A-Infos (en) Catalan, Embat: For Feminist Schools (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

From the Secretariat of Communication of Embat we interviewed some colleagues 
from our organization who have been in the driving force and organizer of the 
Feminist Schools Conference, a great event to subvert and rethink education in 
our schools. ---- Q.- What are Feminist Schools? ---- R.- The Feminist Schools 
are a conference that is held annually - taking into account the two-year hiatus 
due to the pandemic - led by teachers and also families. They started with a 
manifesto, which is one of the most powerful manifestos in education right now 
circulating on the net (posted on the website). It poses a revolution in the 
world of education that goes far beyond what has been said so far about feminism 
in the classroom - with respect to the incorporation of women writers or gender 
perspectives - if not a change in global perspective. We are completely changing 
the approach, deconstructing both the knowledge and the relationships and the 
very existence of the educational community within the classrooms.

Who is the Conference aimed at?

They are aimed at everyone. Generally to those who are dedicated to teaching, but 
not only to families. And we'd like it to reach out to students, but they're not. 
That is, it would go to the whole educational community and not just them. To 
anyone with an interest.

The pure heart of those who are moving everything is the families, but they are 
families with a really important commitment to education who work in other 
projects such as XNet, the Yellow Assembly of Gràcia and Vallcarca, which have 
always been benchmarks. They also have a lot to do with disobedience to the tests 
of basic primary skills. These families were the ones who started the 
disobedience. Some are now in the Assembly of Grace. There is strong 
collaboration from families.

It also happens that these days are held in schools or institutes so usually the 
school or institute in which the days of that year fall people are usually very 
strongly attached to the assembly, but then they are usually detached. This year 
the families of the school have done an amazing job and with a little luck they 
will stay in the feminist schools to take them to another place.

... And what kind of teachers?

Because they are aimed at any teacher who wants to make this change. They sell 
women en masse. This year we noticed that more men came, but we have 4-5 out of 
200 and only women (some more men would be there). So imagine what the previous 
issue was like. Not to mention that those of us who lead feminist school days are 
also women.

It is significant that one of the speakers who gave a talk was Teo who gave a 
talk on new masculinities. A talk attended by about 110 people or so. Of these 
people, only one was a man.

How is feminism spreading from EFs?

Not a single type of feminism is spreading, nor have we stopped to define it. 
What spreads are ideas from feminism and practices from feminism. Support to 
network and promote these changes from feminism.

What proposals are made from the EFs? how does it materialize in a school?

From the driving group we do not disseminate proposals. We are looking for 
proposals that are already being made so that this serves as a bank of ideas or a 
meeting point for not being so alone in what we do and for helping us.

Our job is to come up with ideas. We keep our eyes peeled for the networks and 
what we do is have superpowered people in feminist schools who are on the verge 
of the latest. We haven't mentioned it before but we have two or three people 
involved in associations, NGOs or cooperatives working in the world of feminist 
education. Then these people are very up to date with the progress and the people 
who are doing super cool things elsewhere. For example, in these days there has 
been a proposal from an institute in Lleida that deals with the subject of 
feminism based on 5 readings (ESO and baccalaureate) and make very good proposals 
through debates, document banks, which we they passed it on and made it available 
to all teachers. This material is posted on the web as well.

There was a talk about the Kurdish movement that was great. Azadi Jîn spread the 
idea of what feminist education is all about and how it is used as a weapon of 
physical and ethical ideological self-defense. Another talk we had was a talk by 
a teacher about how they approach sex education. It was great because they told 
you that they had been doing it for years and that they were counting on the 
problems they had encountered and how they had overcome them. This helps a lot 
because you see yourself reflected and you know which way to go.
The idea of every year, which will give it a new twist, is how to make this 
network stronger, maybe through a resource bank or something that's what people 
are asking of us.

[In the motor group]It's hard for us to know what's going on in the talks because 
we're so busy on this day. But then we got what was said. He thinks that there 
were 24 talks in parallel.

Do these proposals fit into any existing pedagogical method? with what methodologies?

About methodologies is not exactly that. The methodology for teachers is like 
tools. What the EFs are proposing is a change of perspective, from where we look 
at things. It is a profound change. Once you have this idea, use the tools. The 
change of perspective, for example, means that my Spanish or literature classes 
include a gender perspective that will be provided by authors and texts... which 
do not always have to be the official texts, but orality exists. It's a lost 
world, with very good texts with authors who are recovering and bringing them to 
light. Not everything in mathematics is economic data or numbers in a vacuum, but 
the same clothes are constantly using mathematical patterns, so you could orient 
a subject from here.

There are no specific methodologies. The next one is tailored to your needs. 
There is no methodological debate. We do not debate "computers yes, computers 
no", but we care to see where we want to go. Obviously, the answer is "somewhere 
else."

And that doesn't stop us from having our own ideas about methodologies. For 
example, on the subject of computers, introduced "a saco" in the centers, which 
are used to put their bars and is also a gateway to the lads as new 
customers-Google... and[the topic of computers]causes schools to pay for licenses 
with public money and, by necessity, professors and students as well. It's a 
business. Here we are clear. A computer is not the devil, the problem is you want 
to fuck me everything else! Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the 
average person.

How is the public school being defended by EF?

So a radically public EF (since one of the issues we deal with is the issue of 
fees, payments for materials, outings, etc.), diverse, secular, inclusive... an 
educational community where everyone enters, where people who they take care of 
the cleaning or the kitchen is integrated. The goal is the same as our social 
movements: to change society. Let the boys and girls grow up and have their own 
ideas to change this society.

Finally, how can a teacher contact / join EF?

They can be contacted from the website escolesfeministes.org and from the email 
escolesfeministes@gmail.com

https://embat.info/creant-escoles-feministes/
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