Carolyn Medel-Añonuevo
Carolyn Medel-Añonuevo has made outstanding contributions to adult education for more than four decades. Throughout her career as both practitioner and contributor to policy, she has championed popular education, a learner-centered approach that aims to empower those who have been marginalized. Her work has illuminated the participatory practices of adult education, the importance of having adult education policies in place, methods for integrating these practices and policies in diverse sectors, and the need for skills and competencies to ensure quality adult education.
As a practitioner, Medel-Añonuevo served as director of the Centre for Women’s Resources in the Philippines and spearheaded the development and delivery of education modules in various arenas for women—workers, peasants, the urban poor—in pathbreaking efforts to build women’s leadership and to consolidate the then-nascent women’s movement. She went on to promote popular education in trainings and intergovernmental meetings, research, and policy processes as part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg, Germany. Throughout her work, whether in the Philippines or with Filipino migrants in Europe, in trainings or transnational intergovernmental meetings and workshops, Medel-Añonuevo has argued for the relevance of popular education in ensuring the active participation of stakeholders and their ownership of projects.
In nearly thirty years at UNESCO, Medel-Añonuevo successfully applied popular education in program development and policy processes. She was instrumental in establishing more institutionalized processes for greater stakeholder participation in the outcomes of the international conferences on adult education CONFINTEA V (1997) and VI (2009). She also successfully fostered the inclusion of civil society representatives (NGOs and academics) in the official processes at regional and global levels. In addition, Medel-Añonuevo edited and coordinated the production of the milestone first two Global Reports on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE), a periodical developed at CONFINTEA VI.
As the head of education of the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa, Medel-Añonuevo led the efforts to make visible technical and vocational education training, teachers’ education, higher education, information and communication technology, and education for sustainable development at the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). She expanded the spaces for participation of senior government officials, civil society, and academe in crafting national, regional, and international policies related to adult and continuing education. Her efforts resulted in the adoption of a set of SADC regional strategies on technical and vocational training, teachers’ education, and education for sustainable development.
An academic at the University of the Philippines, Medel-Añonuevo has investigated topics as varied as children, the status of women, international migration, and the impact of structural adjustment on poor women. As part of her community service or extension work, she has often been called to be a resource to other universities across the country. Among her topics in the workshops were the importance of social sciences in the country, the role of participatory research, and different methodologies of social sciences.