EXPERIENCES DEVELOPED by IDEA

With the Guarani and the Tupinikim ethnic groups in Brazil (children education)

Since l995, IDEA particpates to a training program for native school teachers. At the request of the Guarani and the Tupinikim traditional authorities, IDEA started by making an assessment of education needs for both ethnic groups in the area of Espirito Santo (Brazil). This assessment resulted in the elaboration of a training of trainers program for adult trainers, in which community leaders and traditional authorities, notably, took part. During these trainings, the communities became conscious of the part played by school education. They, thus, called upon a support from IDEA to train native school teachers for them to replace the non-native teachers who used to work in the communities. Consequently, a training curriculum was created with the communities, which main characteristics are bilinguism and the intercultural and interdisciplinary approach.

The three-year training was constituted by an alternation of intensive periods every two-months and on-the-field trainings. At the end of this curriculum, 35 native teachers graduated and received the diploma, recognized by the State, and were officially hired as teachers in the community schools. In a bilingual, intercultural and interdisciplinary curriculum framework, this was a first in Brazil.

A new step must be taken for the native teachers to acquire a university level education that will enable them to better respond to needs of the Tupinikim and Guaranis communities and to progressively expand the pupils' school curriculum. At present, a local partner, the Education and Research Institute (ERI), is seeking means and avenues to implement such as university training program with Brazilian Universities.

With the « Homeless » organization, Brazil (Education of adults)

The moradia movement (Homeless), with more than 1 300 000 members in Brazil, collaborated with IDEA from 1992 to 2002 through the coordination of Espirito Santo. The training program aimed to enable leaders of the movement to acquire basic knowledge and to develop the skills required to hold a dialogue with public authorities and also by their fight against social inequities in the country.

The movement published, with the help of IDEA, a biannual newspaper intending to promote and raise awaress regarding laws on housing, activities and fights led by the movement, and also information on training seminars.

With Enfants du Monde and the Swiss Cooperation, Niger (Education of adults)

IDEA's partners are confronted, in Niger more than anywhere else, to socio-economic challenges. The basic Education programs supported by (Enfants du Monde in Tahoua and by Swiss Cooperation Suisse in various areas) start from these needs to offer knowledge and skills useful to better respond to theses needs. The PoT approach enables not only to respond to these specific needs but also to create the conditions required for the acquisition of broader knowledge and the development of new skills by the learners.

Thereby, the training curriculum was elaborated with a broad participation of the communities and attempts to respond, in priority, to the needs related to management and organizational activities of the groups. The curriculum also offers knowledge and skills regarding Natural Sciences and Social Sciences linked for example to Health, the Political Organization of the country, Human rights, conflict management.

With all the trainers trained for PoT

Every year, in September, IDEA holds a seminar in Geneva on discipline didactics, in collaboration with professors from the University of Geneva and collaborators of the Geneva Public Instruction Department (PID). In September 2006, this seminar had a different nature. It gathered a dozen trainers from Latin America and Africa who had followed a training in PoT for the previous three years and who had graduated. This seminar, during which were the research led by each trainer was presented, aimed to favour an exchange between them so as to study into details theoretical and practical reflexions on the basis on field experience.