Exploring the páramo ecosystem from schools

Curricular design for schools is done through various processes. In Colombia, official institutions, like the Ministry of Education, prefer a rigorous planning process and standardization of education curricula. Nevertheless, standard processes exclude the local environmental and social conditions of territories and sacrifices creative possibilities and interaction between teachers, students and families.

As alternative, and with the aim to promote an approach to the páramo from schools, the project Communities in the páramos has developed a program for curriculum design for local teachers that takes into account the context where they live and work.

Through the methodology of projects in the classroom, the possibility of integrating different school subjects under topics associated to the territory, the community and the páramo has been explored. These types of projects have the premise that members of a community have a great knowledge of their surroundings thanks to their daily interaction with the territory and that this knowledge is important for local education. Thus, teachers in several schools in the municipalities of Choachí and Fómeque, in the buffer zone of the páramo Chingaza, proposed a series of school projects related to water resources, climate change, flora and fauna, and hunting, among others, which implied the design of lively and innovative didactic experiences.

The process paved the road for discussions among teachers on relevant experiences that will complement and inspire the development of new projects in the classroom related to the context. In this strategy, the importance of recognizing and incorporating campesino traditional knowledge in school projects about natural resources and traditional practices in páramos was also highlighted.

Video: Education relevant to the context (in spanish)