Weaving knowledges: the development of empowering intercultural learning spaces for smallholder farmers in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Since the early 1970s there has been increasing interest in effective adult education systems and practices as a core foundation for capacity building in developing countries. This paper presents the philosophy behind the concept of an ‘intercultural learning space’ and argues its relevance for such adult learners. Drawing on work in Papua New Guinea, I use a series of stories to illustrate some of the complexity of creating an empowering adult learning environment for smallholder farmers working with outside experts; a process I have named as ‘the weaving of knowledges’. This concept uses the metaphor of the traditional patterned bag made in PNG, the bilum, to represent the process by which an empowering intercultural learning environment can be developed: that is we must identify the range of people who hold different knowledges (the range of coloured yarns) and then provide an environment for the diverse participants to identify and share the knowledge they bring (recognising there is a place for each colour) in order to produce a local outcome (the bilum) that is a new creation made up of the collaborative inputs of all.