Learning to change: A case study of popular education among immigrant women
Author(s):
Richard, Anne Marie
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : University of California, Berkeley, 2004.
Pages:
202
Language:
English
Abstract:
This research presents a case study of popular education among a group of Latina and Hmong immigrant and refugee women participants in an educational program of the Pan Valley Institute (PVI). PVI is an organization that provides a gathering place and educational opportunities for immigrant activists and advocates in California's Central Valley. In this study I explore the various ways that participation in popular education has had an impact on the lives of this diverse group of women, particularly with regard to their civic participation and social change efforts. Popular education is a community education effort, aimed at empowering adults through cooperative study and action, directed toward achieving a more just and equitable society. It is both a theory and a practice of social action geared toward developing the capacity of marginalized people to transform the world. This research examines how the popular education model can be applied within a multicultural group; how a multiethnic group of women can come to see their problems as shared across cultures, and not just as problems unique to their cultural groups; and how this form of adult learning and organizing may contribute not only to increasing civic participation among immigrant women, but also to deepening our understanding of what civic participation means. At the current historical and political moment the issues under study in my research are particularly significant. A society such as the United States, that strives to be democratic, depends upon an informed and engaged populace if it is to advance in achieving its vision of a just and equitable society through democratic processes. Yet marginalized groups such as immigrant women face barriers to participation in the political process, such as language, social isolation, undocumented legal status and antiimmigrant sentiment. Often these barriers actually keep these groups from holding and exercising some of their most fundamental rights as members of a democratic society. By documenting PVI's young history of working with immigrant women, this research contributes a contemporary local example, and the new knowledge produced by it, to the rich, global history of popular education movements in empowering marginalized peoples to exercise their democratic rights and make collective efforts to solve community problems.