Fundamentals of Extension Education

Definition of PRA

• It has been questioned whether it is useful to define PRA as separate from RRA. One view is that lables do not matter. There is a plethora of levels for approaches and methods of learning about rural life and condition. Many of the sets of learning about rural life and conditions. Many of the sets of practices overlap. There is continuous innovation. Sharing and exchange.
• In this view, the only importance of a label is the sense of pride of ownership and originality which it gives, so strengthening commitment, enthusiasm and good work among its practitioners. Otherwise, there would be no point in defining an exclusive territory of activities for PRA or any other set of approaches or methods.

Principles shared by PRA
1. A reversal of learning :To learn from rural people directly on the site and face to face gaining from local, physical, technical and social knowledge.
2. Learning rapidly and progressively with conscious exploration. Flexible use of methods, opportunism, improvisation, flexible and use of methods, opportunism following a blueprint programme but being adaptable in a learning process.
3. Offsetting biases :Especially those of rural development tourism, by being relaxed and not rushing. Listening not lecturing. Probing instead of passing on to the next topic being unimposing instead of important and seeking out the poorer men and women and learning their concerns and priorities.
4. Optimising tradeoffs: Relating the cost of learning to the useful truth of information, with tradeoffs between quantity, relevance, accuracy and timeliness. This includes the principles of optimal ignorance knowing what is not worth knowing and of appropriate impression not measuring more than needed. As keyness is reputed to have said it is better to be approximately right than the precisely wrong.