Education

Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT-CWS

(15 minutes)

Literacy is a basic human right and a key element in overcoming poverty, improving health, and empowering people. This is especially true of women who have often been excluded from educational opportunities. The following exercise is taken from a literacy training program promoted by Church World Service. It will give you an idea of how learning to read and promoting community development are connected.

You will need to enlarge the image on this page (a woman, who was displaced by an earthquake in Pakistan, carrying water) so all can see it. The methodology for the process is called FAMA (Facts, Associations, Meaning, Action). The image (called a code) is the spark for a discussion using a series of structured questions based on the FAMA structure. The example is based on a training manual employed in a CWS-supported program in Angola. Introduce the activity as a sample of what literacy training might be like in Africa. (NOTE: If you wish, you can create your own code from some image more directly out of your participants’ lives. Just adapt the FAMA questions to the code you’ve chosen.)

Welcome to our literacy class. I’m very happy you have come today. Learning to read will help you in so many ways, but there’s a lot you know already. That’s the place to start! So, please look at this photo.

• What do you notice in this picture?
• What do you think the woman in this picture is feeling?
• What is she doing? Why is water so important?
• How does this picture make you feel?
• Have you ever had an experience where you felt like the woman in this photo?
• What might this woman be able to teach you?
• What can a person who cannot read or write teach other people?
• What implications does this discussion have for you? What would you like to do for this woman? What would that require?

Now ask your participants to reflect on this experience:

• What did you notice during the discussion?
• How did you feel during the discussion?
• What does this method of teaching say about the importance of learners and their own experience?
• How did this exercise compare with your own experience of schooling?
• How might learning this way set the stage for change in the home or community?
• Are there ways/settings where you might use this method?

Note that in an actual literacy class the discussion would move to focus on some of the vocabulary used during the conversation (woman, water, bucket, tent, walking, etc.).

(Inspired by Literacy in Action: A Guide for Combining Literacy and Community Development by Josie Lee and Lynn Curtis. Published by ProLiteracy Worldwide, Syracuse, NY.)

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