For several months, our colleague Karla Olmedo has undertaken several activities to systematize the intercultural educational experience of Escuela Caracol. Through this process, our educational community is creating a collective voice (La Voz) in which all members participate in communicating the most relevant aspects of the experiences they have lived and live in relation to Escuela Caracol.

This systematization of experiences is a process of self-knowledge, reflection and critical interpretation from and about the practice. It is based on the identification and analysis of themes that arise from the objective and subjective factors involved in that experience.

This week we extended our systematization with a community event based on the ‘World Café’ format and we called it Café Caracol. We had 6 café tables set up in different areas of the school where members of our students’ families sat with members of our staff to address issues based on the requests of our community. Each table had a specific topic, a diverse selection including: Waldorf education, intercultural education, the participation of families at our school, languages, and other general issues at Escuela Caracol. Each table had a host or hostess, who recorded everything that was shared. Every 20 minutes the participants changed tables, and all participants had the opportunity to offer their point of view on each of the selected topics. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed; the serving of hot coffee and delicious bread carried out the café theme. It was a very effective and fun way to participate in the creation of our collective voice and enrich our systematization of experiences.

This event extends our positive momentum, informed by the entire community, to authentically represent the voice of our community. A voice that is meeting specific needs and modeling positive impact for Guatemala in the context of the intercultural education.

• To see all the pictures visit our Flickr album by clicking here