Saturday, 22 July 2017

Should wisdom be the goal of adult education?

Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual (philosophical orientation) can embrace it. (Akan proverb from Ghana)
Breaking down the word philosophy itself, literally means love (philo) and wisdom(sophos). Philosophy, in short, means love of wisdom. This meaning is derived from ancient Greece, from where the tenets of modern liberal education was borne.
Irrespective of whichever philosophical orientation one leans towards, be it liberal, behaviorist, progressive, humanistic or radical there is thread of wisdom seeking running through. Wisdom can be likened to a destination, where all the different philosophical orientations strive to reach. Eventually they will all get there, they just chart different courses or pathways in arriving at their endpoint.
I will attempt to look at the various philosophies and the nexus with wisdom. I will start with liberalism which seeks to develop the powers of the intellect. The quest for knowledge or wisdom is one of the hallmarks of liberalism. Secondly, the behaviorist is about changing behaviors, developing skills and abilities. The correlation with wisdom is not clearly defined here. Delving deeper, one can find the connection. If this model is about behavior change, one can safely argue from the perspective of metanoia, where a spiritual conversion takes place in the life of a new convert to a faith.  What takes place is in effect a behavior change (spiritual conversion) in relation to wisdom. According to Cassidy, C. (2016) he mentions among other things, reflection, self-understanding and spirituality as elements in defining wisdom. Progressives focuses on experience on the learner. Does the learner gain wisdom from his or her experience? Dobson, E. (2015) sees wisdom as a way of life, a way of moving from moment to moment that is reborn in us, with each new living experience. The value of wisdom and experience is highlighted here. Moving on to the humanist orientation, this philosophy espouses the idea of enhancing personal growth and self- actualization. Personal growth here is seen as a search for meaning and purpose, ranging from the mundane to the transcendental. The pursuit of wisdom can also be found in this realm of nirvana. Lastly, with the traditional philosophies, radical philosophy, through education weeks to bring social, political and economic change. We can draw on the collective wisdom of an oppressed people who seek to bring about change in their society. An example will be the men imprisoned on Robben Island in South Africa led Mandela, who through formal and informal learning opportunities that came to them, ignited the spark that led to the eventual demise of apartheid.
Lastly, one emerging perspective I will want to touch on is wisdom from the traditional Afrocentric perspective. Wisdom or in other words, communal knowledge is passed on from generation to generation largely by way of oral tradition. Documentation is almost non-existent. Wisdom sharing is done through medium such as folklore, metaphors, proverbs, symbols, music and dance. There is the belief that knowledge and wisdom grows, no one can know it all. It is the preserve of the community. This relates to the Akan people of Ghana.
The central question of whether wisdom should be the goal of adult education is a tricky one. I will rather want to see it as a means to an end and not an end in itself. The scholarship on wisdom as part adult education is still growing. Wisdom as a concept is still amorphous, it may mean different things to different people, depending on which lens one is looking through. As a broad overarching goal for adult education, I will rather tread cautiously.  Each and every one has varying philosophies and belief systems. If we are able to draw out the wisdom in the experiences of all, that will be an excellent beginning for dialogue to commence on the bigger picture of the importance wisdom. Jarvis (2011) cautions that whilst we can be taught about wisdom, we can only learn to be wise by embracing the experience of life itself.
As a progressive, I do subscribe to the notion that wisdom should be borne out of experience, it is by doing that we learn. I believe in making meaning through my experience.
References
Cassidy, C. (2016, March 28). Defining wisdom [Video file]. Retrieved from https://evidencebasedwisdom.com/2016/03/28/ebw-animations-series-defining-wisdom/
Dodson, E. (2015, July 6). Wisdom and education [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBa7rGQXupU 
Jarvis, P. (2011), Teaching, learning, and the human quest: Wisdom. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2011: 85–93. doi:10.1002/ace.424

My First Independent Ethnographic Observation

I chose to go to a mall in the north-eastern part of Calgary for my independent ethnographic observation. Being a neophyte in this ethnographic field, I had a little bit of the jitters going out to watch people unanimously. I specifically chose the food court within the mall to observe people. It is a large space that seats over a hundred people at a time. It was well lighted, with transparent glass ceilings that brought in additional light. Looking above, the translucent ceilings were covered in snow. It was a cold winter morning. They were flower pots dotted in the middle and at the edges of the court. The large brown pots had palm-like potted plants in full bloom. The plants were green and alive with energy. It was just heartening to come in from cold and see the hue of the leaves that gave some vibrancy to the setting. The semblance of the tropical feel of the palm- trees evoked memories of my native country, Ghana. It gave the ambience a feel of a tropical garden.
The demographics of that locality within the north-eastern part of city has rich mixture of people of different colours, cultures and ethnic background. It was that rich mix of cultures that drew me to go that food court in that part Calgary. The factor that unites all form of ethnography is its focus on human society and culture (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). I was curious to see humans and cultures at work. The patrons of the mall represent a microcosm of the populace of that area. I sought to capture the phenomenon of different cultures and ethnicities intermingling, this led me to bracket the population I chose to study at the food court at the mall (Denzin, 2001). My working definition of patrons here refers to people who come in to buy and eat food at the mall. This observation gave me an opportunity to observe the behavior of different people of diverse ethnic backgrounds eating and interacting within a given environment. I undertook the observation through the lens of an African immigrant to Canada. I carried with me my own preconceived notions of what is to be a minority and man of colour. I wanted to observe multiculturalism at work. My observation was more of an etic perspective where I sought to observe and understand from an outsiders’ view (Madden, 2010). Since this was just an observation, I did not get the chance to delve further and ask questions on some observed behavior. As a researcher and visible minority, myself, the guiding question for my observation was, “How do patrons from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds interact with other patrons of dissimilar backgrounds in a social setting?”. This question guided my observation and it gave me something tangible to look out for. I realized early in my preparation towards the preparation that without a research question my purpose will have less focus and certainty (Madison, 2012).
I got to the food court a few minutes after noon on a Sunday. It was a bitterly cold winter day, with temperatures hovering around -25 degrees celsius. I decided to go by train instead of driving to the location. This was all in way to psyche me into getting into the observation zone in my mind. The first thing I did when I got to the food court was to pan the setting and find a spot where I will have good view of almost everybody who was coming in to eat. The food court had thirteen different food stalls ranging from Asian to Mediterranean cuisine. There smell of the food was tempting. Hunger beckoned me. I was spoilt for choice. I did some reconnaissance of all the meals available. The servers behind the food-stalls called out to me as I passed by, smiling and gesturing if I wanted anything to eat. I did smile back as well. I found a table. The table I settled on, still had a tray with food left-over on it. I wondered who must have left the tray and not bothered to walk to the trash bin to dispose off the remnants of food. Most people after eating walk to the bin and empty the rest into the trash and leave the trays on top of the bins. I loitered around casually for a while until one of the elderly Asian woman cleaners came over and cleaned up the table. There were two elderly Asian looking women who were in charge of cleaning the tables and picking up leftovers. They were dressed in black and white. They will huddle together occasionally near the trash bins and engage in a conversation. Both cleaners looked very old and looked way beyond the retiring age of sixty-five. I was wondering why women this old will still be working. I wished I could know why and what will still make them keep working at their age. I found it disheartening. I eventually took charge of my “little corner office” and sat at that table. The aromatic smell of food was wafting all around reminded me once again that I needed to eat. I could not resist. I had to eat something. Just as I was setting up my writing pad, an elderly Caucasian man who appeared to be in his sixties walked up to me. His exact words were “I got an extra cup of coffee, black, no sugar, no milk. I ordered more than I needed. Will you want it?” In an instant I was taken aback, I politely said yes. He walked back to his table and brought me the cup of coffee. It was warm, black and excitingly bitter. He was at his table with a middle aged woman of Asian origin. They sat quite a distance from me. This gesture really struck me as profound. The place was quite packed with many people. It was lunch time. Why did this man walk to me and offer me a drink? Several questions went on in my mind. Was he just a kind soul? It could have been because I did not have any meal in front of me. In all honesty, I really did appreciate his gesture. This overture of kindness got me thinking, “Will I have done this and walked up to a white person and offered him an extra drink in a similar situation?”. This set the tone for my observation. This innocuous act of kindness from this white elderly man gave my observation exercise meaning. It gave me something to look out for.
I eventually settled for Chinese food. It was fried rice, with some good tasty ginger beef, chicken and pork to go with. I did enjoy my meal. It tasted good. I had set up my writing material by my side, which was divided into two parts. It was a split page format. One part of my sheet, I captured  down  my description of the observation on the sheet and the other part of the page captured my reflections.  It felt very awkward initially just looking at people and scribbling on my sheets. Part of me felt like a spy and a voyeur. I was quite conscious if anybody took notice of what I was doing. After about thirty minutes into my observation, I settled in and went with the flow. It had roughly about thirty odd people at the food court when I got there.
The first couple that caught by attention was young white male and a young black woman. They all looked to be in their mid- twenties. They were having drinks in large A &W cups, eating burgers and fries. They visibly looked like they were having a good time. I sat about ten metres away from them. I could not catch a word of what they were saying, but from their body language I could only fathom these were two love- birds. It was interesting to see people of different races together as couple. People seeing beyond skin colour and coming together makes the world  a better and beautiful place. Apart from the elderly gentlemen who walked up to me and offered me coffee, there was another couple who I noticed. It was another elderly couple, the man was white and the partner was asian. They sat relatively far off from me. They were also quietly enjoying their meal. I observed a total of three mixed race couple during my observation. This observation of these couples helped my observation into a theoretical framework of mixed race relationships. As an observer I was basing my observation primarily on social classification and identification (Madison, 2012). I did not have the benefit of interviewing my participants . My field- work limited me to just observing and not going beyond that. An emergent theme that came to the fore for me was mixed race relationships.
There was this large Indian family that caught my attention. They were a family of five.  The family comprised of a middle-aged man and woman, a young daughter of about five years old, a much younger boy of about three years. There was an older man who might have passed for a grandfather to the little children. The men all had black Sikh turbans and the woman was dressed in a gold and red sari. These visual identity markers and their physical looks passed them off as Indians. They spoke in their local language as a family. I never heard a word of English from this family. Their children were raising a ruckus all the time and their mother had a hard time putting them in check. The father did not seem bothered at all in keeping the children in check. This family were communicating in their native language and it really was a revealing experience for me. Looking at this through the lens of an ethnographer, it was a totally revealing phenomena for me. It got me asking myself questions, language is a very powerful tool of preserving and upholding one’s culture as a minority. How often do I speak my native language with my own daughters? I was suddenly made aware of the importance of language and the nexus with an individual’s culture. Another theme revealed was here for me was about language and culture.
A single mother and her baby came to sit close by to me. She had the baby in a push cart.  She was of an Asian origin. She went to one of the food stalls and ordered her food.  She chose  a table that had only two chairs. After setting her food on the table, she attempted putting her little baby in a baby-chair. The little boy will have none of that. He was yelling and resisting every attempt to be put in the chair. The mother will have none of that. Despite the little boy’s resistance, the mother prevailed with rebuking him and he eventually settled into his chair. The wailing went on a for a while. After the mum handed him a potato fry, he forgot about the crying almost instantly and calmed down.  There also was a woman who arrived in motorized wheel chair. On the bar handles of the wheelchairs she had about twelve bags, strung on them. I was amazed to see her get out of her wheelchair unaided and walked to one of the food-stalls. After buying her food , she sat back in her wheelchair and zoomed off. I had my assumptions of her being unable to walk, so I was pleasantly surprised when she got of the chair and walked. This was a lesson for me , I never have to assume anything as a  researcher. It got me smiling and got me thinking at the same time. I had always assumed anyone in a wheelchair could not walk. This simple observation had taught me a lesson. Another example of assumptions came up, when I went to the washroom to urinate. A man of African descent was buckling up his trousers . He had just come out of the loo. He started speaking to me in a foreign language.  He quickly switched to English when he realized I did not understand a word of what he was saying. He asked if I was from Sudan and I smiled back and said I was from Ghana in West Africa. He had quickly assumed I was of South Sudanese origin. He said I looked like someone from South Sudan. My rather dark complexion made him quickly jump to the conclusion that I was from his country. This draws a similar parallel to the duoethnoghraphy dialogue between Sonia Aujla-Bhullar and Kari Grain titled Mirror Imaging Diversity Experiences where they attempted a juxtaposition of identities in cross- cultural initiatives (Norris, Sawyer, & Lund, 2012). A similar situation came up where a white lady started speaking to Kari in Afrikaans because she assumed Kari could speak Afrikaans.
There was a native couple who also came for a meal. They visibly looked indigenous. Their looks and long hairs tied in pony tails were their identity markers.They looked quite elderly. Half way through their meal, they were joined by a younger girl in her twenties. After a few pleasantries with her, she sat with them at the table. Not long after into their conversation, I noticed tears streaming down the face of the young girl. What triggered the tears , I cannot tell. She was offered a tissue by the man, she gently raised her glasses and wiped away her tears. She left not long after. The younger girl also looked visibly native.
After about an hour, I decided to change my location within the food court. I chose another spot , that was farthest away from  the food stalls but still within the court. I got the opportunity of sitting yet close again to another native family. They family comprised of an elderly couple, a middle aged a daughter who liked to be in her mid-thirties , and two young boys below the age of ten. They had several drinks and a huge meal of burgers and fries. They looked happy and kept chatting. I was not too close, but from their body language you could see they were all happy. After the meal and when they were about to leave , the middle aged woman crushed  the two empty coke cans and gently put them in her handbag. My immediate thoughts were , she must be sending it for recycling to make some money. This made me sad. I kept asking myself how much will she get for those two cans? Issues of poverty and social inequality kept flooding my mind. Will this canker of poverty ever be eradicated amongst humanity? I observed and moved on. I kept thinking of this long after my field-work observation. One of my greatest fears as an individual is poverty. It is disturbing for me personally when I encounter any semblance of poverty.
Not too far away from where I sat, was an African family. They were Nigerian. Coming from West Africa and the language they spoke I could identify them as Yoruba.  They looked very well dressed and looked a little bit overdressed for the setting. The group comprised of a young couple, possibly a husband and wife, two young children, a young girl of about two years and  a baby in a pram. There was another much older woman and another middle aged woman. Apart from the elderly women who was wearing snow boots, the two middle aged women were wearing high heeled shoes. My only wonder was how they managed to walk in the snow in those shoes. After their meal, they kept taking photographs and selfies of themselves, amidst laughter and mirth.
There was another black family that was seated not too far away from me as well. The man was dressed in a black suit, a white shirt and a black bowtie and black shoes to much. He had this permanent scowl on his face. He never seemed to smile. His partner or wife was dressed in an African attire that covered her from head to toe. She wore a grey boubou. She looked much younger. She looked to be in her late twenties and the man looked to be in his late fifties.  Their daughter was a little girl of about two years. She had a very low haircut. The man went to the Italian food stall and ordered pasta and meatballs. The couple hardly communicated with each other. The man and woman ate from the same plate and the woman fed the little girl intermittently with little chunks of meat. They did not stay too long. They left right after their meal.
Several people were seated in seats, neither eating or drinking. I noticed about three people sitting all alone, either typing away on their phone or engaged in conversations over the phone. I noticed this middle-aged man of African descent, who with shaggy hair, wearing a hat at one the tables. He was on his phone flipping through metro newspapers. I could not tell if he was waiting for somebody or he was just there to pass time. He looked my ways several times and that made me a little uneasy. I avoided eye contact with him and just continued with my observation. Two elderly men , one with a walking stick came in together. They looked to be in their sixties. They sat at a table very close to me and were engaged in a very animated conversation. They did not order food. They just sat and talked, one giving off a throaty laugh occasionally. I got a number of people acknowledging my presence, a white man and two young boys came and sat a table away from me. The man politely said hi before he pulled his seat and sat down. He looked a bit scruffy, with clothes slightly dirty and wearing brown steel toed boots. He had the semblance of someone into manual labour. His boys were engaged in conversation talking about their favourite tv shows. I tried to listen in , but I had no clue of what tv show they were talking about.
I spent a total of about two hours doing the observation. I watched people come in to eat, drink or just to sit down to have a conversation. I listened to conversations and I had the chance to interact with a couple people, even if it was just a casual hi or nod of the head. All this was done within the food- court that served as my field of observation. This observation opened my eyes to completely new ways of taking in information just by observing people in a natural setting. In an attempt to theorize my experience in the field, I saw my whole being as part of a recording instrument. It was an embodied experience, according to Madden 2010, participant observation is a whole-of-body experience that has us observing with our eyes as we participate, but we also ‘observe’ with all our senses.
 From my  observation and in a bid to answer my earlier question of how people or patrons of the food court socialize with others from different ethnic backgrounds, I noticed that people generally stayed in their own spaces. There was very little or no social interaction with each other. Indian looking families stayed within their own spaces, same was for Chinese looking families. Same could be said for other visible minority families. Native languages, other than English was spoken by almost all the visible minority patrons in the food court. As a researcher, one thing that I couldn’t confidently lay claim to was the relationships between people who came in groups. The fact that people may visibly look like a family may not always hold true since I never had the chance to ask to interview and interact with people for a longer period of time. My fervent wish would have been to get to know the patrons more, ask them questions about themselves and have the chance to get to know them well. I would have wanted to understand the rationale and reason why people do not relate much more freely with each other.  One thing I found intriguing was why alcoholic beverages were not sold at eateries. I am contrasting this with food joints from where I come from in West Africa. Beer and other alcoholic beverages are a constant wherever there is food. Nothing beats having a good meal with a chilled bottle of beer.
If had the chance to do another study, I will probably have chosen another day, other than a Sunday. The food court was not really full. I am sure there will have been much more human traffic on a Saturday afternoon and I will have had the chance to observe much more people and increased my sample size of the patrons at the food court. I would have loved to have spent more time. Two hours was a little bit too short to capture a lot in terms of observation. I would have wanted to immerse myself more into the setting over a couple more days to get a more balanced and fair observation over a number of days. On hindsight, I will employ the use of digital media in the form of a recorder to capture the sounds of the environment. The idea is not to capture peoples conversations, but just the essence of the sounds of the ambience. This I believe will aid me in evoking sharper memories of my fieldnotes as I write them down at the end of the day. It will not be ethical to record patrons without their permission, but just the mix of the sounds will of the place will help me to give a richer description of what I observed in the field.
I am not too sure if I will have done anything much remarkedly different from what I did when I went to the mall to do my observation. The offer of coffee from the middle aged white man got me thinking. Would I have accepted it on any other day, if I was not scouting for data for my field observation? I am not too sure if I would have accepted it going to the mall without any agenda.
From my observation, what left me disillusioned was the palpable segregation amongst different ethnic groups and cultures. The glue that seems to bond groups of different ethnicities  is non-existent. The idea of Canada as multicultural society looks beautiful on the outside, but when one starts to unpack the layers, it tells a different story. Visible minority groups that came in as patrons stuck to themselves, hardly did I see like a Indian family having a conversation with say a Chinese family. It was more a case of different nations linked by language, traditions and mores living together as one country. Groups stayed in their own spaces and circles. Notwithstanding, from this general observation, there were few examples of mixed race couples. I believe a lot more needs to be done to get people to tear down the invisible walls of our differences. As a country, Canada will need to look beyond just being multicultural and move to the next step of  being transcultural.  
I cannot complete this ethnographic observation without a self- critique of myself as researcher in the field. As a visible minority man, my choice of location for observation was influenced by the demographics of that location  in the north eastern part of Calgary. I live in the north west, but I rather chose the place because I was influenced by the number of people of colour who lived in that particular area. Anytime I took the train to that part of town, that particular C- train location always had an interesting mixture of people of all races. It was a melting pot of different races and cultures. I wanted to see how people who looked like me and other minorities interacted with other groups of people. I came into this observation with my own ethnographic baggage of presumption and prejudice that was informed by my own upbringing, education and history (Madden, 2010).  To be aware of my own subjectivities is key to try to give an honest picture as much as possible during my observation.
In concluding the writing of my field notes, this observation has opened up a new whole vista as a new ethnographer. A number of concepts and ideas discussed in class about being an ethnographer (Madden, 2010), the importance of formulating a research question early in my observation served as an articulation of what I wanted to observe and why ( Madison, 2012) served as an important standpoint to theorize my experience in the field. Without the question of why different ethnic groups segregate from others, by observation and reflections will have lacked depth. Some element of learning took place for me, never have I deliberately looked at a group of people critically and looked out for patterns of behaviours and responses. Admittedly, though the observation was short, my personal values, knowledge and beliefs about cultures other than mine, took a shift, not of a seismic nature anyway, but l learnt something new about myself. My own socio- cultural context and upbringing as an individual affects the way I see the world around me. I could identify and harness the concept of subjectivity as a researcher and the importance of admitting my biases as I go into the field as an observer. One interesting outcome even after several days after my observation, anytime I get on a bus or train I find myself looking out for patterns of behaviour and interactions among people which I will not have necessarily thought of prior to my observation.
Through this ethnographic observation and given the limits of the length of this paper, I touched on some salient points, with regards to what I saw and heard, what I did, theorized my experience, drew out few issues of what I still wondered about at the food court, what I did I not know enough about my brief observation, what I will like to know more about, what I might do differently next time, what I wished I had done and why and how I would address what left me unsatisfied. Very importantly I did preserve the anonymity of my participants and the observation site undertaking this fieldwork.
Apart from synthesizing all the above points in my writing, the structure of my writing as useful research record began with an overview of culture, touched on reflexivity, followed by a guiding question, interspersed with theorizing my experience by drawing out some themes I observed, alongside with discussions that run throughout the writing of the observation and finally ended with a conclusion.

References


Denzin, N. K. (2001). Interpretive interactionism (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Madden, R. (2010). Being ethnographic: A guide to the theory and practice of ethnography. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN: 9781412946971
Madison, D. S. (2012). Critical ethnography: Method, ethics, and performance (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN: 9781412980241
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation: John Wiley & Sons.


Norris, J., Sawyer, R. D., & Lund, D. E. (Eds.). (2012). Duoethnography: Dialogic methods for social, health, and educational research. New York: Routledge. ISBN: 9781598746846

My personal learning narrative

Drawing on Jackson’s (n.d.) concept of a learning ecology as a framework, I will construct and share a narrative of my learning across my lifespan and my learning across spaces and contexts in which I have found myself in. Among other things, Jackson’s (n.d.) learning ecology highlights themes from ranging from contexts, history, relationships, motivations and learning outcomes. With this scaffold as an outline, I will attempt to paint a vivid and succinct highlight narrative of my life and the experiences that have played a pivotal role in my ever-continuing learning journey of my life.
I was born in a city called Kumasi in Ghana, West Africa some forty odd years ago. My earliest memories of learning was a story my mother told me, about what must have been my first learning experience. This was when I was first sent to the nursery school. That was the beginning of my journey onto the road of formal education. I still had a strong attachment to my feeding bottle. My mother had tried several times before to get me off the bottle, so I could switch to using a spoon. After about a couple of days at the nursery school, I refused to be fed from my bottle. I had adapted to my new environment and realized all my peers did not use feeding bottles. I did conform with the ways and norms of my immediate environment. I was quickly learning from the other children around me. I eventually gave up my bottle and learnt to eat with a spoon as the others. Despite my young age, I had already started informally learning from others. Learning from others, as an integral  part from of lifelong learning occurs through relationship with others in the form of socialization.
I had the greater part of my formal education in my home country of Ghana. Right from pre-school,to my graduate MBA was all done in Ghana.. My parents instilled in me the importance of reading. This is one habit that has never deserted me till this day. I am very much an avid reader and reading has and remains my favourite pastime.  Reading has been a source of adding to my ever-growing repertoire of knowledge. What I do not know, I do not hesitate in seeking knowledge through books or the internet. My parents were my first teachers in the informal rudiments of life. Reading and seeking knowledge for its own sake has been on my strong learning motivations. To have a meaningful conversation and at least have a general idea of topics that come up during conversations keeps me wanting to read all the time. My desire to know is more self-motivated and self- directed and this has stayed with me. Reading has also been one source of escape for me since I came to Canada. I find utter solace in reading and it helps lifts me up when I am down. I will identify myself as a bibliophile.
I entered the professional world of banking after university. I stayed on for a little over fourteen years. Starting as management trainee, going on to be branch manager and eventually quitting as an associate director in corporate banking. There was a lot of workplace training during this period. I did learn a lot, formally and informally on managing the intricacies of the corporate world. A lot of my training involved travelling to several countries on the African continent. The travels brought me in touch with different cultures. Looking back and connecting the dots with what I know now as an adult learner, I did learn a lot informally and incidentally as well. My working life as a corporate banker was promising and rewarding. Yearly bonuses were fantastic. Along the line, I started to feel a disconnect. I learnt that true happiness was not about money. It was more of the peace within and following my passion. A void started to build up in me and I started to lose the joy I had in my job. I started asking myself questions, deep introspection and reflection ensued about my profession. I can relate with what (Jarvis, 2007) refers to as a “ disjuncture, the sense of not feeling at home in the world” . I felt so disconnected within the world of banking. This was one pivotal moment in my life and I started looking for meaning in my life. The seeds of migration to were sown at this point and I strongly felt the need to follow my heart and pursue my passion. 
for me. I began to question myself the values that held true for me. I wanted fulfillment in my life. I believed I had much more to offer than just making money. I believed in unearthing my latent talent and purpose of being an educator. Deep inside within me a “hidden like buried  treasure…that must be left untapped” (Delors, 1996) I stepped out into the world. Learning to become was the way forward for me. I virtually come alive when I have any opportunity to learn. My goal is to proceed and make my new learning in adult learning a vocation. With my prior experience in banking and my ongoing knowledge acquisition in adult learning I aspire to go on share my knowledge in a developing region of the world.
It is worth mentioning another epic event shook the very foundation of my life. This is the most significant and meaningful event in my life. It took a tragedy for me to take a step back and take stock of my life. I lost my little brother in a motor accident. This event shook and rustled my very being. It got me looking at life through a more spiritual lens. Prior to this I was living the high life of a bachelor and philandering all over the place. Life was bliss. The loss of my brother slowed me down. I settled down and got married shortly after. I got in touch with my inner self and I grew up spiritually. This was another key learning event for me. According to Groen and Kawalilak (2014), when stressful events occur, they have the potential for significant learning, far often greater than the learning resulting from typical and expected life transitions. Marriage and having a family had a profound effect on me.  These new relationships in my life came with a steep learning curve. I began learning to be husband and father. These are relationship roles I continue to learn about every day.
The culmination of all my past experiences and what I continue to learn every day, what I have learnt formally and informally is the individual I have become today. The cyclical journey of learning commences the very moment we rise from our beds in the morning till nightfall. Learning only stops only we have no breath in us, when we finally go to our graves, that is when our learning odyssey stops. As an adult educator and learner, my potential to learn knows no boundaries. Looking back, reflecting and connecting all the dots in my life of learning brings in its wake greater meaning and a sense of appreciation of all what I have learnt to date. It is worth mentioning that all my learning was not done in isolation. The context and society in which I found myself at any given time helped shape me as an individual. Relationships, places and events have been props that have helped in my learning on this stage called life. I count myself fortunate, having the opportunity to learn in Canada from a western perspective, in a different socio-cultural environment, combining this with my past learning experience from an African context, not only broadens my horizon in terms of my outlook and thinking, but goes a long way to make me a cosmopolitan learner and educator.



References

Delors, J. (1996). Learning: the Treasure Within. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/00109 5/109590eo.pdf 
Groen, J. & Kawalilak, C. (2014) Pathways of adult learning: Professional and education narratives. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholar’s Press.
Jackson, N. J. (n.d.). Lifewide learning and education in universities and colleges: Concepts and conceptual aids. In N. J. Jackson & J. Willis (Eds.), Lifewide learning and education in universities and colleges (pp. 1-25). Retrieved from http://www.learninglives.co.uk/ebook.html 
Jarvis, P. (2007). Globalization, lifelong learning and the learning society: Sociological perspectives. New York: Routledge.


Literature Review on 2 scholarly articles- Adult Learning/Poverty/ National Development


European Association for the Education of Adults (2010). The Role of Adult Education in Reducing Poverty EAEA Policy Paper Brussels: EAEA

This article assesses the role adult education plays in reducing poverty globally. There are about 1.4 billion people living below the poverty line of $1.25 a day and this accounts for approximately 20 percent of the world’s population. Adult education and lifelong learning have been cited as key to achieving international development targets designed to reduce poverty levels around the world. Poverty is a condition in which a person or community is deprived of, or lacks the essentials for a minimum standard of well-being and life. The purpose of adult education is to serve a broad range of purposes, among them, being vocational, social and emancipatory, social welfare and the individual self-development of the adult learner as well. The emancipatory relationship of adult learning and poverty reduction is highlighted in this article. Adult education can take different forms under the descriptors of formal, non-formal, informal, vocational, and basic education.  In many cases, it is simply interpreted as literacy education. Adult Education has a role to play in nurturing the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary for reducing the risk of poverty and also for providing the capacity to withstand poverty-inducing pressures in today’s fast changing and unpredictable world. It is worth noting that education in itself is not value free and totally emancipatory. Adult education in alleviating poverty relies on a support system including the provision of supportive learning environments, culturally sensitive and multidimensional curricula. The use of partnerships and multi-sector networks in developing programmes, a bottom-up approach to decision making, reaching people in their natural settings, a focus on social mobilization, advocacy and community leadership, with learner support and adequate follow-up system are other ways in which adult education can help in ameliorating poverty.



Jinna, Y. J., & Maikano, P. N. (2014). The role of adult education in national development. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (ILSHS), 21, 35-42.

The authors collectively examine the role of adult education in national development from an African perspective. This country of focus for this assessment was the West African nation of Nigeria. One of the key objectives of adult education is to provide functional literacy education for adults who have never had the opportunity of any formal education. Adult education in this context refers to any form of learning undertaken by or provided for mature men and women outside the formal school system. Development in this article is referred to as a process of economic, social, political and cultural change engineered in a given society by the efforts of all stakeholders, both internal and external, including local communities, government, the private sector, civil society organizations, NGOs and technical and financial development partners. This is done with the view to improve the conditions of the life of the population in a sustainable way. Adult education plays a significant role in promoting the personal, social and economic well-being of individuals in the society. Health, civic and social engagement, attitudinal change and poverty reduction are all the by-products of an enlightened and educated adult populace. Notwithstanding all the merits of the above, there are some limitations in driving the agenda for adult education and national development. Funding remains one of the main drawbacks to adult education in Nigeria. Budgetary allocation to this educational sector is woefully inadequate. There is a call from this paper on the need to take a holistic view of what adult education really means for development, beyond certifications and qualifications. More investment in terms of funding for developing adult education in this era of globalization will not only produce human capital but also enable people to become well-informed citizens, capable of thinking critically and owning their destiny through active participation in affairs of the country.



































































































Literacy, poverty and Adult Learning


Change will come to a society that is well informed. A society with a fully functional adult literate population is key to positive change. The impact of adult literacy, globalization and civic education speaks to my heart. Globalization is gradually making countries come closer more than ever. Information is easily disseminated with just a click of a button. Knowledge abounds and nothing stands in the way of gaining information. One of the benefits of globalization for my country was the advent of multi-party democracy in Ghana in 1992. The citizenry can now change governments through the ballot box and no more through the barrel of a gun. The convergence of trade, exchange of goods and services, easy flow of information and the migration of good governance practices across the globe contributed to democracy coming to Ghana after many years of military dictatorship. The influence of globalization on Ghana was the benefit we gained in the form of democracy.

Adult literacy in my home country is one area that more attention should be given to. The significance of this study for me is the low level of adult literacy and lack of proper civic education largely within the rural populace in my home country. This is an area I will want to delve into in my future studies. I am drawn to this because of my new knowledge about the power of education to bring about change in societies. Drawing on my prior experience as an undergraduate political science student and a graduate student in adult learning, I want to understand how education intertwines with the civic and political responsibilities of the enfranchised adult population in Ghana. The emphasis will be largely drawn on the rural adult populace.  I come from a country where a large proportion of the population cannot read and write in both English and in any local language. The largely illiterate population makes up a great proportion of the electorate. It is interesting to note some of the reasons people will vote for a particular candidate. Some of the reasons why people vote for candidates can range from reasons like, “I voted for him because he is handsome or good-looking”, “I voted for him because he gave me a bag of rice and oil”, to “I voted for her because she comes from my home-town or we are from the same ethnic background”.  If the population is properly educated and know their rights and responsibilities, people will be empowered to make the right decision. I am passionate about the nexus between adult literacy and civic education in my country. I have been emboldened by the works of Paolo Freire’s radical/critical philosophy of education that places emphasis on the power of education to create social change. This was an something that I had never thought of before I embarked on my adult learning program. Education has the power to transform. I foresee a future where the adult populace will be enlightened particularly in the area of citizenship education. When people are aware of their rights and responsibilities, they can make the right choices that will benefit them and society. The trickle effect of knowledge has the massive potential to permeate all facets of society. Illiteracy is quite pervasive amongst the rural adult folk in my country of origin. I want to see a total paradigm shift, where the rural electorate will vote on issues that are of concern to them and have a voice in their affairs of their country. Having a voice will translate into having an input on your own welfare as an individual. This will happen when people are educated and well informed. A well-balanced citizenship education will liberate the people and give them a proper sense of belonging.

Prior to doing this adult learning program, I never really saw myself as someone who will be interested in advocacy. I have been emboldened and ready to step out of my comfort zone to be the vanguard of the kind of change I want to see in my society. I am yet to take any palpable or formal action towards this agenda I have started nurturing. I aspire to carry this agenda of adult literacy and civic education advocacy when I back home someday. I continue to read on the works of Freire and I am galvanized by his thoughts. My focus will be geared mostly towards the population on the fringes of society. I am in a continuous process of learning and building my arsenal of knowledge. My learning journey has just begun. Adult learning as an academic endeavor has opened my eyes to a whole different world, especially in the belief in humanity. I see the world through a completely different lens. My understanding of education for social change and awareness has taken a complete paradigm shift. I look forward to advocacy, workshops and communities of practice within the adult electorate population. Ghana currently has a National Council for Civic Education (NCCE). It is a governmental agency tasked with educating the masses on the civic education across the country. I believe there is more room for improvement in this area and more can be done to empower the citizenry through education. The form of learning and engagement will be in the form of literacy campaigns through workshops, volunteering, training and adult literacy programs. Partnering the NCCE or working as a consultant to share best practice from my training in Canada can go a long way to contribute my quota to my country of birth.  My end goal will be to see a citizenry that is fully empowered, politically aware to make informed choices and fully engaged in civic participation.

Sunday, 12 May 2013

A day for Mother


Happy Mother's Day!
What more can I say?

Thank you 
For holding my hand
I am a man, 
So grand

Love you 
So much
Unbridled love 
For a woman as such

Will always 
Make you proud
Till ascension day, 
Up in the cloud

You have always 
Been my Rose
And always 
Put me in focus

What more can I say?
Happy Mother's Day!


Saturday, 13 April 2013

Maame



I wrote this for you
You are the one 

Amongst a chosen few
Yearning for you
Woman of hue

When can I get my due?

In the midst 

Of the foggy dew
I  pursue
Because it was you 
You gave me the a clue



With your love brew
My brains you blew
And so I wrote this 
For you

Because Maame,
 I love you.