|
PEDAGOGICAL AND ANDRAGOGICAL
WARFARE
AND
THE
PSYCHO-SOCIOLOGY OF ANDRAGOGIZING
IN NIGERIA
by
IDOWU BIAO
Professor & Head
Department of Adult &
Continuing Education
University of Calabar,
Calabar
At the
occasion of the Maiden Lecture
Of
The
Special Lecture Series of the Department of Adult Education,
University of Lagos,
Nigeria.
21 July, 2005.
PREAMBLE
The Chairman, Professor
Oye Ibidapo-Obe, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, here represented by the
Dean of Education, Professor Duro Ajeyalemi, the Head, Department of Adult
Education, Professor Lere Adewale, Professor Mike Okenimkpe, one of my esteemed
former teachers in Unilag, Professor Union Edebiri, another former teacher of
mine who awakened my interest in Francophone African literature while I studied
in Unilag, Professor Timothy Asobele, my Sorbonne-trained teacher who made me
perform African plays in French while I was a student here, Dr. Dipe Alo Paulin,
the Language Scientist and my dear brother, all other Professors from all
faculties of this great University which happens to be my alma mater, my dear
wife, Esohe Patience Biao (nee Obaseki) and children Ope, Dotun and Ayo, my
colleagues and Great Akokites here present, “Mi Sere!”
To this Calabar greeting,
your answer should be “Mi Sere Nde!” From
The Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Calabar, professor Ivara Ejemot Esu, the Department of Adult and
Continuing Education, University of Calabar and the good people of Cross River
State, I bring warmest greetings.
I feel highly enthused
about both the idea of this departmental Special Lecture Series and the choice
of my humble self as maiden Guest Speaker at this maiden edition of the Lecture
Series. I have always thought highly of this school, my alma mater and as I came
in and walked around the campus after a few years of absence, such a tall
thought was found to have been confirmed. Monumental changes have obviously been
recorded by this institution on both the material and intellectual planes. The
great Akoka moves on then with great strides.
I stand before you this
morning to share with you the fruit of an introspection made possible by the
professional experiences I have been able to garner while I taught, researched
and discoursed adult education principles in the West, North and East of this
country. By virtue of the unique opportunity I had to work in the University of
Lagos in the West, Bayero University, Kano in the North and the University of
Calabar in the East, I have come to appreciate one professional issue in its
appropriate national scale; that issue is the subtle tension which tends to
arise between pedagogy and Andragogy and which is the result of both
Psychological and sociological indices. That tension, I capture here as
“Pedagogical and andragogical warfare” and its “epi-centre” I name as
“Psycho-sociological” source.
INTRODUCTION
It was in 1920 that the first Department of Adult Education
was established in the world; this event which occurred in the United Kingdom
marked the beginning of the formal and systematic study of the knowledge area
distinctly known today as Adult Education.
Before then, the field of Adult Education was nothing but a
practical activity whose origin may be traced to the first human being that
walked the face of the earth. This first human being, we have been told by most
Holy Books, was an adult person whose process of education was facilitated by
the Creator Himself. Since education is a process of assimilating basic facts
with the view to applying knowledge derived from facts and with the ultimate
view of adapting to environment, this first human being did truly undergo a
rigorous form of education.
For example, the earth domain being a foreign and new
environment to him, he needed to learn how to feed harmlessly, how to protect
himself from harsh climatic conditions and wild animals. All these things, he
learnt to do through the process of a unique form of education which gradually
and steadily developed his skills and mastery of his new environment which the
earth was.
Going by what we know today about different types and
systems of education, we can observe that the education of that first human
being was unique, peculiar and adult educational in a number of respects.
First, it was education given to an adult person, secondly, it was distance
education as the Creator and all His agents were not physically present with
this being most of the time; thirdly, it was self directed education as this
unique learner took upon himself the responsibility to organize his learning
resources and the facts of his education, as best as he could, in this material
world; fourthly, the method and technique employed in the education of this
being are problem-solving in approach and fifthly, the education we are talking
about took place within the non-formal environment.
These afore-mentioned characteristics of the education of
that first person suggest that he benefited from adult education; if the first
person on earth received adult education, this would suggest that the first form
of education that humanity ever received was “Adult Education”.
However, in this discussion, the events and factors that
shaped and continue to shape the formal study and not the practice of adult
education is our focus. Following this long practice of adult education
therefore, it was in 1920 that the formal study of this domain of knowledge
began. The study of this area which had as prime objective, the establishment
of adult education as a discipline and recognized profession began with
clarification of concepts; it later led to the creation of concepts unique to
the domain of adult education; it further rallied pioneers around efforts at
fashioning distinct research paradigms and at designing curricula contents for
both undergraduate and graduate training. Initial work in adult education
equally identified technologies that may be employed to advance the study of
adult education and to push back its frontiers.
By the first half of the 20th century, all the
afore described efforts at developing the domain of adult education came to be
known as “The Andragogical Process” just as the study of children and youths’
education was earlier on in history referred to as “The Pedagogical Process”.
Therefore, from the beginning of the 20th century till this day
Andragogy and Pedagogy co-habit side by side in most universities. Within these
universities, each discipline is to highlight its peculiarities while at the
same time, the two disciplines are to continually explore areas of
collaboration.
While development and collaboration may be said to be on
between the two disciplines in some universities in the country, proponents of
andragogy and pedagogy in many Nigerian Universities are at daggers drawn for a
number of reasons. Indeed, some persons who had received a little form of
andragogical training and who are serving in andragogical units could be seen in
an engaged warfare against andragogy albeit surreptuously. In other words, while
the major warfare is between pedagogy and andragogy, little andragogical
training has equally been found to be a source of some minor intra-andragogical
warfare.
What then are Andragogy and Pedagogy? In historical terms
Pedagogy is the older and more famous of the two terminologies. It equally
disposes of more proponents than does andragogy.
THE
STORY OF PEDAGOGY
The story of modern scientific pedagogy must be traced back
to ancient Greek civilization and more specifically to the formative era of
Greek Education. Our point of reference in this matter may be about 3,000 years
ago1. However, since ancient Greek civilization and Greek
education themselves benefited from older practices, we can take the liberty of
tracing the root of pedagogy to a period preceding Greek civilization.
For example among Egyptians, Jews and Homeric Greeks of
old,
The course of instruction in the men’s house
forms one long
training in tribal custom.
The old man who
resides with novices
as instructor,
teaching them the
complicated
system of taboo: the season
when certain
types of fish may not be
eaten or when
certain foods are reserved
for future
feasts…………….2
Equally,
these tribal neophytes and novices are taught that
the tribal enemies are the enemies of each
individual
initiate. In selecting a wife, the
tribal interest
must be predominant:
she must be a
mother of healthy children;
should she prove
to be barren, all
obligations of
the husband to wife cease.
Whatever serves
the highest interest of
the tribe is
justifiable3.
From these tribal
practices and rites therefore grew Greek civilization and Greek education
system. However, whatever the Greek inherited from their forebear, they refined
and improved upon.
TOP
Greek
Education
As a general format, Greek
education is discussed here under three headings; namely, the Spartanic
Educational system, the New Education system and the Spread of Greek education
through the Western world.
The Spartanic system of
education is a pretty old system which was nevertheless well organized and which
is enduring as it re-echoed through other newer Greek educational systems and
continues to be examined even up to our days.
The focus of the Spartanic
education was on individuals aged between 1 and 18 years. It had no provision
for older adults as it was believed that older adults would eventually pick up
productive activities in society and
whatever was gained in the
first 18 years of education would guide them in the performance of their social
roles through life.
The curriculum promoted
military education and the teaching of epic and lyric. It emphasized discipline
of the body and mind but it was simple in design; the epics and lyrics in the
main eulogized ancestral heroic achievements and invited and spurred the younger
generations to emulate those laudable feats of the past.
However, by the 5th
century B.C. ancient Greece underwent extensive economic and political
transformations that necessitated the adoption of a new system of education.
By the end of the 4th century, ancient Greece had made some exploits in its
conquest bids so that its economic fortunes had become bright and glorious.
Indeed a people that was known to be frugal and simple, by the end of the 4th
century B.C. had started becoming demanding in his tastes and in his decorative
choices. Additionally a society, where authority of elders and royalty held
sway for many centuries, began to experience incidences whereby such authority
was sporadic ally questioned.
Consequently, the need for
the fashioning of an educational system that would accommodate this changing
consciousness of the people became greatly felt. The search for this suitable
education eventually led to the establishment of what history books refer to as
Greek New Education4. The New Education had a number of interesting features
which also endured till this day. First, it was a departure from the Spartanic
Education in many respects; for example, discipline which was the cornerstone of
Spartanic education got relegated to some background or at least lowered in the
New Education; while Spartans maintained ancient poets on the curriculum, New
educationists introduced relatively new and recent poets into the curriculum;
also, while the Spartanic curriculum was a simple one, the New Education
curriculum was complex as it provided for many categories of learners including
those beyond the age of 18 years.
Basically, the New
Education had provision for two categories of learners; namely, the youths
between the ages of 1 to 18 years and those beyond 18 years. The youths were
taught poems, songs and some amount of marshal arts while the adult class was
taught rhetoric and mathematics.
While elders were
acknowledged teachers in earlier Greek education endeavours, sophists were the
leaders and teachers during the era of Greek New Education. A sophist is a wise
person or sage, although this terminology later assumed the connotation of an
itinerant teacher. During the era of New Education, Greece, as a result of its
wealth, attracted from far and near, acclaimed authorities in all branches of
knowledge. Such eminent persons came from all the four cardinal points of the
earth to sell their wares (knowledge) in Greece. So respected and distinguished
were they that many Greeks were ready to part with some of their wealth to
acquire rare knowledge. And the era of New Education flourished for about 50
years during which period some notable Greeks had learnt and mastered the
techniques of the sophists.
The first Greek and most
spectacular teacher to beautifully demonstrate the skills of the sophists in
public places was Socrates (469 –399 B.C). Socrates was therefore the first
Greek to pontificate on many aspects of the content of New Education as it was
handed down by the sophists; yet he was not the first Greek to run schools
similar to those established by the sophists. Isocrates (436-338 B C) and
Plato (427-347 B C), were the first Greeks to establish schools modeled after
sophists’ schools. Isocrates established his school around 390 B.C. in his
house while Plato established his, about 288 BC in a garden adjacent Isocrates’
house5.
Isocrates who kept
students learning for about 4 years laid emphasis on the practical aspect of
education, thereby teaching rhetoric, debate and lolography (writing of law
speeches); Plato on the other hand occupied his students with theoretical and
philosophical discourses over a number of years.
However, that which made
“Education” what it is today, that is, an area of knowledge worthy of study in
tertiary institutions is neither the establishment of sophists’ schools nor the
teaching of numerous subjects; it is the development of theories of education
which succeeded in establishing “Education” as a discipline; the beginning of
man’s endeavour at developing educational theory is traced back to old Greece
during the period of New Education and Socrates is credited to be the Father of
Educational Theory. Although, three great periods of educational theory are
identifiable within the history of Western Education, the Greek New Education
era was the first one; the second period came during the Renaissance era at the
end of the Middle Ages while the third great period of educational theory was
witnessed immediately before and after the French Revolution which began in
1789.
Before Socrates, teaching
was carried on relying on personal inspiration and dependent on the teacher’s
moods and whims. But it was Socrates, who after observing the sophists,
concluded that the latter promoted an “individualistic philosophy of society”6,
that is, a view that the individual’s desires and wishes were superior to
society’s Good. The Good of society, he explained in terms of temperance,
justice and wisdom; these three concepts he collectively referred to as virtue;
this virtue according to Socrates was impactable and teacheable; virtue
therefore became knowledge which can be taught all human beings with the view to
making each individual become virtuous and with the view to establishing a Good
society which is the result only of the existence of a large number of virtuous
individuals within it. Through his own teaching, he demonstrated the manner in
which virtuous persons may be made.
In other words, Socrates
submits that human beings are neither naturally nor automatically virtuous; in
order to make virtuous human beings, some concepts must be taught; the manner in
which these virtues may be taught and imbibed was demonstrated through his
Socratic and other methods and techniques of teaching. Therefore, Socrates in
those earliest times has suggested that for teaching to be effective and
worthwhile, it should have a goal, a procedure, a client, a method and a
technique. Educational theory which seeks to scientifically establish
relationships and determine effects of educational processes and inputs,
therefore had its humble beginning here.
It was also from the
practices of ancient Greek teachers and philosophers that the Western world
borrowed its educational system. “With the rise of the Macedonian Empire and
the eclipse of the Greek states, the civilization of Greece stepped out of its
national limitations and became the common civilization of all the nations on
the shores of the Mediterranean”7. Thus, Greek education reached through much
part of the world even as ancient Greece was in some form of political decline.
In relatively recent history, it was in Rome that Greek education flourished and
from there it impacted heavily and indelibly on the ways of Western nations and
their colonies.
From Greece to Rome
through Macedonia, pedagogues peddled their wares and taught their art. A
pedagogue is a proponent of pedagogy. Pedagogy is the art of leading the youth
through teaching. Pedagogy assumes first and foremost that education is a
formal activity; secondly, it promotes fairly rigid safeguards (school
environment, educational curriculum, time-tabling etc.) within which education
must take place; thirdly, it promotes the idea that the teacher detains all of
the knowledge that is to be dispensed at school; fourthly, it arrogates to the
teacher the totality of the authority that is to be exercised within the
learning environment; fifthly, it does arrogate to the teacher some amount of
intimidating and monitoring roles even outside the school environment; sixthly,
it considers its clientele to be persons possessing knowledge that would need to
be unlearned before education can take place.
For many centuries, the
science and art of pedagogy have been developed in the world. It was hoped that
answers to all educational questions would be provided by pedagogy; therefore
for centuries pedagogical centers and low, medium and high caliber pedagogical
trainings were promoted throughout the world. The world naturally benefited
tremendously from these endeavours because the education of our children and
youths had improved and advanced in leaps and bounds since the era of early
Greek sophists.
However, by the beginning
of the 20th century a new system of education emerged which advanced tenets
dissimilar to pedagogy and which defined its clientele and learning environment
differently. That new educational system was “Andragogy”.
TOP
THE
STORY OF ANDRAGOGY.
The term andragogy had
come into usage well before the 20th century. For example, it was in use in
Germany as far back as 1833; it also came into use in Yugoslavia, France and
Holland about a decade later. In the 20th century, Martha Anderson and Edward
Lindeman, two known adult educationists, were among the earliest persons to use
the term “andragogy” in a work entitled “Education Through Experience” that was
published in 19278.
In each of these cases,
the motivating factor in adopting and using the term “andragogy” has been the
expression of the desire to search for an alternative to pedagogical methods and
principles.
If the term “andragogy” had come into early use by the
beginning of the 19th century, it was however not clearly defined and
delineated. Apart from the broad and general notion that it represented an
alternative concept of educational process, very little was known about its
fundamental tenets, boundaries and characteristics of its specific clients.
It was not until the 20th century that one
spectacular person worked so passionately on the terminology as to elevate it to
world recognition. This person is often referred to in our discipline as the
Father of Andragogy and much of the clarification of this concept which we have
today, we owe to his long and passionate researches and discussions of the
subject matter. That person was known as Malcolm Knowles.
Born to American parents in 1915, Malcolm Knowles had a
happy childhood as he was raised by a loving and caring mother and an
understanding father. His general life experiences and especially his
involvement in teaching adult learners for a living brought in to his heart, a
love for adult education and a conviction that adults learn differently from
children.
He enrolled for graduate studies in adult education and
read the works of such influential pioneers in adult education as Edward
Lindeman and Cyril Houle from where he drew much inspiration.
Then, he settled down to begin discoursing and clarifying
the concept “andragogy”. This endeavour turned out to be his life career and
lifetime project which benefited richly the discipline of adult education.
The concept “andragogy” as developed by Malcolm Knowles is
guided and supported by five theories.
1.
Self-directedness: as a person grows up and takes on varying life tasks,
he/she tends to depend more on his/her own judgment than the judgment of others.
2. Experience:
as a person matures, he/she accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that
becomes an increasing resource for learning.
3. Readiness
to learn: as a
person grows and matures his/her readiness to learn is increasingly oriented
towards the developmental tasks of his/her social roles 9.
4. Orientation
to learning: as a
person grows and matures, his time perspective changes from one of postponed
application of knowledge to immediacy ofapplication and accordingly his
orientation towards learning shifts from one of subject-centredness to one of
problem centredness10.
5. Motivation to
learn: At the level of a maturing individual, motivation to learn is
intrinsic; it is an often internally derived motivation to engage into some
learning enterprise.
On these five theories then, rests the concept of “andragogy”.
In other words, any educational enterprise designed for adults must take into
consideration these facts about them if such an education is to be successful.
Who then is an adult? OR who is an adult learner? These
are two encyclopedic issues in adult education; we can gladly skip them at this
forum as they do not constitute the focal points of our discourse.
Suffice it to say however, that an adult person maybe
determined using chronological, historical, biological, legal, economic, social,
psychological and/or aviational parameters; while an adult learner can be
basically identified through the particular educational technology, style and
approaches that he uses in advancing and acquiring learning.
What
then is andragogy?
You will not be wrong to equate andragogy with adult
education. In other words, andragogy means adult education. Although the
theories of Malcolm Knowles do not encapsulate all issues in adult education,
Knowles’ theories are fundamental to the understanding of the discipline of
adult education as they spell out a significant number of the core tenets of the
discipline.
PEDAGOGICAL AND ANDRAGOGICAL WARFARE
By warfare, it is meant
disagreement that can become frenzied indeed and emotion laden. It is an
academic process and not an artillery maneuvering engagement, whereby academics,
armed with their intellectual baggage and wares, trade ideas with the aim of
bringing colleagues to accept and submit to the superiority of one or others’
ideas and views.
This warfare may well determine the intellectual
composition, capacity and strength of an Adult Education Department. This is
because it may be expressed at a level where a leader of an Adult Education
outfit is to defend an adult education claim before persons that have little
information about adult education or before persons who for some reason think
that their own ideas are superior.
This section of the discussion is really a catalogue of
observations and of things which the current presenter had to do and say in the
course of positioning and repositioning the discipline of adult education in
universities around Nigeria. Although the experiences related here were
observed and recorded from specific universities, they reflect the fate of the
discipline of adult education in most universities in the country.
Suffice it to say that much of the warfare that is
observed in faculties of education between the proponents of pedagogical and
andragogical sciences stem from the fact that many colleagues are yet to
understand what adult education means and stands for. Being the youngest
university course of study in faculties of education, adult education presents
the aura of a new and low-keyed discipline.
As such adult education in some cases, is approached with a
déjà vu posture; in other words, it is assumed within the faculty of education,
that adult education cannot be radically different from what is already known
and taught in the faculty. From this mental posture comes the suggestion that
any member of the faculty of education can serve as academic staff member in the
Department of Adult Education.
Any opposition to this
suggestion may elicit the reply that Nigerian pioneer adult educationalists did
not undergo any training in adult education. While this submission may not hold
true, all new areas of learning and knowledge are often opened up by persons who
received no initial training in those areas they open up and eventually
establish since the existence of the creator often predates that of the created.
Within the academic
tradition, Professors may open up a new academic front without having to undergo
prior specific learning in the new area. Therefore, it would have been quite
alright if Nigerian pioneer adult educationists did not undergo initial training
as long as the due process hinted at here was upheld. But the situation of
Nigeria was different.
In the case of Nigeria, the establishment of an academic
unit of adult education was carefully and thoroughly prepared for; indeed before
the premier Department of Adult Education was established in Nigeria’s premier
university, in addition to other arrangements, some staff members of the former
Extra-mural studies unit were sent abroad to undergo some training in adult
education.
On the international scene, the first Department of Adult
Education was established by very senior academic staff members working at the
time, in the social sciences.
Between the middle and the end of the 19th
century, some British social scientists (sociologists and psychologists) worked
with adult persons on educational projects using pedagogical principles and
methods that had become well developed in those times. They however discovered
that they obtained results which they suspected could be better. For example,
they noticed that adult learners voted with their feet by taking French leave
off some of the projects; they also noticed that the learners subtly resented
some of their methods of teaching and could therefore not obtain the full
cooperation of the learners all the time; equally, they noticed to their
amateurish amazement that some learners expressed preference for learning
environments that fall outside strictly formal educational establishments.
All these discoveries constituted a form of mystery to
these social scientists who therefore suspected that understanding these
discoveries may lead to improvement in the results obtainable from their
projects. They tinkered and eventually established an academic unit staffed by
persons that were interested in researching into the behaviour of adult learners
within and outside learning environments; that unit was called Department of
Adult Education and that was the first Department of Adult Education on earth
that was established in 1920.
The establishment of this first Department of Adult
Education did not however mean that the discipline known as “Adult Education”
has come to be. The establishment of the Department only signified the
intention of those who established it, to begin a type of work which eventually
will create the discipline of adult education. This is because, for an area of
study to become a discipline it must satisfy a number of conditions, namely the
existence of terminologies and concepts peculiar to the study area, the
existence of a corps of researchers who are devoting themselves to the unveiling
of the depth of the area of study through research and the existence of research
paradigms special and peculiar to the study area; other conditions include the
establishment of a well defined and delineated post-graduate programme of
study, well spelt out principles and steps for accreditation of the study
programmes in the study area and training standards and guidelines for
recruiting personnel into the study area.
Activities aimed at establishing adult education as a
discipline have therefore been going on since 1920. Whether adult education is
now a discipline both in Nigeria and in the world is an issue which falls
outside the scope of the present forum and is an issue which is better examined
first by adult education experts in their special and exclusive conclave.
One point however, which is here strongly made is that it
is too late in the day to toy with the idea of recruiting persons not trained
in adult education into Departments of Adult Education during the 21st
century. As could be recalled, the first Department of Adult Education came on
stream at the beginning of the 20th century. Between then and now
many more Departments of Adult Education have been established the world over
and many adult education progrmmes have been designed, redesigned, refined and
adjusted.
The opportunities therefore currently abound for training
in adult education both in Nigeria and abroad; as such no excuse can be
entertained for the recruitment of persons not trained adult educationists into
a Department of Adult Education about a century after the establishment of the
first Department of Adult Education in the world and after 40 years of the
establishment of the first Department of Adult Education in Nigeria.
One other area of disagreement is the one concerning the
teaching of foundation courses in adult education; these foundation courses
include, Philosophy of Adult Education, Psychology of Adult Education and
Sociology of Adult Education. These courses are often easily equated with
Philosophy of Education, Educational Psychology and Sociology of Education.
While the first set of foundation courses discusses
andragogical issues, the second set discusses pedagogical issues. Yet, the
tendencies in faculties of education is to deploy, with or without the
collaboration of some adult education leaders, pedagogues to run where even
revered andragogues fear to thread.
Pedagogues so appointed do more harm than good to
andragogy. They may have been excused and tolerated between 1920 and 1960 when
Adult Education was still struggling to carve a niche for itself. During the
period lying between 1920 and 1960, adult education loaned a number of
terminologies, concepts and methods from the pedagogical sciences. Beyond 1960
however, adult education has grown independent and stable .
For example, many loaned
terminologies have been returned and dropped and they have been replaced by more
appropriate ones; such is the case of curriculum now replaced by adult
educational pogramme or in still loose form “adult educational curriculum”; or
the case of student replaced by learner or teacher replaced by facilitator or
school replaced by learning center or learning environment. On a broader level,
the what, why and how of adult education are related first to the survival needs
of adult learners and secondly to their aesthetic needs. The psychology of
adult education is currently being made and compiled. We in adult education
have discovered that many mistakes were made and much time was wasted when
between 1920 and 1960 many theories from Educational Psychology were blindly
applied to adult education. It is now clear that results obtained from
Educational psychological studies carried out among children and youths would
not serve the purpose of andragogy which is concerned with chronological and
psychological adults. Consequently, there is now within the field of adult
education, a deliberate policy of generating psychological data through studying
the behaviour of adult learners within learning environments and learning
situations. Adult education is a social science, as such the issues dealt with
in adult education reveal sociological bases; the sociology of adult education
therefore seeks to generate information on such issues as the relationship that
should exist between the adult learner and society in general. Specifically,
issues such as government and personal economic input into adult education,
strategies for supplying education for all categories of learners (including
those learning within the non-formal sector of the education system) and so on
are on the agenda of sociology of adult education.
Yet another issue within the frame of pedagogical and
andragogical warfare is that of assessment of publications. Given the fact that
most people within the field of andragogy had some training in pedagogical
sciences and that most pedagogues had no training in andragogical sciences, an
imbalance that may not favour andragogues or andragogists may be suspected. I
am thinking particularly of such situations where an andragogist may be
discussing an issue similar to a pedagogical issue but which is by necessity
approached differently by the two academicians.
Permit me to illustrate this point with a particular
personal experience. Some years ago, I prepared an article titled “Phenomenal
Self-Concept and academic performance among remedial education learners in Lagos
State” which was sent to a reputable Journal based in one of the Universities in
Nigeria. My article was turned in to a respected Professor of Educational
Psychology for assessment. The view of that Professor was that my article was
not publishable because I dwelt on the fact that the self-concept of the
learners discussed in my paper was lowered and had become low as a result of
some incidents.
Phenomenal self-concept is
the view an individual holds about himself or herself relying on his/her
internal and intrinsic judgment and appreciation. Such a self-concept is said
to steadily grow from childhood to the age of early adulthood which may be
located between the ages of 16 and 22 years. Educational psychology concerns
itself with behaviour and personality of children and adolescents and to a small
extent about the behaviour of young adults; its prime area of concern is also
the formal learning setting. Given that the area of expertise of the Professor
that assessed my paper covers the growth period when phenomenal self-concept
tends to be on the course of steady development, the comment of the Professor
would have been acceptable if the paper in question was not discussing the
self-concept of persons who were aged between 28 and 50 years whose academic
experiences have not been smooth.
Beyond adolescence, self-concept which began to be built
on parents or guardians’ self-concept and which steadily realized its
independence, force and strength during adolescence begins to be challenged by
the difficulties a person experiences in delivering some social expectations, in
actualizing some personal ambitions and in sustaining one generally satisfying
style and standard of living over time.
It is precisely during this period of life that the
self-concept that was initially steadily growing strong, begins to fluctuate,
going forth and backward depending on whether the individual was overwhelmed by
the experiences he/she met or whether he/she conquered and remained on top of
the situation. In learning, we observe a definite lowering of adult learners’
academic self-concept since many members of this category of learners have left
the business of learning for many years before eventually deciding to come back
to learn. Having left systematic learning for a long time, the belief of this
category of learners is usually that they may have equally lost the skills and
indeed the ability to learn. They therefore approach second chance or later
learning with great timidity and lack of confidence. Even learners who may not
have had a break in their contact with schooling but who, as a result of initial
failure in the formal system, had to continue learning within the non-formal
system of education, do understandably exhibit the same timidity tendencies.
This important psychological deficiency needs usually to be addressed at the
opening of any adult education programme if the porogramme is to meet with
success.
The responsibility to raise the academic self-concept of
learners before adult education programmes proceed is that of the facilitator.
This was one of the submissions which the Professor responsible for the
assessment of my paper would not agree with; and my paper as I said earlier was
turned down.
I protested on receiving the negative report on my paper
and after a few communications between me and the editorial committee, it was
discovered and accepted that the assessor and the author were relying on two
slightly dissimilar but complimentary literatures; and my paper was accepted and
published.
PSYCHO-SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS
REGULATING THE PRACTICE OF ANDRAGOGY IN NIGERIA
In addition to earlier on hinted at psycho-sociological
factors, other psychological and sociological factors do influence the teaching
of andragogy in the country. Some of these factors tend to over-heat the
andragogical polity while others bear indication of how we ought to carry on
andragogy.
For example, persons who had training in areas other than
andragogy, but who find themselves in Departments of Adult Education, tend to
develop complexes which may be termed unbeneficial to andragogy. This is
because, such persons in all their manners and attitude, project not andragogy
but the discipline in which they had their initial training even while in a
Department of Adult Education. Indeed, you have a feeling that these persons are
somewhat ashamed to be associated with andragogy. This state of things is
naturally unprofitable to adult education.
Those who have read about the history of higher education
in Nigeria, would recall that the British did insist that the establishment of
Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan, should be conditioned
upon the acceptance by Nigerian authorities to have a Department of Extra-mural
studies come on stream as the university takes off.
While the rationale for this requirement was not initially
clear in the mind of Nigerian authorities, the looming question in the mind of
the British was “What purpose would a university which is a highly specialized
institution serve in a vastly and immensely illiterate society?”
One way of justifying the relevance of a university in such
a society according to the British is to link from the onset the activities of
such a university to those of the society within which it is located. Thus,
while egg heads in all areas of human endeavour would be labouring towards the
development of perfection theories, the Department of Extra-mural Studies would
be taking across and beyond the “mur” that is, beyond the “wall” of the
university into the larger society a number of theories that could be applied
with the view to practically spurring society to material and intellectual
development.
Such then was the initial mission of the adult education
unit of the country’s premier university. As time went on however, the other
departments of adult education which got established in the country could not
keep this mission in focus; they, unlike the Extra-mural studies unit and later
the Department of Adult Education of University of Ibadan, were not able to
combine academic tradition with vibrant community service. They fell prey to the
prevailing mood in univerites thoughout the country that a university teacher is
a dweller in some sort of ivory tower and a kind of icon who is to be kept
insulated from the dust of the masses.
Yet, adult education or andragogy is both a tool for
development and a field of study. As a tool for development, andragogy is in
need of committed researchers who will be able to link the products of their
research to life outside the walls of the university; the call for such a state
of things has become even more relevant and pressing since the world fingered in
1993, nine countries as being the ones retarding and withholding world progress
and development.
It was in 1993, in New Delhi, India; development experts
and education specialists drawn from developed and developing countries gathered
to review the progress of the world since the world education summits of the
1940s and 1950s. After many days of deliberation, the conference came out with
the conclusion that nine countries are retarding the advancement of the world;
these countries were identified as Nigeria, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Indonesia, China, Brazil and Mexico. The major characteristics of these
countries were that 1) they are high population countries holding within their
borders more than half of the world’s population 2) they display the highest
percentages of illiterate population according to the official records of
literacy in the world 3) they exhibit with disturbing magnitude the ugly
consequences of illiteracy which include, poverty, debilitating health,
ignorance, high rate of infant mortality, high rate of maternal mortality,
unstable governments and absence of democratic culture.
The developed countries of the world have since earmarked a
portion of their wealth to assist these nine countries in remedying their
situation since the said countries hold more than half of the population of the
world and since the world can never make significant progress if half its
population leaves in abject poverty. In any case, overlooking the situation in
these nine countries would definitely spell doom for the richest countries of
the world since the populations of those countries would increase their nuisance
value through such practices as illegal immigration, syndicated fraud and
gansterism.
Andragogues and their capacity building skills are being
used the world over to address this gigantic problem. However, the participation
of Nigerian andragogues are currently minimal in this world venture.
As a field of study, andragogy is still struggling to
firmly establish itself. As it happened elsewhere, pioneer Nigerian andragogues
began by borrowing concepts, constructs and structures from pedagogy, the Arts
and other social sciences. However, unlike what happened elsewhere, Nigerian
andragogues, have not been able to pay back their initial loans to pedagogy, the
Arts and other sciences with the view to breaking clean from well and long
established academic traditions. Nigerian andragogues have not been able to
contribute significantly to the endeavour of creating a bold frontier around the
field of andragogy.
To create this bold frontier, it is imperative to generate
andragogical theories; to generate andragogical therories, it is mandatory to
work with and among the prime clients of andragogy that are adult learners.
As a result of lack of financial, material and
infrastructural means, within the university system, many andragogues have not
been able to indulge in the types of research that would significantly push back
the frontier of adult education.
Unfortunately, as long as andragogues would be this
incapacitated, so long would they not be able to prove clearly the difference
between andragogy and pedagogy and so long would they be oppressed by older and
better established disciplines; and so long would the pedagogical and
andragogical warfare last.
THE FUTURE OF ANDRAGOGY IN
NIGERIA
The future of this young discipline resides in the ability
of andragogues to shake off all constraints with the view to engaging in
meaningful investigations.
There exists on the international scene, funds and
opportunities that can be accessed with the view to making work and
investigations at home more prolific than they have been.
It is true that recent development whereby stories of
corruption seem to have dented collective and national image and the fact that
Nigeria features on the American list of terrorist counties, serve as ripples
that do bring frustrations from time to time.
Yet, andragogy still remains a priority area among Euro-american
funding agencies, the funds of which 6 hard working out of 10 Nigerians living
in this supposed terrorist country can still access. Naturally, to benefit from
these funds, proposals must reflect fair level of competence in research skills.
If there exists some andragogues who are not sure of competence in this area,
the Association of African Universities is currently opening up opportunities
for strengthening research skills of university staff members and this
opportunity should be seized for the purpose of advancing adult education.
Specifically the
Association of African Universities (AAU) is mounting its maiden Higher
Education Research Training in Gaborone, Botswana between the 13 and 27 August,
2005. This training is organized free of charge to participants. All
opportunities (including this one) that can be exploited with the view to
equipping themselves with skills that can help in advancing the cause of
Andragogy are to be seized by andragogues.
Lastly, University
Vice-Chancellors and Deans of Education would have contributed their own quota
in promoting the development of Andragogy when they resist the temptation of
posting to Departments of Adult Education, persons without training in Andragogy.
CONCLUSION
Pedagogy and andragogy are two aspects of the science of
education. The latter, having been evolved recently, is not quite understood by
the generality of faculty of education staff members. This lack of understanding
or indeed this misunderstanding of andragogy has caused some friction between
the proponents of the two branches of education.
Although eventually, the current tension will give way to
more fruitful collaboration between pedagogues and andragogues, more efforts
must be deployed at present by andragogues to assert themselves through hard
work aimed at pushing back the frontiers of andragogical knowledge.
REFERENCES
1.
Butts, Freeeman
(1973) In this book, THE EDUCATION OF THE WEST sets the beginning of Greek
education at about 800 B.C p.79
2.
Boyd, W. &
King, E. (1972) The History of Western Education London: Adam & Charles Black
p.9
3.
Ibid, p.9
4.
Ibid,p21
5.
Ibid,p.25
6.
Ibid,p.43
7.
Ibid,p.
8.
Conner,
M.L.”Andragogy and Pedagogy” Ageless Learners, 1997-2004 http:ii
agelesslearner.com/intros/andragogy.htme.
9.
http.//www.infed./thinkers/et-knowl.htm
10.
Ibid.
TOP
APPENDIX
Professor IDOWU BIAO: A CITATION
by
Dr. Yemisi Obashoro-John
Dept. of Adult Education, University of Lagos.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen. All other
protocols duly observed. Permit me to introduce the Guest Lecturer of today.
Idowu Emmanuel Ayinde Agunbiade Anjorin Biao was
born in Sabe 49 years and 8 months ago. More precisely, he was born on 26
November, 1955 at about 4. a.m to Mr. Alexander Biao, a carpenter and to Mrs
Alake Yeba Biao, a petty trader.
Sabe is
a border town which stands astride on the line separating Oyo State from
Republic of Benin. The young Idowu began his primary education in Sabe shortly
after he was sent to stay with an uncle of his who was at the time, a coacoa and
timber tree farmer.
The
circumstances of his birth, introduced Idowu early to farm work as his primary
education period was shared between schooling and working on the plantation of
his uncle. Much of the farm lays on the Republic of Benin portion of Sabe while
the sales points were mainly in Ijio, Okeho and Sabe in Nigeria.
After
successfully completing his secondary school education both in Sabe and
Porto-Novo, he crossed over to Ibadan in 1974 to seek the advice of another
uncle of his who was at the time a Professor of Linguistics at the University of
Ibadan. The consultation opened his eyes to a variety of higher education
opportunities. He could train to become a lawyer if he wished; he could also be
a journalist and he could train to lecture in the university.
Although his initial interest went to the legal profession, his father Alexander
who had risen to become a lay reader in the Methodist Church would not have him
read law. According to the man of God (Alexander’s nick name) (May his soul
abide with the Lord), lawyers cannot be relied upon on issues of truth and
Godliness. Idowu therefore went ahead to train both as a jounalist and as a
lecturer.
He sat
for the University of Lagos National N.C.E Entrance Examination from Government
College, Keffi, Benue-Plateau State where he was a teacher of French in 1975.
Successful at this entrance examination, he was admitted to read the Nigeria
Certificate of Education (NCE) from 1976 to 1979 and a Bachelor of Arts in
Education with focus on Adult Education between 1981 and 1983 in the same
university of Lagos. He completed a Masters study in Adult Education in 1984
and by 1989 he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Adult Education from
the same University of Lagos.
It was
during the study period for his Bachelor of Arts (Education) that Idowu enrolled
for the correspondence study in Journalism with the London School of
Journalism. After 18 months of Journalistic study that ran concurrently with
the Bachelor study, Idowu bagged the London School of Journalism Diploma in
Journalism with prizes in 1983.
Idowu
was recruited as Graduate Assistant in his alma mater Department and University
in 1987 and was tipped for appointment as Lecturer II in 1989 even before he
defended his Doctoral thesis. However, before the formalities of his appointment
in the University of Lagos could be concluded, two other universities had
expressed their desire to have him.
Judging
that he had spent all his 12- year student’s life at the University of Lagos, he
opted for new horizons and new adventures. Therefore by September 1990, he
joined the service of Bayero University, Kano as Lecturer I in the Department of
Adult Education and Community Services; he quickly moved up through the academic
ladder and after a ten-year stay in Kano, he moved to the University of Calabar
with the request that he be appointed Professor of Adult Education with effect
from 2001. Since such a request is never granted without the due process, he
was requested to turn in to the Registry of the University of Calabar the
credentials that support his professorial application. He did and by May 2005,
Idowu was formally appointed Professor of Adult Education with effect from 2001
in the University of Calabar.
Ladies
and gentlemen, so has it been therefore that within eleven short years after
bagging his Ph.D., Idowu had become a Professor of Adult Education.
The
distinguished lecturer of today, I mean Professor Idowu Emmanuel Ayinde
Agunbiade Anjorin Biao currently has more than one hundred (100) publications to
his credit. These publications are made up of 7 books, 43 Journal articles,
many of them in foreign journals and more than 50 monographs.
Between 1990 to date, Idowu has attended more
than 70 national and international adult education conferences and workshops and
he is now on his way to another international adult education conference holding
in Bamako, Mali between August 9 and 13, 2005. He is Consultant to many United
Nations bodies that have adult education as part of their mission and he
specifically was appointed in 1999, member of UNESCO Network of Literacy For
Developing Countries.
Professor Idowu Biao is married to Esohe
Patience who was nee Obaseki. The couple is blessed with 3 children (Ope, Dotun
and Ayo); the family currently lives on the campus of the University of Calabar,
Calabar, Cross River State.
Mr. Chairman Sir, Ladies and Gentlemen, please
join me in welcoming back home, a distinguished academic, an academic of
national and international repute, an andragogue, a gerontologist and an
indefatigable advocate of adult education.
TOP
| 
