Local Volunteering, Adult Learning and Social Change in the Philippines - (Adult Learning, Literacy and Social Change) by Chris Millora (Hardcover)

About the Book

Offers an in-depth ethnographic case study of everyday learning of youths and adults in the context of local volunteering in the Philippines.

Book Synopsis

Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this book explores the learning and literacy dimensions of local volunteering for social change in the Philippines. It tells the story of youth and adult volunteers who experience vulnerabilities yet play central roles in local development efforts in housing and sexual health. Why do people who themselves experience vulnerability volunteer to help others? And what are their learning experiences in the process? In its unique application of a literacy lens to the study of volunteering, the book unravels how marginalised groups, often seen as 'thankful receivers', (re)use texts, words and labels to (re)define their roles in shaping social change and for whose benefit. Chris Millora provides an in-depth look into the volunteers' everyday activities such as delivering community health classes, filling out donor forms and applying for government approvals. In doing so, this book reveals how volunteers' voices and agency were constrained to fit a certain bureaucratic way of working. It offers powerful case studies on how global development agendas such as value-for-money, upskilling and professionalisation - through bureaucratic literacies - impact the experiences of volunteers at the grassroots level. Arguing that literacy and volunteering could enhance inequalities within groups, this book calls for a renewed focus on the role that power and identities play both in adult/youth literacy and volunteering research.

Review Quotes

"In this elegant study of the entanglement of literacy practices with volunteering in vulnerable communities in the Philippines, Millora reveals striking contradictions in the work of development agencies. Millora's vivid account leaves little doubt that, to grasp the role of literacy practices in the continued reproduction of processes of social stratification, literacy learning needs to be studied in social practice rather than as the imparting of a neutral technology or set of skills. Based on the idea of insider-outsider epistemologies and rendered through fine scale ethnographic detail and reflections, this book is an important contribution to studies on adult learning, literacy and social change." --Dr Catherine Kell, School of Education at the University of Cape Town, South Africa

"This book makes a great contribution to the growing body of scholarship exploring volunteering outside the 'global North'. If you want to better understand how volunteering does more than 'service delivery' - in this case, how it shapes adult learning and literacies amongst young people in the Philippines - then I recommend reading this this book!" --Professor Matt Baillie Smith, Northumbria University, UK

"Chris Millora offers refreshing insights on the value of volunteering to the volunteers themselves. Local Volunteering, Adult Learning and Social Change in the Philippines showcases the importance of culture in understanding the diverse categories, components, modalities and impacts of volunteering. Supported by a culturally appropriate framework and a recognition of Kapwa (self-in-relation-to-others) as a Filipino value in human interactions, the research presents a welcome perspective from the Global South on volunteering as a way of life and everyday volunteering practices in the Philippines. Using ethnography and case studies, Millora charts new waters by calling attention to learning and societal factors attendant to a more holistic appreciation of volunteerism. This book is a must-read for educators, policy makers, volunteers, volunteer managers and all those who have benefited from the kindness of volunteers and the generosity of community volunteer partners." --Grace H. Aguiling-Dalisay, President Emeritus, Philippine Network of VOICE Volunteers ( VOICE Network ) and Lecturer, University of the Philippines Diliman

In this elegant study of the entanglement of literacy practices with volunteering in vulnerable communities in the Philippines, Millora reveals striking contradictions in the work of development agencies. Millora's vivid account leaves little doubt that, to grasp the role of literacy practices in the continued reproduction of processes of social stratification, literacy learning needs to be studied in social practice rather than as the imparting of a neutral technology or set of skills. Based on the idea of insider-outsider epistemologies and rendered through fine scale ethnographic detail and reflections, this book is an important contribution to studies on adult learning, literacy and social change.
Catherine Kell, Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Cape Town, South Africa

About the Author

Chris Millora is Lecturer in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, and Academic Associate with the UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation at the University of East Anglia, UK.