Beyond Schools
Multisensory Learning and Knowledge Acquisition in Informal Contexts-Perspectives from Rural Indonesia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3758050 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Birgitt Röttger‐rössler (0000-0001-9828-3288, Freie Universität Berlin, corresponding author), Birgitt Röttger-Rössler (Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00027642241246676 |
| OpenAlex | W4395003105 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
It is not a new finding that much human learning takes place implicitly outside of educational institutions in informal, everyday contexts, yet these learning processes receive comparatively little systematic attention within the current anthropology of learning, education and schools. Based on long-term social anthropological research in a peasant community in rural Indonesia (Sulawesi), the article will address the complex multisensory forms of learning through which children acquire a large part of their competencies and their extensive environmental and agricultural knowledge. I will focus on the mixed-age "communities of practices" in which this knowledge is transmitted and acquired and show that affective bonds to peers and adults influence to a large extent which out-of-school areas of competence a child acquires. Building on the "embodied capital theory." I argue that children in rural areas obtain a complex form of "ecological literacy" that encompasses not only a rich knowledge about the local ecosystems and agri- as well as horticultural processes but also a particular formation of the senses and the physical body in general (muscle size and memory, physical strength, coordination, balance, and motor skills). I shall conclude with some critical reflections on the general devaluation of the extra-curricular, non-formal, and environmental forms of learning, which can be observed not only in Indonesia but also worldwide and seems to be closely related to the global spread of Western psychological theory models about the healthy socio-emotional and cognitive development of children, supported by global institutions like UNICEF, World Bank, and Save the Children. For years, a constant increase of early childhood development programs can be observed, which aim at improving children's school readiness, particularly in low-income countries, in order to enhance the future prospect of children. These programs, however, go hand in hand with the devaluation and oppression of indigenous knowledge systems and thus often worsen the future prospects of younger people
Informal learning · Knowledge management · Pedagogy · Sociology · Computer Science · Early Childhood Education and Development · Educational Environments and Student Outcomes · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Psychology
Playing on the mother-ground
Environmental literacy, ecological literacy, ecoliteracy
The clinicopathological features of BRG1-deficient non-small cell lung cancer and its response to immunotherapy
Ethnobiology and biocultural diversity
Ethnoecology
The Perception of the Environment
Subsistence ecology and play among the okavango delta peoples of botswana
Learning, life history, and productivity
Learning to make sense
Other Ways to Wisdom
Multisensory Anthropology
Indigenous Ecological Knowledge as Situated Practices
Side by Side
"Poor brain development" in the global South? Challenging the science of early childhood interventions
Why Don't Anthropologists Care about Learning (or Education or School)? An Immodest Proposal for an Integrative Anthropology of Learning Whose Time Has Finally Come
The Anthropology of Learning
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |