The Values of Informal and Non-Formal Education in Health and Language Devalopment

For as important as formal classroom education is to student knowledge development, learning and socialization that take place outside of the classroom—in non-formal or informal settings—are just as important. This is due to the value of lifelong learning. As noted in a previous post, exposure to language and academic registers are vital from birth and throughout pre-primary childhood in ensuring language and literacy acquisition. However, education takes place outside the classroom throughout our lives, and plays a key role in the development of a nation and community. Cameron & Harrison observed that life and work experience (informal and non-formal learning, respectively) were in fact more important for skills development than formal education (2012), though their study took place in Australia. In developing countries, the impact of this type of learning may be more important or impactful. Huaman & Valdiviezo describe a study on the process of incorporating local Quechua community knowledge related to agriculture into education systems to improve local ecological practices of Peru. This education demonstrates tangible and ideally lasting benefits for the community and nation, as well as the ability of non-traditional education in adapting to and capitalizing on the needs of the local community (Huaman & Valdiviezo, 2012). This education can also be targeted using indigenous or minority languages in a way that capitalizes on learning benefits in the mother tongue, which research has shown to be more effective for young children than forcing students to learn a second language at the beginning of their schooling career (Brock-Utne, 2007).

Informal and non-formal education can take many forms and be spread through a variety of mediums. While issues of quality and accountability exist in the online education field, online courses are becoming an increasingly popular alternative or supplement to traditional education, including in developing contexts. The trend of online education could serve as an essay topic entirely by itself, but here only will be noted as one example of non-traditional education. One of the most common sectors of informal education is the spread of health knowledge and skills, often through mass media. This is very different than distance education provided by online organizations, and here refers mostly to public health campaign programs in developing countries. Though these campaigns, commonly utilized and funded by organizations such as USAID or UNICEF, often spread messages passively, they spread concrete knowledge “repeatedly, over time…and at a low cost per head” (Wakefield, et al., 2010). By combining effective messaging and pricing, these health programs have been a dominant form of public education across the world.

Public health campaigns often work through inspiring indirect change, targeting parents or social networks in order to influence others, including children, to change behavioral practices (Wakefield, et al., 2010). Just as parents represent a conduit through which to influence language exposure for their children (as noted in the previous post), they naturally provide a microphone through which to introduce ideals of health (or any other desired topic). In a study on childhood obesity in the United States, it was noted that the more frequently parents viewed images related to healthy foods and the ideal that limiting unhealthy foods prevents obesity, the more likely the parents were to keep track of their children’s unhealthy eating (Andrews, et al., 2010). Parents are regularly the targets for these health campaigns, but the proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” should be reminder enough that it is not enough to only target parents, but that changing the behaviors of all authority figures is important to improving the lives of children in a community.

These campaigns are not perfect, however, as their impacts can be diluted by competing messages or fail to reach their target audience, but have successfully dealt with issues as diverse as tobacco and alcohol abuse to the need for nutrition and physical activity to the importance of breastfeeding and immunization. The same techniques used to spread benevolent ideals of health and community could just as easily be utilized to spread negative messages about other groups or nations, fomenting conflict or violence. This has to do with the facts that education and knowledge are not inherently positive forces, but as neutrals, can also cause or be used to cause negative relationships or the loss of social capital.

Mass media campaigns, whether for health or for education in general, are often the most effective means of reaching minority groups in developing countries. They can be translated and distributed in various languages and targeted to specific regional populations. This can be costly, but less so than when attempting to translate and print a textbook into all the native languages of a nation such as Nigeria with around 500 languages (Danladi, 2013). Interactive Radio Instruction and other “entertainment education” has been proven to be effective for reaching those who would otherwise miss out on formal education, either as children or in their adult lives (often due to violence or infrastructure). Radio education can also have a strong impact on improving education for girls who, due to conflict in their home and the long trip to reach a formal schoolhouse, would otherwise not be allowed to attend school (Burde, 2014). Rugh notes how IRI has been implemented in 18 countries to teach math, science, and literacy, and can be incorporated into formal education settings through local facilitators, but have also been designed to be utilized individually (Rugh, 2012). Burde describes a radio soap opera in Rwanda, La Benevoencija, intended to influence political culture and target populations that still feel the effects of the nation’s conflict and promote reconciliation between the Hutu and Tutsi groups (Burde, 2012). Davies notes that radio education supports home education opportunities for girls in conflict zones, enabling them to gain important skills such as literacy in times when their families do not feel comfortable sending them to formal schooling that may be far away in dangerous areas (Davies, 2010). McAnany & Mayo describe three media campaign programs, the Radio Santa Maria program in Dominican Republic, the Nicaraguan Radio Mathematic Project, and the Indian Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), that were among the earliest foundational successes for the development of such media campaigns (McAnany & Mayo, 1980). These examples note the broad cultural and technological opportunities for education through non-formal and informal means, but also suggest the need for specifically targeted interventions in order to achieve significant impact and lasting change.

Informal and non-formal education are both vital parts of the education process. These forms of education are not intended to replace formal learning, but serve as a supplement, providing real life experience or information that falls outside of the typical structure of schools, and take advantage of alternative media of communication to reach those who cannot access the formal education of their nation.

Works Cited

Andrews, K., Silk, K.S., & Eneli, I.U. (2010) Parents as Health Promoters: A Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective on the Prevention of Childhood Obesity, Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, 15:1, 95-107.

Baker, D.P. (2014) The Schooled Society: The Educational Transformation of Global Culture. Stanford Press.

Brock-Utne, B. (2007). Learning through a familiar language versus learning through a foreign language—A look into some secondary school classrooms in Tanzania. International Journal of Educational Development 27(1). 487-498.

Burde, D. (2012). Assessing Impact and Bridging Methodological Divides: Randomized Trials in Countries Affected by Conflict. Comparative Education Review 56(3). 448-473.

Cameron, R. & Harrison, J.L. (2012). The interrelatedness of formal, non-forma and informal learning: Evidence from labour market program participants. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 52(2), 277-309.

Danladi, S.S. (2013). Language Policy: Nigeria and the Role of English language in the 21^st century. European Scientific Journal 9(17). 1-21.

Davies, L. (2010). The Different Faces of Education in Conflict. Society for International Development. 53(4). 491-497.

Huaman, E.S. & Valdiviezo, L.A. (2014). Indigenous knowledge and education from the Quechua community to school: beyond the formal/non-formal dichotomy. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 27(1). 65-87.

McAnany, E.G. & Mayo, J.K. (1980). Communication media in education for low-income countries: implementations for planning. UNESCO, International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris.

Rugh, A.B. (2012). International Development in Practice: Education Assistance in Egypt, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Palgrave Macmillan. NY.

Wakefield, M.A., Loken, B., & Hornik, R.C. (2010). Use of mass media campaigns to change health behavior. The Lancet, 376(1). 1261-1271.