by Education Program Director, Wendy Santizo
CoDev accompanied a Canadian teacher delegation to visit Colombia and learn from the “Schools as Territories of Peace” project FECODE is implementing across the country. Our visit coincided with the celebration of provincial pedagogical circles encounters, where teachers shared their experiences in bringing peace education to the classroom. Pedagogical circles are made up of teachers, school principals, parents and students to discuss and create alternative pedagogies that will result in promoting peace, dialogue, conflict resolution, historical memory and democratic participation in their communities.
The delegation split up and visited three provincial encounters in Montería, Córdoba; Cúcuta, Norte de Santander and Fusagasugá in Cundinamarca.
Three of the experiences presented that most caught my attention were the “7 Hats”, “The Memory of the River” and “My History”.
The first provides students with a tool they can use to analyze any conflict situation and decide how to react in a constructive way. There are seven different coloured hats, each representing a question or perspective of looking at the conflict. Once the student answers these questions, they are in a better position to talk about it and solve it in a peaceful way.
The second is a long-term school project, it was created to recover the historical memory of the local river. It begins with students researching the history of the river, its names, where it originates, what stories are linked to the river, fiction or real, when did the contamination of the river begin and why. Today the school has created a project to protect the river and plant hundreds of trees.
The third consists of students interviewing their grandparents or elders in the family and neighbourhoods and asking: What was school like before? What was the neighbourhood like? What is the story of their town? These stories and anecdotes are shared in the classroom and collective memories begin to be recovered, as well as stronger ties across generations.
The delegation also had the opportunity to visit several museums and galleries including the photographic exhibition “The Witness” by Jesus Abad Colorado in the National University of Colombia. The exhibition demonstrates how communities and schools have experienced the armed conflict and were affected by multiple armed actors.
Meetings were held with FECODE’s Executive Committee and representatives of the CUT (Colombian labour central) Executive to speak about working conditions in Colombia, the impact on workers of the entry of Colombia into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, as well as analysis around the national strike that was being prepared for November 21st.Among the demands of the strike are: No more tax, wage and labour reforms without consultations; An end to the killings of social and environmental leaders; the right to healthcare for teachers and their families; Strengthening of the national teachers’ social security fund, and; Implementation of agreements previously signed with the national government, that include the implementation of a diploma program for teachers in peace education and declaring schools as Territories of Peace.
The teachers’ unions seek peace with social justice, reconciliation and truth. FECODE prepared a report with detailed cases of teachers, social leaders and unionists who were victims of systematic accusations, persecution, threats, forced disappearances and assassinations to be presented to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) as part of their commitment to the clarification of truth in Colombia.
FECODE’s “Schools as Territories of Peace” project is facilitated by CoDevelopment Canada with support from the BC Teachers’ Federation, the Ontario Secondary Teachers’ Federation, the Centrale des Syndicats du Quebec and the Surrey Teachers’ Association.
I have been calling Rafael and Sofia more frequently since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in late September, looking for updates on the situation and info on how CoDev and our Canadian partners might assist the teachers’ federation in efforts to rebuild schools and communities. They’ve described the innovative education that is taking place – like classes carried out in neighbours’ kitchens… How many ingredients do we need to feed every person on our block? and on the neighbours’ roofs… How to best build hurricane proof roofs with wood and zinc? But as cleaning up moves forward, they said, 
communities in Puerto Rico experienced a second blow, the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the US federal government are taking advantage of the environmental crisis. It was not long before Puerto Rico’s Education Secretary, Julia Keleher, announced that over 600 schools across the Island would close down and no longer be needing teachers. The FMPR fears they will replace them with charter schools, unloading responsibility for education onto the communities.Sofia and Rafael explained how communities dealing with traumatic effects of the hurricane are now also faced with having to protect their public schools. Over 50% of them remain closed, in spite of having the adequate conditions to receive students.
The FMPR believes that it is unacceptable that well over a month after the hurricane, the government denies the right to public education to tens of thousands of Puerto Rican students. The schools belong to their communities, the union says, and they need them open in order to fully recover!In response to Keleher’s plan to privatize public education, teachers organized a civil disobedience action in the Education Secretary’s offices this week, which resulted in the arrest of 21 teachers, including Rafael.Clearly, Sofia was hurt and shocked to see her father arrested. Unfortunately she had to witness the same brutal actions back in June 2017 when fellow university students were also arrested for defending the University of Puerto Rico after the government attempted to pay its debt to international speculators by selling off the post-secondary institution. The students held a 72 day strike against sweeping austerity measures.Rafael Feliciano and other teachers arrested, were released last night at 11pm and are expected to appear before the courts to face charges.
In the face of unprecedented devastation and an ineffective response from US disaster relief agencies in the occupied territory, the teachers’ federation has served as a useful network for community-based recovery from an environmental disaster. It is disturbing that Puerto Rico’s teachers must now also fight to prevent the destruction of their public school system.
Teachers were joined by students and parents in organized peaceful actions across the country, in some cases there were serious confrontations between peaceful protesters and police officers, and furthermore in the context of the national strike three teachers were killed and one disappeared.Some of the hard fought agreements are:
