Aswatna is a messy, raw, playful, affirming program that enables students to envision a future of education driven by them for them.
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 schools. In our work, we have found consistently that youth feel deeply 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.
An in-depth look at our journey
Aswatna Inception
Our Aswatna program was born out of the collaborative process initiated with our partners from the Collective Impact Coalition for education reform in Kuwait. Through working sessions, focus groups and community meet-ups which engaged civil society representatives, students, teachers, administrators and consultants from formal and informal educational institutions across the public and private sectors, we identified the need for more inclusive, student-centric educational spaces that foster critical thinking skills and socio-emotional learning. The Aswatna program aims to address this need through youth-driven trainings, research and the development of pilot initiatives to be implemented across local schools. Grounded in self-reflection and co-design processes, Aswatna has become a safe space for youth and allies from different backgrounds to encounter themselves and others in intimate and supportive ways.
Curriculum Design
We kicked off Aswatna by bringing together a mix of local and international partners to help us design the curriculum consisting of 5 modules: Self and Critical/Systems Thinking, Equity and Human Rights, Culture and Communication, Storytelling, and Participatory Action Research. All the modules follow the same holistic participatory process built around the following components: Reflection/Grounding, Unlearning, Discovering, and Practice.
PAR Training of Trainers
Ten trainers across a variety of cultural backgrounds and disciplines were selected to undergo intensive training on all five modules of the Aswatna program in December 2021. Over the course of 6 days, and many follow-up sessions, they experienced the curriculum for themselves, provided feedback and enriched it by incorporating their unique experiences and perspectives. They then went on to train and mentor our participating students.
Cohorts
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 the three cohorts based on education level (high school or university) and language (Arabic, English, Bilingual).
Data and research
During their training rounds, 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 of these observations were issues related to the school's physical environment such as lack of facilities in school, or social issues such as body shaming. 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.
Ideathon
Over the course of three very intense days in December 2023, over 80 participants - including our Aswatna participants as well as 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. The projects were informed by the data collected by students in their PAR projects. Out of the seven amazing ideas that were developed, four were selected to move into implementation.
Solutions for the future
Over the course of three days in our Aswatna Ideathon, participants worked together to design online and offline platforms that would address issues related to mental health, discrimination, student voice in school governance, visibility, accessibility and diversity, among many others!
