I3C partners with Harvard-based Cultural Agents Initiative

 

I3C officially established partnership with Harvard-based Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University, founded by Dr. Doris Somer who developed the Pre-Texts Methodology for Engaged Learning

In Brasilia, Brazil, between November 11th and 18th, Dr. Somer and Dr. Nadezhda Savova facilitated Pre-Texts a series of workshops within a two-year (2012-2014) National Project called "Agenda Education" coordinated by universities and government institutions in the capital. Pre-Texts trained educators and public officials from the capital Secretariat of Education to become facilitators, rather than "educator" or "instructor" in order to foment co-creative processes. Pre-Texts will be applied as a central tool in the curriculum in a pilot school in Brasilia, in the low-income area of Sol Nascente, the second biggest favela in Brazil. 

The project is planned as a pilot project testing a new model of learning that offers a paradigm shift in democratizing the classroom and learning in general: turning the teacher in a facilitator who does not give information but lets the participants raise questions and interpret a text through various other art forms. It is an education for life, teaching not only analytical skills and self-esteem, but also citizenship values and civic culture.

The pilot project is planned to then be multiplied across schools in the capital Brasilia and at a national level across the country, and could also serve as a key good practice in the field of education to be exchanged as a ground-breaking good practice in education with other countries, particularly in 2014 when Brazil will be the home of the World Cup and thus the focus of major international attention. I3C is already planning strategies to initiate trainings in the Pre-Texts methods in Bulgaria with a focus on linking the schools to the chitalishte cultural centers and thus opening the schools, inspired by the Brazilian model of the "Open School Program" that opens up the schools to the whole community as a community cultural center on evenings and weekends to engage the whole population around the value of questioning, learning, creativity, and cooperation.

The Agenda Education Project also plans the development of a whole community campaign to tackle various local issues related to education and community engagement with the lives of children. The methods for this community organizing strategy were taught by Dr. Ceasar MacDowell from MIT and his team in Engage the Power NGO that has been organizing what they call "Question Campaigns" around the world through a simple, but revolutionary method focused on the power of questioning.