Participatory training: Philosophy and perspective

Abstract

The paper examines the assumptions underlying participatory training as a response to systems of inequality that concentrate power and control over the minds of ordinary people. Education, media and institutional knowledge production have historically devalued popular knowledge and eroded the self-confidence of ordinary people to think, act and transform their own realities. The paper proposes a set of guiding beliefs, termed articles of faith, centred on the capacity of ordinary people to learn, change and grow, as the basis for translating these ideas into practice. Conditions required for this translation include respecting learners and their experience, creating structured opportunities for sharing and critical reflection, strengthening self-esteem, and establishing mutuality between learner and trainer within a learner-centred and learner-controlled process. Training is presented as an ongoing, long-term intervention rather than an isolated event, directed toward generating new knowledge and countering hegemonic control. The paper closes by stating that trainers must first clarify their own assessment of reality, their vision of a better world, and their guiding articles of faith before designing training programmes.