The
conference aroused a lot of hope and serious interest even before it started. There were
fruitful and highly varied preconference inputs through the internet. The occasion brought
together those with a long span of exploration and contribution in the field of critical
and creative learning, those involved more recently in efforts to give a different mode
and meaning to learning beyond institutions and some who had just become engaged in
questioning the educational system. Thus the conference held great potential and promise
for not only sharing and learning from each other but also for generating common insights
and ideas for redirection.
In
retrospect I feel that while sharing, learning and affirming were engaged in to a large
degree the concern for the common and overall view remained marginal. It could be that
there was no time for serious appraisal of what was coming through in the preconference
dialogue and what had come together at the start. Or perhaps it was done and decision made
to let the event shape itself rather than format it. Specifically, the aspect of purpose
of learning in relation to the purpose of human life and effort at this juncture of
history remained unexamined. This is where the generative idea of svaraj could
have come in and 'learning for svaraj and learning through svaraj' could
have emerged as one of the key themes of the conference.
About
'learning societies', right at the start Manish stated that there was no given concept
around this term and urged the participants to give their own meaning to it. One does not
know in what manner and to what extent this was done since there was no opportunity to
bring together thinking and expression around this phrase in a plenary. Some of us
reflected on the change of emphasis from schooling and education to learning in the
discourse on educational reform signifying opening up learning opportunities beyond
institutions and giving primacy to learning vis a vis teaching. This did not necessarily
mean any change in curricular content and learning objectives which remained tied to and
controlled by the instrumental rationality of modern development. A small inconclusive
discussion took place around learning efforts towards svaraj by local communities
in the grip of drought and natural resource degradation, through understanding their own
identities, traditions, resources and situation. As the post-conference reflections show
there were other important discussions in various groups around persons with experience
and wisdom. However, there was no opportunity to bring these together into the conference
around the theme of learning societies.
Finally,
some thoughts on learning, self and society. Focus on learning implies a shift from
systems to self. Schooling and education have been shaped in the systems of religion,
state and economy and function to serve their power and purposes. Learning as self-based
autonomous nature and as social sharing, dialogue and nurture are subordinated by the
demands of these command systems. This results in a loss of self and its
autonomy/authenticity as learner, individually, socially and universally. Therefore, the
first task for the learner or seeker becomes this recovery of self as learner, discovery
of others so engaged and affirmation/ validation of this pursuit. This is also the
prerequisite for svaraj. Beyond and even concurrent with this is learning as
search for meaning and purpose. It seems the mela, open space mode of conference
facilitated this recovery and recognition of self-as-learner for many participants in a
considerable measure.