruitment (internal or external),

the type of job and the characteristics of the firm, it is to be noted in general that, at any particular edu­cational level, certain groups (young people, w o m e n , ethnic minorities, etc.) are in the main assigned to the less desirable jobs from the standpoint of classi­fication, stability of status, working conditions and wages.

Fourth, in the case of certain categories of jobs (not the same in the different case-studies), the rela­tive levels of earnings observed are explained more by the characteristics of the firms than by those of the workers. T h e raising of the educational level of workers seems on the whole to have less positive effect on earnings at the lower levels than on those at the top and therefore not to contribute to reducing disparities in remuneration.

T w o conclusions seem to emerge. T h e first is that cany assessment of manpower needs by an economy should start with (a) some data on the breakdown of firms according to certain indicators on firms' charac­teristics and (b) some assumptions on the relation­ships between various types of firms and their use of h u m a n resources' (Hallak, Vol. I, p. 189). T h e second is that all the case-studies went to confirm that the labour market does not serve to correct imbalances, as it is supposed to do in neo-classical theory, but tends on the contrary to accentuate them.

Following similar observations, m a d e in the United States of America after the failure of education policies designed to improve employment and earnings for the poorest population groups, hypotheses concerning the segmentation of labour markets were formulated towards the end of the 1960s. These identify varying numbers of employment segments according to the field of observation and the authors concerned, the best k n o w n of them being the dual model of a primary and secondary labour market. Segments are dis­tinguished by: (a) their separation (i.e. very little mobility of workers from one segment to another); (b) varying degrees of satisfaction as regards job stability, security, pay, promotion opportunities, working conditions, etc.; and (c) a tendency for each of these segments to have a preponderance of cat­egories of workers exhibiting relatively homogeneous combinations of ascriptive, cognitive and behav­ioural characteristics.

Martin Carnoy describes the stage reached in an econometric study begun a few years ago for the purpose of testing the existence of such segments in the United States of America and in certain countries of the Third World. Such a test is bound to be static and gives rise to difficult problems of interpretation in that it assumes that the characteristics selected are very strongly polarized—which is seldom the case for all variables. In any case, the debate at present centres less on the problem of whether segmentation actually exists (a working hypothesis which is n o w generally accepted) than on the origin of the lines of

534 Reviews

division and segmentation observed, and the factors determining them.

A m o n g the explanations put forward, Garnoy es­pouses a rather 'radical' version of segmentation theory which highlights the structuring effect of the demand of firms for manpower on the supply of workers. Capital accumulation, it is argued, gave rise in history to two tendencies which combined to divide up wage-earners.

T h e first results from a deliberate bid by capital-holders to exercise social control over a working class in the process of expansion and unification: 'divide and rule'. This is achieved by dividing workers into socially unequal groups which m a y be antagonistic and thus inducing them to struggle a m o n g themselves over the division of the income accruing to labour instead of concentrating on a united struggle against capital for increasing labour's share in total income. T h e criteria for division m a y therefore vary. In his econometric study, Carnoy finds that, in a country like the United States of America, where the level of education of workers is high and relatively uni­form, wage-earners in the different segments are distinguished less by their level of education than by their ascriptive characteristics (race, sex, etc.). T h e opposite is true in the developing countries, where there is m u c h greater variation in levels of education but, as Kenneth King notes, the factor of family ties plays a determining part in the employment policies of these latter countries and there is no reason to think that the kinship factor does not also affect the level of education attained.

T h e second arises from a shifting of uncertainty outwards from central capital towards its periphery, accompanied by changes in technology and in the division of labour. A nucleus of stable and well-paid jobs, held in big firms by highly organized workers, then tends to be set against a fringe of insecure jobs and subcontracting arrangements, occupied by over-exploited workers in subordinate firms.

In these circumstances, what are the chances of influencing employment and income-distribution through a policy of investment in h u m a n capital? T h e chances are small, it would seem, and dependent on: (a) the rate of job expansion in the protected sectors; (b) h o w far the different segments are closed off from one another; and (c) h o w far education is a factor in determining w h o gets what job. In particular, if the protected sector is saturated, the principal effect of a policy of raising the educational level of workers in the lower segments, where insecurity and unemploy­ment are concentrated, m a y well be to cause e m ­ployers to raise the requirements for a given post and to lower the relative pay-off for education within the segment, thus helping to widen the gap between different segments, even if it tends to reduce differ­ences within one competitive segment. Such a policy would then work rather to increase the profitability

of capital (and, possibly, to provide economic growth) than to increase the incomes of workers.

In these circumstances, one can only agree with Carnoy's view that, for the purposes of influencing income distribution, educational policy can do no more than assist a direct incomes policy.

Looking beyond the authors' cautiously optimistic partial findings, it would seem that three tentative conclusions can be put forward at the present stage of the investigation:

First, supposing that the pace and the forms of accumulation could be foreseen, it would still not be technically possible to forecast manpower training 'needs'. Generally speaking, as employers naturally want better trained and cheaper workers, their needs in regard to education are limited only by the total deduction from surplus represented by expenditure on education and by the social dangers of overedu-cation. In these circumstances, can educational plan­ning be improved by a better 'objective' knowledge of those needs?

Second, education is first and foremost a possible issue in income distribution. Since their contradictory interests set (a) employers against workers and (b) dif­ferent categories of workers against one another, should not the notion of the failure of educational policies be defined? Failure for what social categories? F r o m what point of view? In terms of what ob­jectives?

Third, one of the major contributions m a d e by empirical research on the relations between edu­cation and employment in different structural con­texts is undoubtedly its demonstration that 'the eco-political context of the investment in education is as important as the investment itself (Carnoy, Vol. II, p. 18). Such research thus opens the way not so m u c h , perhaps, to the devising of an alternative to the neo-classical theory of h u m a n capital as to the development of concrete analyses of the economic, political and social structures and institutions which condition the pay-off to educational investment. Such studies would make for better forecasting of the effects of given educational policies and better identification of the circumstances that would allow them to work satisfactorily in conjunction with the other ingredi­ents of policies for h u m a n resources management.

Until recently, the problem in the developing countries was that of the shortage of manpower for the modern sector, and educational plans in the First Development Decade were based on the as­sumption of continuing growth of that sector. After the first waves of school graduates had been absorbed (largely, it m a y be noted, by government service) it was found to be unrealistic to count on the capitalist sector to employ more than a marginal share of the working population (10 to 20 per cent in m a n y countries) and to cope with a supply of labour fed by workers leaving the land, and petty commodity pro-

Reviews 535

auction and by population growth. Since overt urban unemployment did not increase at the same rate as this gap between supply and demand, however, students of underdevelopment directed their attention to a sector of activity that had until then been neglected (having been classified straight off as traditional and transitional), in the hope that it would be able to absorb the manpower surplus (20 to 30 per cent of urban jobs in the Third World, according to I L O ) . 'Non-formal', informal', 'unstructured', 'quat­ernary', etc.: the terms used to describe this sector show clearly that this group of activities, which is n o w beginning to be better understood, was first viewed overall as being residual, in contrast to the 'modern' capitalist sector.

A large part of this sector seems to be composed of small-scale businesses with low capital investment and intensive use of non-wage-earning labour, forming part of the cash economy and highly competitive. This was enough to make some observers bring out the myth of pure and perfect competition in this context, regarding this population of resourceful, 'independent' workers as a possible source of dy­namic, self-employed entrepreneurs w h o , with a little help, might finally solve the dual problem of growth and employment.

At the same time, educational policy-makers were wondering h o w to slow d o w n the snowballing of education, which was costing more and more and no longer leading to sufficient job opportunities in the modern sector to prevent rising frustrations. T h e question, then, was h o w to divert social demand towards other, less ruinous forms of education that were better adapted to real employment prospects.

These two trends combined to produce what Kenneth King calls 'Planning Education for Self-Employment: a Contemporary Creed' (Vol. II, pp. 219-83).

It was no accident that at the very time the significance of the informal sector was being discovered by economists and planners, a parallel search by educationists should have led to the discovery of non-formal education . . . a short-hand term to describe a whole range of learning that does not seem to be infected by the diseases of the formal education system. . . . The educator's interest in non-formal education is in a major way similar to the develop­ment economist's fascination with the informal sector. Both are anxious to explore the possibility of co-opting the less formal activity and, it is hoped, influencing developments in the modern sector and in the ordinary school system. (Vol. II, pp. 223-4.)

Both King and Hallak and Caillods (in Education, Training and the Traditional Sector) approach the problem scientifically, discriminatingly . . . and sceptically. A few crucial points m a y be extracted from their analyses.

First, to what extent can one speak of private enterprise—or entrepreneurship—and of self-em­

ployment in the informal sector? King reminds us that 'the actual concept of self-employment remains extremely vague' (Vol. II, p . 227). Hallak and Caillods, in their excellent summary of research on the informal sector (which, strangely enough, they continue to call 'traditional'), show that this is an extremely heterogeneous and mobile sector in which the notion of self-employment must be interpreted in relative terms as regards both the extent and the forms of subsumption to capital and the status of the workers. Are not apprentices and domestic drudges, jobbing workers, outworkers and overex-ploited subcontractors to a large extent 'pseudo-wage-earners'? Are not the connotations of the term 'self-employment' too positive w h e n designating the subsistence and survival activities of the 'casual poor'? 'Education for self-employment', however, has a rather better ring to it than 'education for casual poverty' (King, Vol. II, p . 242).

Second, can the skills needed by the self-employed be acquired by formal study, at school or out of school? In the present state of affairs, it would seem doubtful. Various surveys have found that there is no correlation (or even that there is a negative corre­lation) between the educational level of heads of firms and their business success. N o t only is it arguable that the pace, curriculum and sanctions of the formal school system are better geared to training people for wage-earning employment (more par­ticularly, in the public services): it would also seem to be true that vocational training out of school has little bearing o n the type of work actually done According to Hallak and Caillods, 'the best method of training for the traditional sector is, with a few changes, in the traditional sector itself, just as the best training in order to become a worker in the modern sector is within the modern sector itself (p. 125).

Third, assuming that the skills concerned are necessary and that they can be defined and formal arrangements for transmitting them devised, would they be enough to encourage entrepreneurship? N o , in so far as: (a) corporative, family and caste struc­tures control entry to the market for certain activi­ties; and (b) the development of n e w entrepreneurial units would also necessitate n e w credit and marketing structures, etc.

Last, and perhaps most important, little is k n o w n about the impact of attempts to co-opt the informal economic and non-formal educational sectors, whose dynamic relations with the formal sectors are still largely unexplored. Might not the development of an intermediate private-enterprise sector be liable to do away with a larger number of informal jobs, to compete with traditional craft activities and to be principally of benefit to civil servants? Hallak and Caillods state the problem in terms of an alternative: ' T h e future of the traditional sector will be either its transformation into small-scale industry, with few

536 Reviews

prospects of job creation, or its deterioration into a sector of activity employing increasingly underpaid and increasingly unskilled young labourers (appren­tices)' (p. 106). Are the two alternatives mutually exclusive? Action in the educational sphere is no less risky. T h e school systenij out-of-school training in the m o d e r n sector, organized traditional training (ap­prenticeship) and on-the-job training involve complex relationships and fulfil social functions that must be analysed before any action is taken. (A good example of an analytical method of this type will be found in the study by J. Duplex, O . de Fontmagne and C . M a r r y , 'L'emploi et la formation dans les indus­tries métallurgiques dans les Bouches-du-Rhône' , Vol . I, p p . 307-71.)

Regretfully, therefore, one must conclude with Kenneth King that 'Policy decisions about the desir­ability of linking education and self-employment at present are far in advance of research findings on the area' (Vol. II, p . 242).

In discussions about the failure of educational policies, w e find constant recurrence of the theme of the frustration and dissatisfaction of students w h o acquire too high a level of expectations through a form of education that is too sophisticated for the jobs they are called upon to fill. This theme is not n e w ; it has c o m e u p repeatedly in all the Western countries since the nineteenth century, whenever the following contradiction between two of the functions of school­ing becomes an issue at the political level: on the one hand , it has to produce qualified, abundant and cheap labour for capital; on the other, it has to reproduce/transform the social hierarchies.

H e n r y M . Levin is therefore to be thanked for taking u p this delicate problem in a specific practical context, that of social relations at the workplace, while approaching it from the most appropriate angle: that of the historical development of the relations between capital accumulation and the evol­ution of educational institutions as an instrument for the reproduction of social relations and the distri­bution of individuals through the social hierarchy ('Workplace Democracy and Educational Planning', Vol. II, p p . 127-207).

Great exactitude is a prerequisite for such a difficult undertaking, first of all in the definition and measurement of the vague and highly loaded concepts of overeducation and overqualification, and there­after in the choice of method for the empirical observation of their impact on workplace relation­ships. Unfortunately, the least that can be said is that the author sidesteps these difficulties w h e n he resorts to saying that 'employee turnover, alcoholism, absenteeism, drug problems, sabotage . . . and wild­cat strikes' are due to job dissatisfaction resulting from the overeducation of the young with respect to actual job requirements. N o convincing empirical evidence is adduced in support of this series of

general propositions;* and the terms 'overeducation' and 'overqualification' implicitly refer sometimes to a standard of objective correspondence between education and employment (which is illusory, as was seen above), and sometimes to the shifting of expectations overtime, engendered by overemphasis on academic credentials. (In this connection, it would be interesting to k n o w w h y American e m ­ployers should regularly raise their recruitment standards, if it is so obvious that this results only in lower productivity!)t

It would probably be better to pass over in silence the w a y Levin seeks to place the p h e n o m e n o n in historical perspective, were it not that it is liable to mislead the unwary. It is not enough to use and abuse the terms 'dialectic' and 'contradiction', nor to quote M a r x , Marcuse and M a o , to avoid the pitfalls of a dichotomous and mechanical view of the relations between education and the world of work. According to Levin, there had been no problem in the developed capitalist countries for over a century, as the schools had 'corresponded closely in their functions to the needs of capitalist enterprises' (Vol. II, p . 136). T h e principle at work was that of 'functional correspon­dence'! (Vol. II, p . 37.) Recent difficulties are said to be due to the fact that schools are, after all, 'partially autonomous from the workplace' (certainly, but it would be good to k n o w in what, and w h y only n o w ) , and their ' o w n institutional dynamic' leads to the development of 'behaviours which are dys­functional to the reproduction of existing structures and relations of production in work processes' (Vol. II, p . 154). T h e planner's role will be to resolve this contradiction in the achievement of a dialectical synthesis that will re-establish 'a stable pattern of correspondence . . . through alterations of both the workplace and the educational system so that a n e w and relatively stable pattern of mutual reinforcement will emerge' (Vol. II, p . 188).

This synthesis, moreover, has already been dis­covered: on the part of the firm, it involves 'alter­ations of the workplace that can be carried out without changing the governance of the firm' (for example, autonomous w o r k groups and 'workplace democracy'); on the part of the schools, the reduction of 'the demands for conventional academic creden­tials', career education, the inculcation of the team spirit, etc.

Levin's use of pseudo-Marxist jargon in support of the dominant ideology does not lend itself to any

* The author must, incidentally, be aware of this, since he finds it necessary to argue that 'the view is intuitively compelling'! (Vol. II, p. 165).

t The reader will find a m u c h more pertinent discussion of the relationship between higher educational levels and the evolution of'levels of expectation' in K . King's contribution to the same work.

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real analysis, but one of his conclusions m a y be noted: 'the educational planner will be a technician in assisting the process [of reform], not an architect' (Vol. II, p. 206). In other words, planning is not the motive force of social change. This is a truth worth repeating, which shows that educational policies should be subordinated to prior analysis of the economic, social and political forces working on the educational system, of its functions in the repro­duction/transformation of social relationships and, consequently, of the contradictions to be found in it.

Is educational planning then an impossible job? Should the supply of education be adjusted to the demand for paid employment? Would this be desir­able? It would mean subordinating the educational system to the needs of the modern sector alone. In most countries of the Third World this would mean accepting underdevelopment and planning for cut­backs in schooling.

Would it be possible? T h e rapid changes in the international division of labour are making it im­possible to forecast needs accurately, even over a m u c h shorter timespan than that needed for the reproduction of the work force. A n d even if a correct forecast of employment needs were possible, the very logic of the capitalistic use of h u m a n resources pre­cludes the definition of objective standards of corre­spondence between education and work.

Should the educational system be redesigned to fit the needs of the informal sector? A great part of this sector is subordinated to the capitalist sector; and, on the basis of what w e n o w k n o w , it would seem to have its o w n system of education, which is apparently well adapted to its needs. Moreover, since it is more structured than was supposed, the good intentions of planners will not be a sufficient guarantee that the results will meet the desired objectives. Given our present state of ignorance and the poverty of re­sources, 'planning education for the informal sector' would in practice mean organizing the deschooling of society while trying to attenuate the dissatis­factions arising from the breaking of the relationship between schooling and wage-earning employment in the modern sector.

T o what extent, finally, can the planner control the educational system itself? T o manage its devel­opment under the pressure of social demand would presuppose political control over the competition between social groups, and hence over the distri­bution of income and, consequently, over social relations and the dynamics of development. Is this possible when underdevelopment is in fact to be denned by failure to control the processes of develop­ment and w h e n , in addition, the educational systems of m a n y countries of the Third World are recognized to be subject to outside influences?

Having once represented unduly optimistic hopes, must the educational planner resign himself, for the

present, to being a social worker responsible for 'lowering aspirations', and for diverting, with the help of gimmicky reforms, a social demand for education that dominant groups think to be excessive?

T o be realistic is not necessarily to be pessimistic. O n e of the merits of the recent surveys is that they help to liberate thinking from technocratic dreams and to show quite clearly that an educational policy can never be only an educational policy. T h e problem has at last been stated in the proper terms.

Annie V I N O K U R , University of Paris X

Unesco Handbook for the Teaching of Social Studies

H o w a r d D . M E H L I N G E R (ed.)

Paris, Unesco, 1981

This volume of well-presented, substantively sound contributions is a landmark publication in its field. Dealing with questions fundamental to teaching and learning for constructive participation in a diverse and conflictual planetary society, it has been con­ceived and executed within a global context, the only adequate context for approaching social edu­cation in this period of h u m a n history.

T h e globalism reflected in this publication stems from its origins at an International Meeting of Experts on the Role of Social Studies in Education for Peace and Respect for H u m a n Rights and F u n ­damental Freedoms, and from its execution by outstanding social educators from m a n y countries, representing almost all world regions and major h u m a n culture groups. This globalism is reinforced by an excellent 'Guide to Selected Resources for Teaching about Social Studies', which includes re­source agencies and curriculum projects from all over the world, each with the highest professional reputation, and it is legitimated by the inclusion of the entire text of the Unesco Recommendation concerning Education for International Understand­ing, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to H u m a n Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Putting these two fundamental resources in the hands of social educators around the world is in itself a significant contribution. This handbook, however, has m u c h else to recommend it as basic, core material for the curricula of teacher education in social studies. Every effort should be m a d e to distribute this volume to all teacher educators in the social studies.

T h e individual essays each address a topic or issue of primary importance in social studies, an exploration of which should form part of the prep-

538 Reviews

aration of all social-studies teachers. A s a collection they provide an excellent overview of the main lines of contemporary theory with regard to such subjects as foundations, moral education, evaluation and concept formation. They also offer fundamentals in the practical aspects of social studies, such as cur­riculum planning and skill development. Organized into two parts, each with its o w n clarifying conceptual introduction, the volume enumerates and details the essentials of 'Planning a Social Studies Pro­g r a m m e ' and 'Implementing a Social Studies Pro­g r a m m e ' . In s u m , the Handbook constitutes a c o m ­prehensive and sound introduction to the field as well as a global overview of its contemporary status. While it cannot, nor was it intended to, serve as a basic text in particular national settings, it can and should be used as a collateral text in introductory courses to social studies in teacher-training insti­tutions all over the world.

In making this recommendation, I suggest, as I always do w h e n recommending readings to students or colleagues, that the reader be sensitive to the biases and unarticulated assumptions that seem always to be present in even the most outstanding scholarly works. A s the Handbook notes, 'Pupils should be taught h o w to identify the creator's bias and allow for it' (p. 238). This excellent, groundbreaking contribution to social studies is no exception. While the assumptions and biases m a k e the volume no less valuable, it is important, for the field in general and in particular for the fulfilment of a basic purpose of the Handbook, which is to increase international understanding and improve education for peace, to 'allow for' them. In fact, identifying such biases could help us to learn more from these essays, and could, I believe, contribute toward designating im­portant next steps in the urgently needed process of globalizing those aspects of social education relevant to preparation for life in a planetary society.

It is not m y purpose here to criticize the work by enumerating shortcomings, but to point to areas that require the same transcultural analysis and trans­national co-operation as did production of this volume. O n e such area is an inquiry into the degree to which social studies is, in spite of its self-conscious sep­aration from the social sciences, still subject to their biases and limitations. Especially important to the aforementioned purposes are those characteristics of the social sciences which Third World and feminist scholars have identified as representing Western and masculine bias. T h e latter for example creeps into the present volume in the form of sexist language and examples; for instance the point in regard to 'respect for w o m e n ' (p. 202) and failure to take note of the documented sexist and Western bias in m u c h of the research on moral development. This is not to say that the chapter on value and moral education is not conceptually clear, comprehensive and illustrative of

scholarly integrity; but it does indicate that the authors probably did not take the feminist critique into account. While m u c h of the feminist scholarship is also Western, like social studies it is becoming rapidly globalized, seeking enrichment through cross-cultural exchange. Both feminism and social studies, being born of Western social science, need to look to the potential bias they were born with, and each has m u c h to contribute to the other's global integrity, for both have at base the fundamental purpose of improving the h u m a n condition. While such a pur­pose has also been claimed by Western science, the contemporary applications of science call that claim into question. A s a social educator, I believe the integrity ofthat purpose in the social studies must be rigorously defended. Indeed, a responsibility of the social studies, as the Handbook states, is to seek out bias, and thereby follows the corollary responsibility to transcend those biases in the social sciences that thwart our fundamental purpose.

A s to assumptions to be explored, the relationship of social studies to social sciences also raises another issue. Social studies as the vehicle for social education, it seems to m e , must not assume that its role in defining social issues and substance is secondary to that of the social sciences. A s the volume makes it clear in the Foreword that the intent is not to deal with what to teach but rather how to teach within the purview of social studies, it cannot be faulted for omitting substance. Yet as the sciences themselves in their mainstream endeavours have given inadequate attention to the major planetary problems, one would hope that social educators would make the identifi­cation and resolution of these problems a primary clearly articulated purpose. A globally derived list of such problems, as well as specifically designed teaching approaches, would have been a most wel­come addition. Indeed, the United Nations and Unesco itself have produced a number of significant documents dealing with global problems, which might well form the basis of instruction in the social studies. T w o Unesco contributions especially im­portant to the concerns of this volume are the final documents of the International Congress on H u m a n Rights Teaching (1978) and of the World Congress on Disarmament Education (1980). A m o n g other recent documents of central concern are the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Declaration of the New International Economic Order and the Final Document of the United Nations First Special Session on Disarmament. A listing of these and others relevant to the key global issues to be dealt with in social studies would also have enriched the work and m a d e a concrete substantive contri­bution to education for what should be the main endeavour of our time. ' T h e prevention of n e w wars is mankind's number one task' (p. 79).

Finally, it m a y be useful to examine the assumption

Reviews 539

that social studies is the appropriate vehicle for edu­cation for international understanding and peace. M a n y of us have spent most of our professional lives working under that assumption during the very years in which international conflict and the de­structive capacity of weapons have grown in volume and menace. Or it may be that the context of social studies is what needs to be changed. If the assumption of many peace educators that the context must become genuinely global is correct, then this Handbook is a major step in the right direction. Whatever 'the right direction' may be, D r Mehlinger and Unesco have offered us an invaluable contribution to social studies. I for one a m waiting for the second volume. W h y else offer criticism of omissions and bias in so fine a work? Thanks and congratulations to the authors and to Unesco.

Betty R E A R D O N ,

President on the Consortium on Peace Research,

Education and Development (United States of America)

B O O K S RECEIVED

A N D O L F I , Maurizio. La thérapie avec la famille. Paris Les Éditions E S F , 1982. 174 pp.

L'auto-enseignement au cours primaire. Ottawa, C R D I , 1981. 120 pp. (Compte rendu du séminaire sur les programmes d'auto-enseignement.)

B A R B I E R , Jean-Marie. Le quotidien et son économie. Paris, Les Éditions du C N R S , 1981. 177 pp.

Basic Education for the Real World. Washington, D . C . , I C E T , 1981. 204 pp. (International Perspec­tives on H u m a n Resource Development.)

B E L L O , J. Y . Basic Principles of Teaching. Ibadan/ N e w York, Spectrum Books Ltd/John Wiley & Sons, 1981. 169 pp. (Education in Africa—A Wiley Series.)

B E R B A U M , Jean. Étude systémique des actions de for­mation. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1982. 239 pp. (Pédagogie d'aujourd'hui.)

B E S S E , Jean-Marie. Decroly, psychologue et éducateur. Toulouse, Privat, 1981. 180 pp. (Grands éduca­teurs.)

B L U N D E L L , Jon; H I G G E N S , Jonathan; L U D D L E M I S S ,

Nigel. Function in English. London, Oxford Uni­versity Press, 1982. 274 pp.

BoDRSlN, Jean-Louis. L'administrat;on de l'éducation nationale. Paris, Presses Univer. .taires de France, 1981. 125 pp. (Que sais-je?.)

B R O A D F O O T , Patricia; B R O C K , Colin; T U L A S I E W I C Z ,

Witold (eds.). Politics and Educational Change. London, Croom Helm Ltd, 1981. 227 pp.

B R O W N , Lester R . Building a Sustainable Society. N e w York, W . W . Norton & Co., 1981. 433 pp.

B U R E R A , Ricardo (ed.). Coloquios con Gozzer. Buenos Aires, Comisión Asesora de Ciencias de la Educa­ción del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cien­tíficas y Técnicas, 1980. 234 pp.

B U R G U É S , Marie-Hélène. Des gens comme nous autres. Trois ans d'intervention 'culturelle' en milieu sous-prolétaire. Brussels, J E B , 1982. 228 pp.

C A L M Y , Gisèle. Espace et graphisme. Paris, Fernand Nathan, 1981. 48 pp.

C E N T R E D E S O C I O L O G I E D U T H É Â T R E . Théâtres et jeunes

publics (1970-1980). Brussels, JEB, 1981. 335 pp. C H E R K A O U I , M o h a m m e d . Les changements du système

éducatif en France 1950-1980. Paris, Presses Uni­versitaires de France, 1982. 309 pp.

China's Schools in Flux. Report by the State Edu­cation Leaders' Delegation. N e w York, M . E . Sharpe Inc., 1980. 187 pp.

C O H E N , Rachel. Plaidoyer pour les apprentissages pré­coces. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1982. 317 PP.

Comme les autres, ce sont des enfants. Paris, C T N E R H (distributed by Presses Universitaires de France), 1982. 182 pp.

540 Reviews

G R I P W E L L , K . On the Line. Oxford, Oxford Univer­sity Press, 1981.

DANIEL, John S.; STROUD, Martha A.; THOMPSON, John E . (eds.)- Learning at a Distance. A World Perspective. Edmonton, Athabasca University-International Council for Correspondence E d u ­cation, 1982. 338 pp.

D E L B A E R E , Roland; G I L L E T , Ivan. Pour une civilisa­tion du soleil. L'utilisation de l'énergie solaire. Brussels, J E B , 1981. 344 pp.

The Democratization of Education. Washington, D . C . , I C E T , 1980. 138 pp. (International Perspec­tives on the Preparation of Educational Person­nel.)

D E O L I V E I R A L I M A , Lauro. Piaget para principiantes. Sao Paulo, S u m m u s , 1980. 284 pp.

. Os mecanismos da liberdade. Sao Paulo, Polis, 1980. 376 pp.

D E OLIVEIRA L I M A , Lauro; D E OLIVEIRA L I M A , Ana

Elisabeth Santos. Urna escola piagetiana. Rio de Janeiro, Editora Paidéia, 1981. 85 pp.

D E SANCTIS, Filippo M . ; FEDERIGHI, Paolo. Pubblico

e biblioteca. Rome, Bulzoni Editore, 1981. 176 pp. D E U D N E Y , Daniel. Space: The High Frontier in Per­

spective. Washington, D . C . , 1982. 72 pp. (World-watch Paper 50.)

Devenir lecteur. Trois cours préparatoires à Saint-Étienne, Toulouse, Poitiers. Paris, Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique, 1981. 179 pp. (Re­cherches pédagogiques.)

DlA, O u m a r ; C O L I N - N O G U E S , Renée. L'autobiographie d'Oumar. Paris, Maspero, 1982. 249 pp. (Actes et mémoires du peuple.)

D U P O N T , Pol. La dynamique de la classe. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1982. 239 pp. (Péda­gogie d'aujourd'hui.)

EASTWOOD, J.; K A Y , V.; MACKIN, R.; STREVENS, P.

Network 3: Student's Book. Oxford, Oxford Uni­versity Press, 1982. 172 pp.

. Network 3: Teacher's Book. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 159 pp.

. Network 3: Workbook. Oxford, Oxford Univer­sity Press, 1982. 108 pp.

E D E M , D . A . Introduction to Educational Adminis­tration in Nigeria. Ibadan/Chichester, Spectrum Books Ltd/John Wiley & Sons, 1982. 143 pp. (Education in Africa—A Wiley Series.)

Éducation. A Biannual Collection of Recent German Contributions to the Field of Educational Research. Vol. 25. Tübingen, Institute for Scientific C o ­operation, 1982. 119 pp.

Education permanente et perfectionnement des ensei­gnants. Montreal, University of Montreal, Faculté de l'Éducation Permanente, 1981. 194 pp.

F R E M I O N , Yves. Provo, la tornade blanche. Brussels, J E B , 1982. 160 pp.

F U G L E S A N G , Andreas. About Understanding. Ideas

and Observations on Cross-cultural Communication. Uppsala, D a g Hammarskjöld Foundation, 1982. 231 pp.

FuLIN, Angélique. L'enfant, la musique et l'école. Au-delà des premières audaces. Paris, Fernand Nathan, 1981. 156 pp. (Pédagogie pratique.)

G A L L A G H E R , Margaret. Unequal Opportunities. The Case of Women and the Media. Paris, Unesco, 1981. 221 pp.

G A L L O W A Y , David, et al. Schools and Disruptive Pupils. London, Longman , 1982. 176 pp.

G A R C Í A H O Z , Victor. La educación en la España del Siglo XX. Madrid, Ediciones Rialp, S . A . , 1980. 377 PP.

GlOLiTTO, Pierre. Pédagogie de l'environnement. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1982. 162 pp. (L'éducateur.)

GozzER, G . / / capitale invisible. L'epoca dei grandi confronti. 1975-76: rapporti sulVeducazione. R o m e , Armando Armando , 1975. 230 pp.

. / / capitale invisibile. L'epoca dei ripensamenti. 1977-1980. Rome, Armando Armando, 1980. 174 PP-

G R E L L E T , F.; M A L E Y , A . ; W E L S I N G , W . Quartet.

Student's Book 1. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 105 pp.

. Quartet. Teacher's Book 1. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 107 pp.

G R O S S , Ronald (ed.). Invitation to Lifelong Learning. Chicago, 111., Follett Publishing Company , 1982. 287 pp.

H A A G , Daniel. ¿Cual es la gestión adecuada para gene­ralizar el derecho a la educación? Paris, Unesco, 1981. 180 pp.

H A R T L E Y , Bernard; V I N E Y , Peter. Streamline English. Destinations. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 80 pp.

H O W I T T , Dennis. Mass Media and Social Problems. Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1982. 204 pp. (Inter­national Series in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 2.)

L'informatique et la lecture. Centre de lecture publique de la Communauté française. Journées d'études: Documentation scientifique et lecture publique. Lou-vain la Neuve, mars 1981. Brussels, J E B , 1981. 165 pp.

J E A N , Georges; L A S S A L A S , Paulette; P A S C O T , Aline;

S U B L E T , Françoise. Poésie pour tous. Plan de réno­vation de l'enseignement du français à l'école élémen­taire. Vol. 10. Paris, Fernand Nathan, 1982. 264 pp. (INRP.)

L A N G O U E T , Gabriel. Technologie de l'éducation et démocratisation de l'enseignement. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1982. 185 pp. (Péda­gogie d'aujourd'hui.)

L E T H A N H K H O I . L'éducation comparée. Paris, Ar­

m a n d Colin, 1981. 316 pp.

Reviews 541

L E T O N T U R Œ R , L . P . L'école publique: une maison pour tous. Paris, Nathan, 1982. 168 pp.

Living in Two Cultures. The Socio-cultural Situation of Migrant Workers and Their Families. Aldershot/ Paris, Gower/Unesco, 1982. 325 pp.

M A C D O N A L D , John J. The Theory and Practice of Integrated Rural Development. Manchester, Uni­versity of Manchester, 1981. (Manchester M o n o ­graphs 19.)

M B A M B A , M a u n o A . Primary Education for an Inde­pendent Namibia. Planning in a Situation of Un­certainty and Instability. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1982. 244 pp. (Studies in Comparative and International Education, 5.)

M E L T O N , Reginald F . Instructional Models for Course Design and Development. N e w Jersey Educational Technology Publications, 1982. 183 pp.

M E N N E , Saxon. First Certificate Skills: Student's. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 127 pp.

. First Certificate Skills: Teacher's. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 128 pp.

MÉXICO. PLAN NATIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR.

Aspectos normativos de la educación superior. Mexico City, A N U I E S S E P , Coordinación Nacional para la Planeación de la Educación Superior, 1981.

. . El desarrollo del posgrado en la educación superior. Mexico City, A N U I E S S E P , Coordina­ción Nacional para la Planeación de la Educación Superior, 1981.

. . Información para la educación superior. Mexico City, A N U I E S S E P , Coordinación Nacio­nal para la Planeación de la Educación Superior, 1981.

. . La planeación de la educación superior. Aspectos operativos. Mexico City, A N U I E S S E P , Coordinación Nacional para la Planeación de la Educación Superior, 1981.

. . Plan Nacional de Educación Superior —Lincamientos generales para el periodo 1981/1991. Mexico City, A N U I E S S E P , Coordinación Nacio­nal para la Planeación de la Educación Superior, 1981.

. . Reuniones nacionales de análisis sobre educación superior memoria. Mexico City, A N U I E S S E P , Coordinación Nacional para la Planeación de la Educación Superior, 1981.

. . El desarrollo de la educación superior de 1981 à 1991. Mexico City, A N U I E S S E P , Coordinación Nacional para la Planeación de la Educación Superior, 1982.

M I L L E R , Ronald H . (ed.). Providing Access for Adults to Alternative College Programs. Alliance Manual No. i. N e w Rochelle, T h e Alliance, 1981. 117 pp.

Le monde urbain. Paris, L a Documentation Fran­çaise, 1981.88 pp., app. (Cahiers français,No. 203.)

M U S G R O V E , Frank. Education and Anthropology. Other Cultures and the Teacher. Bognor Regis, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1982. 193 pp.

M Y E R S , Robert G . Connecting Worlds. A Survey of Developments in Educational Research. Ottawa, I D R C , 1981. 88 pp.

N E W L A N D , Kathleen. Infant Mortality and the Health of Societies. Washington, D . C . , 1981. 56 pp. (WorldWatch Paper 47.)

N O R M A N , Colin. The God that Limps. Science and Technology in the Eighties. N e w York, N . W . N o r ­ton & C o . , 1981. 224 pp. (A WorldWatch Institute Book.)

P A G E S , Alain; P A G E S - P I N D O N , Joëlle. Le français au lycée. Manuel des études françaises. Paris, Nathan, 1982. 253 pp.

P A P E R T , Seymour. Jaillissement de l'esprit. Ordinateurs et apprentissage. Paris, Flammarion, 1980. 298 pp.

The Pergamon Oxford Dictionary of Perfect Spelling. Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1977. 321 pp., index.

PETERS, R . S. Essays on Educators. London, Allen & Unwin, 1981. 149 pp.

P E T E R S O N , R . , et al. Adult Education and Training in Industrialized Countries. Eastbourne, Holt Saun­ders Ltd, 1982.

P I E R R E , Evelyne; C H A G U I B O F F , Jean; C H A P E L A I N , Bri­

gitte. Les nouveaux téléspectateurs. Paris, I N A Publi­cations/Documentation Française, 1982. 250 pp.

P O O L E , Millicent. School Leavers in Australia. Can­berra, Canberra Publishing and Printing, 1981. 169 pp.

Présents et futurs de l'audiovisuel en éducation. Les fondements d'une nouvelle politique. Rapport du groupe Jacques Treffel à M. le Ministre de l'Édu­cation. Février 1981. Paris, L a Documentation Française, 1981. 198 pp.

R A M A E K E R S , Yves (ed.). L'expression des enfants. Approche sociologique et administrative. Brussels, JEB, 1981. 96 pp.

R A N K , C ; RINVOLUCRI, M . ; BERER, M . Challenge to

Think: Student's. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 80 pp.

. Challenge to Think: Teacher's. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 112 pp.

Rapport au ministre de l'éducation nationale de la commission sur la formation des personnels de l'édu­cation nationale présidée par André de Peretti. Paris, L a Documentation Française, 1982. 339 pp.

Revista de psicología y pedagogía aplicadas. Valencia, Instituto Municipal de Orientación del E x c m o Ayuntamiento de Valencia, Vol. XIII, N o s . 25-26, 1981. 364 pp.

R O B I N S O N , Carole. Themes for Proficiency. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 285 pp.

S A U N D E R S , Malcolm. Multicultural Teaching. A Guide for the Classroom. London, McGraw-Hill , 1982. 156 pp.

S C H I E F E L B E I N , Ernesto; F A R R E L L , Joseph P . Eight Years of their Lives—Through Schooling to the Labour Market in Chile. Ottawa, IDRC-i9ir , 1982. 207 pp.

542 Reviews

S H A N E , Harold G . The Educational Significance of the Future. Bloomington, 111., Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1981. 116 pp.

S H A N E , Harold G . ; T A B L E R , Bernadine. Educating for a New Millennium. Views 132 International Scholars. Bloomington, 111., Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1981. 160 pp.

S I M O N , Jean-Claude. L'éducation et l'informatisation de la société. Rapport au Président de la République. Annexe 1 : Les voies de développement. Contributions des groupes de travail. Paris, L a Documentation Française, 1981. 338 pp.

. L'éducation et l'informatisation de la société. Rapport au Président de la République. Annexe 2 : Les expériences par pays. Paris, L a Documentation Française, 1981. 306 pp.

S L E S S , David. Learning and Visual Communication. London, Croom He lm Ltd, 1981. 208 pp.

SoBREiRA G O E S D E O L I V E I R A , Raimundo; D E O L I -VEIRA L I M A , Lauro. A crise do ensino: Brasilia. Brasilia, Horizonte, 1980. 131 pp.

SoLLORS, Werner. Amiri BarakajLeroi Jones. N e w York, Columbia University Press, 1978.

S T O K E S , Bruce. Global Housing Prospects: The Re­source Constraints. Washington, D . C . , 1981. 64 pp. (Worldwatch Paper 46.)

T H O M P S O N , Ian. Intonation Practice. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982. 102 pp.

T O U G H , Allen. Intentional Changes. A Fresh Approach to Helping People Change. Chicago, 111., Follet Publishing Company, 1982. 192 pp.

INDEX Vol. XII, 1982

N o . 1, pp. 5-129 N o . 2 , pp. 135-275 N o . 3, pp. 281-406 N o . 4 , PP. 407-542.

A B D A L L A H - P R E T C E I I X E , Martine. Aspects of Ethnicity. Understanding Differences in Pluralistic Classrooms, by Wilma S. Longstreet; Race, Education and Identity, by Gagendra K . Verma and Christopher Bagley (eds.), 399.

A B U - L U G H O D , Ibrahim. The UNRWA/Unesco Ex­perience in Refugee Education, by K n u d Mortensen and K . D . Wagner, 128.

A L T B A C H , Philip G . Higher Education in Advanced Developing Countries, 293.

A R A Ú J O E O L I V E I R A , Joäo Batista. Making Good Use of Educational Technology, 335.

A U S T I N , Gilbert R . ; L U T T E R O D T , Sarah A . The

Computer at School, 421. B E L L O N C L E , G u y . Solving Educational Problems:

The Theory and Reality of Innovation in Developing Countries, by R . G . Havelock and A . M . Huberman, 123.

B E R N A L , Hernando; M U H L M A N N D E M A S O N E R ,

Liliana; M A S O N E R , Paul H . A n Experiment in Radiophonie Education: Acción Cultural Popular, 365.

BoTKlN, James W . Innovative Learning, Micro­electronics and Intuition, 19.

B R U S L I N G , Christer. The Rise and Fall of Edu­cational Technology in Sweden, 381.

C A R D E N A L , Fernando; M I L L E R , Valerie. Nicaragua: Literacy and Revolution, 201.

C A S T L E S , Stephen; V A N R E N S B U R G , Patrick; R I C H E R ,

Pete. The Education of Transition, 449. C H A D W I C K , Clifton. A n Overview of Educational

Technology in Latin America, 347. C L A R K E , Michael. Technology in Education or

Educational Technology?, 313. D E B E A U V A I S , Michel. Education and a N e w Inter­

national Economic Order, 135. D R E I E R , Oleg K . Problems Facing the Developing

Countries: A n Eastern European View, 69. E I C H E R , Jean-Claude. What Resources for Edu­

cation?, 57. E I D E , Ingrid. Thoughts on the Democratization of

Education in Europe, 79. F I S H E R , E . A . Illiteracy in Context, 155. F O F A N A , Amara. Education and Productive W o r k

in Guinea, 477. F U R T E R , Pierre. Collected Papers on Non-formal

Education (1973-79), by C . Bonanni; Non-formal Education as an Empowering Process with

Reviews 543

Case Studies from Indonesia and Thailand, by S. Kindervatter, 269.

G O Z Z E R J Giovanni. Interdisciplinarity: A Concept Still Unclear, 281.

G Ü N T H E R , Karl-Heinz. Profiles: Friedrich Froebel, 395-

H A W K R I D G E , David G . Educational Technology, Present and Future, 325.

H O N G Y O N G - F A N . Continuing Literacy W o r k in China, 185.

H U S E N , Torsten. Present Trends in Education, 45. I N F A N T E U R I V A Z O , Renaldo. Introducing Students

to Mass Media: Radio Victoria de Girón, 387. ISAKSSON, Andri. Reflections on Education and

W o r k , 441. J E N N I N G S - W R A Y , Zellynne D . ; T E A P E , Veronica

Elaine. Jamaica's W o r k Experience Programme,

499-J O S E P H , D y m a s . Bringing the Press into the School:

A Brazilian Experience, 513. K U M A R , Krishna. Growing Rich Together: E d u ­

cational Images of the International Order, 147. K U P I C I E W I C Z , Czeslaw. All our Children Learning.

A Primer for Parents, Teachers and Other Edu­cators, by R . S. Bloom, 273.

L E B B Y , S a m J.; L U T Z , Jack. Education and Pro­ductive W o r k : The B u n u m b u Approach, 485.

L O M P S C H E R , Joachim. Personality Development and the Pedagogical Organization of Pupils' Activities, 29.

LOURIÉ, Sylvain. Paysans du Guatemala: Quelle Éducation?, by Catherine Vigor, 275.

L U T T E R O D T , Sarah A . ; A U S T I N , Gilbert R . T h e

Computer at School, 421. L U T Z , Jack; L E B B Y , S a m J. Education and Productive

W o r k : T h e B u n u m b u Approach, 485. M A G N E N , André. Éducation en Afrique: Alternatives,

by Yvonne Mignot-Lefebvre and Jean-Marie Mignon (eds.), 125.

M A L I T Z A , Mircea. Corning Changes in Science and the Curricula, 89.

M A M M O , Gudeta. T h e National Literacy Campaign in Ethiopia, 193.

MASONER, Paul H . ; M U H L M A N N DE MASONER, Liliana; BERNAL, Hernando. An Experiment in Radiophonie Education: Acción Cultural Popular, 365.

M I L L E R , Valerie; C A R D E N A L , Fernando. Nicaragua: Literacy and Revolution, 201.

M U H L M A N N D E M A S O N E R , Liliana; M A S O N E R , H .

Paul; B E R N A L , Hernando. A n Experiment in Radio-phonic Education: Acción Cultural Popular, 365.

N A D A S I , A . ; S U B A , I.; T O M P A , K . Multimedia Teach­

ing Packages in Hungary, 375. N A P I T U P U L U , W . P. Each One Teach Ten: Literacy

in Indonesia, 213. N00R, Abdun. Managing Adult Literacy Training,

163.

O M O - F A D A K A , Jimoh. Education and Endogenous Development in Africa, 261.

Ó R N E L A S , Carlos. Co-operative Production and Technical Education in the Basque Country, 467.

O U A N E , Adama. Rural Newspapers and Radio for Post-literacy in Mali, 243.

PINILLOS, José Luis. The Modification of Intel­ligence, 5.

Q U A D L I N G , Douglas A . H o w Important is Learning Mathematics?, 411.

R E A R D O N , Betty. Unesco Handbook for the Teaching of Social Studies, edited by Howard D . Mehlinger, 537-

REIFF, Hans. Educational and Military Resource Allocation in Asia, 257.

V A N R E N S B U R G , Patrick; CASTLES, Stephen; RICHER,

Pete. The Education of Transition, 449. RICHER, Pete; CASTLES, Stephen; V A N R E N S B U R G ,

Patrick. The Education of Transition, 449. R O H R S , Hermann. Profiles: Maria Montessori, 523. S A K A M O T O , Takashi. Television for Young Children

in Japan, 357. S I N G H , R . P. A n Indian Experiment in Learning

while Earning, 495. S O U C H O N , Michel. Education and the Mass Media:

Where they Differ, Where they Converge, 101. S T O C K , Arthur. The United Kingdom: Becoming

and Staying Literate, 221. S U B A , I.; N A D A S I , A . ; T O M P A , K . Multimedia Teach­

ing Packages in Hungary, 375. T E A P E , Veronica Elaine; J E N N I N G S - W R A Y , Zel­

lynne D . Jamaica's Work Experience Programme, 499-

T I L A K , Jandhyala B . G . An Assessment of Educational Reform in India and Lessons for the Future. Reflection on the Future Development of Education: Report Studies, C. 86, by J. P. Naik, 404.

T O M P A , K . ; N Á D A S I , A . ; S U B A , I. Multimedia Teach­

ing Packages in Hungary, 375. T Z V E T K O V , Dimitar. Education and Work in Bulgaria,

459. U R Q U I D I , Víctor L . Technical Education in Mexico:

A Preliminary Appraisal, 115. VlNOKUR, Annie. Education, Work and Employment;

Education, Training and the Traditional Sector, by Jacques Hallak and Françoise Caillods, 531.

Z A M A N , Rafe-uz-. Functional Literacy through Television in Pakistan, 233.

Unesco publications: national distributors

ALBANIA: N . Sh. Botimeve Nairn Frasheri, T I R A N A . ALGERIA: Institut pédagogique national, n , rue Ali-

Haddad (ex-rue Zaâtcha), A L G E R ; Société natio­nale d'édition et de diffusion (SNED), 3, boule­vard Zirout Youcef, A L G E R ; Office des publications universitaires (OPU), 29, rue Abou Nouas, Hydra, A L G E R .

A N G O L A : Distribuidora Livros e Publicacoes, Caixa Postal 2848, L U A N D A .

ARGENTINA: E D I L Y R , S.R.L. , Tucuman 1685, 1050 B U E N O S AIRES.

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BOLIVIA: L O S Amigos del Libro, casilla postal 4415, L A P A Z ; Avenida de las Heroinas 3712, Casilla 450, COCHABAMBA.

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C A N A D A : Renouf Publishing Company Ltd., 2182 St. Catherine Street West, M O N T R E A L , Que., H 3 H 1M7.

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C H I N A : China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, P . O . Box 88, BEIJING.

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C O N G O : Commission Nationale Congolaise pour PUnesco, B.P. 493, BRAZZAVILLE; Librairie Popu­laire, B.P. 577, BRAZZAVILLE (branches in Pointe Noire, Loubomo, Nkayi, Makabana, Owendo, Ouesso and Impfondo).

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ETHIOPIA: Ethiopian National Agency for Unesco, P . O . Box 2996, A D D I S A B A B A .

F I N L A N D : Akateeminen Kirkakauppa, Keskuskatu 1, SF-00100 HELSINKI 10; Suomalainen Kirjakauppa O Y , Koivuvaarankuja 2, 01640 V A N T A A 64.

F R A N C E : Librairie de l'Unesco, place de Fontenoy, 75700 PARIS. C C P 12598-48.

F R E N C H W E S T INDIES: Librairie c Au Boul Mich',

1, rue Perrinon, and 66, avenue du Parquet, 97200 F O R T - D E - F R A N C E (Martinique).

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Postfach 140, 701 LEIPZIG or international book­shops in the German Democratic Republic.

G E R M A N Y , FEDERAL REPUBLIC O F : S. Karger G m b H ,

Karger Buchhandlung, Angerhofstrasse 9, Post­fach 2, D-8034 G E R M E R I N G / M Ü N C H E N . For scien­tific maps only: Geo Center, Postfach 800830, 7000 STUTTGART 80. For 'The Courier': M r Herbert Baum, Deutscher Unesco Kurier Vertrieb, Besait­strasse 57, 5300 B O N N 3.

G H A N A : Presbyterian Bookshop Depot Ltd., P . O . Box 195, A C C R A ; Ghana Book Suppliers Ltd., P . O . Box 7869, A C C R A ; The University Bookshop of Ghana, A C C R A ; The University Bookshop of Cape Coast; The University Bookshop of Legón, P . O . Box i, L E G Ó N .

G R E E C E : International bookshops (Eleftheroudakis, Kauffmann, etc.).

G U A D E L O U P E : Librairie Carnot, 59, rue Barbes, 97100 POINTE-À-PITRE.

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HAITI: Librairie CA la Caravelle', 26, rue Roux, B.P. 111-B, PORT-AU-PRINCE.

H O N D U R A S : Librería Navarro, 2.a Avenida N.° 201, Comayaguela, TEGUCIGALPA.

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IVORY C O A S T : Librairie des Presses de l'Unesco, C . N . Ivoirienne pour l'Unesco, B.P. 2871, A B I D ­JAN.

JAMAICA: Sangster's Book Stores Ltd.,P.O. Box 366, 101 Water Lane, K I N G S T O N .

JAPAN: Eastern Book Service Inc., Shuhwa Torano-mon 3 Bldg., 23-6 Toranomon 3-chome, M i -nato-ku, T O K Y O 105.

J O R D A N : Distribution Agency, P .O . Box 375, A M M A N .

K E N Y A : East African Publishing House, P .O. Box 30571, NAIROBI.

K U W A I T : The Kuwait Bookshop Co. Ltd., P .O. Box 2942, K U W A I T .

L E B A N O N : Librairies Antoine, A . Naufal et Frères, B.P. 656, B E Y R O U T H .

L E S O T H O : Mazenod Book Centre, P .O . M A Z E N O D . LIBERIA: Cole & Yancy Bookshops Ltd., P .O .

Box 286, M O N R O V I A .

LIECHTENSTEIN: Eurocan Trust Reg., P . O . B . 5, FL-9494 S C H A A N .

L U X E M B O U R G : Librairie Paul Brück, 22, Grande-Rue, L U X E M B O U R G .

M A D A G A S C A R : Commission nationale de la République Démocratique de Madagascar pour l'Unesco, Boîte postale 331, A N T A N A N A R I V O .

M A L A Y S I A : Federal Publications Sdn. Bhd., Lot 8238 Jalan 222, Petaling Jaya, SELANGOR; University of Malaya Co-operative Bookshop, K U A L A L U M P U R 22-11.

M A L I : Librairie populaire du Mali, B.P. 28, B A M A K O . M A L T A : Sapienzas, 26 Republic Street, VALLETTA. M A U R I T A N I A : G R A . L I . C O . M A . , I, rue du Souk X ,

Avenue Kennedy, N O U A K C H O T T . MAURITIUS: Nalanda Co. Ltd., 30 Bourbon Street,

P O R T - L O U I S .

M E X I C O : SABSA, Insurgentes Sur n.° 1032-401, M E X I C O 12, D F ; Librería El Correo de la Unesco, Actipán 66, Colonia del Valle, M E X I C O 12, D F .

M O N A C O : British Library, 30, boulevard des Moulins, M O N T E - C A R L O .

M O R O C C O : Librairie 'Aux belles images', 282, ave­nue Mohammed-V, R A B A T , C.C.P. 68-74. Por 'The Courier' (for teachers): Commission natio­nale marocaine pour l'Éducation, la Science et la Culture, 19, rue Oqba, B.P. 420, A G D A L - R A B A T (C.C.P. 324-45); Librairie des écoles, 12, ave­nue Hassan-II, CASABLANCA.

M O Z A M B I Q U E : Instituto Nacional do Livro e do Disco (INLD), Avenida 24 de Julho, 1921-r/c e i.° andar, M A P U T O .

N E T H E R L A N D S : Publications: Keesing, Boeken B . V . , Postbus 1118, 1000 B C A M S T E R D A M . Periodicals: Dekker and Nordemann N V , P . O . Box 197, 1000 A D A M S T E R D A M .

N E T H E R L A N D S ANTILLES: Van Dorp-Eddine N . V . ,

P . O . Box 200, Willenstad, C U R A Ç A O , N . A .

N E W CALEDONIA: Reprex S A R L , B.P. 1572, N O U M É A .

N E W Z E A L A N D : Government Printing Office book­shops: Retail bookshop—25 Rutland Street; Mail orders—85 Beach Road, Private Bag C.P .O. , A U C K L A N D . Retail—Ward Street; Mail orders — P . O . Box 857, H A M I L T O N . Retail—Cubacade

World Trade Centre, Mulgrave Street (Head Office); Mail orders—Private Bag, W E L L I N G T O N . Retail—159 Hereford Street; Mail orders—Private Bag, CHRISTCHURCH. Retail—Princes Street; Mail orders—P.O. Box 1104, D U N E D I N .

N I C A R A G U A : Librería Cultural Nicaragüense, calle 15 de Septiembre y avenida Bolivar, apartado n.° 807, M A N A G U A .

N I G E R : Librairie Mauclert, B.P. 868, N I A M E Y .

N I G E R I A : The University Bookshop of Ife; The University Bookshop of Ibadan, P . O . Box 286; The University Bookshop of Nsukka; The Univer­sity Bookshop of Lagos; The A h m a d u Bello Uni­versity Bookshop of Zaria.

N O R W A Y : Publications: Johan Grundt T a n u m , Karl Johans gate 41/43, O S L O I. Universitets Bokhande-len Universitetssentvet, P . O . B . 307, Blinden, O S L O 3. For 'The Courier': A / S Narvesens Litter-aturtjeneste, Box 6125, O S L O 6.

P A K I S T A N : Mirza Book Agency, 65 Shahrah Quaid i-Azam, P . O . Box 729, L A H O R E 3.

P A N A M A : Distribuidora Cultura Internacional, Apar­tado 7571, Zona 5, PANAMÁ.

P A R A G U A Y : Agencia de Diarios y Revistas, Sra. Nelly de García Astillero, Pte. Franco 580, A S U N C I Ó N .

P E R U : Librería Studium, Plaza Francia 1164, Apar­tado 2139, L I M A .

PHILIPPINES: The Modern Book C o . Inc., 926 Rizal Avenue, P . O . Box 632, M A N I L A D - 4 0 4 .

P O L A N D : ORPAN-Impor t , Palac Kultury, 00-901 W A R S Z A W A ; Ars Polona-Ruch, Krakowskie Przed-miescie no. 7, 00-068 W A R S Z A W A .

P O R T U G A L : Dias & Andrade Ltda., Livraria Portugal, rua do Carmo 70, L I S B O A .

P U E R T O R I C O : Librería Alma Mater, Cabrera 867, Rio Piedras, P U E R T O R I C O 00925.

R E P U B L I C O F K O R E A : Korean National Commission for Unesco, P . O . Box Central 64, S E O U L .

R O M A N I A : I L E X I M , Export-Import, 3 Calea '13 D e -cembrie', P . O . Box 1-136/1-137, B U C H A R E S T .

S E N E G A L : Librairie Clairafrique, B . P . 2005, D A K A R ; Librairie des 4 vents, 91, rue Blanchot, B . P . 1820, D A K A R .

SEYCHELLES: N e w Service Ltd., Kingsgate House, P .O . Box 131, M A H É ; National Bookshop, P . O . Box 48, M A H É .

SIERRA L E O N E : Fourah Bay College, Njala University and Sierra Leone Diocesan Bookshops, F R E E T O W N .

S I N G A P O R E : Federal Publications (S) Pte. Ltd., N o . 1 N e w Industrial Road, off Upper Paya Lebar Road, S I N G A P O R E 19.

SOCIALIST P E O P L E ' S L I B Y A N A R A B J A M A H I R I Y A :

Agency for Development of Publication and Dis­tribution, P . O . Box 34-35, T R I P O L I .

S O M A L I A : Modern Book Shop and General, P . O . Box, 951 M O G A D I S C I O .

S O U T H A F R I C A : Van Schaik's Bookstore (Pty) Ltd.,

Libri Building, Church Street, P . O . Box 724, P R E T O R I A .

S P A I N : Mundi-Prensa Libros S . A . , apartado 1223, Castelló 37, M A D R I D I; Ediciones Liber, Apar­tado 17, Magdalena 8, O N D A R R O A (Vizcaya); D o ­naire, Ronda de Outeiro, 20, apartado de correos 341, L A C O R U Ñ A ; Librería Al-Andalus, Roldana, 1 y 3, SEVILLA 4; Librería Castells, Ronda Univer­sidad 13, B A R C E L O N A 7.

SRI L A N K A : Lake House Bookshop, Sir Chittampa-lam Gardiner Mawata, P . O . Box 244, C O L O M B O 2.

S U D A N : Al Bashir Bookshop, P . O . Box 1118, K H A R ­

T O U M .

S U R I N A M E : Suriname National Commission for Unesco, P .O . Box 2943, P A R A M A R I B O .

S W E D E N : Publications: A / B C .E . Fritzes Kungl. Hovbokhandel, Regeringsgatan 12, Box 16356, S-103 27 S T O C K H O L M . For 'The Courier': Svenska FN-Förbundet, Skolgränd 2, Box 150 50, S-104 65 S T O C K H O L M (Postgiro 18 46 92). Subscriptions: Wennergren-Williams A B , Box 30004, S-10425, S T O C K H O L M .

SWITZERLAND: Europa Verlag, Rämistrasse 5, 8024 Z Ü R I C H ; Librairie Payot, 6, rue Grenus, 1211 G E ­NEVA 11.

SYRIAN A R A B REPUBLIC: Librairie Sayegh, Immeuble

Diab, rue du Parlement, B.P. 704, D A M A S . T H A I L A N D : Suksapan Panit, Mansion 9, Rajdamnern

Avenue, B A N G K O K ; Nibondh & Co. Ltd., 40-42 Charoen Krung Road, Siyaeg Phaya Sri, P . O . Box 402, B A N G K O K ; Suksit Siam Company, 1715 Rama IV Road, B A N G K O K .

T O G O : Librairie Évangélique, B.P. 378, L O M É ; Li­

brairie du Bon Pasteur, B.P. 1164, L O M É ; Librai­rie universitaire, B . P . 3481, L O M É .

T R I N I D A D A N D T O B A G O : Trinidad and Tobago

National Commission for Unesco, 18 Alexandra Street, St. Clair, P O R T O F S P A I N .

T U N I S I A : Société tunisienne de diffusion, 5, avenue de Carthage, T U N I S .

T U R K E Y : Haset Kitapevi A . S . , Istiklâl Caddesi, no. 469, Posta Kutusu 219, Beyoglu, I S T A N B U L .

U G A N D A : Uganda Bookshop, P . O . Box 7145, K A M ­

PALA.

U.S.S.R. : Mezhdunarodnaja Kniga, M O S K V A , G-200. U N I T E D K I N G D O M : H . M . Stationery Office, P . O .

Box 569, L O N D O N S E I 9 N H ; Government Book­shops: London, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester; Third World Publi­cations, 151 Stratford Road, B I R M I N G H A M B I I I R D . For scientific maps only: McCarta Ltd, 122 King's Cross Road, L O N D O N W C I X 9 D S .

U N I T E D R E P U B L I C O F C A M E R O O N : Le Secrétaire géné­

ral de la Commission nationale de la République-Unie du Cameroun pour l'Unesco, B . P . 1600, Y A O U N D E ; Librairie des Éditions Clé, B . P . 1501, Y A O U N D E ; Librairie St Paul, B . P . 763, Y A O U N D E ;

Librairie aux Messageries, avenue de la Liberté, B . P . 5921, D O U A L A ; Librairie aux Frères réunis, B . P . 5346, D O U A L A .

U N I T E D R E P U B L I C O F T A N Z A N I A : Dar es Salaam Book­

shop, P . O . Box 9030, D A R ES S A L A A M . U N I T E D S T A T E S O F A M E R I C A : Unipub, 345 Park

Avenue South, N E W Y O R K , N . Y . I O O I O .

U P P E R V O L T A : Librairie Attie, B . P . 64, O U A G A D O U ­

G O U ; Librairie Catholique 'Jeunesse d'Afrique', OUAGADOUGOU.

U R U G U A Y : Edilyr Uruguaya, S.A., Maldonado 1092, M O N T E V I D E O .

V E N E Z U E L A : Librería del Este, Av. Francisco de M i ­randa, 52, Edificio Galipán, Apartado 60337, CARACAS; La Muralla Distribuciones, S.A., 4a, Avenida entre 3a y 4a transversal, 'Quinta Irenalis' Los Falos Grandes, C A R A C A S 106.

Y U G O S L A V I A : Jugoslovanska Knjiga, Trg Republike 5/8, P . O . Box 36, 11-001 B E O G R A D ; Drzavna Zalozba Slovenije, Titova C.25, P . O . B . 50-1, 61-000 L J U B L J A N A .

Z A I R E : Librairie du C I D E P , B . P . 2307, K I N S H A S A ; Commission nationale zaïroise pour l'Unesco, Commissariat d'État chargé de l'Éducation natio­nale, B . P . 32, K I N S H A S A .

Z I M B A B W E : Textbook Sales (PVT) Ltd., 67 Union Avenue, H A R A R E .

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Contents of preceding issues

Vol. XII, N o . i, 1982

VIEWPOINTS/CONTROVERSIES

José Luis Pinillos The modification of intelligence James W. Botkin Innovative learning, micro-electronics and intuition Joachim Lompscher Personality development and the pedagogical organization of pupils' activities

OPEN FILE

WHITHER EDUCATION?

Torsten Husén Present trends in education Jean-Claude Eicher What resources for education? Oleg K. Dreier Problems facing the developing countries: an Eastern European view Ingrid Eide Thoughts on the democratization of education in Europe Mircea Malitza Coming changes in science and the curricula Michel Souchon Education and the mass media: where they differ, where they converge

TRENDS AND CASES

Victor L. Urquidi Technical education in Mexico: a preliminary appraisal

Vol. XII, N o . 2 , 1982

VIEWPOINTS/CONTROVERSIES

Michel Debeauvais Education and a N e w International Economic Order Krishna Kumar Growing rich together: educational images of the international order

OPEN FILE

LITERACY CAMPAIGNS

E. A. Fisher Illiteracy in context Abdun Noor Managing adult literacy training Hong Yong-Fan Continuing literacy work in China Gudeta Mammo The national literacy campaign in Ethiopia Fernando Cardenal and Valerie Miller Nicaragua: literacy and revolution W. P. Napitupulu Each one teach ten: literacy in Indonesia Arthur Stock The United Kingdom: becoming and staying literate Rafe-uz-Zaman Functional literacy through television in Pakistan Adama Ouane Rural newspapers and radio for post-literacy in Mali

prospects TRENDS AND CASES

Hans Reiff Educational and military resource allocation in Asia Jimoh Omo-Fadaka Education and endogenous development in Africa

Vol. XII, N o . 3, 1982

VIEWPOINTS/CONTROVERSIES

Giovanni Gozzer Interdisciplinary: a concept still unclear Philip G. Altbach Higher education in advanced developing countries

OPEN FILE

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: M Y T H AND REALITY

Michael Clarke Technology in education or educational technology? David G. Hawkridge Educational technology, present and future Joâo Batista Araújo e Oliveira Making good use of educational technology Clifton Chadwick A n overview of educational technology in Latin America Takashi Sakamoto Television for young children in Japan Liliana Muhlmann de Masoner, Paul H. Masoner and Hernando Bernai A n experiment in radiophonie education: Acción Cultural Popular A. Nddasi,I. Suba et K. Tompa Multimedia teaching packages in Hungary Christer Brusling The rise and fall of educational technology in Sweden

TRENDS AND CASES

Renaldo Infante Urivazo Introducing students to mass media: Radio Victoria de Girón