Training for Transformation

by Herbert Kohl

Training for Transformation: 3 volumes by Ann Hope and Sally Timmel, illustrator: Chris Hodzi. (Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press, 1994.) Available exclusively in the United States from the Grailville Art & Bookstore, Loveland, OH, 45140; 513-683-0202.

There are many books about Paolo Freire's educational ideas. But Freire's writing is quite abstract, and the works of many of his U.S. advocates are sometimes removed from the specifics of practice. The three-volume manual Training for Transformation is a basic text that is used by adult educators, social workers, community development workers, church workers, and trade union educators throughout the world - particularly in Southern Africa. It is written by Ann Hope and Sally Timmel and beautifully illustrated by Chris Hodzi.

For the past 10 years or so I have been using the manual in my work in schools, in the communities, and in my teacher education classes. The volumes do not specifically address school issues or talk about the education of children. But those of us who have been engaged in educational struggles for a while know that often adaptation of materials not designed specifically for teachers can be a major source of strategies, lessons, and inspiration.

I love to adapt the hundreds of ideas in these manuals for my own teacher education classes and for the work I do with fourth and fifth graders. They show how to develop a codification and how to use it. They have the most useful ideas on how to develop a democratic discussion group that I know. They also help with organizational development and social analysis that can help a group find the root causes of problems. They contain scenarios and scripts, questionnaires, open-ended lesson plans, quotes, profiles, and guides to the analysis of social and cultural oppression, and drawings and diagrams that can be used with young people as well as with adults. There is also a wonderful section on how to develop coherent and respectful group dialogue, which is effective with high school students and with children as young as six or seven.

Usually, I like to introduce new material in this column and Training for Transformation has been around for a while. But it is published in Harare, Zimbabwe and I have just discovered that the publisher has been under pressure from the government and may be closed down. It is not allowed to print copies of the manuals any more. There are only a limited number of copies available and the only outlet for them in the United States is the Grailville Art & Bookstore in Loveland, OH, 45140 (513-683-0202). Educators who want to use Paolo Freire's ideas to practice democratic education in their classrooms should get copies of the manuals before they disappear. And I hope to be able to find a way to get them reprinted in the United States sometime in the near future.

Fall 2002