Participatory Methodologies: From Development to Classroom Teaching

Our teaching strongly encourages students to be critical and creative. In our view, however, critical thinking and originality extend beyond the content of the courses and a student’s ability to assess the relevance of ideas. Instead, it must involve reflecting on the process from which such content and ideas have emerged. In this sense, our teaching draws upon original and ‘unusual’ interactive group activities which aim to surprise students, stimulate their reflection, help them structure arguments in various ways (not only in writing through essays) and compel them to cope with unexpected situations. They also encourage students to share their knowledge and perform tasks unconventionally. For example, many of our classes involve preparing diagrams and posters, which require students to structure ideas in ‘space’ (a critical dimension of Geography)

In other classes, students draw comic strips and storyboards for music videos and documentary films, encouraging them to structure arguments in narrative forms. We also use treasure hunts to break away from the monotony of get-off-get-on-the-bus field trips and encourage students to identify, discover and make sense of relevant places on their own. In addition, we have designed a unique ‘participatory assignment’ where students design and mark their own assignment so that they can experience first-hand the challenges and opportunities associated with participatory development. These activities and assignments are conducted with appropriate safety nets, such as the continuous reference to materials such as flip charts summarising the outcomes of previous activities posted at almost every class and strict guidelines for original assignments