Philosophy
In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.
Lou Gerstner
The DeCal program utilizes a different style of education than the traditional classroom setting. Because students are among their peers, they are able to step out of their usual comfort zones and have the courage to voice their own opinions and have an impact on the educational community at Berkeley.
Students are able to pursue their educational passions and share them with other members of the campus community. Rather than just distributing information to students, DeCal facilitators lead a guided conversation among peers. As a result, DeCal classes are often the first place contemporary topics can be discussed in an educational setting on the Berkeley campus. Additionally, many thousands of hours of community service are coordinated through the DeCal Program. The DeCal program allows students the opportunity to become responsible for their own education.
The DeCal Program has existed in its current form since 1980. It was created by students of education and supported by John Hurst, Professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. Its legacy lies in the Free Speech Movement, with the idea that students can be agents in their education rather than passive subjects.
In Professor Hurst’s words:
One of popular education’s exciting strengths is that its prototypes have evolved in many parts of the world virtually independently of one another. The most important models have developed outside of the Eurocentric first world. Typically, people from diverse backgrounds become involved in organizations that enable them to retain their autonomy and regional power, while at the same time learning from and supporting the work and struggles of groups of ordinary people from every corner of the globe.1
DeCal’s philosophy rejects hierarchy and those with authority. Thus, the traditional class format of a teacher indoctrinating the students is replaced by the DeCal model, which stresses the role of group dynamic. Teaching becomes facilitating. Knowledge is spread horizontally and flows from one student to another and to the facilitator.
Put in a world perspective, DeCal’s position within the University is redolent of China’s “One Country Two Systems” policy towards Hong Kong, where the territory’s government is contingent upon the central government in Beijing in spite of its separate social laws and economy. Although students initiate, develop and implement their courses, the ultimate power rests with the faculty, department and the University. Thus, DeCal’s position is fundamentally fragile and relies on the policy makers at the top.
Nonetheless, would DeCal’s model flourish outside the University framework? The answer depends on people’s aptitude towards learning. This is still an ongoing discussion. Some of the questions that should be taken into considerations are: Are the classes truly beneficial? And even if they are beneficial, are they in line with the goals of a university education to a sufficient degree to allow accreditation? The purpose of acquiring a higher education is to acquire special skills. In economics term, the exclusivity of knowledge makes the education valuable. Therefore, DeCal courses lack legitimacy because of their failure to endorse a specialized curriculum for the students.
However, in our society, accreditation does not always guarantee success and the lack of official recognition does not immediately spell failure. People ultimately determine their own fate. In the early stages of one’s career, a University degree can open many doors. However, as the career develops, the aptitude for learning and improving assumes a very important role. Therefore, in the majority of one’s lifetime, learning does not take place within the University framework. In fact, DeCal courses cultivate passion and prepare students to meet the demands of the real world.
Discourse transmits and produces power; it reinforces it, but also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it.
Michel Foucault
An assessment of the DeCal Program is available in DeCal Retrospective. An account of the major influences that shaped the formation of the program and recent development is in History.
1 Hurst, John. “On Popular Education,” http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/resources/johnhurst.cfm
Updated September 25, 2006.