Pedagogical methodology and practice…
is experiential, gender transformative, and context-based. It empowers learners and educators to participate and organize for social change.
A robust pedagogical practice is one where learners are empowered to become active and responsible citizens, who embrace uncertainty, question prevailing social norms, economic structures and governance systems, and take part in changing them.
Learning is not a quantity of information to be memorized or a package of skills to be transferred to learners. Instead, transformative education engages learners in thinking critically about content and theories, the learning process and their society.
For this to happen, education systems need to provide quality professional development for educators, so that teachers, supervisors, facilitators and trainers can practice participatory and empowering pedagogic methods.
They need the competences and skills to ensure relevant and innovative content that links to learners’ own backgrounds, languages and communities and nurtures a global citizenry that fosters solidarity between people and across borders.
Case Story
Empowering girls through intercultural gender transformative education
Riberalta, Bolivia
One example of experimental, gender transformative and context-based pedagogies is found in Riberalta, a small municipality in Bolivia. In Riberalta, 60% of the population lives in poverty.
Poverty affects, among other things, children’s performance in school as many drop out of school over different periods of time to support the income of their families. Other significant obstacles to their education include gender discrimination, different types of violence, teenage pregnancy, and low-quality education.
Schools in Riberalta often have students who are older than expected for their grade level (falling behind in school), pregnant teenage girls, temporary school dropouts, and the lack of family support for education.
The four-year education project by Oxfam and partners, Empowering girls through intercultural gender transformative education in Riberalta, addresses these obstacles. The project aims at empowering 6,000 girls, boys, and adolescents from 6 to 14 years old in 20 primary schools through improving education in collaboration with different local actors of the education community.
To improve learning outcomes of the students, the project:
Developed a software tool for students in primary school to strengthen their math and reading skills.
Established a Technology Training Center supported by the local authorities.
Trained teacher and students in the usage of new technology tools .
Produced radio programs in math and reading called The Happy Grasshopper (Grillo alegria matematicas / Grillo alegria lenguaje).
Produced booklets for all grades in math and reading.
Developed an online platform for teachers, students and parents called RibeTicsAula.
Organized festivals to strengthen the pedagogical interactions between the project schools and use of learning materials.
To strengthen gender equality, the project:
Trained teachers in gender equality, non-discrimination, non-violence.
Together with the teachers, ensured that the schools’ material and the app applications produced, reflect the local context and culture to promote gender equality.
Created an APP for the older students (grade 5 & 6) on how to create alternative life projects.
Trained 88 youth ambassadors from 2 secondary schools who will support and guide the smaller children on their alternative life project.
Initiated the campaign “You can do it” with support from the local authorities, schools, teachers, parents and students on the prevention of early pregnancies and the importance to continue schooling.
The local partner organisation, Fundación Machaqa Amawta developed the material in collaboration with teachers, and it is made freely available online on the RibeTicsAulas blog, an online educational resource bank for schoolchildren as well as teachers. The name RibeTicsAulas, is an abbreviation of the Spanish name for Riberalta Technology Classrooms. RibeTicsAulas also includes the radio program for learning math and language “Grillo Alegría”, the computer application with math and language games, and the smartphone application to build a life project.
The app for mobile Android phones, “Mi Proyecto de Vida” (My Life Project), helps girls and boys in 5th and 6th grade imagine and dream of how much they can achieve in the future by helping them create a life plan. The app has Indigenous representation, which enables the many Indigenous learners of the Riberalta region imagine themselves flourish and dream big about their life plans. It also challenges harmful gender norms by encouraging boys to cook and clean in the home, and girls to pursue big careers so that children learn to think in terms of gender equality and justice.
These digital resources, including the radio programmes, provided a crucial platform for continued learning under the region’s school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project is currently systematizing this model and will later present it to the provincial education authorities in Beni to possibly replicate and scale-up the project.
Finally, 88 3rd and 4th grade secondary students were trained as young Horizons Ambassadors. Their training included topics such as how to reach their goals and dreams by strengthening their self-esteem and collaborative skills. They were informed about their rights as well as prevention of violence and assaults. They will function as ambassadors for younger learners and help support initiatives regarding self-esteem and friendship as well as support motivation to engage actively in their school and education community. Here, Dulce Maria talk about her experience with being a Horizons Ambassador in the video below.
The educational computer application contains 10 interactive games per grade in math and language for girls and boys. The exercises are based on an analysis of which subjects and themes children in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade within the project schools in Riberalta have the most difficulty in. The games enable schoolchildren to learn math and reading through play and develops their ICT (Information and Communication Technology) skills.
Furthermore, 228 teachers were trained virtually during lockdown of schools for management of tools and technological resources. With the school principals, a conference on intercultural and gender transforming education management was held. These workshops allowed teachers improve their skills, to manage virtual platforms and develop educational processes during quarantine. This is supported by the Technological Pedagogical Resources Centre that was established to respond to the needs and demands in the implementation area of how to use and apply ICTs in education.
These technological educational materials can spread content over great distances and supplement regular formal classroom education.
All in all, RibeTicsAulas provides great examples of creative pedagogies that take the background, language and cultures of the learners into consideration. It thus illustrates the importance of pedagogies in engaging and empowering learners to think critically, build life skills and gain the foundation needed to become active citizens.