Is Community Education a Myth
Is Community Education a myth?
Over the course of this project I intend to answer the question, is Community Education a myth? To do this I will use my own experience of Community Education in a range of settings along with some in depth research to critically examine the question. I will start by defining the key terms in the question such a ‘myth’, ‘community’ and ‘education’ to ensure my purpose is clear. Following this, I will look at the origins of Community Education as a professional practice. From this point I will consider four questions involving whether or not Community Education was invented by community educators, how key terms like reflection and dialogue contribute to understanding Community Education. Alongside this, whether Community Education was constructed as a myth and the impact that it has on people who didn’t necessarily ask for it. Finally I will draw some conclusions from my analysis along with looking at the implications of the process for my future practice.
For the purposes of this project and to ensure that I have a firm understand of the title, I plan to use the following definition from the Oxford Dictionary for the term myth "a widely held but false belief or idea," (2011) in other words something that seems like it could be true but ultimately is not true. Ironically it could be argued that another commonly used meaning for the word... "a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people," (Oxford Dictionary 2011) has a basis in Community Education. The notion of people and communities from early history learning from one another through stories and legends could be seen as a type of Community Education. “Socrates, for example, wandered around Athens, stopping here or there to hold discussions with the people about all sorts of things pertaining to the conduct of man 's life.” (Guisepi 2006) I would argue that Socrates using conversation to learn and grow is an example of informal education. Whether
Over the course of this project I intend to answer the question, is Community Education a myth? To do this I will use my own experience of Community Education in a range of settings along with some in depth research to critically examine the question. I will start by defining the key terms in the question such a ‘myth’, ‘community’ and ‘education’ to ensure my purpose is clear. Following this, I will look at the origins of Community Education as a professional practice. From this point I will consider four questions involving whether or not Community Education was invented by community educators, how key terms like reflection and dialogue contribute to understanding Community Education. Alongside this, whether Community Education was constructed as a myth and the impact that it has on people who didn’t necessarily ask for it. Finally I will draw some conclusions from my analysis along with looking at the implications of the process for my future practice.
For the purposes of this project and to ensure that I have a firm understand of the title, I plan to use the following definition from the Oxford Dictionary for the term myth "a widely held but false belief or idea," (2011) in other words something that seems like it could be true but ultimately is not true. Ironically it could be argued that another commonly used meaning for the word... "a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people," (Oxford Dictionary 2011) has a basis in Community Education. The notion of people and communities from early history learning from one another through stories and legends could be seen as a type of Community Education. “Socrates, for example, wandered around Athens, stopping here or there to hold discussions with the people about all sorts of things pertaining to the conduct of man 's life.” (Guisepi 2006) I would argue that Socrates using conversation to learn and grow is an example of informal education. Whether
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