CAPACITY BUILDING and COMMUNITY EDUCATION

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CAPACITY BUILDING and COMMUNITY EDUCATION

• Pacific Comprehensive Center
• Webinar Session
• June 11, 2008
• Joann Sebastian Morris

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BACKGROUND

• The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act urges
  increased parental/stakeholder participation in
  educational planning, assessment and
  accountability.
• How do we expand community-wide involvement in
  ways that match the diverse Pacific cultures,
  traditions, attitudes and behaviors?

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CURRENT and FUTURE MODELS

• New models for parental involvement across the
  Pacific have been developed and are showing
  positive results, such as the RMI Cluster PTA
  model shared by Evelyn Joseph in this webinar.
• We lack similar models for engaging the general
  public in education.
• Traditional communication systems often limit
  communication among certain social classes and
  between genders.

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• Contemporary communication systems may allow
  greater flexibility but also limit full
  expression by all parties, e.g. job titles may
  restrict all but a Secretary or Director from
  speaking.
• Education systems operate within tradition-rich,
  politically charged social systems. How do we
  navigate within such systems?

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WEBINAR TASK

• Lets consider the issue of youth suicide in the
  Pacific as a dramatic example of a longstanding
  concern, and discuss ways to engage Pacific
  educators and communities to reduce the number of
  suicide attempts.

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Our Challenge Shielding Students from Issues
that Trigger a Suicide Attempt

• Each year we read of more youths who attempt or
  succeed in a suicide. The numbers are alarming.
• The causes usually cited are conflict within the
  family, the breakdown of the extended family,
  lack of self-esteem, substance abuse, and
  romanticizing of suicide.

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WHOS TALKING ABOUT SUICIDE?

• Education systems know each student but alone
  cannot prevent youth suicides.
• How do we engage traditional leaders, extended
  family members, K-12 and college educators
  counselors, PTAs, legislators, business owners,
  church officials, NGOs, and young people
  themselves in this frightening, vital, social and
  education issue?

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WHO ELSE CAN WE INVOLVE?

• Are there other natural, non-titled leaders in
  the community?
• Are there male and female elders who could talk
  with youths when a problem arises?
• How can community organizations NGOs work more
  actively with the youth?
• How can parent groups strengthen family members
  ability to address family tensions
  constructively?

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PUBLIC WILL ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESS

• How do we heighten public awareness of the need
  to strengthen youth and families, and not shy
  away from the topic of youth suicide?
• The film, Morning Comes Too Soon, was recently
  completed in the RMI with teens addressing the
  suicide issue. It will inform a film festival
  audience in Hawaii in July 2008.
• To ensure similar action to improve public
  awareness is taken NOW, community involvement,
  public will, and political will are essential.

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COMMUNITY OUTREACH

• What forms of communication exist?
• Newspapers
• Radio Television
• Posters, publicly posted
• Church announcements
• Mic. Sem-like reports/documents
• Films

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GOAL PUBLIC CAPACITY BUILDING

• Any new initiative needs full public sector
  involvement for it to take hold and be
  successful.
• Involving as many stakeholders as possible in the
  initiative inevitably leads to discussion,
  debate, culturally appropriate action and,
  importantly, capacity building.

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RESOURCES re CAPACITY BUILDING and COMMUNITY
EDUCATION

• Emesiochl, Masa Aki N. (2007). Rethinking
  Education in Micronesia Strengthening
  Leadership and Commitment to Education in
  Research Into Practice. Honolulu, HI Pacific
  Resources for Education and Learning.
• Freire, Paulo. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed
  (30th Anniversay Edition). New York The
  Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc.
• Freire, Paulo and Ira Shorr. (1987). Freire for
  the Classroom A Sourcebook for Liberatory
  Teaching. Portsmouth, NH Boynton/Cook
  Publishers.
• Heine, Hilda C., Ed.D. (2002). No Child Left
  Behind Act of 2001 and Implications for the
  Pacific Territories and Freely Associated States.
  Honolulu, HI Pacific Resources for Education and
  Learning.
• Hezel, Francis X. S.J. Where are the Boundaries
  of Politics? in Pacific Islands Report, June
  19, 2007. Honolulu, HI University of Hawaii.
• Hezel, Francis X. S.J. The Myth of Education A
  Second Look in Micronesian Counselor, no. 33,
  March 2001. Kolonia, Pohnpei, FSM Micronesian
  Seminar.
• Hezel, Francis X. S.J. What Can We Do to Prevent
  Suicide? in Courier, no. 48, April 1990.
  Canberra Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult
  Education.

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Resources Contd

• Onikama, Denise L., Ormond W. Hammond and Stan
  Koki. May 1998. Family Involvement in
  Education A Synthesis of Research for Pacific
  Educators. Honolulu, HI Pacific Resources for
  Education and Learning.
• Petrus, Keres. (2001). A Practitioners Guide to
  School Community Based Management (SCBM).
  Honolulu, HI Pacific Resources for Education and
  Learning.
• Public Agenda Online. Just Waiting to be Asked?
  A Fresh Look at Attitudes on Public Engagement.
  www.publicagenda.org/specials/pubengage/pubengage.
  htm
• Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
  (SEDL) National Center for Family and Community
  Connections with Schools. (www.sedl.org/connection
  s). The National Center's goal is to link
  audiences with research based information and
  resources to connect schools, families and
  communities to increase student success.
• University of the South Pacific. (2002). Tree of
  Opportunity Rethinking Pacific Education. Suva,
  Fiji University of the South Pacific.