Research and Coalition Building
Latin American education partners are implementing action research to better understand issues considered a priority for each union in their respective countries. These mainly take the form of critical collaborative work by teachers within the classroom, schoolwide or districtwide, to provide possible solutions to the root cause of the problem at hand and promote concrete changes from various points of view. Teachers actively participate alongside administrators, parents or students to develop the research projects and generate reflections. Each stage of the reflective process provides important information that is collectively interpreted, and the results of investigations are presented back to the education community for feedback and to determine follow-up strategies. Action research is used to enhance teachers’ professional development, by exchanging their experiences, teachers build collective knowledge and improve their research questions. Action research supports teachers in raising their self-awareness around pedagogical mediation and best practices in the classroom.
FOMCA
CoDev Partner since 1997
The Federation of Central American Teachers’ Organizations- FOMCA, is a regional federation comprised of 9 teachers’ unions (APUDEP, CGTEN-ANDEN, COLPROSUMAH, COLPEDAGOGOSH, COPEMH, COPRUMH, FREP, PRICPHMA and SEC) from four countries in Central America (Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras). Through the Presidency, FOMCA carries out action research on the deterioration of social security systems, reforms to teachers’ pension systems, evaluation systems, standardized evaluation mechanisms, and more.
FOMCA plays an important role in studying and denouncing precarious living and working conditions of teachers and education workers. Representatives of each organization meet yearly to analyze the state of education in each country and design common strategies for defending human and labor rights.
FOMCA’s advocacy is mainly geared at national levels, where member organizations influence the creation and monitoring of public policies in education. FOMCA participates in campaigns of the ILO for social security, eliminating workplace violence and harassment; sometimes presenting reports and rights-based proposals for public education to Central American Parliament deputies.
Canadian partners: BCTF
The Colombian Education Workers’ Federation is a national federation of 33 departmental education workers’ unions committed to ensuring quality, without cost, public education for all Colombians.
A partner since 2010, FECODE implements diverse strategies to defend public education, such as the National Pedagogical Movement, and the Alternative Pedagogical Program which promotes research and analysis on the current state of public education, the establishment of Pedagogical Circles made up of teachers, parents and students across the country, and the development of policy proposals to improve public education in Colombia.
FECODE considers that dialogue and a political solution to the post-conflict scenario is necessary and important in the construction of lasting peace. Currently FECODE develops the democratic and cultural program “Schools as a Territories of Peace” through the creation and consolidation of Pedagogical Circles capable of identifying and designing alternative pedagogical proposals for peace.
The Teachers’ Federation of Puerto Rico is a teachers’ organization in Puerto Rico implementing lobby and advocacy work to rescue public schools unjustly closed in the aftermath of category five hurricanes Maria and Irma, building on local actions that arose from the emergencies like solidarity libraries, board games exchange, and community teachers. Given the violation of human rights against Puerto Rican children, out-migration, and decreased enrollment, the series of earthquakes felt across the archipelago in recent years, neglect of the Federal and State Governments to respond quickly and safely to different crisis; teachers, parents, and students joined to defend the right to public education in Puerto Rico and rescue their schools.
Currently, FMPR is implementing the initiative “Schools without Walls,” that provides outdoor courses, art and culture, psychosocial attention, sports, and recreation for children and youth. As well as provide students with training in disaster preparedness and mental health resources.
Canadian partners: BCTF
The Totlahtol Yoltok Teachers’ Collective was created in 2013 by secondary and university indigenous teachers belonging to the democratic National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE-SNTE) in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. Their goal is to recover the identity and traditions of the Nahua peoples and challenge the colonization of knowledge that for centuries has affected Mexican children and youth.
A partner since 2017, Totlahtol Yoltok creates alternative pedagogical proposals that recover and promote indigenous identities in the cognitive, cultural and pedagogical areas. Currently the teachers’ collective integrates a team of facilitators to receive training and research alternative proposals for different educational levels, based on an intercultural educational philosophy, which rescues ancestral knowledge by using the community and its members as the basis for content developed in the classroom. Teachers take actions to promote the values behind traditional agriculture, “Living Well” and raise awareness of gender-based violence.
(The teaching model is called Intercultural Inductive Method by Jorge Gasche)
Canadian partners: BCTF