Why is the conference such a bad place for learning?

The Development's Futures 2007 conference has come and gone and as hoped it proved an excellent forum to find out about the who and what of international development in Ireland.

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the NUI Galway and conference organisers for an excellent and informative weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and the opportunity to meet new colleagues. It also provided an opportunity to explore Galway city in more detail, especially the excellent Crane Bar (more below).

Secondly, I would like to point out that the chosen title for this particular posting is not a comment specifically on the Development's Futures conference itself. More my own personal feelings about conferences in general and the need for more analytical and participatory spaces to explore the types of issues and challenges that conferences often reveal.

Enough of that, back to Development's Futures. Participants at the conference were fortunate to have the opportunity to witness two fine speakers of international repute; Mr Palagummi Sainath and Mr Michael Edwards, both of whom had many important and relevant things to say; Mr Sainath about the dramatic negative impacts of current development models on the livelihoods and wellbeing of the poor, and Mr Edwards about the need for new approaches to and institutional forms of learning in the pursuit of better and fairer development models. Both speeches were well delivered and thought-provoking. The content of the parallel sessions was also excellent and I certainly learned much, especially about current initiatives in areas related to development education in Third Level Institutes ( TLIs) in Ireland.

Unfortunately (like most conferences) there were limited opportunities to meet other practitioners. However, overall the conference was exceptionally well organised and we were looked after extremely well.

However, having coming away from the event, certainly much the better for having participated, I could not help but reflect that conferences in general are poor places for effective learning. To me they seem to miss and avoid opportunities for improved analysis and dialogue and hence learning. And by that I mean 'conventional' conferences in general (in the same way that Dennis O'Hearn feels that Universities in general are poor places for learning). I think this conclusion is especially important in relation to conferences that deal with international development as opposed to other academic disciplines or subjects. With the livelihoods of the world's poor at stake it is critical that we get the analysis, debate and dialogue just right so that we move forward with improved learning and primed for real and positive action for transformation.

I fully understand and appreciate how difficult and challenging these events are to organise to the satisfaction of all participants. As far as I am aware this is the only national gathering of its kind that addresses international development. So when almost 200 development practitioners attend it provides an excellent opportunity for in-depth analysis and dialogue on issues that might lead to new and improved forms of learning. Personally, I felt that there was insufficient time and space created to explore many of the topics and issues in real and effective detail and was often frustrated as a result of this. I could have done without so many sessions (or at least more streamlined presentations). I am not sure the best way around these problems but I couldn't help thinking that opportunities had gone-a-begging. For all I know (which is limited!) there are other appropriate and relevant avenues for practitioners to inform policy and practice which I am not aware of.

Unfortunately I was only able to attend the sessions related to Education & Learning and Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. I was left wondering how experiences and lessons learned by practitioners in these fields might be shared on a more regular basis. If anyone has information about any networks, conferences, meetings or other activities related to these topics I would be keen to know how I might participate.

For those particularly interested in exploring more relevant approaches and paradigms to education and learning for sustainable development especially at Third Level, there are two interesting international meetings coming up. UNESCO is hosting a conference titled, Reinventing Higher Education: Toward Participatory and Sustainable Development, later this month. Early next year the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI) is hosting the 4th International Conference on Higher Education.

For anyone interested in participation, participatory approaches & methods and participatory learning in general there is a comprehensive list of resources available here.

Anyway just a few thoughts and suggestions on what was a thoroughly enjoying and rewarding weekend.

Please read the other 13 entries below on other aspects of the Development's Futures conference.

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell

Palagummi Sainath quite rightly pulls no punches when he describes the impact of the current global economic development model on the livelihoods of the poor in India (and elsewhere). One hundred and fifty thousand farmer suicides in India since 1995, in a period which saw the number of millionaires in Mumbai alone rise to 23,000. And he doesn't have much time for those of us who sit in our 'sand boxes' tinkering with our 'lego sets'. In fact, he much prefers to throw down the gauntlet and challenge us to get more proactive, 'engage with the street' and to not 'disconnect with reality' through applying ourselves to theory and abstraction. Sainath is one of the few journalists analysing and documenting the effects of the unprecedented rise of corporate power on rural dwellers in India. His words in this plenary session certainly back up the powerful images in his photographic exhibition, Visible Work, Invisible Women.

Thus Spoke Michael Edwards

Being at the back of a packed O' hEocha lecture theatre it was at times hard to keep up with Michael Edwards as he talked passionately and with conviction on Global social transformation and the co-creation of Development's Futures. It was certainly worth the effort though as he actively engaged the audience on his vision(s) of multiple pathways and multiple conclusions for development. Commencing with the post-September 11 'throwback attitude' of the 'Can Do school' (including our very own Bono and Geldof and their colleague Jeffrey Sachs) and their counterparts at the opposite end of the spectrum, the 'Can't Do school' (lead by none other than William Easterly), Michael finally settled down to address 'what should we do?', or as he called it, the Should Do school. An acceptance of there being no blueprint or magic bullet for 'development' being the basis of this school of thought (multiple pathways, multiple visions, all valid in an a contested context). One that is not in sync with many of the technocratic and elitist approaches somewhat still prevalent in some international development circles. In calling for the need to nurture new 'institutional forms of learning' to support the Should Do school, Michael cited the examples of new democratic spaces being opened up in Brazil and the International Community of Women Living with Aids coalition. I would also like to add to this the new participatory spaces being opened up within higher learning institutes (HLIs) by initiatives such as the Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) group, housed at IDS, which are attempting to create new forms of collaborative and social learning that challenge institutional resistance and technocratic and elitist approaches to learning and development practice.

A full transcript of Michael Edwards keynote address can be found here.

Cross border partnerships for International Development, do they exist?

The Development's Futures conference provided some, but limited, opportunities to network with development practitioners from north of the border. Maybe calling it networking is stretching it a bit far. I had already met Stephen from the Belfast-based Centre for Global Education on a few earlier occasions and was aware of the great work that centre is doing to promote international development issues. However the only other person I met was Ann who is now based in Galway and had just recently returned from doing some interesting and challenging work in Darfur. I was a bit surprised by the lack of representation from Northern Ireland-based Third Level institutes (TLIs) at the conference or any visible cross border partnerships between TLIs on international development issues. Maybe I just didn't search hard enough or maybe TLIs in the north are more aligned with partners in the UK and with policy from DFID.

One important thing I did learn recently (not at the Development's Futures conference though) was that an All Party Group on International Development has been set-up within the Northern Ireland Executive. I can't find much information about this All Party's mandate and agenda though. So if anyone out there knows what the group is up to and hopes to achieve (and how it is tapping into local expertise) please feel free to share with us. For example, how will the group align itself with international development policy coming from two directions. What are the long-term policies for international development within the NI Executive?

Further I would like to know if there are any plans for NI based universities to link with other counterpart institutions in Ireland to undertake research and capacity building aimed at tackling global poverty. Such partnerships would appear to be an area that Irish Aid would like to support.

Development Education Resources and Methodologies - Centres

This session commenced with a presentation by Deidre O'Rourke with the promise 'to practice what we preach, in a workshop type activity, we will show how PLM works!'. Sadly no such workshop type activity eventuated maybe a result of the layout of the lecture hall or limitations of time. However, Deidre did elaborate on an interesting approach to participatory learning approaches in her presentation, Development education and participative learning methodologies (PLM) at Third Level. Deidre and her colleague's biggest challenge seems to be how to integrate PLM into large student group settings. By large group settings here we are talking about 200 students! Certainly a challenge indeed. Deidre highlighted something that I have come across many times when I talk to teachers or lecturers and that is the 'resistance of students to participatory methods and approaches'. But is it really 'student resistance'? Very often I have found that such student resistance can be easily and quickly overcome but then again I am often dealing with much smaller groups. Having said that I am more inclined to think that it is more the resistance of Third Level Institutes (TLIs) to participatory and collaborative forms of learning that is the problem (see Why is the university a bad place for learning?). Coupled with this is an educational system which from day one militates against any substantial forms of collaborative and critical learning. So until TLIs stop placing emphasis on knowledge banking and regurgitation, with appraisal and assessment based around this, then of course students are not going to see much value in the types of learning that PLM try to encourage. Deidre also highlighted another interesting issue in the general student body. That of using the terminology that is expected by the lecturer. Kind of mirrors the behaviour of many development practitioners who are equally guilty of using the terminology expected by the donor!

It was great to listen to Deidre and the efforts she and her colleagues are making. The challenge is considerable and one that is being taken up elsewhere. As I have posted on many times before the Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) initiative is trying to address similar challenges and constraints that Deidre is facing at Third Level. They have collated a number of experiences and case studies, from the global north and south, that demonstrate how these challenges can be overcome but more importantly how innovative and novel collaborative and participatory approaches can improve student and TLI learning (emphasis on the latter). It would be great to hear from other lecturers at Third level in Ireland trying to grapple with similar issues regarding PLM.

Research Partnerships

Tom Crowley's presentation, Degrees of freedom: applied development research in Ethiopa through a south-north partnership programme, highlighted the impact of a joint MSc Rural Development programme offered by UCC and Mekelle University. Apparently this is the first programme of its kind in Ireland which I found surprising. It is certainly an interesting partnership, built on a strong history of collaboration. The programme certainly appears to be responding to an identified need and one which seems to be diversifying as there is a growing trend in students coming from NGO sectors. The programme combines a mixture of distance education methods and face-to-face sessions. The partnership hopes to develop this further into web-based learning.

It is great to see such partnerships developing. I often wonder why there are not more such partnerships developed between Irish universities and counterparts overseas (maybe with Minister Kitt's recent announcement there will be). I also believe that distance education modes of delivery for courses such as rural development are areas where Irish universities can compete with their counterparts in the UK (such as Wye, now Imperial College), Europe and Australia.

From the research perspective such partnerships can be very productive and add significantly to the capacity building and enhancement component. In fact both go hand-in-hand as Tom pointed out, although his presentation focused on the capacity building component. I have been involved in such research partnerships myself and have seen the incredible synergies that can be obtained by bringing national, regional and international resources and staff to bear on important problems. The TaroGen Project I believe is an excellent example of such a research partnership which explored and found sustainable solutions to a critical agriculture problem facing the Pacific region. While addressing this problem it also made important strides in building capacity in respective countries and contributed to the development of relevant postgraduate courses at the regional University of the South Pacific.

Mary Manandhar described an interesting participatory PEER research approach that was used in her work with partners to research and strengthen advocacy and action for maternal survival in Zambia. I imagine such an approach would be of interest to many other practitioners.

Agriculture and Communities, Inclusion and Exclusion

It was a tight squeeze in room 107 for this session but I managed to get in to listen to two presentations. The first was a presentation by Micheline Sheehy-Skeffington, Lessons from two contrasting organic growing systems - Chiapas, Mexico and Cuba. While there was much of interest in this presentation it would have been interesting to know more about how farmers learned about new methods and approaches for organic agriculture in Chiapas. Where there any attempts to undertake farmer field school (FFS) or farmer participatory research approaches to empower farmers to learn more about organic agriculture systems. Approaches which have been reasonably successful in other places where outreach or extension services have been dismantled, allowed to deteriorate or non-existent. And given the problem which Micheline highlighted regarding pesticide use in Chiapas FFS would seem a suitable strategy to help farmers learn about the dangers of pesticides and how they impact on a farming system. While the Zapatista's who control the Chiapas region have shunned neo-liberalism and globalisation, which has been embraced by the rest of Mexico, there was no discussion of how this might affect farmers from the Chiapas region who might want to (or need to) embrace such markets beyond the current confines of the Zapatista autonomous controlled region. Stephen Onakuse's presentation, Livelihood systems and rural linkages in Niger-Delta region of Nigeria, highlighted the dramatic negative impact of oil companies on agriculture in the region and how environmental degradation is seriously undermining livelihood strategies. Seemingly massive changes and transformations are required if issues of resulting poverty, environmental degradation and livelihood insecurity are to be addressed in this particular region. Issues that the Nigerian government and the international community up to now have largely turned a blind eye to. Interesting and challenging!

Wine, a woman and song

Eithne Ni Chathain provided some lovely playing and singing during the wine reception which brought the first day of the Development's Future conference to an end. Eithne, who has played with Kildare musician Luka Bloom, can be heard on her MySpace website.

The wine reception was the first chance to draw breath and finally meet some of the interesting people attending the conference. Alas all too short as people had to rush off to meet up with friends, family, lovers.

Charlie Byrne's Books

This is probably the literary equivalent of the Crane Bar. An amazing diversity of book titles and a place I only came across during an exploratory walk of Galway city on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately I had to rush off to catch the bus back to Dublin.

Minister Kitt announces a further €6M for University partnerships

Minister of State for Overseas Development, Michael Kitt announced a further €6M funding for Partnerships between Irish & African Universities to carry out research and knowledge sharing on development issues. This amount increases the total budget for the five-year Programme of Strategic Cooperation between Irish Aid and Higher Education and Research Institutes (2007 – 2011) to €20.4 million. Minister Kitt made the announcement at the Irish Aid Third Level Conference ‘Development’s Futures’ at the National University of Ireland Galway during his speech in the O' hEocha Theatre. Making the announcement he said:

“Higher education institutions clearly have a pivotal role to play in research
on issues that can accelerate social and economic progress as we know from our
own experience here in Ireland. The increased allocation will allow us to
maximise the benefits of the research and knowledge from the Programme in
fighting poverty and exclusion in some of the world’s poorest countries. It is
also underlines our commitment to our partnership with the third level sector to
advance this work”.

A Copy of Minister Kitt's opening address can be found here.

Development Education Resources and Methodologies - Schools

I enjoyed the four presentations during this last session on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I missed the Strategic Landscapes: Research and Education Strategy presentation by Austin Gormley, Irish Aid earlier in the morning so probably missed much of the overarching framework and strategy for development education in Ireland, something which I am still learning about.

Timothy Murphy's presentation, Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry (OSDE): Toward Enhanced Democratic Practices explored the potential of OSDE as a tool for engaged discussion and action about democratic policies and practices in the educational system of the south of Ireland. Thanks to Timothy for bringing this methodology to my attention. I wasn't aware of such an initiative but it would appear to have much to offer as a methodological tool for improving learning and teaching about local and global issues. Incidentally, the OSDE website has an extensive range of resources available for download.

The second presentation in this session was Mella Cusack. Mella's presentation, The 3 Ds: Curriculum Development, Teacher Professional Development and Development Education, reported on the outcomes of the joint Citizenship Studies Project between Trocraire/City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee Curriculum Development Unit. This is another interesting initiative aimed at supporting and improving the development of citizenship education at secondary level in Ireland. Part of this initiative is aimed at producing a 45 hour Transition Unit examining the coverage of development issues in the media in the hope that students will enagage in better analysis and action. Mella quite rightly highlighted that any such initiatives and developments, such as curricula development, requires as much commitment to capacity enhancement and continuing professional development for teachers in schools.

Next up was Patsy Toland, from Self Help Development. Patsy described an interesting collaboration between Self Help and Christian Brothers schools to support development education approaches that emphasise student participation, local and global awareness and an action agenda. The prgramme has been well received and is undergoing expansion with additional partners and schools coming on board in 2007/2008. Patsy higlhighgeted some interesting points including the need for a coordinated strategic approach by NGOs with long term aims. Like the previous presenter Patsy highlighted the critical need for capacity enhancement of teachers. This programme highlighted interesting links between schools and local communities that provided spaces for all to discuss issues related poverty, gender and sustainable environments.

The final speaker in this session was Julia Franz from the University of Erlangen-Nuremburg. Julia presented on an intergenerational learning approach for sustainability which posed the question - can this kind of learning which takes place in families take place in educational institutes? Julia described a process that involved people ranging in ages from 4 to 90 years old! One such activity involved groups working together to explore issues surrounding energy and sustainability which involved a visit to a hydroelectric plant, a global networking game, story telling and investigations of local energy use. The activity culminated with the preparation of an exhibition based around the issues the explored and debated. Julia reported intense interaction between the different groups, the diversity of interests of different groups and the problems that this presented in terms of facilitation.

Certainly some interesting work going on in the area of development education in Ireland.

I would be grateful to know if there are any networks or initiatives in existence that attempt to coordinate and monitor the development education activities underway in Ireland.

The Crane Bar

Thanks to Ann Masterson at the conference for pushing me in the direction of the Crane Bar and far from the madding crowd in Galway. Superb pub with great music. I was only in the dowstairs for the one night but the multitude of talent that was on display was very impressive indeed. And it wasn't confined to the musicians in the session. There was many a rousing song from some of the patrons standing at the bar. Great stuff!

Visible Work, Invisible Women

I think it was the large photograph of the two young girls from a rural area in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh that caught my eye the most. They were bent over in hard labour concentrating on finding one of the many red hairy caterpillars that would help them earn about 20 cents for a days work. It takes about one thousand of the pests to make up the kilogram that will result in the pay of 10 rupees. Nice work if you can't get it! This exhibition, Visible Work, Invisible Women, of Palagummi Sainath's photographs graphically illustrated the exploitative nature of women's work in rural India and the poor treatment that they receive at the hands of landlords and how undervalued women's work is compared to that of men. Often the excuse being that the work of men is more technical, more demanding which this exhibition highlights is not the case. But Indian landlords are not the only ones who undervalue the work of rural women. Economists and statisticians ignore and undervalue it too! This photographic essay clearly highlights that a life in the day of a rural woman in India is one filled with constant work in the home, in the field and in the market. It is a strategy of livelihoods very much dependent on local resourses such as non-timber forest products that will guarantee a minimal inclome to help look after the family. And with the growing privatisation of land in rural India access to ponds, pathways, firewood, fodder and water is becoming more difficult and therefore undermining many livelihoods and basic welfare.

The Visible Work, Invisible Women exhibition has been viewed by well over half a million people in India. Add to that the many thousands who have now seen the photographs overseas. For more information on the exhibition and its history, click here.

Not only is Mr Sainath an excellent journalist and speaker he is a very talented photographer. More importantly, he seems to be one of a very small group intent on capturing the realities and hardship of rural life in less wealthy countries.

Are we beyond redemption?

And that was the end, as the Development's Futures 2007 came to a close. As I reflected on the weekends events I couldn't help but be reminded of something that Dennis O'Hearn had said in a lecture a week earlier at Queen's University Belfast. During that presentation Dennis posed the question, 'are we as western societies beyond redemption?' Having listened to Palagummi Sainath outline the impacts and effects of unprecedented globalisation, corporate growth, greed and mass consumerism (and the mass apathy and the ability of the rich world and its inhabitants to disconnect from mass reality) it is not too hard to feel this way or identify strongly with what Professor O'Hearn is saying. This has been an ongoing thought churning around in my head every day of my professional life and probably more so now that I am back home! But as a card-carrying member of the 'Should Do School' I need to think that there is a way forward to a more just and fairer world, one that is beyond redemption.