Insights for the Educator
The Challenge
The formal education system in the Caribbean is still largely eurocentric. It still has not come to terms with the fact that our Caribbean societies have evolved from a history of the decimation of our First Peoples, enslavement, indentureship and colonialism.
This history is characterized by the marginalization of indigenous cultures and the resulting loss of the sense of self of our people. This loss of sense of self, which can result in non-achievement, delinquency and low self esteem, is endemic in Caribbean societies and communities where there has been the erosion of cultural confidence.
As such, the child who knows the sound of every bird, the shape of every fish or the name of every plant may be deemed illiterate by our formal school systems. There is therefore a desperate need to find alternative metholodogies to help our youth find their sense of self and root them into the landscape of their birth and of their origins. We have taken a proactive approach to halting this demise by developing Culturally relevant, enjoyable and practical programmes for schools, organizations and community groups.
The Solution: Changing Communities through Culture
The IDAKEDA Group has perfected a series of intervention strategies based on the concept of Culture in Education which explore the use of the following:
– Art Forms Indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean
– Poetry and other literary forms
– Traditional Carnival Characters
– Storytelling
– Popular Theater methodologies and
– Mythology
Our intervention strategies have an internationally proven track record of success in empowering young people to self knowledge, self confidence, and helping them to focus inwards to find the strength necessary to face the awesome challenges which confront them.
The Training
Our Training Seminars and Workshops, have been crafted and honed through work with schools , educational institutions and communities both in Trinidad and Tobago, the wider Caribbean and internationally. These are specifically geared towards including indigenous cultural forms into the education system, providing educators with practical tools and techniques for an enjoyable, easy and sustained approach to alternative learning and for managing diversity in the classroom.
This insistence on Culture in Education in critical, not only because our youth flounder, bombarded by alien images from the popular media, but also because school curricula locally and throughout the diaspora, still have not faced this problem of lack of sense of self. Additionally, their history is still not presented from a perspective that can engender pride in self and a sense of achievement.
To find out more about how our workshops and interventions can help you to achieve your learning objectives, please Contact us at info@idakedagroup.com or (868) 638-1553. Experience and benefit from Training Seminars for your school, organization or community.
