‘Training by Papua New Guinea women, for Papua New Guinea women’: lessons from the development of a co-constructed course for women smallholder farmers

Abstract

This article examines the lessons from a collaborative project that worked with women agricultural leaders in Papua New Guinea. The project sought to build the capacity of these leaders as trainers in a way that would enable the development of a sustainable community of practice and worked within a critical and place-based pedagogy underpinned by asset-based community development principles. Whilst the process of our collaborative work has a number of salutary lessons, the co-construction of the training course with PNG women farmer leaders did illustrate a particular knowledge design continuum: that is, surfacing knowledge, distilling knowledge, clarifying knowledge and then consolidating knowledge. From this consolidated knowledge, together we were able to design locally valid and locally relevant modules. As the trainers went out to trial their training, they were then engaging in sharing knowledge and reviewing that knowledge which then lead to our collective ability to improve knowledge that will enhance future training in this area.

Keywords:

• training
• learning and development
• women's learning
• Papua New Guinea
• women smallholder farmers

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the funding of this project was provided by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. We acknowledge the support of Maria Linibi, President of PNG Women in Agriculture Development Foundation and of Barbara Tomi of NARI, the PNG co-trainer and cultural guide.

Notes

1. The definition of a smallholder farmer differs by country, however, in the PNG areas of this study a smallholders’ garden (the local term for cultivated land) typically ranges from half a hectare to two hectares.

2. See, for example, the work of the PNG Sustainable Development Program http://www.pngsdp.com/index.php/what-is-csip.

3. funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) http://aciar.gov.au/publication/fr2012-23.

4. Bride price is a significant family expense in which the family of the husband must pay cash, pigs and other valuable resources to the family of the new wife.

5. widely used Tok Pisin term that means ‘one talk’. The wantok system can be loosely defined as the system of relationships (or set of obligations) between individuals characterized by some or all of the following: (1) common language, (2) common kinship group, (3) common geographical area of origin and (4) common social associations or religious groups’ (Asian Development Bank [ADB], 2012, p. 90).

6. see http://aciar.gov.au/project/ASEM/2010/052 and http://pngwomen.estem-uc.edu.au/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barbara Pamphilon

Barbara Pamphilon is the director of the Australian Institute for Sustainable Communities and the associate dean (International), Faculty of Education, Science, Technology and Mathematics at the University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia. Her research focuses on community learning and development in both regional Australia and in developing countries.

Katja Mikhailovich

Katja Mikhailovich is the associate director of the Australian Institute for Sustainable Communities at the University of Canberra.

Barbara Chambers

Barbara Chambers is an adjunct professor of the Australian Institute for Sustainable Communities at the University of Canberra.