LabsRurales as an emergency for rural education systems

Juan David Reina-Rozo, winner of the Plataforma Bogotá - Medialab Prado residency in Madrid between June and July 2021, proposes to develop the LabsRurales project as an emergency for rural education systems in Colombia.

Rural education in Colombia has historically lagged behind urban education. The internal conflict and centralism, among other elements, have generated a number of threats to the education of children, young people and adults in rural areas. According to the Ministry of National Education and its 2017 Special Plan for Rural Education report, in 2018 only 10% of the people living in rural areas in the country had a bachelor's degree and 2.3% (2 out of every 100) had a university education. Thus, rural education not only needs new ways of learning, but also new ways of relating to creative initiatives outside and in articulation with cities.

From this place, it is necessary to understand the forms of Learning in Rurality, not only the academic ones linked to an institution, but many others that have served for the transfer of knowledge in rural areas for years, especially in indigenous, Afro-Colombian, peasant communities and now, with people who move from the city to the countryside. In this weaving of knowledge and ways, emerging practices are consolidating in the territories, places where diverse communities, organisations and motivations converge under a plurality of forms parallel to the education system.

An initial and practical mapping of this type of spaces in Colombia has been carried out, finding initiatives in various Colombian departments. These spaces are diverse in terms of scope and motivations, however, they tend to generate community-based processes in their territories where learning is at the centre. The participants range from children and young people to adults of diverse cultural identities in rural areas. Meanwhile, at the level of relations with rural processes in Spain, it has been possible to identify in a preliminary way the other experiences as processes of experimentation and creation in rural areas.

Therefore, these experiences need to be understood by the people who participate in these spaces and are located in these rural areas. By understanding and putting these experiences into dialogue, it will be possible to strengthen their initiatives, spaces and networks. Thus, during the residency we hope to learn and exchange knowledge and methodological processes as Laboratories without walls in rural areas. Through this residency, we wish to explore the processes of learning, experimentation, action, creation and transformation through remote rural dialogues, for their dissemination in the different territories of Ibero-America.

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In this link you will find information about all the activities proposed around the residence during the month of July and how to subscribe: https://www.medialab-prado.es/actividades/actividades-en-torno-la-residencia-labsrurales-emergencia-para-los-sistemas-educativos

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Winning project of the Plataforma Bogotá Residency (plataformabogota.gov.co)- Medialab Prado, of the Programa Distrital de Estímulos 2021, from Instituto Distrital de las Artes - Idartes.