Teaching Experiences in Contexts of Conflict and Diversity. The Case of a Public School in Bogotá, Colombia

• In Event: Compounding Crises: Impact of COVID-19 on Teachers and Teaching in Conflict-Affected Settings Part II

Proposal

This presentation focuses on the experience of Alameda teachers amidst the difficulties of reaching out to students in times of the COVID-19 pandemic and delivering quality education for them. Alameda (pseudonym) is a public school located in an underserved neighborhood in Bogotá, where children from low-income families, forcibly displaced children, indigenous students from at least five different ethnic groups, and Venezuelan immigrants are currently enrolled. The pandemic exacerbated Alameda teachers' challenges concerning teaching and learning processes for this diverse body of students.

As a strategy to deliver education to a population with limited access to an internet connection, the Alameda teachers designed printed guides to be developed by students at home. However, more than 70% of the students and families did not turn in the printed home-study material to the school. Aiming to understand the causes of families and students’ disengagement, three Alameda teachers designed a Research-Action-Reflection (RAR) developed in three moments. The first one, the analysis of the situation, involved gathering information through a semi-structured telephone interview conducted with 35 families from diverse cultural backgrounds. The results of these interviews triggered teachers’ critical reflection on the concepts and practice of inclusion in the school and led to the second moment of the RAR methodology: the implementation of a participatory pedagogical action-response as a strategy to begin transforming practices of exclusion exacerbated in the context of the pandemic. Lastly, the third moment involved a set of conversations where Alameda teachers reflected on tensions related to diversity and intercultural education that emerged during the implementation of the project in the school. Among other outcomes, the authors found that while some teachers recognized the relevance of the intercultural project implemented to transform practices of exclusion, others believed that students from different cultural backgrounds, immigrants, and forcibly displaced children and youth were highly mobile and, therefore, it was not worthwhile to implement an intercultural education project and try to transform the curriculum and pedagogical strategies.

This experience emphasizes the need to bring to the center the concepts of mobility and diversity in schools located in contexts affected by conflict and offers new insights to the critical analysis of the concept and practice of inclusion. The movement of people fleeing from conflict, violence, and precarious lives usually generates diversity in settings such as schools since they bring to their new locales their different backgrounds. However, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners rarely discuss diversity in conflict-affected zones.

Finally, this school experience was analyzed based on a research ethics principle of co-construction of knowledge in which researchers and communities reflect on challenges, practices, and solutions and write together to enrich global debates and local practices with voices and perspectives from the South. The first author of this proposal is a doctoral candidate conducting research at Alameda School. The co-authors are the three teachers who led the implementation of the Research-Action-Reflection at the school. This presentation is the result of our dialogue and reflection on the implementation of the RAR process.

Author

• Consuelo Sanchez-Bautista, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities