A journey through memory lane...
- Jul 27, 2017
- 4 min read
How does education shape Colombia’s Future?
A journey through Colombia’s rich history with Carolina Cortes, a teacher at Enseña por Colombia and her students at la Giralda, a public school in a rather rough neighborhood of Bogota.
Carolina and her students worked on a project called “Learning Peace and Unlearning War”, a pedagogical instrument created and consolidated between the National Historical Memory Center and the Ministry of National Education.
The Memory Center and the Ministry of Education, both seek recognition for the education sector which is seen as a fundamental instrument in the construction of peaceful communities and raise the awareness of the effects of armed conflict.
The school, in all its facets, can feed the armed conflict by keeping silent about the events that have occurred, hiding different truths and imposing one.
The role of teachers has always been important but in countries like Colombia with such a rich history, with a still visible impact on the present, teachers are game changers, they are molding future citizens that will decide between peace and war.
Enseña por Colombia is a non-profit organisation that plays a key role in the countries education. Their aim is to provide children with a transformative educational experience that exposes them to the highest educational standards and empowers them to develop their potential as human beings. Ensena por Colombia contributes to improve the quality of education in Colombia and to close the inequality gap by recruiting grads from top universities all around the country and training them to star teachers, future leaders.
One of Enseña por Colombia's star teachers, Carolina Cortes and her students, worked on this pedagogical project initiated by the National History Memoric Center, I had the pleasure of meeting them when I was working as a volunteer / consultant for Enseña por Colombia and visited her school.
Interview with Carolina:
Tell me more about the project of la Giralda's students in collaboration with the National History Memoric Center.
The main aim of the project was to learn about peace and "unlearn" war by looking back at Colombia's history, "A journey through historical memory" .
I specifically focused on a part of the Colombian armed conflict known as "The Massacre of El Salado", a town located in the Montes de María region which suffered significant consequences of the war.
I based my classes on a well known book "El Salado", which takes you on a historical tour of the armed conflict in Colombia with an emphasis on the Montes de María region. We reenacted several scenes and also worked on additional activities such as the creation of newspapers, billboards, songs and debates on the themes discussed.
The excellent work achieved by my students received nation-wide recognition, I was chosen to be part of the First National Teachers Network working towards Peace.
I will be presenting la Giralda's project at a Local Education Forum.
Why did you decide to participate in this project and what support did you get?
Personally, I decided to participate in this project as it was the perfect opportunity to leverage my education role to make a difference in the peace process of our country. I wanted to show my students how to work together towards peace.
The project was the perfect example of teamwork. Not only did I spent most of my time working on it in my classes, I received the support of different other teachers within the school. Teachers responsible for subjects such as ethics and values, music and arts, spent several hours advising and reviewing the work of our students using their expertise.
Additionally, we equally received external support such as of the Pedagogical team of the National Historical Memory Center and the social leader of La Alianza Educativa (Sandra Álvarez).
Without all the parties involved, it would not have been possible to obtain the excellent result we got.
What was the most challenging part of the project?
The most exciting part of this project was to get the students onboard and get them to fully commit, since for them it was a subject they had never seen before.
Another rather challenging aspect was to empower the student in their learning process and to get them to see and recognize how valuable their work was for them but also others.
What was your favorite part of the project?
What I liked the most about the project was to see the enthusiasm, commitment and interest that the students showed throughout.
The fact of working this closely together with other teachers, combining different subjects in order to achieve one single joined mission - how can we achieve peace in Colombia leveraging our role in education - was a unique experience.
Lastly, I am convinced that this project changed the vision of certain students of the reality of our country and gave them the tools to understand our current situation.
What was your goal and have you achieved this?
The main objective of the project was for students to develop a sense of empathy towards the situations that some of their fellow countrymen experienced in the Colombian armed conflict.
At the same time, I strongly believe that engaging students in our countries peace conflict, is key to Colombia's long-term peace, my aim is to prepare our next generation to be agents of peace and social change.
An other long term goal would be for our project to become part of the countries social science curriculum.
Looking at the obtained result, I can say with certainty that the short term goal was achieved, I would even go further then that and say that my students overachieved, I am extremely proud and amazed by everything they realized.
Meet the team:
I would like to finish with an incredibly inspiring quote by one of Carolina’s 17-year old student, Lesley:
“We are the fruits of our history,
understanding it will allow you to
interpret our Colombia of Today”
* Note that this blog is fully based on my personal opinion only
Comments