Fostering community-based learning leadership: A Korea–Zambia project design

Abstract

Leadership in education begins with the establishment of a strong link between education and a healthy society. In the world's poorest areas, too often formal education systems have been imported with little thought as to how they integrate with the life of local communities. As a result, development projects aimed at education focus on inputs to schools – teachers, school buildings, textbooks, or exams rather than rethinking the larger question of how education is integrated into the larger purposes of community life, work, and identity. Korea, a new member of OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) desires to take a different approach that reflects the success of its own development and supports local values and structures. A project being designed for Zambia is conceived as an education project yet calls for a modest initial donor investment in agricultural inputs to boost agricultural output in the community. University students from Zambia and Korea will serve as project managers initially, rotating between university classes and field work. At the same time, data will be gathered on how the community learns and grows. This research will begin to build a body of literature on how such projects succeed. The proposed project addresses many of the concerns of development projects and lifelong learning approaches to economic growth. Education is community-supported and directed. Community learning involves the adults individually and collectively.

Citation

Ilon, L. and Malama, C. (2010), "Fostering community-based learning leadership: A Korea–Zambia project design", Normore, A.H. (Ed.) Global Perspectives on Educational Leadership Reform: The Development and Preparation of Leaders of Learning and Learners of Leadership (Advances in Educational Administration, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 285-300. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3660(2010)0000011017