Natik hosted a study abroad conference.
Greetings!
Natik's biggest news is that we co-hosted an international conference of the Association of Academic Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean (AAPLAC) March 8-11 in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico. The conference theme this year was Culture, Sustainability, and Environment in Latin America,
On the Wednesday before the formal conference began, we arranged for a Popular Education Workshop in response to AAPLAC members who were interested in experiencing something that most professors know about, and some even teach it from a theoretical perspective.
Popular Education is a system of horizontal (not top-down) collective knowledge construction. It is founded on the work of Paolo Freire and has morphed and evolved considerably since then. It's especially powerful as a tool to facilitate teach-learn situation with people with low levels of formal education. It assumes we all begin with knowledge and wisdom from life experiences and constructs the learning based on the needs and interests of the people who want to learn.
The experiential Popular Education day was led by two midwives with considerable field experience and the day included creation of poems, statues, and mini-skits. The participants were so moved that several said that for them, that day was the highlight of the conference.
The exciting news is that experiencing the power of Popular Education gave birth to a new concept for future AAPLAC conferences. One of the planners of the next conference told me: "We talk about decolonizing academic programs abroad and here we have a tool that we can apply to that process! I'm looking forward to integrating Popular Education into the next conference!"
This year's conference in Palenque was an opportunity to continue integrating Natik's work into AAPLAC's growing network of international universities and academic program providers. As always, the presentations were an eclectic mix of academic-style research, anecdotal narratives, and artistic sharing of experiences.
The short presentation formats of so many interesting topics inspired robust conversations immediately afterward, and peppered the exchanges during coffee breaks and meals. Many participants came early or stayed a few days longer to explore the natural delights of the tropical rainforest and Mayan culture. There was also a dancing contingent that managed to burn the candle at all ends during the few days we were together! (Industrial consumption of Chiapas coffee helped keep the motors running. 😊)
Chiapas universities were strongly represented and they are now eager to join this expanding network of professionals who are committed to constructing friendly colegial spaces for the south-north dialog. Despite the many challenging situations and polarized perceptions throughout the Americas that are perpetually reported in major media, it's so energizing to know how many exciting, innovative, wonderful, positive, amazing programs are happening and to meet the people who conceive and execute those programs!
I'm thrilled to be passing the baton of Board Secretary to a woman who is the Director of Travel Abroad at a university in Maryland. I'm looking forward to staying connected as we get ready for the next conference in Cali, Columbia. The theme of the next conference is contextualizing Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI). How can anyone resist the power of that acronym?!
Stay tuned for Natik's involvement in organizing academic student exchanges with our partners and NGO allies in Chiapas and Guatemala.
🍀🦋🍀Anita Smart
Executive Director
P.S. Please feel free to respond to this email or schedule a time on my calendar so we can talk.💙