Intercultural school: using leisure time for peace building

Abstract

UCEVA (Unidad Central del Valle del Cauca) University created the Intercultural School, a space for discussion with different social leaders of the Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia, on the projection and social responsibility of the institution with vulnerable communities in the region. For this reason, the institution ventured to redefine the school as a non-physical space of education for life and encounter with others, where the intercultural dimension promotes the appreciation of diversity and enables learning and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. In this way, the disciplinary content took a back seat while the institution connected members of these communities to educational processes that met their needs, based on leisure and recreation as a means of peace building and social inclusion. In this project, leisure and recreation were the central axis of intercultural training for social empowerment, which was carried out through games, physical education, puppet theater, foreign language classes, sports, agricultural entrepreneurship, and other educational alternatives. This research focused on complementarity as it integrated teaching, social projection, and research. To gather information, in-depth interviews were conducted with key community stakeholders. Based on this data, a curriculum was designed that was tailored to the interests of the community and had a differentiated approach. During the process, field diaries and pedagogical workshops were conducted to show the lessons learned from reflection and critical analysis of experiences. Over the past three years, the Intercultural School has offered more than 15 programs to nearly 550 users who have been able to strengthen their cultural identity, advance in social inclusion, and learn to resolve conflicts peacefully. However, some high-risk youth continue to be threatened by violence and drug micro-trafficking.