A New Generation of Ideas
forms of learning and have the opportunity to learn from existing youth educational efforts in SSA. This research describes one such small-scale, youth-led learning system that has arisen in the midst of urban poverty and that illustrates the learning processes and outcomes that could inform future policy. In urban Senegal, many youth engage in nonformal, participatory circles of learning called English clubs (ECs), which are organized and led at a grassroots level. Using the narratives of youth participants in Dakar and other urban centers, I expose a type of learning whose outcomes include the acquisition of skills and capabilities that the learners deemed important, including the English language and peer relationships. Furthermore, the ECs functioned as a forum for a type of debate that encouraged deliberation on key social issues, raising several questions about how these clubs may actually contribute to the creation and maintenance of a democratic and just society. To evaluate processes and outcomes of the ECs, I employ Amartya Sen’s (1980, 1999b) concept of human capabilities, the theoretical framework underpinning the human development agenda. With his capability approach (CA), Sen (1999b) envisions development as human freedom and views education as a means of developing necessary skills for full participation in society. Of particular importance to this study is Sen’s concept of constructive democracy, which posits that through debating and deliberating, citizens can consensually reform and reevaluate values, norms, and processes to work toward a more democratic and just society. ECs display many of the qualities of education required to achieve human development in the eyes of CA theorists. However, CA does not recommend a pedagogical model to achieve its desired outcomes (Walker and Unterhalter 2007); therefore, this research evaluates EC peer learning through Wenger’s (1998) theory of social learning and communities of practice (CoP). Thus in addition to describing innovative, urban grassroots nonformal education (NFE), this paper also proposes the synthesis of a pedagogical and a theoretical framework to further the future of policy and planning. The use of theoretical and pedagogical frameworks also transforms this small-scale, qualitative study into translatable results and provides an example of how planners can seek within to find solutions to including urban youth in education. To frame my research, I first give a brief description of urbanization, education, youth, and language in Senegal and then outline the tenets of CA and CoP as they relate to this study. Then after a | 79 |