Putting the P Back in Participatory

Abstract

0 The fact that participatory approaches to adult ESL are becoming increasingly popular is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, is heartening to see that participatory approaches are coming to be accepted as cutting edge rather than fringe views and that the field may even be on the verge of a paradigm shift. On the other hand, I am uncomfortable when the term participatory is used loosely to describe any approach that claims to involve learners in the shaping of curriculum goals or classroom processes. Often, the terms participatory and learner-centered are equated despite the fact that they have potentially different ideological implications, the former focusing on social transformation and the latter on self-realization. Although participatory pedagogy is rooted in a social change perspective, its inherently political nature is often obscured. As Edelsky (1991) says, Buzzwords and movements not only can promote change; they can prevent it (p. 161); my fear is that this may be the fate of participatory ESL. Whereas the learner-centered orientation puts primary emphasis on participants' involvement with curriculum development processes (i.e., on students setting their own goals, exploring their own experiences, shaping the curriculum, and evaluating their own learning), the participatory approach emphasizes drawing curriculum content from the social context of learners' lives as well as involving them in curriculum development processes. Whereas putting learners at the center of pedagogy is common to both views, they differ as to how and why this is done. The main tenet of the learner-centered approach is that adults learn best when they direct their own learning and their education is tailored to needs they have determined themselves. Further, the learner-centered approach posits a shift in the teacher's role from transmitter of information to facilitator of classroom dynamics and negotiator of the curriculum. As such, this approach is clearly a step forward from earlier ones in which experts determined curriculum content for learners and specified objectives based on the needs of