M. Ardanaz, C. Gª-Rincón, B. Urosa A PROPOSAL FOR A LOGICAL FRAMEWORK ...educacionglobalresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/04B-Ardanaz-Inglés… · Logical Framework Approach from

Número Uno (Febrero 2012) Página 132 Issue One (February 2012) Page 132

M. Ardanaz, C. Gª-Rincón, B. Urosa1 A PROPOSAL FOR A LOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR GLOBAL

DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION. THE “GEBL” MODEL

Abstract This article intends opening a process of practical reflection on the alternatives to the Logical Framework Approach from a perspective based on the learning process. This is the premise from which the article builds a cycle of the project in which its features are adapted to the reality of the educational context. It also provides a reflection and suggests an alternative to the concept of success and quality of the project which, once again, is focused on the building of the learning process of the organisations involved. This process relies on research, investigation and critical thinking as a key element for empowerment and emancipation of human beings and social groups.

Critical reading is not done as if one was purchasing wholesale merchandise.

Reading twenty books, thirty books. True reading immediately creates a commitment for me

with the text given to me, to which I devote myself and I also become subject to seeking a fundamental understanding of it.

(Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Autonomy, 1996) Just over a year ago, for teaching‐related reasons, the individuals involved in this article reviewed the numerous offers for subsidies for Development Education (DE) projects in Spain. In all of them, to a greater or lesser extent, we encountered a common theme: the exclusion in the study of the teaching‐learning elements in the offers themselves. Although this was the impression widely discussed in the sector for years, we were no less surprised to verify that education‐specific proposals were completely resigned to not developing an educational plan and assessment of the proposals.

1 Miguel Ardanaz Ibáñez is the manager of the Pedagogical Department of FERE‐CECA Madrid (Catholic Schools of Madrid). For the last seven years he has run the post‐graduate course “Education for Solidarity and Global Development” in the Pontifical University of Comillas. His areas of interest are related to pedagogy and research in educational processes on a global scale, focusing on social justice and the transforming utopia. Since 1992, he has been working on the DE field, developing projects and sharing workshops and other training proposals in different social and educational organisations. At present he is the manager of this magazine. Contact: FERE‐CECA Madrid. c/ Hacienda de Pavones 5, 2º, 28030 Madrid (España) [email protected] Cesar García‐Rincón de Castro is a lecturer, writer and teacher of the Pontifical University of Comillas and the European Business School. He is also a consultant to NGOs and educational centres in the fields related to the human factor, development of people and, most of all, development of prosocial values. He is an expert on school volunteering and prosocial education. He has written more than ten books on education and psychology. His areas of interest are focused on youth education (values and entrepreneurship) and children’s education (emotional and prosocial intelligence), as well as educator’s training. www.cesargarciarincon.com Contact: Av. de la Comunidad de Madrid, 10, 28224 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid (España) [email protected] Belén Urosa Sanz is a professor on Methodology of Research and Educational Innovation in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the Pontifical University of Comillas. She has written several articles and books on Research Methodology and Data Analysis. She has been teaching these subjects in her classes of degree, postgraduate and PhD for 25 years. She has also given many courses, as well as managed and participated in numerous research projects in the educational field. She was the vice‐rector of academic planning and teaching staff and at present is the dean of the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences. Contact: Universidad P. Comillas. C/ Universidad de Comillas, 3‐5 28049 Madrid (España) [email protected]

The INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL for GLOBAL and DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION RESEARCH REVISTA INTERNACIONAL sobre INVESTIGACIÓN en EDUCACIÓN GLOBAL y para el DESARROLLO

A PROPOSAL FOR A LOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION.

THE “GEBL” MODEL. M. Ardanaz‐C. García‐Rincón‐B. Urosa


At the heart of these absences is the Logical Framework Approach (LFA), a necessary perspective in the majority of DE project offers throughout the world for the last twenty years. Many have raised concerns regarding this approach, after putting it into practice and experiencing it, attempting to improve it for the overall scope of cooperation or decrying its limitations and demonstrating its incompatibility with DE (1). It is odd that after almost forty years (if not more) of DE this topic has yet to be dealt with in depth. We have not even reached a consensus model, or been able to accept several, which from various perspectives meets the specific needs of DE within a context of social transformation. This silence has an impact, on many occasions, on how DE is regarded, in cooperation contexts, both those of the NGOs as well as public and private donation organisations. With this viewpoint and this concern in mind, we have begun to reflect on a possible Logical Framework Approach specifically tailored to DE and specially focused on issues related to the teaching‐learning processes linked to it. Understandably, the task was complex due to the mechanisms acquired through decades of use. Although we were sure about some basic ideas, we were not so sure about others. Perhaps one of the most important problems was and is the lack of definition of the learning processes associated with DE. To start with, one of the few characteristics of LFA that we wanted to preserve was its outstanding capacity to reflect on what we intended to do, to think, rethink and analyse the idea to be developed, and we kept this at the forefront of our minds. However, there were also many other characteristics that we did not want to preserve, and we wanted to take this into account from the outset. For example, we did not want to create a tool for specialists or a form to be filled out by a technician. However, among the aspects we did not want to preserve, there was one that we were particularly sure about, which represented a radical difference between LFA and our approach: the role of efficiency and the concept of project success. We will discuss all of this during this brief presentation of the GEBL model. Different beginnings, sound results When beginning to come up with a DE project, there are many ways of starting, perhaps as many as there are people. This diversity may be related to learning styles, which is one of the most noteworthy elements of the new educational paradigm of our times. We learn in various ways and by the same token, we manage our creativity and project capacity by different means. The diverse models and theories (2) in existence on learning styles offer a conceptual framework that we must take into account in our planning (although these are not the subject of this article). With this new focus, we hope, at least, to create flexibility in access to it, keeping in mind that creating strong relationships between the different parts is more important than how you get there.





For example, we can think about our DE project on the basis of the set of activities and tasks to be carried out, which we shall call endeavours. Or we can begin with the learning processes we seek. Both approaches are valid provided the connection between the two is aligned and sound.

Fig. 1: Desempeños y aprendizajes se retroalimentan.

With practice, sometimes we can visualise them together and simultaneously; others, one of the two is predominant. In both cases, what we have to do is separate them and study their possibilities and potential. Our experience in DE projects has led us to limit the basic recommendations in learning to two:

‐ The first is precision in the proposals. Sometimes the definition of the scope of learning is so broad that it becomes impossible to grasp. For example, on occasions we want to “provide DE training” or “teach about Human Rights”. A more graspable scope might be “generating comprehension about the human right to health” or, even more precisely, “generating comprehension about models for transformation and social participation in the fight for women's rights”. There are numerous possibilities and this is one of the elements we will check when assessing the coherence of our global proposal.

‐ The second, precisely in the opposite direction, is open‐mindedness. We develop this through the use of open learning experiences. An open learning experience is one that is applicable in numerous contexts and situations. A closed learning experience is one that deals with a topic in a restricted way (3). For example, a closed learning experience would be studying “the second World War”, an open one would be “understanding and analysing the phenomenon of war from different perspectives and eras”.





Therefore, learning experiences and the processes related to them must be specific enough to enable graspable planning and monitoring to be done, but also open in order to generate diverse learning experiences applicable to different contexts. The first condition is technical in nature, but the second also has an ethical dimension. For learning experiences to be complete, they need a dimension of commitment to reality. And as reality is complex and inter‐dependent, they must be handled by people with different points of view and situations. Generative Learning One essential characteristic of learning experiences in DE is their generativity. From his early writings, Paulo Freire was very specific regarding the importance of this element as something that had a direct impact on the emancipation and empowerment of people and groups of people:

By "coding" and "decoding", a literacy learner can integrate the significance of the respective generative words into his existential context: he rediscovers the word in a world expressed through his behaviour. He becomes aware of the word as a significance that forms his significant intention, coinciding with the intentions of others that signify the same world. This world is the meeting place for each individual with himself and with others (4).

Whether the format is words or themes, the fact that learning experiences are generative expresses that the construction of knowledge is dynamic and that they fight against the banking model of learning. The Harvard University School of Education (where Freire spent a short time as a visiting professor and left his mark) discusses generative topics. Thus they express the importance of generativity:

...provide enough depth, significance, connections and variety of perspective to support students' development of powerful understandings (5)...

It is precisely this powerful understanding or, in more general terms, the degrees of understanding, that must be subject to planning and assessment in our design and throughout all the project cycles. Generativity plays a key role in this for the rediscovery of the world and coding and decoding experiences in life and the community. Thus, generative learning experiences are similar to a creative, revolutionary engine that completely transforms the role of educational agents. In the first stage, we must find the Generative Centre (GC) of our project. This is the engine that will generate the set of processes and learning experiences that we have set out to find. This centre must have, at least, the following characteristics:

1) It must be a central theme in the DE field we are working on. If we work on a secondary issue, we give our proposal a certain air of superficiality.

2) It must be related to the local or global reality of the people who are going to participate in the project or should establish ties to this reality.





3) The GC is accessible. There are numerous resources, either through testimonies or other sources. We receive support from diverse fields in order to create processes.

4) The GC generates a network of ideas and relationships between them that are suggestive and promising for the GC.

It is precisely the creation of this network of ideas, which we will call the Generative Network, that is one of the basic planning exercises. It is important not to mistake the GC for a concept or theme, although it may occasionally be one. In practicing with Generative Networks, we have detected that we tend to emulate or "translate" other ways of working: conceptual maps, diagrams, flow charts, objectives and so on. The reason that the Generative Network exists is to help visualise the potential and connections generated by our GC. Therefore, the important issue for our GC is not to make it a very clear concept or one that generates a large flow of sub‐topics, but rather, it must truly feed a dense, interesting and provocative network in order to create cognitive breaks and constructive decoding. For example, below we can see a Generative Network for which the chosen generative centre was Millennium Development Goals. Here, we can see that there are concepts, ideas, activities, actors, etc. This is a heterogeneous network for the numerous GC possibilities. On the next page we find part of a Generative Network. However, the Generative Network is made to analyse potential and also to analyse whether we have chosen our GC in a suitable manner. And if necessary, to change it.

Although the GC of the network shown above was the MDGs, for example, in the end, the rural community that was planning the project decided it was not the most suitable generative centre. ‐ For the educators of that rural community, the topic was very suggestive, but they felt that by presenting it in this way, it would be received as external to them. Definitively, it lacked meaning and was not motivating. ‐ Furthermore, although they had some material prepared by UNESCO for the zone, access to information about the MDGs, beyond their own statement, was limited. ‐ Thus, the educators decided that it was better to use a generative centre with a different viewpoint: What is the history of development in my community? There were many elderly people in the community who were experts in oral tradition, which could be a very useful local resource. ‐ Through the generative network, we would make way towards the MDGs, thereby ensuring that the project would be meaningful and we all liked the topic. We asked some people in the community if the issue seemed suggestive to them and they all responded affirmatively, and some were even enthusiastic.





With all of this, we have added yet another piece to our diagram. We have endeavours, learning experiences and our generative centre. We observe our generative centre and view its conditions and potential from a Freire‐like perspective: regardless of the nature of their understanding and the action prompted by them, in and of themselves they contain the possibility to split into many other topics that, in turn, lead to new task (6)...





Fig. 2: The generative centre provides coherence to the endeavours and learning experiences. The most important part of these three elements is the coherence and alignment between them for the learning aim we are working on. But how should this be done? Explicit and implicit learning experiences Within the set of possible learning experiences in human communities, individuals or organisations, there are always visible and invisible ones, and this must be kept in mind when performing any kind of planning. Much has been written on this, through a concept that, in formal education spheres, is called the hidden curriculum. Once we have clarified this, we must review the connections between what is evident and what is not. Thus, endeavours are not just any set of activities, but rather, they must leave a visible impact for all the participants in the initiative, and especially for the educational agents. On the one hand, the students must be able to see and identify their own decoding and coding, the way their reality is revealed and their ability to make a commitment to it. It is an act towards empowerment and emancipation of uncommon strength. On the other, the educational agents must, in turn, be able to learn about how global, utopian learning represents progress towards self‐knowledge that may entail a highly significant step forward in maturity and freedom of different societies. Going back to the figure of Freire, it is highly interesting to see the bold community and participative work of this Brazilian educator, combining literacy with emancipatory





education. It is commonplace to see, in preschool settings, the amazement and naturality in boys and girls when they realise that they know how to read, but it is even more amazing when they become aware of the fact that they are working on thinking about their world and their small‐scale reality, which will soon change. Freire embarked on the task of spotlighting and providing resources to extreme communities, but he never ceased to attempt to see how and in what way this happened, knowing that this vision is also part of a creative, critical, scientific and revolutionary exercise. From this perspective, we must point out two visible or explicit aspects toward the development of learning experiences: these are impacts, or indicators, and research perspectives. From another perspective, as we were saying, although the endeavours and learning experiences are coherent and aligned, there are invisible aspects that can support or contrast with the process we are working on. While some of them are uncontrollable and we might not be able to work on them, we can work on others. These controllable aspects are essential and we must pay attention to their invisibility precisely so that we can make them visible and include them in the dynamics of awareness and critical analysis of everyday reality. In general, they are related to how we do things and organise ourselves. Specifically, they have to do with the value of participation. In our dialogue on this matter, taking a step back to gain a better perspective, we asked ourselves whether there are invisible implicit aspects that are inherent to any worthwhile DE project. And participation is perhaps the most important aspect of all the ones we can discuss, due to the fact that it is at the heart of every planning process. For this reason, within the group of implicit learning experiences, we can pinpoint certain minimum configurations such as the development of strategies associated with cooperative learning and, in turn, others linked to the creation of social networks of any kind and size, but always tied to positive mutual inter‐dependence. Going from small to large, from here we can prompt the two elements that we will work on in the implicit, invisible, sphere of DE: those that make the learning experiences truly take hold and the endeavours even more powerful. We are talking about appropriate methodologies and organisation‐participation.





Fig. 3 The DE project cycle based on generative learning: GEBL Model

In Figure 3 we can see at a glance the key aspects in designing a DE project, focusing on learning. Its flexibility allows us to begin defining it at the part that best suits our creativity and planning style. As mentioned repeatedly, what is important here is the connection between its different parts. In this diagram, perhaps the CG relationships are missing. Its central position is significant. Each sphere in the circle must respond in some way to the question at the generative centre, or at least attempt to do so. Finally, we also mentioned that this tool does not require specialisation. Ideally, it is used when groups and people who detect a need work on it as a group and express it in a narrative manner throughout the course of the project with a process for standardisation of experiences. When people standardise and socialise a project, they make it more effective and more conscious. By simplifying the profound dimensions of the GEBL DE Project Cycle, we can see that they respond to numerous questions:

1. An aspect of DE helps us to change our understanding if... (GC) 2. We make... (Endeavours) 3. And through this we learn from global citizenship... (Learning experiences) 4. ... and from our way of learning globally... (Perspectives on Research) 5. ... it shows because we made... (Impacts)





6. ... and it received support because we were organised... (Organisation‐participation)

7. ...and we do what we did coherently with.... (Appropriate methodologies) Perspectives on Research Research in DE, from our point of view, is not something optional, but an aspect which goes unseen that we try to create more aware in by working with it and letting it exist naturally, especially for ethical reasons. Freire was very explicit in this line of thinking: The more I research the way the people think with them, the more we teach each other. The more we teach each other, the more research we perform. Education and thematic research, within the problematising concept of education, become elements of the same process (7). Therefore, research perspectives attempt to foster this shared journey, and above all, from our point of view, affect the way a key aspect of emancipatory processes is decoded: the way we learn. We must remember that decoding is the critical analysis of our constitutive thought patterns, upon which we base our knowledge (8). When we research how we learn –in our case the global dimension‐ we are reeducating the profound dimensions of our being in the world and how we position ourselves. This gives the impression that from time to time the DE contents are deposited, banking‐model style, creating a type of Little Prince Effect. If we recall Saint‐Exupéry's text (9), at the beginning it set out to, from a child's perspective, establish what a drawing of what appeared to be a hat actually was. When the "adults" were unable to help, we discover that in actual fact the drawing is a "boa that had eaten an elephant". However, the Little Prince does not want us to see boas with elephants from now on; instead we are invited to look beyond the image. To look beyond superficial dogmas and appearances. When we only exchange hats for boas we are exchanging banking knowledge, but we do not abandon the banking‐model style deposit of knowledge. Let us return to the topic of research, which we have given the wider term of research perspectives. By giving it this wider term, it becomes more inclusive. Occasionally, there is no need to perform highly qualified research, but rather, we can simply include the investigative initiative in order to develop an activity that is seldom practised in the educational sphere. The idea is to democratise research in some way, for it to be considered a basic tool of our education process, along the lines of Stenhouse and Elliot's, amongst others, thinking. As we previously stated, from a DE perspective, the importance of research is twofold, since it has both educational and ethical aspects. We must learn to conduct research with the appropriate models, which range from very simple to very complex. The research methods are well known and there is an extensive bibliography available on the subject. Within our proposal, we recommend, for investigative purposes, performing a series of quantitative analyses at the start and





end of the project, for investigative and assessment purposes, either by using questionnaires, scales or other sociometric techniques. We can also use more qualitative techniques, such as observation, focus groups, casework, etc. However, we recommend, as we shall explain later on, that these techniques should be integrated in the endeavours and become standard in the daily narrative of the project. In this regard, and to cite one example (10) of working with educational centres that incorporate DE projects linked to the school syllabus, one possibility to bear in mind is to contemplate 8 variable dichotomies that interpret mental or cognitive routes that make up prosocial‐global thought patterns and that analyse how much the students' accounts change throughout the educational process or they are "routered"∙(the “humanware” router proves to be a handy metaphor for the facilitation of learning experiences) through these pathways of thought. The practice is put forward to educators in training courses as a treasure hunt (the prosocial impact):

Do we make an impact on our students? How do we judge whether we have made an impact or not? One way of discovering if we have had an impact is by analysing the students' discourse before and after the DE training experiences or activities. If at the start of the project we define a series of key variables related to prosocial thought, as well as a measurement scale for each of them, defining as a bare minimum the start and end points of said scale, we have a suitable tool that will aid us in assessing the impact of our actions, be they big or small, over a period of months or years.

Dimensions

of prosocial‐global discourse

Measurement scale

Start of the process End of the process

Discovering the other Generic and abstract

problems

Stories about real people you can

relate to

Competence

regarding the aid

Insecurity and

uncertainty about their

prosocial worth

Discovery of their own skills and

abilities

Empathy Ethnocentric outlook on

the world, from my

point of view

Cosmopolitan outlook and from

another person's point of view

Causal attributions Attribution of guilt of

the marginalized and

excluded

Understanding of the external

causes of the situation

Constructive thought Social pessimism and

immobility: there is no

solution

Discover local routes and habits

that have global impacts

Solidarity model As a spectacle and a As a meeting point and the fight





charity market for justice

Projective thought Spontaneous, sporadic,

isolated, etc. aid

Conscious, designed, online aid

It only remains for us to add a global approach to all of these. In our opinion, the strategies of participatory action‐research are the diagram and essential approach that encompass the key DE research activities. Finally, a fundamental point that we touched upon at the beginning of the article. We base the success of the project, how much we have "grown" with the project, on the research model. When planning DE learning experiences we take risks and sometimes the events do not pan out as we expected. Throughout the project cycle we ensure cohesion and we move from what's possible to what's probable. We identify what's possible by thinking "something will be left behind" and what's probable with a majority that will have transformed the way it views the world and will have adapted to their reality and their future. Adequately planned research yields results from our DE education actions. How does our global dimension grow? The more research we perform the better we become at increasing our global dimension and this allows us to assess whether the project has been a success or not. Thus, the success and efficiency of our project will correspond on a basic level with the findings of the research. Therefore, we must, throughout each project, question a particular aspect linked to the global dimension processes. What are these processes? There are currently several proposals, all of which are still taking seed, which merit being explored in greater depth. Some are aimed at key concepts (11), others at processes (12) and others at skills or abilities (13). All of this can serve as a basis for analysing how the teaching‐learning process takes place, and involve, in our opinion, at least three elements:

‐ A statement of DE learning processes. i.e. our educational stance. ‐ A hypothesis or research proposal. ‐ A rule or set of rules that assist us in evaluating the findings and reaching

conclusions. There are numerous manuals providing educational research proposals, but we are summarising them in order to foster basic research, knowing that when you begin a research project, exploring its greater possibilities is a satisfying experience. In conjunction with the aforementioned research questionnaires, we must ensure that each DE project makes great strides and interesting contributions to the DE corpus.

For example, a group of European NGDOs decides to implement a project whose generative centre is blood diamonds and their relationship with justice in international laws. Included in the project itself is a study on the "justice"





process over the course of the project's lifespan. In order to do this they establish a set of rules and study this process' development in boy and girls from three countries and with two different ages. The research is based on questionnaires, but they also study online contributions made over the two years and work with case study methodology.

Perhaps the question we should ask when faced with this simple contribution is "Where do the research methods feature?" As we shall see in the following section, the research methods are clearly integrated with the impacts and the endeavours. Impacts Impacts are the key elements connecting endeavours and learning experiences. We propose that endeavours are aimed directly at making learning experience impacts. Once again, there are different models and proposals, but here we are going to deal with one, in an attempt to, as before, keep things simple. For this proposal we will make use of Kolb's experiential model, (14) which speaks of learning styles, but also the different ways that we learn. We shall modify it slightly to provide a new perspective and we shall structure it in order to configure the endeavours themselves. Therefore, based on our choice, we understand that learning in the global dimension is complete when these five events take place:

1. We are able to perform specific types of DE activities. 2. We are able to theorise on a DE topic. 3. We are able to extrapolate from DE topics. 4. We are able to propose and implement DE activities. 5. We are able to empathise emotionally with a DE situation.

Kolb specifically spoke of the first 4 activities and we have added the fifth, as a key aspect in our new discoveries regarding learning experiences: if we are not affected emotionally, the learning experience is not complete. This is a very delicate subject in DE, since empathy is often the gateway to processes of social transformation. Throughout history we have seen numerous cases along these lines. Thomas Clarkson (1760‐1846), the British abolitionist, was very clear about this and his African Box was famous (15), with objects and proof of the savageness of slavery, which he took to all his talks and meetings. This has a great deal to do with the processes of creating awareness for development, which when well directed, expand upon this aspect of the learning experience and prepare the landscape for its fulfilment in the DE proposals. In a world overwhelmed by both valid and invalid information, in a complex and interdependent context, we still tend to use Clarkson's techniques, which were





innovative in his time; perhaps the techniques we use to create awareness should evolve based on a more up‐to‐date, more serious and less random study on empathy. For example, an interesting way of reaching all types of intelligence and/or learning styles is to propound didactic units as a theme park or thematic route. Garcia‐Rincón (16) has managed this in his school volunteer training proposal called “youth volunteering maps and routes”: The context or the metaphor of each topic is like a thematic route, an adventure in which you have a well‐studied map and you travel around it with hiking boots in order to gain a contextualised vision of the topic. Later a closer look at the map is taken with a magnifying glass in order to get us closer to a specific part of reality that we want to explore in greater detail. As with all routes, there are some paths that don't lead to anything: these are dead ends that are worth identifying in order to not get lost, which are symbolised by a barrier. Here, we are going to work on the mental barriers that hinder our commitment and our solidarity: educating through solidarity is to clear pathways, to smooth the paths of justice. We all have places for interpretation (and almost for prayer) where we reflect and feel things in order to properly calibrate our internal compass. We also have roadmaps or personal itineraries, because all the above propels us towards action in our lives. Finally, and to ensure the learning experiences take root, there is an audiovisual guide that proposes songs and films that deal with the topic. Even though this tool is included at the end of each topic, it can also be used at the beginning, to create a favourable environment. I leave that up to the teacher. This way of seeing things requires us to work the multiple intelligences (the map seen from different perspectives and experiences) and how they are expressed in today's basic educational skills. We therefore reach all the learning style types the students display in the classroom or the ways of processing and understanding knowledge.

However, returning to our five‐part plan, we organise the endeavours from this perspective. Not all the activities in our endeavours need to follow this approach, nor must this take place all at once, but it would be ideal for all of them to be offered. We must, of course, bear in mind the evolutionary development of the target people as well as the group's characteristics. The general trend, however, must go in this or a similar direction. In this way we create a table in which we link the three elements that we are developing with these five parameters. We leave space in the tables for more options regarding impacts:





Endeavours Impact Learning experiences To act

To summarise To extrapolate To propose To empathise

...

... Figure 4. Associating endeavours and learning experiences with certain types of impact.

In each line of this table we link and combine the three aspects involved in the project. Let's look at an example from a project implemented in different areas by Recreational Activity Schools (Escuelas de Tiempo Libre, in Spanish). The generative centre was Can a global monitor (17) change the history of the world?:

Endeavours Impact Learning experiences Endeavour 1 (Initial): To champion a YouTube competition among the recreational activity monitors (RAMs) on what the world will be like in 2050. What will it be like? Endeavour 2: The activity monitors will create a network of RAMs involving at least 3 countries. Endeavour 3: Postcard Campaign: Each RAM will, with each of the children in their care, create a postcard to send to the authorities. We want change! is the name of this initiative. This will allow us to speak with those in charge. Endeavour 4: Togetherland: This is a summer camp where everyone takes part. It will be planned to include members from the other countries. Endeavour 5 (Summary): We will create a global online school called “OpenPlanet”. Each monitor or monitor team will record short videos on various aspects and tools to include the global dimension of their educational work. There will be visitors and experts from NGDOs, universities, and other organisations who are making contributions.

To empathise:

The videos from different parts of the world will be

viewed.

To act: They know how to network.

To summarise:

They know how to create a summary containing a

convincing change‐inducing argument.

To propose: The full organisation of the camp is carried out by its

participants.

To extrapolate: The creation of the school

entails a global vision on the global dimension, considering

specific aspects.

‐ The RAMs will gain an understanding of how to speculate on the global future and the commitments involved. How does what will happen in 40 years affect me? ‐ The RAMs will gain an understanding of the difficulties and advantages of global networks. How do we actually visualise interdependence? ‐ The RAMs will gain an initial understanding of the work entailed in the Global Dimension as a political incident, along with their boys and girls. ‐ The RAMs and recreation organisations will gain an understanding of the explicit and non‐explicit dimensions of Global Dimension by taking part in a camp. ‐ The RAMs, recreation organisations and NGOs will gain an understanding of the relations, opportunities and potential existing between DE and Non‐formal Education.





As we have seen, the aim of impact is to bring assessment forward. If the apprentices have carried out this type of endeavour, then we have a certain level of certainty that the learning experience has taken place. The organisations must ensure whether or not these dynamics took place, in any way justifying in each case the reason why something happened. Appropriate methodologies The invisible parts of our project boost the learning experience and the power of the endeavours itself. One of these is the use of the appropriate methodologies. This term is based on the term 'appropriate technologies', which is often used in the field of cooperation. In this case, these are appropriate for the DE learning experience in the sense that, they, in themselves, contribute, towards coding and decoding in social transformation. In line with the above, we believe that cooperative learning experience is one of DE's key methodologies, but there are many others over which we are not going to go into detail. Graphically speaking, we place them to the left of the endeavours, so that we are able to link them to the latter. Let us have a look at an example in line with the above: Methodologies Endeavours Impact Learning experiences Basis: Cooperative PBL (Problem‐based Learning): We will work on a problem that will be resolved through the video. Cooperative ... Research‐action

Endeavour 1 (Initial): To champion a YouTube competition among the recreational activity monitors (RAMs) on what the world will be like in 2050. What will it be like? Endeavour 2: The activity coordinators will set up a network of RAMs involving at least 3 countries. ...

To empathise: The videos from

different parts of the world will be viewed.

To act:

They know how to network.

...

‐ The RAMs will gain an understanding of how to speculate on the global future and the commitments involved. How does what will happen in 40 years affect me? ‐ The RAMs will gain an understanding of the difficulties and advantages of global networks. How do we actually visualise interdependence? ...

Organisation‐participation We are faced with yet another highly significant aspect of the learning experience that probably has a much greater impact than any word spoken or argument given as part of a training proposal. Certain community organisations and groups do make use of this to a certain extent and it turns out to be easier to develop participation proposals, the action of which is end‐user focused. However, in terms of formal education, developing this kind of initiative is more complex due to various reasons, over which





we will not be going into detail. Out of these, we highlight the loss of confidence by the educators (and even the directors) when faced with more horizontal decision‐making situations. However it may be, an educational project with a global transformative dimension ought to progressively delve further into democratic leadership practices and active participation. And this must be dealt with during the initial planning, by including elements seeking to achieve this. We must say that, in the current context, it is worth pondering on the concept of democracy (18) and its links with social participation. Popular movements throughout the world have, to a lesser or greater extent, been developing a new sense of rationality, which will slowly be permeating and raising a debate that is to come at some point, and which will perhaps delve into the current democratic approach and help it mature. By way of contribution to it all, the organisation‐participation sub‐section may be seen through the research perspectives, in order to find out the manner and basis for the processes to be able to go down the right path, a path where democratic participation and leadership may have a well‐focused educational role. Along this line, the organisation‐participation proposals appear as a sub‐section next to the learning experiences, since these constitute the context where the following are going to take place: Methodologies Endeavours Impact Learning

experiences Participation

Basis: Cooperative PBL (Problem‐based Learning): We will work on a problem that will be resolved through the video. Cooperative ... Research‐action

Endeavour 1 (Initial): To champion a YouTube competition among the recreational activity monitors (RAMs) on what the world will be like in 2050. What will it be like? Endeavour 2: The activity coordinators will create a network of RAMs involving at least 3 countries. ...

To

empathise: The videos

from different

parts of the world will be

viewed.

To act: They know how to network.

...

‐ The RAMs will gain an understanding of how to speculate on the global future and the commitments involved. How does what will happen in 40 years affect me? ‐ The RAMs will gain an understanding of the difficulties and advantages of global networks. How do we actually visualise interdependence? ...

‐ Voting shall be by universal suffrage of the RAMs. ‐ The World Café technique will be used.

‐ The organising committee will consist of...

This example is set in a non‐formal sphere, but if we were in a context of formal education, the challenges and opportunities would be greater. The organisation‐participation aspects will have to do not only with the project, but also with the dynamics of the school's educational organisation: decision‐making, conflict resolution,





focus on diversity, etc. Without these efforts, the endeavours would be merely ephemeral recreational initiatives. Logical Framework for Generative Learning (GEBL Model) GEBL means Global Education‐based Learning, which is an approach that transforms the very foundations of education, with a global perspective. This approach merges various educational trends committed to developing human capacities by thinking outside the envelope and provides a global ethical perspective. We must think outside the box to commit to the environment and attempt to overthrow those hegemonic thoughts that prevent us from performing the symphony of global citizenship in terms of sustainability and social justice, and which displace human beings from the core interests of social transformation. Still, in view of this general perspective, this approach has several ways to materialise. Most of them are interesting and worth materialising into a common mirror from which we can all learn. The items mentioned in the previous page wish to be neutral so that the various sensitivities can include their approach with some flexibility. The worst thing that could happen to our logical framework proposal would be to become a chain, within a model that oppresses ideas. In our experience as DE educators, we have frequently met with what we call the Procrustes effect. Procustes was a character in Greek mythology who had an ordinary job as hotelier. Apollodorus tells us very briefly of how he engaged in his profession in his Library of Greek Mythology:

Procrustes, owner of a roadside house where he had arranged two beds ‐one short and one long‐ invited passing travellers to his home and to have a rest in his bed. When the guest lay down, he stretched him on it, and, if he was too short, he would hammer him to fit in it, and if he was too long, he would chop parts of his body off to make him fit (19).

Therefore, the LFA is often subject to hammering and chopping off to fit our DE project, thus distorting its original purpose. Also, this effect is used to detect a lack of self‐criticism by the students regarding the proposal they make. From this perspective, the Logical Framework has such a role ‐to facilitate thought‐processes and self‐criticism‐ from a perspective focused on the learning experience of individuals and groups. Let us see the result, which complements what we already had:





Generative Centre

Methodologies Endeavours Impact Learning

experiences Participation

To act To summarise To extrapolate To propose To empathise ... ...

Research proposals Hypothesis:

Research tools Integrated in endeavours: Questionnaires and other techniques:

Figure 5. GEBL Logical Framework As we can see, basically, our generative centre has been horizontally added to the top, and the research perspectives to the bottom. Such horizontal allocation shows the cross‐sectional nature and significance of both parts. The project title should probably show the generative centre and, if necessary, a sub‐title should be added below it. The original must be accompanied by at least a series of documents, which seek to show the life, concerns and dreams involved in the project. We have mentioned all of them in this article:

‐ Daily narrative ‐ Generative map ‐ Statement of DE processes ‐ Research questionnaires (draft)

Conclusion It is, as mentioned in this article and indicated by its title, a proposal. It is also a two‐fold invitation:

‐ The first is an invitation to further connect the educational world with the world of ED. In education today there are some very advanced planning proposals based on the GEBL model. Any of them is valid and could supplement or follow the intuitions of the model we have presented. The English‐speaking world has made significant progress in this respect and we can learn much from it. In Latin American, following Freire's steps, a major effort has been made for decades, through popular education, transforming the local and global





perspective. Still, there remains a gap between both worlds that cannot be justified. The connection should be much more personal and represent something very important in the critical development of education, as well as the educational progress of ED.

‐ The second is an invitation to change the structures themselves concerning the planning of projects and programmes. Should we not be specialists in that? All stakeholders should get down to work without hesitation. In many cases, the context is reminiscent of a charming yet ludicrous scene from Alice in Wonderland. In the famous 1951 Disney version, Alice follows a path that she believes will lead her somewhere, until it becomes a square (a logical framework?) that is going nowhere until both ‐the path and even the square‐ finally disappear. Alice is lost in the woods and cries inconsolably for a while. Pencil birds, hammer birds, umbrella vultures and other wonderful creatures look at her puzzled. The scene would be very useful to make a metaphorical study of our subject. Alice, still crying and singing the following song, that may be suggestive of something:

Give myself very good advice, / But I very seldom follow it, / That explains the trouble that I'm always in, / Be patient, is very good advice, / But the waiting makes me curious, / And I'd love the change, / Should something strange begin, / Well I went along my merry way, / And I never stopped to reason, / I should have known there'd be a price to pay, / Someday...someday, / I give myself very good advice, / But I very seldom follow it, / Will I ever learn to do the things I should? / Will I ever learn to do the things I should?2

We imagine each reader will have their own critical interpretation of this proposal, as mentioned above, and we should bear in mind that its main aspect is encouragement to being creative and political‐educational transformation3 beginning with ourselves. Notes: (1) For a summary of these concerns, see M. ARGIBAY, El Enfoque de Marco Lógico. La idoneidad de su aplicación a la Educación para el Desarrollo con perspectiva de género, by Several Authors, Género en la Educación para el Desarrollo. Estrategias políticas y metodológicas, Hegoa, 2009, pp. 71‐84 (2) For example, see Rita and Kennet Dunn (1972), David Kolb (1976), Bert Juch (1983), Peter Honey and Alan Mumford (1986) and from a different perspective, the approaches of Howard Gardner and his theory of Multiple Intelligences. (3) S. CLARKE, Active Learning through Formative Assessment, Hodder Education, 2008, pp.82‐85 (4) P. FREIRE, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 21st Century, 1999, p. 8

2 The song is titled Very Good Advice. 3 P. FREIRE, Política y Educación, Siglo XXI, 1995, pp. 5





(5) T. BLYTHE, The Teaching for Understanding. Guide, Paidós, 2008, p.53 Our proposal is based partly on the intuitions from this educational proposal. (6) P. FREIRE. Ibid, pp. 83 (7) P. FREIRE, ibid, pp. 91 (8)P. FREIRE, ibid, pp. 86 (9) A. SAINT EXUPERY, The Little Prince, Juventud, 1999 (10) C. GARCÍA‐RINCÓN DE CASTRO. Ejercicio de búsqueda de huellas prosociales. Homo Prosocius training material (www.prosocialia.org), 2011. (11) DFID, Global Dimension in the Curriculum, 2005 (12) M. ARDANAZ, Identificando la Competencia Utópica: proceso, participación y crisis, in Un Mundo con Iniciativa, Jóvenes y Desarrollo, 2010, 15‐17 (13) A. BONI, J. F. LOZANO, M. WALKER, La educación superior desde el enfoque de capacidades. Una propuesta para el debate. REIFOP, 2010, 13 (3), pp. 123‐131 (14) D. A. KOLB, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Prentice Hall, 1984. (15) M. ASHLEY, Taking liberties. The Struggle for Britain’s Freedoms and Rights, British Library, 2008, pp. 84. (16) C. GARCÍA‐RINCÓN DE CASTRO, Con tu quiero y con mi puedo. Mapas y rutas del voluntariado juvenil, SM, 2011. (17) In the context of the Recreational Activity Groups, a monitor is an educator in the non‐formal area; they are also sometimes called counsellors. (18) P. A. WOODS, Democratic Leadership in Education, Paul Chapman Publishing, 2005. (19) APOLLODORUS, The Library, Alianza Editorial, 2004, Library iii.16.2; Epitome i.4. (20) The song is titled Very Good Advice. (21) P. FREIRE, Política y Educación, Siglo XXI, 1995, pp. 5

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