Learning circles as spaces to engage in pedagogical activism
On June 5th delegates including those from Education International gathered at the Schools2030 Global Forum 2023 in Porto, Portugal.
The 2023 Schools2030 Global Forum was run in collaboration with the Aga Khan Development Network, the Government of Portugal and the Municipality of Porto, in Porto, Portugal. In 2023, the Forum aimed to provide a space for education stakeholders to reflect on how to create more inclusive schools and learning environments for all by 2030.
As part of this year's Forum, Education International ran a workshop entitled "Teacher-Led Learning Circles for Formative Assessment: Inclusion Through Teacher Leadership". The workshop was based on Education International’s Teacher-led Learning Circles for Formative Assessment (T3LFA) project. The T3LFA project aims to provide teachers with the tools and support needed to identify and establish effective teacher-led formative assessment practices that can be disseminated within and across education unions.
Martin Henry opened the workshop by saying "It's not stories that drive change but resources" highlighting the need to fully fund education systems to provide dedicated time for continuous professional learning and development for teachers to improve outcomes for all students. Martin then gave the floor to three Teacher-led Learning Circle for Formative Assessment (T3LFA) project participants and a delegate from FENPROF, a national trade union organisation that represents teachers from all sectors and levels of education in Portugal.
Prof. Dalila Andrade firstly spoke about the complex educational environment in Brazil. Dalila, who is Director for Institutional Cooperation, International and Innovation in the Lula administration in Brazil and a national researcher for the T3LFA project, noted the need to involve teachers' unions in positive change around learning to address the intersecting forms of discrimination that have long marked Brazilian society.
Monika Bieri, the lead facilitator of the learning circles project in Switzerland, next talked of the need for collaboration in education using the analogy of a wooden hamster wheel. Monika stressed the necessity for teachers to have the facilities to reflect on their practices to support their students in becoming subjects of their learning instead of being objects of assessments.
Ana Maria Clementino, who leads one of the Brazilian learning circles, consequently spoke of the learning opportunities that derive from learning circles. Ana detailed how the circles are inclusive spaces of professional learning and development that enable teachers to grow together.
Finally, Manuela Mendonça, executive board member at Education International, spoke of the importance of the work occurring within the Teacher-Led Learning Circles for Formative Assessment Project (T3LFA) to fostering democratic futures and more inclusive societies. Manuela specifically noted that learning circles are an example of pedagogical activism in action.
Overall, workshop participants noted that they were inspired by the models developed in the circles, highlighting that they did not drop, like thunder, from the sky, but grew from teachers on the ground. One Ugandan participant noted the need for the move towards formative assessment in Uganda where summative assessment was the norm. It was widely understood by participants at the end of the workshop that it was necessary to give teachers the space to think about their practice through learning circles to develop the capabilities of all students in their classrooms.
Photos from the event are available to view here and a blog post from the event written by the project’s lead facilitator in Switzerland, Monika Bieri, is available to read in German here.
Want to find out more? Continue to keep up to date with project activities as well as developments across our seven project countries by visiting our dedicated project page.
