What is Community Education by Fluent Staff?

Questioning Everything First

Compared to traditional education, where the teacher possesses knowledge and the learner receives it, when we talk about non-formal community education, we should think of it in three dimensions: as education WITH communities, THROUGH communities, and sometimes FOR communities.

The educator doesn’t necessarily arrive with all the answers. The community itself possesses knowledge, experience, culture and resources. So the questions become:

“What does this community need?”

“What does the community already know?”

“Who has been excluded from learning?”

“Who has power?”

“Who gets to define the problem?”

“What knowledge is considered legitimate?”

“How can learning lead to collective action?”

“How can education change not just individuals, but communities?”

That last question is particularly important!

Community Education & Community Development

The philosophy behind community education often depends on the main challenges faced by the majority. Imagine a rural village in Bali where young people are leaving because there are no good economic opportunities. This is where it becomes interesting. A conventional education approach might say:

“Let’s teach them English to attract more foreign tourists!”

Community education asks a much bigger set of questions:

“Why are young people leaving?”

“What resources does the community already possess?”

“What traditional knowledge exists?”

“What industries could realistically develop?”

“What skills are missing?”

“Who controls local economic resources?”

“What do young people themselves want?”

“Can education help the community create its own solutions?”

So education becomes connected to community development. In our case, Fluent Staff concentrates on the hospitality and tourism sector, enhancing it through language learning, which is crucial for communication between foreign guests and local staff. Through language education, we aim to:

• promote foreign language literacy

• produce more employable and competent workers

• transmit cross-cultural understanding in tourism

• ensure fair pay and employment in hospitality

• empower marginalized people from remote areas

Community Participation

Unfortunately, education is never completely politically neutral. Just like Paulo Freire, best known for “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, criticized the traditional education where teachers push learning into passive students who memorize and repeat it, suppressing curiosity and critical thinking. Instead he proposed teachers and students act as co-investigators, whereas learners develop deeper awareness of their own environment, initiate model of mutual dialogue and problem solving, and as a result, empower and contribute to the social change for the community they are themselves a part of.

Or in short, Paulo asks us to rethink the relationship between teacher and learner. Instead of:

Teacher = expert

Student = empty vessel

He proposes a more dialogical relationship where people learn through dialogue, reflection and action.

Such approach itself laid the foundation for our syllabus of the language training as the staff asked:

“How do we initiate a small talk?”

“How to handle complaints without upsetting the guest?”

“How to sell without sounding too pushy?

“How to ask but not beg for a review?”

When encouraged to reflect and question, community participation becomes the byproduct of community curiosity, open dialogue and problem solving spirit.

Talk to Us

From a training course into a bigger movement, Fluent Staff encourages YOU to enter the dialogue and share your voice through our social media channels and Blog, paving a pathway for others to follow and help uplift the hospitality community.

Reach out via mayra@fluent-staff.com