Aswatna - Finding our voice
Educating for Inclusion
Aswatna is a program developed by en.v in partnership with Data4Change and the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research (CTLR) at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), to empower students to create social change within their communities. In our work, we have found that youth often feel alienated by the educational system which they move through and therefore are consistently engaged in and curious about what else is possible. This project is an attempt to honor that curiosity by providing youth with the tools and skills we believe will allow them to reimagine what their schools and communities could look like.
Our intention is to create a space for students to engage with each other in messy, raw, playful, and affirming ways. We hope to provide participants with skills that will allow them to move through the world more critically, with more agency, and in community.
Student Training
The Aswatna youth training program is a five-week immersive training course. Participants are trained in Critical & Systems Thinking, Equity & Human Rights, Cross-Cultural Communication, Storytelling, and Participatory Action Research (PAR). This year we are using a disability justice approach to refine the program's content and structure with the hope to deepen the work done in the training and make it more accessible for a broader variety of peoples.
Three training rounds took place between the months of January and May of 2022 with 68 high school and university students from across education systems (public, American, British, Indian and bilingual). Our youngest participants were 14 and our eldest was in their 30s. All were currently enrolled in their schools, and were divided across three cohorts based on education level (high school or university) and language (Arabic, English, Bilingual).
In the spring of 2024 we will be conducting two more training rounds, one in Arabic and another in English, primarily for high school students. Interested in joining? For more details download the brief (English / Arabic) or apply using the buttons below. Deadline to apply is 06 April 2024.
Participatory Action Research
Throughout the youth training program, participants identified issues that moved them, and then developed participatory research projects to better understand how others in the community, and in particular their peers, relate to them. Each cohort had to come up with a number of issues or observations they noticed or experienced in their school spaces. These observations or issues could vary in scope, depth, or form. For example, some were related to the school's physical environment such as lack of facilities in school, or social issues such as body shaming and discrimination. These issues were then grouped thematically, and research teams created to explore these topics further by going out into the community and collecting data. A total of 11 teams conducted surveys and focus groups with 1,195 people over the course of three months. For more information about our participants research findings visit our Aswatna data portal, aswatna.org.
Aswatna Ideathon
Using the data collected by the Aswatna youth training participants in the first phase of the program, we designed an Ideation workshop that took place in December 2022. Over the course of three intense days, over 80 participants - including students, educators, creatives, designers, technologists, and civil society representatives - got together to co-create pilot initiatives that could help promote more responsive, safe and inclusive schools in Kuwait. Out of the seven amazing ideas that were developed, three were selected to move into implementation.
Testimonials
Aswatna was a great opportunity for students to connect with each other outside of their schools, learn from and with local and international change-makers, build community with one another and make an impact on their education and the wider society. Here are some testimonials from our second cohort of Arabic school participants that Fateam Alali (one of the participants) very generously put together .
Pilot projects
Post Ideathon, the three teams listed below have taken their projects into the world to see if they have legs.
Nudge Club
The Nudge Club aims to create a safe space for students and teachers to interact and bond outside the hierarchical classroom space. By using play, art therapy, breathwork and different trust-building tools, the Nudge Club will attempt to counter existing power dynamics and contribute to better communication and greater empathy amongst all parties. Ultimately, they hope to contribute to the classroom environment becoming a more comfortable space for teachers and students to share ideas freely and open the door for discussion on serious issues.
Anonym(us)
Anonym(us) provides a safe space for high school and university students to share their stories of vulnerability, connect to a supportive community, empathize with different experiences, and express themselves creatively. It is both an online and offline storytelling platform that utilizes different mediums (social media, print, art, theater, workshops) to ensure inclusivity and accessibility.
Project Sidra
Project Sidra is a collection of cultures and identities that can be experienced through a game. The game, designed based on surveys and interviews conducted with members of the community, aims to provide students with the opportunity to learn about the fabric and rich texture of Kuwait's many diverse neighborhoods, and Kuwait's shared culture and history. Project Sidra hopes to challenge assumptions about who has a right to Kuwait and develop cross-cultural understanding across the country’s schools.
In the next year we will continue to support these teams as their projects grow and shift as they shape the world while the world shapes them.
Teacher Training
As part of the latest phase of the Aswatna program, we have developed a comprehensive teacher training workshop aimed at benefiting public school educators. This workshop, coupled with its corresponding toolkit, is designed to empower teachers by enabling them to incorporate the tools and pedagogies that have successfully shaped and structured our own curriculum. The key components of our teacher training workshop include:
Introduction to Facilitation vs Teaching
Implementation of Design Methods for Participatory Learning
Strategies for Inclusive, Differentiated, and Multidisciplinary Classrooms
Utilization of Tools for Collaborative Design Lab
Step-by-step Guidance for Designing Workshops
Throughout the program, we were pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of the curriculum with public school students. With these teacher training sessions, our objective is to extend this impact to a larger number of students. By collaborating with teachers from all 5 governorates, we aim to meet students where they are, rather than solely waiting for them to come to us.
What is the ethos of the program?
Messy: We believe that learning doesn't happen without discomfort. We want to prepare participants to learn in ways that may be new, difficult, and uncomfortable for them.
Raw: We'll be moving through subjects that will likely feel personal to participants so we ask that folks come into the space prepared to be open and vulnerable with each other.
Playful: We want to encourage participants to be experimental, curious, and light. This isn't to say the work won't be heavy but that we will try our best to move through heavy work with humility and joy.
Affirming: We firmly believe that nobody is disposable and therefore we seek to create a space where everyone feels supported and cared for no matter their background or where they are at in their learning.