Equity and Justice in Education

It has been a relaxing couple of days in Andahuaylillas with lots of sun and exploring. Sunday morning, we got up bright and early to go to an Andean ritual in Cuyuni. We were welcomed warmly with a great view of the Andes mountains. The people from this town welcomed us into their community and showed us their ritual in their traditional attire and using their traditional music. We got to see how they thank and praise Pachamama, mother earth. They put coca leaves, beans, candy and much more into a paper that they then burned in the fire to thank her for all that she has done for them. They then showed us how they give the llamas alcohol and then each family gets to mark their llama as their own. They do this by piercing their ear and then putting strings on them to show that they belong to that particular family. This is similar to how we mark cows on their ear in the United States. After they mark them, they then dance to traditional music played by the members of the community. After the ritual, we got to go to a sustainable house that the community has been working hard to improve over time. We got to see how they have created a manure system that created water and gas for the house. With this innovation, they were then able to use the gas for their stove in their kitchen and they were very proud of that. They also had a greenhouse that students from Fe y Alegria helped to create and it is used to feed the community. Overall, the sustainable house seems to be making great improvements to better their community over time!

Monday morning, we got the opportunity to visit the Fe y Alegria school in Andahuaylillas where we were given a presentation on the school and their mission as well as a tour. The school prides themselves on making the students bilingual in both Castellano (Spanish) and Quechua. They want their students to be intercultural and realize their identity in their community, as well as their role in the world. They were also very proud to be going to Lima in October to show the university there and other organizations all the great work they have been doing at the school. They are going to show them poetry that the students have been working on. It seems like they are doing great work at this school to shape the whole person to recognize their place in their community and in the world.

If we attended to equity and justice in the classroom, each students voice and culture would be accepted and able to be incorporated though the classroom curriculum. As a teacher, one would focus more on educating the whole person and making sure that the student is being taught in a way that works for them. By doing this, it requires more differentiation on the teachers end, however, would attend to equity in the classroom for all students.

The role of gender equity in the classroom has also come up in our school visits during our time in Peru. Girls often go to school only through primary and boys tend to move on to secondary. The girls do not have as much of an opportunity to go to secondary school because it is often unsafe for them to walk to and from school because the boys tend to bully them. They are also valued more in the household and are expected to take care of the house and any siblings if they have some. Where I saw this gender equity play out was in the Fe y Alegria school in Andahuaylillas when the woman giving us a presentation said that in many rural schools students have to walk 2 hours to school and 2 hours back home at the end of the day. She pointed out that this often presented girls with dangerous situations and prevented them from continuing on in their education.

If we attended to equity and justice in the classroom, all students will be valued. There will be equal opportunities for both boys and girls no matter the location of the school or the socioeconomic status of the students. Because all students would be valued, these values should guide education. No matter what socioeconomic status someone belongs to or their culture, they should all have the opportunity to reach their highest potential in the classroom.