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Bill Walker In the spirit of reinventing Paulo Freire, this blog explores one strand which strengthens Freire’s conscientisation capability set: community sensitisation [^1] . Pro-social development engenders the flourishing of persons and communities when it harnesses existing cultural institutions to foster a more peaceful and just rule of law. Too often, development programs assume a practiced rule of law for the good already exists. Community-level interventions need to engage constructively with local cultural institutions and their norms, harnessing these to promote pro-social learning and development, while challenging those cultural norms which violate human rights. Engagement begins with community sensitisation as

Elizabeth Lakey and Megan McIntosh Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne As the world opens up, global exchange programs are again in full swing and service learning placements are being facilitated in country rather than virtually. Once again, students from the Global North are travelling to the Global South in pursuit of intercultural experience, exposure to the development sector and with the intention of contributing to some wonderful not-for-profit organisations. Global Service Learning (GSL) placements are met with mixed views by development scholars. Some research points to increased intercultural competence as a result of such placements, others suggest that placements

Katarzyna Olcoń Senior Lecturer, Social Work, University of Wollongong kolcon@uow.edu.au White ignorance is the source of the ongoing strained race relations and the contributor to the disadvantage of the Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in settler colonial countries such as Australia or the United States (Taylor & Habibis, 2020). Indeed, education was the most common recommendation that Taylor and Habibis (2020) received from Aboriginal people interviewed on the topic of White Australian people, culture and race relations. So how do we educate White people about race, racism and Whiteness, and are they willing to learn? These were some of

Bill Walker This is the third post in a three-part series on the pedagogy and praxis of Paulo Freire. Reinventing Freire for the twenty-first century In our changing world, is Freire’s democratising approach to countering institutionalised oppression still relevant? My second blog outlined how Freire’s twentieth-century democratising praxis arose from large-scale experimentation in colonised, authoritarian and collectivist cultures, still common across ‘’the Global South.’ Despite changed historical settings since Freire’s experimentation, much contemporary evidence supports key aspects of his analysis and approach in a variety of oppressive contexts, when reinvented. In this blog, I outline the story of how communities

What’s your research area? [BJ] My PhD focuses on the two fields of development communication and public relations to explore how they can be used to refine communication research and practice in development. I aim to offer new methods, approaches, and categories for theorising and conceptualising communication in development. [VB] I conduct research on the application of Communication for Development in Peacebuilding with a focus on realities affected by violent conflict. I explore and evaluate new communication for development approaches that employ different media and communication channels to contribute to social change and sustainable peace in the aftermath of (or

Bill Walker This is the second post in a three-part series on the pedagogy and praxis of Paulo Freire. Part 1 https://www.developmentstudies.asn.au/2021/09/21/paulo-freire-marking-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-birth/ marked the 100th anniversary of his birth with a brief outline of his life and thinking. Lifelong learning is important not only in development studies but for people living in poverty and illiteracy. For the latter, who included Freire himself (see my blog Part 1), lifelong learning is essential. Freire’s own commitment to lifelong learning enabled him to escape poverty – as it has done for millions of other people. This commitment was evident in his continued quest

Tahmina Rashid In Australia many international students (particularly students from South East Asia) will introduce themselves with an English name instead of using their birth name; migrants are also often asked for their nicknames for ease of pronouncing; and many are given an English name by their employer for the same reason. Such stripping of identity by renaming an individual, though not unique to Australia, is not as banal as many would have us believe. Naming practices are reflective of prevailing power structures and hierarchies; creating new identities by erasing previous identities; creating new relationships and histories by maintaining colonial

Bill Walker One hundred years ago this week, Paulo Freire was born into a middle-class family in north-east Brazil. At the age of eight, global economic depression struck his family, forcing them to move into a marginalised rural community. Then at thirteen, his father died, plunging his family even deeper into poverty. Later, he suffered exile – not once, but twice. Freire’s own lived experience of multi-faceted impoverishment and marginalisation deeply influenced the remaining decades of his thinking, praxis, and faith. This piece offers a very brief overview of Paulo Freire’s legacy. Future pieces contain reflections on how and why

Dr Philippa Smales and Anna Noonan Research and evaluation across the international development sector is increasingly moving away from the traditional paradigm of researchers as the expert knowledge-holders and participants as the ‘researched’, the passive subjects of the research. Contemporary research methodologies and research ethics demand a recalibration of power dynamics between researchers and ethical committee, as well as researchers and their ‘subjects’. There are many Codes and frameworks that set the benchmark for ethical research across Universities, industry and government in Australia, but these are still heavily derived from historical biomedical research ethics, not from a contemporary development context.

Repost from OpenForum 'Arvanitakis on Education: Covid, technology and the importance of face-to-face teaching' by James Arvanitakis. In this blog post, Arvanitakis discusses the impact of Covid on higher learning education. Discussing the importance of face-to-face teaching and the ways online learning has affected student experiences of 'on-campus' learning. Arvanitakis on Education: Covid, technology and the importance of face-to-face teaching Ever since I entered higher education two decades ago, the sector has been in a state of flux and subject to disruption. This disruption includes technological changes that many argued would result in the end of face-to-face instruction. The impact