Economic Literacy and Grassroots Governance:
Reconceiving Numeracy in Adult LearningSummary
Background/Rational
Economic Literacy
Numeracy in Reflect
Fusing Economic Literacy and Reflect:
Theoretic Roots
In Practice
Gender
Project Description
Summary
This project aims to bring together organisations working with Reflect and those working in the field of economic literacy.
- The ideas and methodologies of Reflect will be used increase the impact of economic literacy work. This will be achieved through strengthening the capacity of organisations working in economic literacy to engage with the most marginalised community members.
- Those organisations already working with Reflect will benefit from a deeper understanding of economic literacy issues; an increased emphasis on linking local realities to wider processes; and discovering how decisions at national or international level affect the local situation.
This is an 'action research' project which will work at 2 levels. There will be 3 countries directly involved in the project. However, the aim will be to reach a wider community of practitioners through various methods. During the 2 year project experiences and ideas will be shared to increase innovation and learning. There will be a final workshop and publication to disseminate learning and approaches to other organisations working in similar areas.
Background/Rationale
If poor people are to access their rights and improve their situation they need to be able to make their voices heard in economic policy debates, both at local and national level, and internationally. To do this they need confidence and understanding of the issues at hand, this requires a focus on strengthening people's 'economic literacy' skills.
The term 'economic literacy' covers a wide range of areas. It can refer to anything from making decisions as to where and when to buy and sell local produce to understanding global markets and government expenditure patterns. One area of primary importance is budgets. In order to engage in the budgetary process an understanding of various aspects of economic literacy is needed. For example, how revenue is raised, and what taxes are paid. Further, social expenditure is premised on a wide range of statistical information - much of which may be inaccurate. In this situation economic literacy could be taken to mean that people at the grassroots produce alternative statistics that reflect their understanding of the local reality - with the aim of using these to influence expenditure decisions. A slightly different angle is social and economic monitoring - focusing on national or local government - and aiming to increase their accountability and transparency. Here economic literacy implies tracking government expenditure, ensuring that money is spent as allocated.
There are many organisations that focus on strengthening the capacity of communities in the area of economic literacy, for example the National NGO Fair Share which works in South Africa. Using two different, but overlapping, strategies they aim to build the capacity of communities to participate effectively in democratic governance. Firstly, they facilitate workshops, bringing together community leaders and local government officials to discuss budgets and policy making at local level. Secondly they run an accredited course for potential community leaders; focusing on economic literacy and community transformation. The expectation is that people who have attended the course will work with their own community to increase their influence in budgetary allocation/decision making.
Community involvement in budgetary decision making has also formed a key part of IBASE's (Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Analysis) work. They have focused specifically on how budget decisions affect children, training 'social actors' in budget analysis skills. The work in Porto Alegre, where the municipal budget was devolved to the local population in order for them to decide how to best spend the money is a very famous example of community involvement in budgetary decision making. This work has been mirrored in the UK where various local governments have devolved part of their regeneration grants to the local community.
Limits of Economic Literacy
Economics is complex, and decisions are dependent on many variables and assumptions. Official documents are often jargon-loaded, which excludes all but the most highly educated. Organisations working in economic literacy have wide reaching understanding of economic matters but often struggle in involving the poorest people in the process. Fair Share comment that they have 'difficulty in training on economic issues - including working with numbers and graphs, due to blockages that many people have about numbers. This has also been a problem when working with basic statistical concepts which can be used to measure development /underdevelopment' (Fatima Pandy).
Economic analysis is dependent on mathematics. Many poor people have had little or no formal education and have little confidence in their mathematical abilities. Even (or in many cases especially!) people who have gone through a formal education system often feel that their numeracy skills are very limited. In fact the word mathematics holds negative connotations for many. Thus, to increase capacity in economic literacy, there needs to be a focus on unlearning negative attitudes to maths and building confidence in basic numeracy skills.
To date, work with communities in the area of Economic Literacy has often used one-off/ stand-alone exercises or a series of short workshops. It has been treated as a distinct activity, separate from the wider process of adult learning. It is precisely this lack of an ongoing process, and the failure to recognise wider needs, that has meant the most marginalised people are excluded from the debates.
Unlike many adult education programmes numeracy was always seen as an important part of the Reflect approach, and in the original Reflect material each graphic is accompanied with suggestions for numeracy work. One major strength of Reflect, in relation to numeracy, is the PRA techniques. The emphasis on visual representations and the construction of graphics is intrinsically mathematical. Further many of the graphics, such as matrices, pie charts and bar charts (calendars) use mathematics explicitly in the analysis.
Limits of Numeracy
Despite this promising premise, work with numeracy, in most Reflect practice, has tended to be reduced to abstract mechanical exercises containing numbers that have little bearing on the learners' reality. The mathematical basis of most PRA visualisations is not recognised, and the full potential of the graphics is not utilised. This is mainly due to Reflect practitioners holding a narrow understanding of numeracy (as equivalent to arithmetic), and the fact that no mathematics education theory was used to shape numeracy in Reflect. Numeracy is not fully integrated in to the Reflect process, or used to deepen critical analysis. The conceptual problems of numeracy in Reflect are exacerbated by the lack of confidence in mathematical ability found at every level in Reflect - among project coordinators, trainers and facilitators.
A further problem with Reflect, and PRA in general, is its tendency to romanticise local knowledge - encouraging people to analyse their reality without making links to the wider influences on their situation. This can mean that people get locked into micro-level analysis, isolated from the wider context and failing to understand how national or even international forces impact on their lives.
Theoretical Roots
By reconceiving numeracy in Reflect, the approach becomes a powerful means of overcoming the limits of economic literacy work. In addition, the economic literacy focus will enable groups working with Reflect to expand their analysis and advocate for their rights. The economic literacy framework implies participation in decision making, holding governmental bodies to account thus increasing good governance at a local level.
Drawing on a wider understanding of numeracy, as being about solving problems, analysing issues and expressing information clearly and concisely (and spanning written, oral and mental forms), the reconception of numeracy is informed by 2 areas of mathematical research.
1. Reflect ideology suggests that the skills that people bring to a Reflect circle must be valued and used as a basis for any further analysis.
This proposition is supported by Ethnomathematics, which among other things focuses on recording and trying to understand the mathematics used by different groups of people in different contexts. Conclusions from this body of research indicate that every adult has devised or inherited certain techniques for solving the daily problems they face, meaning that it is unlikely that any adult is 'innumerate'. However, little of this research has been translated into practice; although there is a wide range of information about how people operate mathematically there has been very limited experience of using this information within an education process. Further, there are definitional problems with ethnomathematics - in attempting to identify the different mathematical strategies ethnomathematicians have tended to use a western 'lens' - something is only seen as mathematical if it has the appearance of a 'typical calculation'.
Reflect offers a way of overcoming both these problems. Through using techniques, which allow people to discover their prior skills participants, would learn to value and build on their knowledge - rather than it being undermined through introducing formal calculation methods (which is what has happened in Reflect and other adult education programmes). Moreover, as Reflect participants define their own learning needs, it would be the participants themselves who would define what is mathematical. In this way not only would the ideas of ethnomathematics strengthen numeracy in Reflect, but Reflect will enhance ethnomathematics in practice.
An alternative research area, Critical Mathematics, is used to strengthen this idea. Here the emphasis is on critically examining and challenging mathematics in its various forms, as it appears in our world. Based on the observation that much information is presented mathematically, and that mathematics is not a neutral subject, Critical Mathematics implies making meaning in mathematics. Numeracy does not only help in analysis at a local level but should be used to link micro-level events with macro-level processes. Conceived in this way numeracy becomes much more than just numbers and arithmetic, it becomes a highly effective way to work with issues of democratisation and accountability. By examining the wider picture common themes, which keep people in a situation of poverty, will be uncovered.
In practice:
As suggested above, any numeracy process would begin by enabling people to recognise the skills they already possess. Emphasising the importance of an on-going democratic space where all (i.e. not just community leaders) community members can meet and participate equally, the following examples illustrate how the Reflect approach could be used to increase the impact of Economic Literacy work. The key to the success of this work is seeing it as part of a wider process of learning. By incorporating economic literacy into such an ongoing process of adult learning, the most marginalised people will be able to engage in issues of democratisation and accountability, not only increasing the significance of the work but also it's sustainability. The aim is to build their knowledge and confidence in these skills though using them in concrete contexts, such as:Budget analysis: enabling people to critically 'read' different budgets (such as those in their household, community group or those of NGOs, Local Government, and National Government) and propose alternatives. This includes looking at the decision-making processes involved in producing budgets in order to increase transparency and accountability in budgetary practice.
Statistics: situating the local in the context of the national or international situation. This could include areas such as land tenancy, health or education (e.g. looking at service provision (per capita) in the local area, regionally or nationally, or looking at access to services, how many people make use of each service, who are they, etc.). Such work not only involves looking at the different statistics available, but questioning the validity of the statistics, examining regional disparities and producing alternative statistics. Another area is electoral registers - what percentage of the population are registered - how does this differ in different areas, gender disparities etc.
Money: A particular focus could be how commodity prices vary over the year - and how the trends are different in different regions. An additional focus could be on credit/loans and debt - looking at different types of credit and linking poverty and debt issues on a local, national and international scale.
Gender
Gender is a crucial aspect to consider when looking at economic literacy. Budgets are frequently constructed without a full analysis of the different spaces men and women occupy and the types of activity they are involved in - this leads to expenditure decisions favouring certain parts of the population (usually men). Categories used in statistics are also often misleading - for example in many countries out of work married women are not considered unemployed. In the same way reproductive labour is not included as part of national GDP.
Reflect provides a space where traditionally silent voices can be heard. A particular focus in fusing economic literacy and Reflect will be to ensure that analysis of the various issues has a gender dimension.
Project Description
Objective: To develop practical examples in diverse contexts of how economic literacy work can involve poor and marginalised people to improve governance and accountability.
Strategy: To bring together, for the first time, organisations with expertise either in Reflect or Economic Literacy. By fusing these experiences those organisations involved will develop more creative, participatory and effective approaches to economic literacy.
Direct outcomes at project level:
* increased community involvement in budgetary decisions
* better understanding of power issues in resource allocation.
* increased accuracy of local statistics/analysis of local needs
* resource allocation/policies in favour of poor/marginalised populations
* understanding of how taxes relate to government functions - and that basic services are a right.
* Better monitoring of government expenditure
* increased accountability/transparency of government to local communities
* recognition of the links between micro reality - macro processesWider Project Outcomes
* spread of innovative practice throughout (and beyond) the duration of the project.
* practical examples which can be adapted appropriately in different contexts.
Location: There is very large demand to be part of this project, however the main focus of the project will be in 3 countries (the following countries have shown the most interest: South Africa, Mozambique, Brazil, Peru, Nepal or the UK). However, there will be a wider structure of countries/organisations/neworks closely linked to the project via exchange visits, publication, workshops and through the International Reflect Network (CIRAC). There will also be links to the Elimu Education Campaign - especially in relation to an education budget-tracking project which is currently active in three countries (Brazil, Kenya and Bangladesh). A 'project coordinator' will be recruited to promote continual learning and exchange between the implementing organisations.
