Two-Way Learning

This is an article by Jill Gientzotis, an independent researcher and writer in Vocational Education and Training sharing her experience as a facilitor working with Aboriginal agencies to develop an Industry Training Network with a view to move toward focusing on their needs.

Participants worked in groups: sometimes particular art centres, sometimes men's group and women's group, sometimes young people and older people. They were invited to contribute information in any way they liked: as a picture, a map, as text, or by simply talking; and in any language they liked, English or one of the 15 languages or so spoken by members of Desart.

She writes

Two-way learning is about the trainer respecting the knowledge, learning processes and perspectives of another people and recognising that they are learning about another culture and knowledge system, at the same time as sharing their own knowledge. It is about working together to find the basis from which new knowledge can be developed in a way that is relevant to the learners concerned, and can be grasped by them.

Worth a read if you are working with Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander people and nations. Click here for more.