Social cartophraphy: Painting Ourselves on a Map
Chiapas: Zapatista. 1994 was the Z uprising. Wanted a different education that respected their culture, their langauge: to have a central role in creating their language.
So they wanted autonomous eduction (from gov’t) so refused books, money, teachers from gov’t; had to figure out how to produce those themselves. Began with elementary education and moved to HS. Teachers called “promoters of education.” Teach in mother tongue. Create & use their own materials since they reject existing state materials. Have to start from scratch. Had to learn:
- The school had to serve the community
- Theory and practice had to mesh; students learn by doing, related to community needs
- No matter what age/level of students, they can attend
So they looked at the worldview of the Zs to create their approach/method:
They imagined the communities they wanted to create in Chiapas. Decide what they want/don’t want.
Main idea about Social Cartography method:
- Talk about territory using memory and speaking from heart. Not just earth, but all that’s around. Place where dead rest, where we live, where our food grows, that has everything we need for life. Listening, feeling what we see in our territory to see the problems:
- Cosmovision: Past present future: what was there , where is it now, what do we want. They view their world through what the four elements bring them: earth, air, fire, water.
- This is collective work where everyone shares their experience and complement each other’s knowledge and feelings about the territory.
- Diagonosing how we work the land, how we transform what we produce, what we buy and sell.
Objective: what do we need to solve our problems, and what do we need to learn to solve our problems.
Students researched this in the communities to figure out what they needed to learn, e.g. sustainable ag, cleaner water system. Developed curriculum based on this and the elements, so education connected with their daily needs.
“Building the territory of curriculum”: e.g. water… relationships between humans and water, in their own community and in other cultures. Look at relationships between education (all the schools we have), health (where we go when we get sick), churches (where we pray & gather).
Used also in the city. By talking about our problems and what to do with them… reproducable in the city.
Integrated theme of gender into education programs: what do women do/need. Historically have played a marginalized role in indigenous society, but also throughout community.
Collective work, what men women and the elderly do, what goys and girls do… murals that have been painted
“Education promoters”: few women. But women’s cooperatives are important; also women in health and education but it varies between zones and needs to be more.
Despite military harassment these schools, while not numerous, do exist and are surviving.
Classes can be in garden or on stairs or under sun. Maybe have blackboards or nothing. But their learning and teaching with dignity.
“Education promoters”: don’t get paid. They’re asked by their community to represent. The way their paid is by support from community, e.g. food. At bimonthly workshops the promoters share what they know.
Facilitators also don’t get paid, and they also are at all the workshops (in an observer/facilitator vs. leader role).
We come from a system that old us what to learn, so we have doubts about how we make our own curriculum. But we know what we need. We talk about stories of family, country, community as source of inspiration.
They’re also learning languages: Spanish (the language of the powerful) as well as their own. Learning math, but with the tools that they have. “The space that produces life” = natural science.
Educate. Resist. Liberate. Organizacion Zapatista: Educacion para la Liberacion de Nuestros Pueblos. Mexico City.