What is Knowledge?



What is knowledge?
I’m sitting here on my living room couch and pondering on how I would define knowledge in my own words without quoting, paraphrasing or referencing another person's definition. As I continued to reflect, I suddenly realize that I am tapping into my knowledge bank to use words to define my understanding of knowledge. Alas! I have my own definition of what knowledge is- “knowledge is progressive in nature and it is a deposit of information into a person’s mind bank”.  Knowledge can be deliberate (I am studying a Master of Arts in Education because I want to be more knowledgeable in the field of education) or experiential (I work in a multi- racial organization and I’m knowledgeable about the lifestyles of Africans, Americans and Asians).
According to Nomaka and Toyama, 2006, “knowledge is a dynamic human process of justifying personal belief towards the truth”. Gottschalk (2007) proposes that knowledge is stored in human minds not computers. He succinctly defines knowledge as “what a knower knows; there is no knowledge without someone knowing it”. I consider Gottschalk’s postulations very apt in understanding the definition of knowledge.
How is knowledge controlled?
Knowledge can be classified as having two types. Tacit knowledge is knowledge that exists in the mind and cannot be articulated with words and explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be articulated with words. (Nomaka & Toyama, 2006. These two types of knowledge can be controlled in different ways. The tacit knowledge is subjective; therefore its control lies in the hands of the possessor.  He can choose to impact or withhold knowledge. For example- a craftsman can choose to teach his apprentice all he knows about his craft or he may decide to just teach the basics and keep the other part as trade secret. The explicit knowledge on the other hand, is more objective. It can be controlled by obtaining facts and figures on a subject, research, theoretical approach and study (Nomaka & Toyama, 2006). The level of explicit knowledge a person can acquire is controlled by his willingness to dig deeper and study more on the subject. Knowledge control is determined by what type of knowledge it is and knowledge is controlled by the educational sector of a country. The more attention the government of a nation gives to the educational sector, the more powerful the nation will be.
Finally, we cannot talk about knowledge control without talking about the exposure of an individual since knowledge dwells in the minds of humans. The more versatile an individual is the more control he has over the knowledge he receives.
How is knowledge communicated?
The power of knowledge lies in its capacity to be shared with more than one person (Abhary, Adriansen, Begovac, Djukic, Spuzic, Wood and Xing, 2009). Knowledge can be communicated through formal and informal media. Schools represent the formal medium of communicating knowledge. The teaching faculty of every school is the major tool of communicating knowledge, without teachers the whole world will be a cocoon of ignorance. Informal ways of communicating knowledge are through, observation, self-experiences and shared experiences of others, social media and family.
Opening up more platforms for cross disciplinary sharing of knowledge through seminars, workshops and symposia can be avenues for knowledge communication (D Wood et al, 2009). For example, doctors and other public health physicians can organize workshops and seminars to educate the people on how to prevent the spread of epidemics. Knowledge can also be communicated through print and broadcast media.
Who decides what good, bad and indifferent knowledge is?
Knowledge can be perceived to be good, bad, and indifferent by an individual. What is good knowledge for me may be bad or indifferent knowledge to another. A major determinant of how knowledge is rated is its relevance. An easy example I can use to substantiate this point is what happens in my home. My husband is very passionate about soccer, he is interested in any information he can find on soccer. I am very indifferent about soccer, I don’t enjoy watching it and any information about soccer will be seen as indifferent knowledge to me.
There are certain factors that influence our perception of knowledge. These are societal norms, religious beliefs, cultural values, personal philosophies and personality traits. How we perceive knowledge is largely dependent on these factors.

References:
Gottschalk, P. (2007) Knowledge Management Systems: Value Shop Creation. Hershey: Idea Group Publishing
I Nonaka and Toyama. (2006). Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage through Knowledge based management. The Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy.
K Abhary, H K Adriansen,  F Begovac, B Djukic, B Qin, S Spuzic, D Wood and K Xing, (2009). World Conference on Educational Sciences. Some basic aspects of knowledge. Retrieved from www.sciencedirect.com

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