Canadian International Development Agency

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Canadian Bahai International Development
Services
Services bahais canadiens de développement
international
Canadian International Development
Agency International Cooperation Days 1-3
November 2004, Ottawa, Canada Workshop Challen
ges in Ending Gender Disparity in
Education Presentation Promoting gender
equality in the Tutorial Learning System
in Colombia and Honduras Presenter Duncan
Hanks, Executive Director Canadian Bahai
International Development Services
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Approach
The world of humanity has two wings -- one is
women and the other men. Not until both wings are
equally developed can the bird fly. Should one
wing remain weak, flight is impossible.
Therefore, the completeness and perfection of the
human world are dependent upon the equal
development of these two wings. -- Bahai
Writings
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Background

• CBIDS supports the work of the Foundation for the
  Application and Teaching of the Sciences
  (FUNDAEC), a Colombian non-profit NGO with 30
  years experience in rural education.
• FUNDAEC has developed a Tutorial Learning System
  Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (SAT), a
  secondary school curriculum, methodology and
  content specifically designed for rural youth in
  under-serviced areas
• The SAT approach is fully endorsed and supported
  by Ministries of education as an alternative
  rural secondary school curriculum
• SAT reaches 25,000 youth in Colombia through a
  network of NGOs in collaboration with the
  Ministry who pays tutor salaries
• SAT reaches 5000 youth in Honduras and other
  Latin American countries

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Characteristics of SAT

• To develop attitudes, knowledge and skills for
  more self-reliant development
• Flexible groups determine schedule
• 3 main levels - 6-7 years of study
• Tutors from communities continuous training
• Practical, process and development-oriented
  focus on community development processes
• Action (Applied Research) - reflection - learning
• Conceptual development, problem solving, critical
  thinking in contrast to rote learning, fact
  memorization, etc.

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SAT curriculum

• Integrated curriculum organized around areas of
  capabilities
• Capability a developed capacity to think and act
  in well-defined sphere of activity and purpose
• 5 main areas of knowledge
• Language and communication
• Mathematical
• Scientific
• Technological
• Service to the community

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Learning process

• Challenges in traditional education system urban
  bias, migration, rote learning, drop out problem
• Fragmentation of knowledge
• Difficulties of linking theory and practice
• Local populations must take central role in
  knowledge generation and application
• Need to integrate knowledge understanding
• Link to community development processes
• Emphasis on moral development

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SAT - Promoting Gender Equality

• SAT reaches students who otherwise
• wouldnt be reached making school
• accessible to rural youth.
• Judit, a 26 year old SAT graduate who now runs a
  small business said Where was I going to get
  this diploma? SAT came to my feet, it came to my
  doorstep.
• SAT goes beyond primary education builds on
  significant advances in Latin America achieved
  through Education for All and Millennium
  Development Goals emphasis. Next step secondary
  and higher education.

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SAT - Promoting Gender Equality

• SAT requires little infrastructure
• Requires only one tutor, not several teachers for
  every course
• Schedule is flexible determined by students in
  consultation. Flexibility reduces opportunity
  costs
• Each student receives their own textbooks not a
  common practice in Latin America
• Tutor does not necessarily require a university
  education (although preferred), but is committed
  to ongoing training and upgrading
• Quality of education meets and/or exceeds all
  standards

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Juana, a 21 year old SAT graduate who now
studying at the Universidad Earth in Costa Rica
on a full scholarship says I feel confident
because I know what I am seeing in high school is
what some see in the third year of university. I
have thought that when I get to university, Im
not going to have any trouble because of this. I
am pretty confident that with the SAT degree
everything will go well for me.
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Approximately 54 of SAT students are women.
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SAT - Promoting Gender Equality
Strategy SAT content and methodology changes the
underlying causes or roots of gender disparities
by promoting the equality of women and men.

• Approach addresses the education of men and boys
  on the topic of gender equality as well as women
• Gender equality is integrated into the learning
  process in all texts, and not treated as an
  isolated topic.

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SAT Integrating gender into course content
Example of a reflection exercise to make gender
equality more explicit in the SAT text, Basic
Arithmetic I - Classification. Reflections on
the Concept of Subsets The Human Race Consider
the set of all human beings living on this
planet. There are many ways of dividing this set
into subsets. For example we could use sex or age
as the criterion for division, and thus we would
have the subsets men and women, or young and
old. 2. Next let us consider the two subsets,
all the female members of the human race and all
the male members of the human race. Below is a
list of words. Some of them describe relations
between the two sexes when they live according to
the principle of equality, and others describe
relations when this principle is disregarded.
Decide which are which. _____ cooperation _____
control _____ power _____ respect _____
consultation _____ violence _____ love _____
helplessness _____ protectiveness _____
domination _____ consideration In a society
governed by the principle of equality of the
sexes, would women ever be treated as sex objects?
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SAT Promoting the equality of women and men
SAT uses the learning process to empower students
(both female and male) and develop critical
thinking skills that are necessary to examine and
reach their own conclusions about gender
inequality. The SAT program is not prescriptive
and does not seek to teach the students what to
think, but rather how to think critically about
important issues.

• SAT curriculum emphasizes investigation and
  discovery as ways to learn
• Textbooks designed to place the student at the
  centre of the learning process, to engage in
  discussions with the tutor and fellow students in
  a cooperative manner.
• Tutor is a collaborator and guide, not one who
  knows everything
• Focus is on developing the skill to consult and
  discover truth
• Practical application of what is being studied.
  Community plots, family education, community
  involvement, examination of gender roles, etc.

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Unity of humankind essential part of SAT
Conceptual Framework
The concept of unity is a key component of the
SAT approach and its conceptual
framework. Students are challenged to
disassociate themselves from practices of
intolerance, prejudice, discrimination, and
gender inequality and to promote conditions of
unity and oneness within their cooperative
learning groups, families and communities.
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SAT research in Honduras Catie Honeyman, Harvard
University, undergraduate honours thesis research
Comparative research between Public School and
SAT students in 9th grade in rural schools in
Honduras Question In general, how do you feel
about your capacity to learn? Mark the option
you agree with most

• I can learn almost everything I want to if I
  study and work hard enough. (strongly agree)
• I can learn most things, but some things are just
  too hard. (agree)
• I can learn a little, but many things are too
  hard for me. (agree a little)
• I feel like I can learn almost nothing, even if I
  work hard. (dont agree)

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Teaching Concepts to Others Tabulated response
to a series of questions designed to learn about
students attitudes towards sharing knowledge
with parents, brothers/sisters, friends,
neighbors, others) over the past month. Subject
mathematics. Percentage of students who had
taught math skills to at least one other person
in the past month
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Percentage of students who had taught agriculture
skills to at least one other person in the past
month
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Percentage of students who had taught reading and
writing skills to at least one other person in
the past month
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Closing Remarks Ending Gender Disparity

• Importance of making education available to girls
  and boys in marginalized areas, particularly
  rural villages
• Commitment to promote the equality of women and
  men implies education of women and men, boys and
  girls
• Importance of integrating the subject of gender
  equality in the course materials, and not
  treating it as an isolated topic
• Importance of students facilitating systematic
  action to engage friends, family and community in
  the learning process to reflect on traditional
  gender roles
• Importance of consistency over time, learning
  through systematic action, reflection and
  consultation
• Recognizing that transformation of attitudes is
  both an individual and collective process
• Transformation is a gradual and evolutionary
  process that increases in complexity over time
  and through experience.

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Acknowledgements
CBIDS wishes to thank the following people and
agencies for their contributions to this
presentation

• Dr. Haleh Arbab, FUNDAEC (Colombia)
• Catherine Honeyman, Harvard 04, current FUNDAEC
  intern
• Erin Murphy-Graham, doctoral candidate in
  education (Harvard)
• Bayan Association (Honduras)

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Canadian Bahai International Development
Services
Services bahais canadiens de développement
international
For more information contact
Duncan Hanks, Executive Director P.O. Box 61 172
Elgin Street Almonte, ON Canada K0A 1A0 Tel.
613/256-1839 E-mail dhanks_at_sympatico.ca