Community education is a program aimed at promoting learning and social development among groups in the society using different formal and informal methods. It entails the approaches and occupations concerned with educating and developing the local community in their current setting rather than taking them into learning institutions or schools. Nancy Franz (2002) highlights four different approaches to community education. The first one is Service which entails functions conducted by educators bringing learners to the system to solve short-term problems. In this method, educators provide little content in delivering the services. This method is important for building a good relationship between the community learners and educators and fulfilling their needs. The second method is Facilitation. Instead of delivering content education, educators just facilitate group processes. This makes learners feel more involved in decisions that affect them. Thirdly is Content Transmission which entails development and distribution of information ensuring that the community members are always informed. Lastly is Transformational Education which entails developing of long-term education relationships with the learners and focus on initiating change. I believe Transformational Education is the best method for delivering education related to children and their families since it is not a one-time education event but rather a continuous process that changes the people's lives forever.
Many different techniques can be used to deliver community education. One is through professionals and another through democratic participation. Professionals such as Youth Information Workers, Local Community Planning Officers, Community Arts Workers, and the like work with the people and not for them; they empathize with the people to understand the issues they seek to help them through. Secondly, in Democratic countries, people can be encouraged to choose a representative of their group, for example, a youth, who leads them to form a forum in which they discuss their issues although a trained worker still guides them. These techniques are important since they enable the workers to help the community members without offending them, but rather making them develop a voice in decisions that affect them. The techniques also give the people a sense of self-worth and belonging to a society.
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References
Franz, N. (2002). Transformative Learning In Intraorganizational Partnerships, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
