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JAKARTA
POST, 23 Juli 2013
The remarkably touching speech (published by The Jakarta
Post, July 16) that Malala Yousafzai delivered at the United Nations in New
York reasserts the importance of the power of education for those whose lives
are wreaked by injustice and subjugation.
Employing a metonymy “book” and “pen” to describe the vital role of education for the oppressed, the survivor of a brutal attack at the hands of Taliban militants voiced her confidence that “the extremists are afraid of books and pens” and that “the power of education frightens them”.
This message implicitly signals that any kind of threats against humanity — be they terrorism, violent acts, despotism, injustice and marginalization — can only be countered by education, reminiscent of Nelson Mandela’s famous quote: “Education is the most powerful weapon that you use to change the world.” In fact, there are several valuable lessons that we can learn from Malala’s speech.
To start with, her insistence on getting access to education under the Taliban militants’ dominion indicates that education constitutes a basic human right that every child all over the world (without exception) deserves. This probably prompted Malala in her speech to call upon the world’s leaders to provide free access to education for marginalized children.
Furthermore, through her speech, Malala rolled out the idea of the pedagogy of feminism, which promotes peace, love, compassion, equality, pluralism and non-violent behavior, but with critical stances against tyranny, cruelty, sectarianism, injustice, racism and subjugation. Most important to this sort of pedagogy is Malala’s frankness to emulate the meaningful values of love and compassion from different religious figures such as Muhammad, Jesus Christ and Buddha. Here, Malala (being a Muslim) deconstructs the prevailing rigid religious dogmas that embrace exclusiveness and transcend religious boundaries in championing compassion for the sake of humanity.
Finally, Malala highlights that children and women often are victims of injustice and brutality and that education is the best corrective for this, which seems to indicate that education is, for Malala at least, a weapon of the oppressed.
It is important to stress here that Malala’s pedagogy of feminism radically differs from the pedagogy of the mainstream — a point that needs to be considered judiciously.
While the former aims at changes not only in one’s own mind, but also in the attitudes of others and is therefore socially-rooted, the latter aspires to bring changes in individuals through shaping their minds only and is therefore cognitively-grounded.
Further, if the former promotes the context of thinking, the latter sees thinking as being applied universally. Also, if the former contextualizes thinking by relating it to real life encounters, the latter reduces it simply to pure reasoning.
Finally, while the former discourages conformity to the status quo for the sake of egalitarianism and inclusiveness and sees learning as a struggle for social transformation and political overhaul, the latter refrains from doing so.
Given the banality of our education system, which is too mentalist and detached from the influences of social encounters, Malala’s pedagogy of feminism should aspire us to create an education system that is more socially and politically sensitive.
Malala’s message will remain germane for generations to come and is surely of high relevance today as there are still a vast majority of children in poverty who have not yet got access to education, and that education serves as the best corrective to our multicultural life that is prone to social unrest and to the infiltration of extremist ideologies.
Keeping in mind that education is the power of the oppressed, educational policy ought to not therefore be divorced from social conditioning, if the spirit of inclusiveness and equity in the access to education is to be attained.
However, we need to acknowledge that the major stumbling block to Malala’s noble message is the liberal imperial empire of education, which disguises itself in the name of globalization in education. While Malala covertly begs for pro-poor educational policies all over the world, globalization creates the widening of the socio-economic divide in education (as has been the case here at home), as it mandates the reign of economic hegemony in developing countries that are heavily dependent upon developed countries.
On the face of it, Malala’s call for free access to education for subjugated children and women all over the world, including Indonesia, sounds like a lone voice in the wilderness. ●
Employing a metonymy “book” and “pen” to describe the vital role of education for the oppressed, the survivor of a brutal attack at the hands of Taliban militants voiced her confidence that “the extremists are afraid of books and pens” and that “the power of education frightens them”.
This message implicitly signals that any kind of threats against humanity — be they terrorism, violent acts, despotism, injustice and marginalization — can only be countered by education, reminiscent of Nelson Mandela’s famous quote: “Education is the most powerful weapon that you use to change the world.” In fact, there are several valuable lessons that we can learn from Malala’s speech.
To start with, her insistence on getting access to education under the Taliban militants’ dominion indicates that education constitutes a basic human right that every child all over the world (without exception) deserves. This probably prompted Malala in her speech to call upon the world’s leaders to provide free access to education for marginalized children.
Furthermore, through her speech, Malala rolled out the idea of the pedagogy of feminism, which promotes peace, love, compassion, equality, pluralism and non-violent behavior, but with critical stances against tyranny, cruelty, sectarianism, injustice, racism and subjugation. Most important to this sort of pedagogy is Malala’s frankness to emulate the meaningful values of love and compassion from different religious figures such as Muhammad, Jesus Christ and Buddha. Here, Malala (being a Muslim) deconstructs the prevailing rigid religious dogmas that embrace exclusiveness and transcend religious boundaries in championing compassion for the sake of humanity.
Finally, Malala highlights that children and women often are victims of injustice and brutality and that education is the best corrective for this, which seems to indicate that education is, for Malala at least, a weapon of the oppressed.
It is important to stress here that Malala’s pedagogy of feminism radically differs from the pedagogy of the mainstream — a point that needs to be considered judiciously.
While the former aims at changes not only in one’s own mind, but also in the attitudes of others and is therefore socially-rooted, the latter aspires to bring changes in individuals through shaping their minds only and is therefore cognitively-grounded.
Further, if the former promotes the context of thinking, the latter sees thinking as being applied universally. Also, if the former contextualizes thinking by relating it to real life encounters, the latter reduces it simply to pure reasoning.
Finally, while the former discourages conformity to the status quo for the sake of egalitarianism and inclusiveness and sees learning as a struggle for social transformation and political overhaul, the latter refrains from doing so.
Given the banality of our education system, which is too mentalist and detached from the influences of social encounters, Malala’s pedagogy of feminism should aspire us to create an education system that is more socially and politically sensitive.
Malala’s message will remain germane for generations to come and is surely of high relevance today as there are still a vast majority of children in poverty who have not yet got access to education, and that education serves as the best corrective to our multicultural life that is prone to social unrest and to the infiltration of extremist ideologies.
Keeping in mind that education is the power of the oppressed, educational policy ought to not therefore be divorced from social conditioning, if the spirit of inclusiveness and equity in the access to education is to be attained.
However, we need to acknowledge that the major stumbling block to Malala’s noble message is the liberal imperial empire of education, which disguises itself in the name of globalization in education. While Malala covertly begs for pro-poor educational policies all over the world, globalization creates the widening of the socio-economic divide in education (as has been the case here at home), as it mandates the reign of economic hegemony in developing countries that are heavily dependent upon developed countries.
On the face of it, Malala’s call for free access to education for subjugated children and women all over the world, including Indonesia, sounds like a lone voice in the wilderness. ●
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