The Multiple Influences on Non-formal Instructional Practices in Rural Mozambique: Exploring the Limits of World Culture Theory

Abstract

This article presents findings from 12 months of ethnographic observations of non-formal adult education classes offered by an internationally-funded nonprofit, referred to in this paper as Comunidades de Poder (or CDP). The primary objective of this article is to examine the various contextual factors that influence CDP teachers’ instruction and to explore the applicability of world culture theory as a framework that can explain these phenomena. This article finds that CDP teachers’ classroom practice was more heavily influenced by teachers’ personal experiences in teacher-centered formal classrooms than by their training in Freirean pedagogy. It also finds that world culture theory has limited applicability in explaining these phenomena, as it fails to account for changes in world culture over time and the role of power in its dissemination. This article argues that a modified version of the theoretical construct of the educational project may account for these areas in which world culture theory is insufficient.