CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY EDUCATION EVENT

By
Bhagwani Bai

LEAD 7100

March 13, 2016

Department of Leadership Higher & Adult Education

University of Memphis

Introduction

On April 29, 2016, I participated a community education event through skype. The

session I participated was Color Quality and Design training of uneducated women of

Tharparkar with the coordination and Thardeep Rural Development Program. I have observed

the delivery of the session along with some details of the project under which these community

capacity building program has been implemented.

Background
 Community education is about encouraging and engaging people throughout life into

learning that is based on what they are interested in. The major point need to be focused is that it

should be relevant to the learners needs and responsive to community priorities identified with

community rather than for community. (Tett. & Fyfe 2010. P. 1) The community education event

I analyzed was identified with community women and is response to their needs. The project

proposal tells that before the designing of project a small scale study was conducted with the

participation community women to identify the needs of the community women for the

livelihood enhancement. The finding of the survey and the experience of implementing

organization was tallied before the designing phase of the project. The operational strategy focus

on involvement of community women at every stage of the project with an approach that

empower poor and marginalized women economically and create pool of women with refine

technical and leadership skills at village level that can used to connect them to the mainstream.

The project meet the definition of community education that Tett. 2010 provides by separating it

from formal education traditional set up in terms of curriculum and methods, and focusing on

peoples experiences and social interests. (p.1) Through the project the implementation agency is

developing the capacity of village women in its program area in embroidery and block printing

skills.

Color, Quality and Design Training

Craft of embroidery in Tharparkar, Sindh, Pakistan is being practiced by thousands of

women artisans who have learned this skill from their mothers, its being passed to them as a

legacy.... a legacy that is deep rooted with its rich cultural traditions, a legacy for survival.

According to the different studies 91% of women do embroidery work in Tharparkar, but due;
lack of demand/order, quality of work, lack of knowledge of market, little variety in products,

very low wage, lack of knowledge of market trends this work is done for self-use or at very low

rate. It was also noticed that due to low rate artisan as well as embroidery contractors

(middlemen that get work done from artisan on low rate and sell it at high rate in big cities) do

not care of quality of embroidery work. This cause deterioration of high quality hand embroidery

work in the area. The implementation agency, design a project that not only build the capacity of

artisan women as per market trends and provides them marketing opportunities to sell their

product and earn for their livelihoods and revive the traditional craft of area that has high market

demand. Color, quality and design training is one the training event that aims at providing

knowledge to artisan about color combination of traditional/indigenous and contemporary colors

as per market trend, using indigenous motif to design modern products and maintain the quality

in order to use quality of cloth, thread and other material without vanishing traditional

characteristic and quality of Thari embroidery stiches.

Description of the Event content and design.

The training event content and design were formal as there was training manual

developed specifically keeping in view the requirement of artisan needs. As the training

participants were illiterate women artisan so the content and delivery methodology was set in

way that avoid the use of reading and writing material instead, pictorial charts, pictures and local

material was used to deliver the required knowledge in very effective way. Local flora and fauna

were used to analyze the color patterns and difference between basic colors, family colors, and

traditional colors. The session was interactive and involving leaders of the group to take leading

role in getting their participants identify best and worst color combinations, and using folk
stories and events in designing of motifs and fusion with modern product range, and importance

of time management and quality assurance in production chain.

Description of instructional techniques

During the observation and discussion with trainer and learners it was noticed that

diversified range of instructional techniques were applied to maximize the results of teaching and

learning process. Due to the trainers language difference there were two local women social

organizer that not only help participants in understanding instructions but they along with four

artisans women (leading women/master artisans) were learning the instructional techniques and

delivery strategies for further rolling out in the community events. The instructional techniques

were transformed in simple and local context that the participant can absorb it easily and apply it

in their day to day embroidery work.

Assessment of the Training Event

The quality of the training event was assessed by analyzing the main indicators;

involvement of learners in conceptualizing, designing, implementing, and evaluation process of

project cycle. The project documents and discussion project management tells that there was

rapid assessment conducted before the designing of project. The implementation agency has

experience of similar type of projects in the area and they utilized there learning and analyzing

the situation at village level with the involvement community the project was designed. Its

operational/implementation plan was developed in consultation with the involvement of

stakeholders; funding agency, implementation agency, women artisans, local staff, technical

experts in the field of textile designing, marketing and networking. The session was designed

with the consultation of local staff, technical experts, and women artisans so that the required
knowledge was delivered as per the need of project beneficiaries. The project was at

implementation stage but it was clear that learners were involved at this stage that can be

observed in selecting the venue, selecting lead persons/master artisans, selecting of local motifs,

designing of patterns according to local festivities and promotion of indigenousness of the area.

Although there were training manual but the contents were flexible that can adjust the immediate

requirement of participants if any raised. One of the major strategy that should be noticed is that

through the training local women were assigning leadership role in leading their neighborhood

group and preparing women for networking and marketing for their new improved products. I

think that this is one of major milestone of the project that challenge social structures that create

hindrance in the mobility of women. Through the project they are expected to be not only

economically empowered by enhancing livelihood opportunities but project design help women

in breaking their gendered roles. They will have to do networking with others organization and

potential buyers that will increase their mobility out of their village.

Recommendations

The instructional language of the event was Urdu (not local language of the learners) but due

the simple instructional techniques and involvement of local staff made it easy for learners to

understand instructions and get maximum benefit from the teaching and learning process. It

is suggested for detailed assessment of learners needs from multiple perspectives has great

impact on the quality of community education program. As in this training the language

barrier was solved with compromising the technical aspect of the training that was not

available at local level.

Financial management training should be provided to the literate women who can manage

the groups finances when they receive orders in bulk from the market.
 By choosing leaders among the group and preparing them for further rolling out the training

is the yeasty concept of community education that Miles Horton talked about (p.57) It is

recommended to expand the yeasty education concept beyond the project area for benefiting

women at scale.

Conclusion.

During the assessment of the community education event in Tharparkar, Pakistan it was

noticed that color, quality and design training with women artisan were an example of

democratic and yeasty education. Lifelong learning is basic in community education that was

seen during the event that all of the participants were adult mostly married mothers but the

training was not providing new skills instead the participants experience and skills were kept in

mind at every stage of project in very democratic way and the training event was add on to the

experience of participants that they can use of changing social and economic position in their

contexts.

References
Tett, L., & Fyfe, I. (2010). Community education, learning and development. Edinburgh, Scotland:

Dunedin Academic Press Limited.

Horton, M. (1998). The long haul: An autobiography. New York: Teachers college press.