Rethinking Holistic “Development” in Nicaragua: Women’s Personal Theologies and Liberatory Pedagogies in Community Movements

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Spirituality and Education

Abstract

Through semi-structured interviews with female social movement participants in Nicaragua, I ask, How do women in Nicaraguan social movements perceive the influence of theology on these movements’ pedagogies? Through this work, the women cultivate what I deem personal theologies rooted in their understanding of their own reality. I discuss the following main themes from the interviews: Liberation as it Connects to Gender; Struggles against Violence; Globalization and Spirituality. Women perceive the influence of theology on their movements’ pedagogies as an influence that leads to the women’s liberation. This concept of liberation motivates women to participate in the struggle against neoliberal globalization through nonformal and formal education that contributes, ultimately, to holistic community “development.”

Author

• Lauren Ila Jones Misiaszek, Roehampton University