Subject: SAEd course syllabus: Community Education and Development, (fwd)

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 08:41:45 WST

I have taken the liberty of sending this to you. While particularly
interesting to teachers of Permaculture, there are a number of web sites
and books which may have a general interest.
Victor.
--------------------------------
Sender: [email-masked]
Dear SAEd-Share-L subscribers;

Below is a syllabus of a course that has a significant proportion of
content directed at sustainable agriculture and rural development. In fact,
this is a course that I revised for fall 1998, so it is a mix of a course
previously taught by Merrill Ewert, now Director of Cornell Cooperative
Extension, and course ideas I overlaid. The course is both domestic
US-oriented and internationally-oriented.

Feedback welcome!

Best,

Nancy Grudens-Schuck, list manager

________________________________

COURSE TITLE:	Community Education and Development
INSTITUTION: 	Cornell University
STUDENTS:	Mainly graduate students in Education, Natural Resources,
Rural
		Sociology, Nutrition, Community Development
DATES:		Fall 1998
INSTRUCTOR:	Nancy Grudens-Schuck
CONTACT:	422 Kennedy Hall, Department of Education, Cornell University,
		Ithaca, NY 14853 U.S. E-mail: [email-masked]

______________________________

Revised course Fall 1998

Education 682
Community Education and Development
Cornell University
Department of Education

Instructor: Nancy Grudens-Schuck

Class meets:
Monday 1:25 to 4:25
Caldwell Hall Room 250

My office: 	Department of Education, 422 Kennedy Hall, Cornell
Phone: 		(607) 255-2508
E-mail (best): 	[email-masked]
Web address: http://www.cals.cornell.edu/dept/education/faculty/grudens/
grudens%20schuck.html

Explorations of the course:

(1) Power, professionals, and education in community and rural development
worldwide.

(2) Learning from communities of place and communities of interest.

(3) Facilitation and research as community intervention.

(4) Non governmental organizations (NG0s) as mechanisms for community
analysis, education, and sustainable development.

Core Intentions
	I intend to work with class members to identify why and how
educators must create their intended place in community development on a
personal and institutional level. Educators aren't new to the community
development scene, but sometimes educators disrupt communities in ways that
make things worse. Conversely, sometimes educators fail to disrupt
communities that sorely need it, and whose people cannot become 'educated'
without it. The role of education as an intervention in communities brings
issues of power, intentionality, and feedback to the foreground. I ground
the course in the assumption that people in communities deserve educators
skilled in participatory, nonhierarchical educational strategies. I pair
this assumption with personal experiences in community education that
suggest to me that participatory processes are counterintuitive to most of
us, despite the popularity of participatory rhetoric. I therefore offer
students the chance to inspect theories and case studies of participatory
educational processes with communities that tell about failures as well as
successes. We will investigate the role of facilitation and personal skills
that seem to help.

Who Should Take this Course? This course is intended for graduate students
who work as educators in communities worldwide. I define "educator"
broadly: if you believe you educate or intend to do so, you may explore
education in this course as you see fit. I focus mainly on rural community
education, which includes sustainable development, particularly
environmental and agricultural; nutrition, health and sanitation; literacy
and second-language struggles; women and development; and issues of farm
worker and landless rural people living in poverty. I have included issues
that are urban-based and within the sphere of communities of interest
secondarily: homelessness; violence in gay and native communities,
particularly with respect to women; and AIDS prevention. We will also
consider good news: community-based Landcare, faith-based development
efforts; people-centered development, feminist methodologies, and
participatory cases that work; and holistic consensus building. I chose
cases from many nations, cultures and types of communities so that students
can link the course materials to the context of their work. Most cases will
describe ways that non governmental organizations (NGOs), extension, or
government staff conduct education.

My Approach to the Course: I intend to offer students opportunities to hone
facilitation theory while practicing participatory approaches to
educational research and intervention in communities. I anchor a theory of
facilitation in the participatory literature generally, and in John Heron's
theory of participatory facilitation specifically. I organized the course
using Heron's ideas and will ask students to consider and apply his ideas
to specific problems in community education.

	To me, theory without practice (and practice without theory) limits
competency and creativity. Therefore, class activities and assignments will
offer students the chance to combine reading, writing and talking about
theory with action and reflection. Action will take several forms, as will
reflection. Events include a field trip to a rural area to meet rural
people; welcoming guests from an intriguing community development project
in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.; and by interacting with real
education projects in actual non governmental organizations and community
centers through a research project. Reflection can, of course, occur
anywhere and anytime, but seems to benefit when sought directly and given
appropriate time and a particular format. Therefore, we will seek to
reflect on these activities by working in collaborative research teams, and
by experimenting with forms of feedback and evaluation.

Assignments: I have tried to balance students' needs for choice and
flexibility on topics with my desire for coherent discussion during class.
To give our discussions depth, students will read some books and articles
in common and engage in some common experiences. To present opportunities
for students to practice making informed choices with respect to
intellectual engagement and approach to research about education in
communities, I have given students choices in four major areas: topics and
area studies (readings) for two short papers; choice of research team
mates; choice of project site; and choice of the researching relationship
you seek to form with members at the site. I have also tried to vary the
type of presentation the assignments will take: short analytic papers,
creative facilitation piece (decision case or skit); oral/visual
presentations; annotated bibliography; and final research report with
reflective section. I have listed assignments below and dates they are due.
I have assigned several short papers so that you can get feedback early in
the semester on graduate-level writing because many students take this
course in their first year of graduate school. I will provide detailed
instructions on assignments during class and via our class discussion list.

Assignments

Short paper #1		10%			Sept. 21
Short project proposal	10%			Sept. 28
Short paper #2		10%			Oct. 5
Bibliography		20%			Oct. 19
Update on facil-l		10%		Nov. 2
Decision case or skit	10%			Nov. 9
Oral presentation		10%		Nov. 23 or Nov. 30
Research Summary	20%			Dec. 11

 [email-masked] E-mail Class Discussion List
I would like class members to subscribe to an e-mail discussion list that I
developed for our class called "facil-l." This e-mail discussion list will
allow all of us to receive common messages that I send about the course,
permit students to raise issues between classes by sending a note to the
list, and post updates. If you do not subscribe to the list, you will miss
important discussions or announcements. One assignment requires a member of
your research group to post an update of your project to the facil-l list.

(instructions removed because no longer active)

This list is private to our class. Only class members belong. Therefore,
you will get a message that tells you that your subscription awaits my
approval. If everything works well, you will receive a "Welcome" post soon
after subscribing. Please try to subscribe before the second class. I will
post details of assignments on the list.

Required Texts (4)

o Allen, John. C. and Don A. Dillman. 1994. Against All Odds: Rural
Community in the Information Age. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

o Chambers, Robert. 1997. Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last.
London: Intermediate Technology Publications.

o Korten, David. C. 1990. Getting to the 21st Century: Voluntary Action and
the Global Agenda. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.

o Ristock, Janice L. and Joan Pennell. 1996. Community Research as
Empowerment: Feminist Links, Postmodern Interruptions. Toronto: Oxford
University Press.

Optional Text (1)
Kaner, Sam and others. 1996. Facilitator's Guide to Participatory
Decision-Making. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.

Additional Readings --I have about 10 copies of most. You may download some
from Web. See assignments above.

Begum, S.A., Ahmed, T., & Chowdhury, M A. 1996. "Literacy Movement in
Bangladesh and Role of Community Institutions: Exploring Comilla
Experiences." Journal of Rural Development. Vol. 26, No. 2 (pp. 33-52).

Brookfield, Stephen.  1995. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San
Francisco:  Jossey-Bass. (critical incidents questionnaire--CIQ).

Cohen, John & Uphoff, N. 1980. "Participation's Place in Rural Development:
Seeking Clarity through Specificity." World Development Vol. 8 (pp.
213-235).

Donovan, Peter.  1996? "The Colville Tribe Blazes the Trail." Practical
Holism. Download from Web at: http://www.orednet.org/~pdonovan/cct6.htm.

Donovan, Peter.  1996? "Washington's Holistic Management Project Holds
First Statewide Meeting." Practical Holism. Download from Web at:
http://www.orednet.org/~pdonovan/yakima.htm (other list of articles at:
http://www.orednet.org/~pdonovan/files.htm).

Epstein, R.  1996. "Spiritual Improvement." City Limits. February issue
(pp. 14-19).

Ferguson, Bruce. 1992. "From Protest to Programs: Neighborhood Associations
in a Brazilian Municipality." Grassroots Development. Vol. 16, No. 1, (pp.
12-21).

Henderson, Elizabeth. 1998. "Rebuilding Local Food Systems from the Ground
Up." Monthly Review Vol. 50, No. 3. (pp. 112-124).

Heron, John, 1989. The Facilitators' Handbook. London: Kogan Page. Chapter
1: "Dimensions and Modes" (pp. 10-25) and Chapter 2: "The Group Dynamic"
(pp. 26-40).

Illah, S M., Sharifullah, A.K., & Ahsan, K. 1996. "A Comparative Study on
Model Farmer and Training and Visit Systems of Agricultural Extension in
Bangladesh." Journal of Rural Development. Vol. 26, No. 2 (pp. 1-32).

Kaplan, Sally J. & Alsup, Ruth. 1995. "Participatory Action Research: A
Creative Response to AIDS prevention in Diverse Communities." Convergence
Vol. 28, No. 1 (pp. 38-55).

MacQueen, K.,, Nopkesorn, T., Sweat, M. Sawaengdee, Y., Mastro, & B.
Weniger. 1996. "Alcohol Consumption, Brothel Attendance and Condom Use:
Normative Expectations Among Thai Military Conscripts." Medical
Anthropology Quarterly. Vol. 10, No. 3 (pp. 402-423).

Marsick, Victoria J. & Watkins, Karen E. 1990. "How Community Educators
Learn: Nepal and the Philippines." In Peter Jarvis (Ed.) International
Perspectives on Adult and Continuing Education, (pp. 78-100). London:
Routledge.

McGraw, Dan. 1997. "A new kind of Book of Job." U.S. News and World Report.
January 13 (pp. 47-48).

Pigozzi, M. 1982. "Participation in Non-Formal Education Projects: Some
Possible Negative Outcomes." Convergence. Vol. 25, No. 3 (pp. 6-18).

Putnam, Robert. D. 1993. "The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and
Public Life." The American Prospect No. 13. Download from Web address:
http://epn.org/prospect/13/13putn.html

Ramdas, Lalita. 1990. "Women and Literacy: A Quest for Justice."
Convergence Vol. 23, No. 1 (pp. 27-42).

Vanclay, Frank & Lawrence, Geoffrey. 1995. The Environmental Imperative:
Eco-Social Concerns for Australian Agriculture. (Chapter 5: "Adoption of
Environmental Management Practices: Farmers' Attitudes and Behavior and
Chapter 8: Towards a Sociology of Contemporary Agricultural Extension).
Rockhampton, Australia: Central Queensland University.

Vergera, Ricardo. 1994. NGOs: "Help or Hindrance for Community Development
in Latin America." Community Development Journal. Vol. 29, No. 4 (pp.
322-328).

+++++++++  END

*************************************

Nancy Grudens-Schuck, Ph.D.

Department of Education
422 Kennedy Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

PHONE office: 607 255-2508
FAX: 607 255-7905
E-Mail: [email-masked]
http://www.cals.cornell.edu/dept/education/faculty/grudens/