Primary School Construction Part 1
As part of a school practicum, you are taking part in a 6-week awareness experience helping to build a primary school in a rural community. You are eager to discover the culture of the host country, and want very much to be of help and make a contribution. What should you consider before you leave on your trip?
1. Autonomy
When autonomy is held as the most important consideration, the preferences of the community are respected. In this case, it would mean finding out from the community what kinds of things volunteers should consider before coming to their community. Within the context of motivations, you might want to ask yourself the following questions:
- What are your motivations for this experience, and can you be honest about them with yourself and with your host community?
- What kinds of skills do you have to offer that don’t already exist within the community?
- If you still believe that your work is important, but some in the community disagree, what will you do? Should you always uphold the preferences of the community?
2. Ethical pluralism
According to ethical pluralism there are many different understandings of what is right or wrong, understandings which inevitably come into conflict with one another and which may be incommensurable. A value you consider “wrong” may be considered “right” by someone else; your motivations and actions in this host country may expose such differences.
- How are your reasons for going on the practicum motivated by your own ethical values? (i.e. what are you beliefs about what is “right” and “wrong” that relate to your going?)
- Are any of those values universal? Specifically, which of them might be different and in what way?
- Think about the differences you just considered: what kinds of conflict might arise and how might you resolve them?
- Are any of these differences irreconcilable? Is it always important to resolve these differences or conflicts?
3. Distributive Justice
When Justice is held as the most important consideration in your deliberations, resources are distributed equally to all individuals who are similarly situated. In this preliminary stage, a justice approach would suggest ensuring that the creation of your budget has involved all stakeholders, especially the intended beneficiaries of your project, because everyone is thought to be in a similar situation. Some questions may arise regarding Justice in this situation:
- What resources are at stake in this situation? (Name as many as you can – not just the obvious ones!)
- Is employment a resource? How might your practicum affect the distribution of employment?
- What values do you have besides distributing resources justly? Are they ever more important than distributive justice?
Primary School Construction Part 2
Your project involves working with a local NGO to build the primary school, who has begun to coordinate logistics pending your arrival. When you arrive you find that construction has not yet begun: the tools have been purchased (hammers, saws, buckets, shovels, hoes, pick axes, rakes, wheelbarrows etc.), but the villagers have taken them home and the delivery of building materials is repeatedly postponed. How do you respond?
1. Autonomy
When autonomy is held as the most important consideration, the preferences of the community are respected. Some questions that arise might be:
- Why did these people take the tools home?
- Does taking the tools home mean that the community thinks the primary school is not important? Can you ask if your project is important to them? [Additional Resource (something which may be more pressing than building a school…) Richardson, Stephen A., Helene Koller, Mindy Katz, Ken Albert. The contributions of differing degrees of acute and chronic malnutrition to the intellectual development of Jamaican boys. Early Human Development. 1978: 2(2) 163-171]
- Does it matter how you help the community – by giving tools, money, or time?
2. Ethical pluralism
When ethical pluralism is held as the most important consideration in your deliberations, many cultural norms are valid and acceptable even if they are not understood. Some questions that follow might be:
- What ethical or cultural norms might have resulted in this situation?
- How might your perception or understanding of others’ norms and practices be skewed or misinformed?
- What are your own norms regarding this situation? How might introducing these beliefs change the situation?
3. Distributive Justice
Justice would support the promotion of transparency to ensure that there is an equal opportunity to benefit from the use of the tools in a way that serves the whole community. Pay attention to power dynamics and see if anyone is being treated unfairly. Some questions that follow might be:
- Who benefits from the use of tools? One person? One family? The community? Who does not?
- How do you know the community wants the school built? How might you find out?
- What does your NGO expect from you and what are your responsibilities? How does that affect your application of distributive justice?
4. Appreciative Inquiry
What are you thinking and feeling in this situation? Why are you thinking / feeling that way? Who is involved in this situation, besides yourself? What do you imagine this situation might look like from the perspective of each of the key stakeholders? (ex. your host family, the local NGO, the host family) Who have you discussed this with, who haven’t you discussed this with and why? Where do you fit into this issue? Appreciative inquiry starts with the idea of ‘discovery’ – of inquiring more deeply into the situation, with a spirit of open curiosity but no judgment. This lays important groundwork for future decisions. The listed questions help the participant with the process of discovery – in the community but also within yourself.
Primary School Construction Part 3
A week later, your frustrated group leader suggests you work in the fields with your host family until your project gets under way. The family takes you to the field in the morning, but will not let you use the tools which you realize have been “borrowed” from the project. The head of the host family says the work is too hard for you, and you should take the opportunity to go to the beach and visit the capital. You want to contribute to the community in any way that you can, but do not want to offend your host family by refusing their generous offer and insisting on working. You are probably frustrated. How would you deal with this issue?
1. Autonomy
If autonomy were held as the most important consideration, then there would be support for the student leaving the family working in their own fields to sightsee around the capital because this is what community members want. Some questions to consider:
- What coping strategies can volunteers use if their idea of help differs from that of the community partners?
- What are the volunteer’s motivations for engaging – do they simply want to feel good about “helping,” or see the project succeed?
- Should volunteers go abroad to help with community-identified needs, or rather in whatever capacity they want?
2. Ethical pluralism
Ethical pluralism offers the view that there may be multiple ideas of “the right thing to do” in this situation. You might first consider what is going through the minds of your host family/group leaders. Some questions to consider are:
- How might locals view foreigners’ ability to work in the fields? What norms might exist about what to expect of foreigners?
- How might local and your own norms differ if you are a man or a woman?
- Which of your own and their own norms are in play when you say you want to work?
3. Appreciative Inquiry
In your imagination, fast forward yourself to the future (the end of your time in your placement). What has been accomplished regarding this situation? What are three wishes that you have in regard to the situation? Imagine these wishes being accomplished… what were the keys to your success? Who else around you is energized to take action? What strengths did you mobilize to achieve the accomplishments – in yourself and others around you? In envisioning this future, what is most valuable to you? Try to put yourself in this situation answering some of these questions….
These questions move you into the second stage of appreciative inquiry – ‘dream’. This stage asks you to imagine an ideal future with the underlying philosophy that there is a connection between what a community or organization focusses on and what type of future is created. The assumption is that by highlighting what is strong and vibrant about a community, it will continue to move in that direction. ‘Human systems grow in the direction of what they persistently ask questions about’ (Cooperrider and Whitney). This approach involves first envisioning an ideal future – instead of focusing on needs, or problems – and then identifying assets, strengths and capacities within the community that can be built on to achieve that future. This second part also involves an empowerment approach – each community member has assets and strengths to build on; by valuing community members, each person will feel connected to the success of the community, or realizing the particular future that you’re working together to build. In the focus on strengths and assets, AI is very much related to ‘Asset Based Community Development’. Because the ideal future is built on a positive core that is context-specific (‘the best of what is’ in the particular community) and because the community itself envisions the future – of which there infinite potentials – AI does not provide answers; rather it provides the process for a group of people to come up with their own answers and work towards these together. In a real life scenario, the next steps of the AI process would be to ‘design’ – start to pin down your ideal future into a very tangible vision and list immediate actions to take and then ‘deliver’ – actually doing those actions.
Academic Resources (6)
Buchanan, D. A. (1991). “Beyond Content and Control: Project Vulnerability and the Process Agenda.” International Journal of Project Management 9(4): 233-239.
Clary, E. G., M. Snyder, et al. (1998). “Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: A functional approach.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74(6): 1516-1530.
Crawford, P. and P. Bryce (2003). “Project Monitoring and Evaluation: A Method for Enhancing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Aid Project Implementation.” International Journal of Project Management 21(5): 363-373.
Njoh, A. J. (2002). “Barriers to Community Participation in Development Planning: Lessons from the Mutengene (Cameroon) Self-Help Water Project.” Community Development Journal 37(3): 233-248.
Raymond, E. M. and M. C. Hall (2008). “The Development of Cross-Cultural (Mis)Understanding Through Volunteer Tourism.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism 16(5): 530-543.
Sullivan, M., A. Kone, et al. (2001). “Researcher and Researched-Community Perspectives: Toward Bridging the Gap.” Health Education and Behaviour 28(2): 130-149.
Non-Academic Resources (3)
Asset-based Community Development Institute website from http://www.abcdinstitute.org/
International Institute for Sustainable Development from www.iisd.org
Mendleson, Rachel (2008).”Helping the World. And Me.” from http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008/09/19/helping-the-world-and-me/
Total (9)
