How do schools in Colombia promote access and opportunity for all students?
As a white teacher who is passionate about racial equity issues in the educational system in the United States, I am interested in how equity plays out abroad. I currently teach approximately 95% students of color, many of whom are immigrants, refugees, and English Language Learners, and while I am anticipating the schools to be more racially and linguistically homogeneous in Colombia, I know there will be different types of diversity, and I would like to investigate how Colombian educators ensure all students receive high-quality education.
Accordingly, I would like to focus my research on differentiation:
Accordingly, I would like to focus my research on differentiation:
How do educators differentiate curriculum, instruction, and assessment to meet the needs of diverse learners?
As you can see via my blog entries, I visited several schools, and while all were unique in their own ways, the "answer" to my research question was similar regardless of where I was, whether it was a second-grade classroom in Bogota or a tenth-grade classroom in Bucaramanga.
Access & Opportunity
In regard to racial equity, I discovered that while Colombia has distinct races, those groupings do not determine access to education -- necessarily. What does play into equity is whether a school is urban or rural, public or private, strata one or strata ten. So essentially, location and socio-economic status play a far greater role than race in regard to educational access and opportunity.
(Per our conversation with educational leaders in Colombia, location is the biggest determining factor in student achievement: students in rural settings have fewer resources and supplies and a general lack of context in their studies. Fulbright Colombia, however, is trying to level the playing field by diversifying grants for underserved populations, including Afro-Colombians, people from conflict areas, indigenous populations, people with disabilities, etc. Different universities, too, are trying to "close the gap" by offering free English classes to students who may have not had the opportunity otherwise as well as granting admission without an application fee, an entrance exam, etc.
From a systems level, the Ministry of Education ensures that everyone has access to a free education and benefits from the same legislation. For instance, studying English is not just a privilege for those in the private schools; rather, it is mandated in all schools and for all students, regardless of the school they attend. However, education is decentralized, and some areas do not make it as big a priority as others, which sadly leaves students in certain areas without as much access and as many opportunities.
Finally, while the Ministry of Education has different mandates and initiatives to try and raise student achievement across the board, there is a lack of teacher training to ensure measures are put into place with fidelity and for sustainability, and there is a lack of funding to do so, especially in regard to special education. (In Colombia, it is a recent law that everyone -- including students with special needs -- be educated in the general education classroom, but there is no additional funding provided for services like paraprofessionals, adaptive technology, etc.)
Differentiation
If we think of access and opportunity on a larger, systems-level scale, then differentiation is much smaller and is more the responsibility of individual teachers. While I did not have much time in one specific classroom and can therefore only speak on the multiple classrooms I was in for short amounts of time, my peers and I noticed a few common themes.
First, class sizes in Colombia are incredibly big. Generally, there are 40 or more students in each classroom (we saw classes that had a minimum of 60 students), regardless of whether it is a first-grade or an eleventh-grade class; and, classrooms are inclusive to all students from all readiness levels. Additionally, there is a general lack of resources in the classrooms we visited: there are very few books, copies, materials, etc. Differentiation with this number of students and this lack of resources is certainly a challenge, albeit not impossible. Most often, it comes down to individual teacher's readiness levels as well as the school's financial supports.
One way that teachers ensure students receive what they need in regard to instruction is to offer remediation opportunities, especially if students failed a portion of the class; unfortunately, one of those "remediation opportunities" was simply for students to not be promoted with their peers. At another school, we saw intervention meetings between teachers, social workers, and administration; stakeholders collaborated to determine supports for struggling students.
As far as classroom instruction, we saw a variety of pedagogical methods and multiple modalities being used. Teachers might give direct instruction for a short period of time, but even while they are doing this, they are using visuals and asking students to engage kinesthetically (especially in the English Language classrooms). Additionally, they switch up the method of instruction often, asking students to work collaboratively, independently, etc. on a variety of tasks.
So while the instruction may not be differentiated for individual students, it is somewhat differentiated for all students -- each student will find a piece of the lesson in which they will excel, in which their strengths and/or preferences can shine.
In a couple of the schools we visited, student choice was evident. When we visited a secondary classroom at Aquileo Parra in Bogota, we observed an optional class that probably 15 students were taking. Students worked collaboratively to identify a problem, create objectives, and implement an action plan to resolve the issue. At a school in Bucaramanga, some fellows reported that students had incredible choice in determining the technical courses they wanted to take.
There is an educational model -- Escuela Nueva -- that I was briefly introduced to and that I am looking forward to researching further. Essentially, it uses a "flexible curriculum focused on a cooperative, active, and participatory learning methodology where students advance at their own pace." From what I understand, this is used primarily in rural schools where students of multiple ages/grades are in one classroom.
Reflection
The biggest issues I saw in Colombia -- class sizes and lack of resources -- are interestingly the biggest issues I hear about in the United States (although class sizes are much smaller and resources are much more plentiful in the U.S.). I know that teachers in both countries are working wonders, despite the barriers they encounter on a regular basis, and I am excited about the possibilities for both countries as we continue to collaborate with one another on issues such as access, opportunity, and differentiation.
Access & Opportunity
In regard to racial equity, I discovered that while Colombia has distinct races, those groupings do not determine access to education -- necessarily. What does play into equity is whether a school is urban or rural, public or private, strata one or strata ten. So essentially, location and socio-economic status play a far greater role than race in regard to educational access and opportunity.
(Per our conversation with educational leaders in Colombia, location is the biggest determining factor in student achievement: students in rural settings have fewer resources and supplies and a general lack of context in their studies. Fulbright Colombia, however, is trying to level the playing field by diversifying grants for underserved populations, including Afro-Colombians, people from conflict areas, indigenous populations, people with disabilities, etc. Different universities, too, are trying to "close the gap" by offering free English classes to students who may have not had the opportunity otherwise as well as granting admission without an application fee, an entrance exam, etc.
From a systems level, the Ministry of Education ensures that everyone has access to a free education and benefits from the same legislation. For instance, studying English is not just a privilege for those in the private schools; rather, it is mandated in all schools and for all students, regardless of the school they attend. However, education is decentralized, and some areas do not make it as big a priority as others, which sadly leaves students in certain areas without as much access and as many opportunities.
Finally, while the Ministry of Education has different mandates and initiatives to try and raise student achievement across the board, there is a lack of teacher training to ensure measures are put into place with fidelity and for sustainability, and there is a lack of funding to do so, especially in regard to special education. (In Colombia, it is a recent law that everyone -- including students with special needs -- be educated in the general education classroom, but there is no additional funding provided for services like paraprofessionals, adaptive technology, etc.)
Differentiation
If we think of access and opportunity on a larger, systems-level scale, then differentiation is much smaller and is more the responsibility of individual teachers. While I did not have much time in one specific classroom and can therefore only speak on the multiple classrooms I was in for short amounts of time, my peers and I noticed a few common themes.
First, class sizes in Colombia are incredibly big. Generally, there are 40 or more students in each classroom (we saw classes that had a minimum of 60 students), regardless of whether it is a first-grade or an eleventh-grade class; and, classrooms are inclusive to all students from all readiness levels. Additionally, there is a general lack of resources in the classrooms we visited: there are very few books, copies, materials, etc. Differentiation with this number of students and this lack of resources is certainly a challenge, albeit not impossible. Most often, it comes down to individual teacher's readiness levels as well as the school's financial supports.
One way that teachers ensure students receive what they need in regard to instruction is to offer remediation opportunities, especially if students failed a portion of the class; unfortunately, one of those "remediation opportunities" was simply for students to not be promoted with their peers. At another school, we saw intervention meetings between teachers, social workers, and administration; stakeholders collaborated to determine supports for struggling students.
As far as classroom instruction, we saw a variety of pedagogical methods and multiple modalities being used. Teachers might give direct instruction for a short period of time, but even while they are doing this, they are using visuals and asking students to engage kinesthetically (especially in the English Language classrooms). Additionally, they switch up the method of instruction often, asking students to work collaboratively, independently, etc. on a variety of tasks.
So while the instruction may not be differentiated for individual students, it is somewhat differentiated for all students -- each student will find a piece of the lesson in which they will excel, in which their strengths and/or preferences can shine.
In a couple of the schools we visited, student choice was evident. When we visited a secondary classroom at Aquileo Parra in Bogota, we observed an optional class that probably 15 students were taking. Students worked collaboratively to identify a problem, create objectives, and implement an action plan to resolve the issue. At a school in Bucaramanga, some fellows reported that students had incredible choice in determining the technical courses they wanted to take.
There is an educational model -- Escuela Nueva -- that I was briefly introduced to and that I am looking forward to researching further. Essentially, it uses a "flexible curriculum focused on a cooperative, active, and participatory learning methodology where students advance at their own pace." From what I understand, this is used primarily in rural schools where students of multiple ages/grades are in one classroom.
Reflection
The biggest issues I saw in Colombia -- class sizes and lack of resources -- are interestingly the biggest issues I hear about in the United States (although class sizes are much smaller and resources are much more plentiful in the U.S.). I know that teachers in both countries are working wonders, despite the barriers they encounter on a regular basis, and I am excited about the possibilities for both countries as we continue to collaborate with one another on issues such as access, opportunity, and differentiation.