Nonformal education and development : a study with particular reference to three territories of the South Pacific; Fiji, New Caledonia and the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

Abstract

This study aims to apply some of the concepts relating nonformal education and socio-economic development to the study of a particular region, the South Pacific. The South Pacific, a much neglected region in comparative education, has territories colonized by the British, the French and, much later, the United States of America. This comparative study of nonformal education in Fiji, New Caledonia thus also illustrates three different perspectives of colonizing powers on how education was believed to contribute to the transformation of colonial possessions. Two somewhat separate bodies of theory are drawn on in this study, one is the general literature on education and development, which includes literature on quantitative change, content of schooling, educational techniques of "micro-social change", and a brief survey of prescriptive and research literature on nonformal education and development. The methodology of the study, based on "theoretical sampling" and the development of a typology of variables relevant to describing projects if nonformal education is also described in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 introduces the second major body of theory utilized: three major analytical paradigms through which the development process has been conceptualized. qne of these, that which views the level of development as determined by the degree of articulation of capitalist and pre-capitalist modes of production, is selected as the one which has the most explanatory power in analysing the contribution of nonformal education to development. The socio-economic development of Fiji, New Caledonia and the Trust Territory is then surveyed using this paradigm as a framework to identify relevant variables. Chapter 3 is a historic survey of the evolution of nonformal education in each of the three countries of the study, it relates the origin of projects to the social and economic climate at the time they originated and discusses the policy-making process with respect to nonformal education of each of the government administrations. It also highlights the regional context within which this policy-making takes place and identifies particularly important regional institutions. Chapter 4 looks at a range of programs for young people, including those which are intended as an alternative to formal schooling, less structured projects, complementary nonformal education, and training for youth leadership. Comparisons between the three countries show considerably different philosophies are behind their nonformal education projects for youth. Chapter 5 examines the question of women and nonformal education in the Pacific region. Women's nonformal education has been historically significant in the English-speaking countries of the region. Effects of women's training on the division of labour, the performance of domestic labour and its relationship to the cash economy are all issues which are addressed through a comparison of a number of projects. Training for leadership, in particular regional training and its costs and benefits are also examined.