viii, 227 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The system of higher education in the United States suffers from deficits in several generally agreed-upon categories, including affordability, access, effectiveness of teaching and learning, and usefulness of degrees awarded. Many recommended reforms, particularly those from mainstream sources, are problematic, however. Paulo Freire's philosophy of liberatory education is a valuable source for addressing this issue. His discussion of the banking system of education provides a useful lens through which to analyze some of the problems with the current system as well as many recommended reforms, particularly calls for greater accountability for student learning. The problem-posing method of education that Freire advocates as a solution to the banking system, in turn, offers a valuable model to draw upon in the attempt to propose an effective solution to problems in higher education in the US. I apply Freire's philosophy to the 2006 report by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. / Adviser: Scott L. Pratt

Globalization has brought increased opportunities for educators to collaborate across borders, sharing everything from curricula, teaching practices and educational standards to learning technologies, institutional structures and organizational policies. In the literature, this is often referred to as educational transfer, or the borrowing and lending between educational systems from different countries or cultures. Today, institutions that share between educational systems—whether schools, community groups, development organizations, corporations or governments—are so ubiquitous that some may think of it as a natural, inevitable and benign process. Yet as perspectives shared in this study illustrate, for many in-field practitioners, transfer can be challenging, have processes and outcomes that are not always clear or beneficial, and be fraught with many problems. This study examines the perspectives and problems of hosts when Western educators and development practitioners work within their postcolonial communities. Drawing on concepts, methods and strategies from postcolonial and critical education theory, this study examines how transfer can perpetuate historically inherited patterns of Western imperialism to answer the question, as educational borrowers and lenders, how do we know we are or aren’t neocolonial actors when transferring Western education into postcolonial countries, and what can we do to help ensure that we aren’t? Using a mix of grounded theory, narrative inquiry and action research, this study draws on data from interviews, narratives and group discussions that were collected between 2014 and 2019 from over 33 participants representing visiting and hosting volunteers and staff at three universities in Ghana and Vietnam. The results demonstrate that although their specific problems are individual and varied, hosting professionals can struggle with similar themes like Eurocentrism, developmentalism, inequality, harm and racism, requiring practitioners to use additional evaluation methods besides traditional needs assessments and outcomes-based program evaluations to decolonize their work. In addition to theorizing how practitioners might improve transfer evaluation, the study also examines how hosts and visitors might develop more critical awareness of neocolonial patterns and better support decolonial goals like participant consent, self-determination and empowerment. To this end, the study shares postcolonial perspectives, theoretical models and piloted problem reduction strategies to help future transfer practitioners develop deeper and more critical understandings of educational transfer. / Graduate / 2021-12-03

The purpose of this youth participatory action research (YPAR) project was to challenge the pedagogy of traditional literacy instruction for low-income Latino/a students, particularly the overuse of scripted curricula and standardized tests mandated through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Twelve student participants served as co-teachers and co-researchers as they created, implemented, and evaluated a critical literacy class based on the theoretical frameworks of critical pedagogy and critical literacy and the methodology of youth participatory action research (YPAR). The YPAR Critical Literacy Group and research took place at one of a network of small, independent-study alternative schools called Future Horizons Charter High School (FHCHS, a pseudonym), located in southern California. Critical pedagogy and critical literacy formed a theoretical foundation upon which the students and teacher built a class based on the tenets of dialogue, problem-posing, and generative themes based on the interests of the student co-researchers. This alternative practice of co-creating knowledge with students was paramount in facilitating young peoples’ learning to think critically about their positionality within their political and social spheres. Critical literacy does not focus simply on the development of decoding and comprehension skills for reading, but students of critical literacy must “read the word and the world” (Freire & Macedo, 1997), grounding their acquisition of literacy skills through their own experiences and social contexts. This research examined the capacity of critical literacy and YPAR methodology to transform both learner and teacher. The YPAR Critical Literacy Group at FHCHS positively impacted the student coresearchers. Elements of qualitative research, including interviews and transcription positively impacted the students co-researchers’ traditional literacy skills. Student coresearchers evaluated the course as a positive experience throughout, and engaged in and comprehended texts far above their traditionally-defined decoding and reading comprehension reading levels. Attendance and engagement in the class for the 4-month period was consistently higher in the critical literacy class than in other reading classes offered at the school. The students experienced preliminary transformation and early stages of critical consciousness from the beginning to the end of the course, evidenced by the evolution of their reflective writings and progressively sophisticated analyses of social injustice at the school and within the broader community.

本研究嘗試從現代民主政治與教育兩百多年的發展歷程中，考察三種不同類型的教育命題或觀點，分別是：涂爾幹的「教育是一種社會化的過程」、弗雷勒的「教育即是自由的實踐」，以及傅柯的「關懷自身的倫理作為自由的實踐」。三種政治─教育立場分別著重於不同的人類圖像：教師、學生、知識分子。為考察上述三種不同類型的命題，從「社會環境與人類圖像」這樣的視角，我們將命題置於具代表性的政治社會化時代脈絡中，亦即：「民主社會─道德人」、「解放社會─人性化」與「規訓社會─生存美學」，在各自不同且具代表性的現代教育類型（道德教育、提問式教育、關懷自身的倫理作為自由的實踐）中進行研究。 基本上，本文所探討的三種教育類型是在與盧梭《愛彌兒》所揭示的教育問題對話過程中依序進行的。首先，愛彌兒這個理想的教育人類圖像對現代教育而言具有某種類似原型的影響力。原因在於，盧梭所虛構創造的愛彌兒是擺脫一切人類不平等，對自由有著深刻體認的道德人。由於日後在民主化的浪潮下，人們所欲培育的道德公民標示出封建君主教育與現代民主教育的根本差異，且是現代民主社會教育的主要特點之一，因此愛彌兒有其奠基性的重要作用。不同於盧梭以愛彌兒作為建構道德社會的起點，弗雷勒依循馬克思主義的思路，強調社會階級的差異，並以資本主義所具有的壓迫剝削性質的理解，提出受壓迫者教育學，凸顯出人類圖像與世界觀的相關性，在教學形式上主張人性化的提問式教育，由此一來也顯現出民主與教育的融合和開展。有別於傳統道德教育思想以及追求人性解放的革命理想，傅柯指出，由於現代國家知識─權力的流動與滲透形成了規訓社會，在這樣的情況下也就益發地凸顯出關懷自身（生存美學）的重要，亦即關注自身的學習成長挑戰了長期以來以國家為教育目的的正規性框架，由此一來便為現代教育研究帶來了深刻的思想衝擊。 在研究發現中，研究者回顧現代人類圖像變遷及其可能的相關發展，嘗試指出人類圖像的議題置入教育學三種不同政治─教育取向典範時，彼此之間在知識上形成一種既同又異的張力關係，從而呈現出對理解現代教育樣貌的不同詮釋角度，希望能作為教育學知識探討的背景，使我們對教育有更深度的思考，開拓出更多理論思考的面向。在後續研究建議裡，在以康德的教育疑問為背景下，研究者認為我們應對當下人類遭遇的諸多危機有所認識，以從教育的立場上做出適時的貢獻，故研究者整理當代法國哲學家莫翰於西元1999年為聯合國教育、科學及文化組織撰寫的教育改革建議書中的討論，考察教育對人類的重要意義，作為本文的研究結語。 / This research attempts to investigate three different forms of educatinal propostions or pespectives from the process of developing modern democracy and education over the 200-year period. It contains by examining the Emile Durkheim’s notion of “education is a process of socialization”, the notion of “education as the practice of liberty” which had its roots in Paulo Freire, as well as notion of “the ethics of the concern for self as a practice of freedom” which drew directly from Michael Foucault. From the political-education standpoint of view, they concentrated on particular human picture, including teacher, students and intellectuals. To explore the content of three educatinal propostions, I will put these into the context of typical politicization of society: democracy- moral people which means moral education, empancipating society- humanity which stands for posing education, and disciplinary society- aesthetics of existence which is supported by the idea of the ethics of take care of self as the practice of freedom. In essense, three educational forms of this research are implemented in sequence which is linked to the dialogue process of revealing educational problems by Rousseau, notably in Emile. First of all, the ideal-educated human picture origining from Emile had potentially influenced on modern education because Emile, who was moral person created by Rousseau, got rid of human inequality and acknowledged significantly importance of freedom. In the enlightment of democracy, people wanted to nurture moral citizenship, which was the main charactersitic of modern-democratic education, that represented the essential differences between feudal-monarchy education and modern-democratic education. Therefore, Emile had laid the foundation for modern-democratic education. Unlike the notion of Emile as a beginning to construct moral society, Freire followed the route of Marxism, and stressed the differences of social classes. In addition, he advocated pedagogy of the oppressed to raise the relationships between human picture and worldview based on understanding of nature of oppression and exploitation in the Capitalist context. As a result, he proposed posing education as a form of enhancing humanity in teaching as well as illustrating the inclusion and development between democracy and education. The flow and infiltration of national knowledge had shaped disciplinary society, which was pointed out by Foucault, was distinct from traditional moral education and evoluational provision of pursuiting humanity-emacipating. In this context, Foucault had raised the importance of concerning for self: aesthetics of existence, in other words, by means of concerning learning growth for self, it could challenge the formal frames of educational aims building on the basis of nation so as to bring the conflict on way of thinking for modern educational researches. As the results shown, after reviewing the shift of modern human picture and the possibility of related development, researcher attempts to indicate the tension with the differences and the similarities among the knowledge relationship when human picture are put into three forms of political-educational paradigm of pedagogy. As a result, the findings, which represent different explanation to acknowledge the modern education, are recognized as background of discussing educational knowledge so that we can have profound thinking about education, as well as in the expansion of dimensions of educational theories. In the follow-up research, researcher suggest that we should acknowledge various risks from human encountering at the moment based on the queries from the Kent’s educational problem and make appropriately contribution to education as educational practitioners. In my conclusion, I quote the conclusion that discussed the significances of education on UNESCO’s educational reforms in 1999, which was written by contemporary French philosopher Edgar Morin.

Die Brasiliaanse opvoedkundige Paulo Freire word as een van die belangrikste opvoeders van die twintigste eeu beskou. Sy benadering tot volwasse onderrig is op verskeie terreine toegepas maar nooit direk as teenvoeter vir geweld teen vroue en kinders aangewend nie. Die doel van hierdie studie was om vas te stel op welke wyse Paulo Freire se benadering tot leer en onderrig in volwasse basiese onderrig as teenvoeter kan dien vir die kultuur van geweld teen vroue en kinders in Suid-Afrika. Die studie bestaan uit ’n analitiese literatuurstudie en ’n kwalitatiewe studie met elf deelnemers. Ten einde die navorsingsvraag te beantwoord neem die studie ‘n aanvang met ’n literatuurstudie oor die redes vir geweld teen vroue en kinders. Daarna val die fokus op volwasse basiese onderrig [VBO], volwasse leer en die knelpunte in VBO in Suid-Afrika. In die volgende hoofstuk word die literatuur ten opsigte van Freire se werk en sy benadering tot volwasse onderrig bespreek. Kernelemente van sy benadering word getabuleer waarna kritiek op en die belang van sy benadering, sowel as die toepassing daarvan, in Afrika en Suid-Afrika bespreek word. In die kwalitatiewe empiriese studie word die resultate van die vrae in die onderhoudsgids met betrekking tot geweld en VBO bespreek waarna die resultatate in die laaste hoofstuk in die lig van die literatuurstudie geanaliseer word. Nadat die data beoordeel is, word aanbeveel dat, hoewel kennis geneem moet word van die uitdagings in VBO en Freire se benadering, die benadering steeds as ’n middel in basiese volwasse onderrig gebruik kan word om geweld die hoof te bied. ’n Praktiese voorstel vir teengeweldonderrig word gemaak met behulp van ’n teengeweldlesplan vir VBO. Die navorsing sluit af met beperkings van die studie en voorstelle vir optrede. / The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire is considered to be one of the most important educators of the twentieth century. His approach to adult education has been applied to various fields, but never directly to prevent violence against women and children. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how Freire’s approach to learning and teaching can be used as an antidote against violence against women and children in South Africa. The study consists of an analytical literature review and qualitative study with eleven participants. To answer the research question, the study commences with a literature study on the reasons for violence against women and children. Therafter the focus shifts to the adult basic education, adult learning and the restraints in adult basic education in South Africa. In the next chapter Freire’s work and his approach to adult education is dis-cussed. Key elements to his approach is tabled whereafter critique on and the im-portance of his approach, as well as its application in South Africa, is discussed. In the qualitative empirical study the results of the questions in the interview guide with regard to violence and adult basic education is discussed, whereafter the results are analised in the final chapter in view of the literature study. After the consideration of the data, it is recommended that cognisance must be taken of the challenges to adult basic education and Freire’s approachwhich can still be utilised as a medium in adult basic education to combat violence. A practical proposal for antiviolence education is made through a antiviolence lesson plan for ABE. The research concludes with limitations and recommendations. / ABET and Youth Development / M. Ed. (Adult Education)