Learning from around the world

Just as churches are spreading and growing in the southern hemisphere, or the 2/3 world, or whatever term you want to use, education is also being radically transformed — in part due to access to new tools, but more generally due to the clear failure of more “traditional” systems of western education, which are either too expensive, too insensitive to indigenous knowledges, too constraining, etc. Hat tip to Weblogg-ed for connecting to this piece — Learning from the Extremes — that was actually funded and written by Cisco. The piece looks at social entrepreneurs in education, and is rich in a variety of case studies.

I think religious educators have more to learn from pieces like this than we might otherwise realize. But its near total silence on issues of religion -- given that many of its examples are drawn from parts of the world where religions collide -- is also very interesting. Aside from a brief mention that education in US and other western contexts emerged from religious communities, and one additional brief mention of a group of nuns who have been successful in Nairobi, there is no mention made at all of the work of religious communities in relation to education. I imagine there might be several reasons for this silence -- all of which should be pondered -- but the report is worth reading even so.