SOCIAL PROJECTION

“YO TE CREO”, A PROJECT TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUITY AT THE CLASSROOM

Fecha: May 28, 2021

Escrito por: Sonia Zamora

Five years ago, Professor Catalina Mora Barbosa, a graduate in Social Sciences at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional –UPN– has been working with vulnerable communities in Kennedy and Ciudad Bolívar, in Bogotá City, to depatriarchalize the school.

The Professor Mora increasingly envisioned that need after perceiving closely the inequality in the classes with her students, so she decided to implement the program “Yo te creo” (I believe you), with which she seeks to make visible the ways in which boys and girls relate to each other at school and opening a scenario where they may activate the possibility of acting in the face of circumstances that mean gender inequality.

"It is a bet upon teaching to take ownership of issues that are not discussed about at school. It seeks a curricular transformation in which gender issues have a place," the teacher says who carries out artistic activities with her students, such as painting murals and stampings, and forums to discuss the meaning of being a woman.

It is clear to Professor Mora that it is not an attack against men or masculinity, but rather a questioning of the patriarchal system, as she has being faced a complex reality that includes the tragedy of young women suffering violence and abuse.

Since her graduation at UPN in 2009, Professor Mora has worked closely with student organizations to protect youth rights. A path that later led her to carry out a Master's degree in Education at Universidad de los Andes.

During her professional career she has addressed issues such as youth work, counterculture as a way of expression and, of course, the school based on a gender perspective, from community structures, educational institutions, and other entities, such as the Mayor's Office of Bogota and the Secretary of Education.

Regarding the UPN is a debt for Professor Mora because she recognizes it as the possibility of understanding the world in a different way and knowing the reality, leaving the bubble of her environment to start thinking and building a path aimed to transform the context of Colombia.

Hence, her message for teachers who are currently training at her alma mater is they should bet on and believe in the likelihood of being teachers in a worthwhile field of action.

From teaching history, Professor Mora seeks to generate scenarios to express and discuss transforming the role that women have been playing not only in school but in society in general.

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