Mother Tongue Based Education as Practical Application of Critical

Pedagogy to Reduce High Drop-out in Rural Areas in Timor-Leste.

Prepared by :

Pedro Ximenes

Flinders University

2104212

30 October 2013

Structure :

I. Fact sheet About Timor-Leste

II. Background

III. Problem Identification

IV. Theoretical framework

4.1. Critical pedagogy

4.2. Mother Tongue Based education

V. Conclusion

VI. Feedbacks

I. Fact sheet about Timor-Leste

Area : 14,874 sq km (160 )

Population : 1,172,390 (160)

Age structure : 0-14 years: 42.7% (male 257,340/female 243,174)

15-24 years: 19.7% (male 116,605/female 114,203)

25-54 years: 29.3% (male 166,048/female 177,024)

55-64 years: 4.8% (male 28,717/female 27,011)

65 years and over: 3.6% (male 20,428/female 21,840)

Adult literacy rate : 58.3%

GDP per capita : $10,000 (119)

Languages : Tetum (official), Portuguese (official),

Indonesian, English (Working languages)

There are about 16 indigenous languages

Urban population: 28.3% of total population

II. Background 70,3 % live in rural area

Dropout rate in the rural areas is substantially higher then in urban

areas.

GER at primary level both rural and urban : around 105 %

Pre-secondary GER : rural 60,5 % <> urban 115,2 %.

Secondary GER : Rural 35.4 % <> urban 112.9%

Literacy rate : Rural 44.6 % <> Urban 80.9 %

EGRA (Early grade reading assessment ) in 2011 found that :

“More than 70% of students at the end of grade 1 could not read a

single word of the simple text passage. 40% of children were not

able to read a single word at the end of grade 2; and the share of

children scoring zero dropped to about 20% at the end of grade 3.

The assessment provides clear evidence that many children spend

years in primary schools in Timor‐Leste without learning to read”

(UNICEF, 2011)

The lack of understanding of schooling system targeting children at early grades and call for the improvement of preschool program, and establishment of national reading standard.

III. Problem identification

Rural Poverty Lack of funding (funding inequalities)Limited access to educational resourcesGeographic isolationCultural factorsThe use of Mono language system of education

(intensive submersion program ) against fact that Timorese is multilingual.

IV.1. Critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire (Theoretical Framework )

Brazilian educator and philosopher, a

leading advocate of critical pedagogy

and an expert in adult literacy

program.

He is best known for his influential

work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed,

which is considered one of the

foundational texts of the critical

pedagogy movement.

Critical Pedagogy of Paulo freire

Involves not only reading the word, but also reading the world (Freire & Macedo, 1987) .

The Freirean approach to adult literacy education bases the content of language lessons on learners' cultural and personal experiences.

The two most distinctive features of the Freirean Approach are dialogue/dialogic and problem-posing.

Opposed to the Banking Model of education (Freire, 1970, p. 77)

A critical pedagogy must be a pedagogy of place, that is, it must address the specificities of the experiences, problems, languages, and histories that communities rely upon to construct a narrative of collective identity and possible transformation. (McLaren & Giroux, 1990, p. 263) .

(Gruenewald, 2003) emphasized that ” Critical pedagogy cannot be only about struggles with human oppression, it also must embrace the experience of being human in connection with the others and with the world of nature “.

IV.2. Mother tongue based Education

Why Using mother tongue ?

Timor-Leste is multilingual society

The current program of submersion

proved to be unsuccessful

The current education system

alienates and disengage students from

rural areas, as they feel not connected

to the content and language used to

teach.

The resources available to support

submersion program in rural areas are

limited.

“ If you talk to a man in a

language he understands, that

goes to his head. If you talk to

him in his language, that goes to

his heart “

Nelson Mandela

4.2. Mother tongue based EducationMother tongues are the home languages of leaners,

also known as “first language (L1)”

The principle of mother tongue-based multilingual is creating an efficient system of education and recognizes the cultural diversity .

It seeks to create an educational system that : builds on what learners know, facilitates beginning literacy, supports learners’ identity formation, makes learning relevant and enjoyable, links generations in continued learning, encourages collaboration between teachers and families, promotes leaner-centered methodologies

Mother tongue Multilanguage education looks at achieving three basic purposes:

To Ensure that all learners will understand and benefit from literacy and content learning;

To valorize and build upon local community languages, culture and identity so that education is made relevant to the need of learners, their communities, and Timorese national society;

To facilitate the learning of additional languages, most immediately the co-official language tetum and Portuguese.

V. Conclusion It tries to respond to Paulo Freire critique of traditional relationship of

teacher and student of “banking system”, as this system promotes a learner centered approach.

The approach follows the principle of critical pedagogy of place (Gruenewald, 2003) that emphasized” Critical place-based pedagogy cannot be only about struggles with human oppression, it also must embrace the experience of being human in connection with the others and with the world of nature

The pedagogy is based on social change education. As Choules (2007) stated “the pedagogy is employed as a tool for engaging people to transform unjust social, economic, and political conditions”

This approach tries to respond to the current system of education that resulted in alienation and disengagement of student by promoting learning more enjoyable and with local content and the involvement of parents and community

Thank you

“feedbacks please !!”

References :Choules, K. 2007. Social Change Education: Context

Matters. Adult Education Quarterly, 57:159.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum Publishing Corporation.

Freire, Paulo, and Donaldo P. Macedo. Literacy : reading the word & the world Critical studies in education series. South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, 1987.

Gruenewald, David A. 2003. The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place, Educational Researcher, 32(4), pp. 3 – 12.