Dialogue and Kinesthetic Learning in Guinea Bissau¹

by Isabel Murphy
Wycliffe Canada, Inc.
Brazil

Doing Dialogue Education in Guinea Bissau was like a breath of fresh air. Why? Because those participating were so grateful for any knowledge passed on and so enthusiastically responsive to the new methodology. They were accustomed to lectures which obliged them to copy long texts from the blackboard. Even so, for this two-week workshop², I was depending heavily on written learning tasks based on a workbook. The tasks were written in Portuguese, the third language of the participants, whose mother tongue was Balanta, and their second language a Portuguese Creole. But they were seminary students, able to handle the challenge which they quickly transformed into lively discussions in Balanta.

We discovered that they learned best, however, by putting knowledge to work immediately. We needed a map, for reference, to show the 32 or so language groups in Guinea Bissau, so we invited the participants to make it. They were totally flummoxed. Some had actually never seen a map of their country. So we produced pictures of a map for them to copy. We suggested they do a little library research on the language groups, and little-by-little, knowledge was constructed. They constructed it, and the (ongoing) map was one of their proudest accomplishments. One man remarked, “We live in this country, but it took three ladies from Brazil to open our eyes and tell us about it.”

Another example of kinesthetic learning was when the participants constructed their own storybook and then taught from it.  Also, they each had to teach a Balanta speaker who could already read in Creole, to read in Balanta, in just two days! They were horrified. Impossible, they thought. But in two days, each one brought “his reader” and the readers actually read a text they had not seen before, in front of the whole group, in the Balanta language. To say they were all ecstatic is not an exaggeration. (It was not as risky as they thought. We knew it could be done).

Learning Through Music

The next year we were back in Guinea Bissau to conduct similar workshops among two other language groups: the Papel and the Bijago. One of the tasks was to compose a chorus or hymn. Little did we realize that for the Papel, this would cause a revival of their cultural music and from then on, the Papel workshop came alive because of their music. We found ways to work that element in as often as possible. We encouraged the elders to teach the youth old Papel hymns. Participants taught one another. They invited the children and taught them. We had them prepare a literacy lesson in their language, and each group conducted a class with “real live children.”  With the music and learning to teach literacy. the Papel “knew that they knew” and they were elated.

Here we see the music revival and the elders teaching old songs.

       

Eager children ready to participate in literacy classes taught by the workshop participants.

The Distraction of Writing

Then we went on to the Bijago. From the first day, we realized that something had to change. Written learning tasks virtually made them prisoners to the formal structure they were accustomed to in school, and although they spoke Portuguese, they were not good at reading it. We PLODDED through one written task, and I was worried. For the next task, I shared it orally, through an interpreter, so that it reached them in Bijago. I asked them to act out the task. Each group had a different situation or learning task which lent itself to dramatization and suddenly their engagement was total! First they had to discuss how to dramatize, incorporating and applying Scriptures from their Bijago New Testament, then they had only a few minutes to present. When each group presented its little play, the other groups were avid spectators and even vocal participants. They acted as though the situation was real, and I am sure we stumbled upon a more cultural learning style. They became totally involved and break times were just a continuation of the learning task. They exchanged other relevant verses, told stories of real occurrences similar to the prepared situations, and complained when it was time to stop.

Dialogue Education Generates Trust and Respect

The Bijago are a face-to-face and kin-based society, and unbeknown to us, most of the participants were related in some way, and (also unbeknown to us) there was some feuding going on. During the workshop, as the interaction grew because of the more active learning tasks, there was genuine soul-searching, public confessions and rifts were mended.

Known among Guinea Bissau’s ethnic groups as people who will say "yes," when they mean "no," the Bijago themselves admit to this. They may “accept your teaching” but in reality, not accept it. How would we know if they had really “accepted”, we wondered.  One result of each workshop was the formation of a committee to give sustainability and continuation to plans they themselves devised. The Bijago too, appointed such a committee. I only discovered that the Bijago had “accepted our teaching” when one of the main Bijago leaders pointed out that the people they had chosen for the committee were the real leaders; those who in fact must be on the committee, if a committee were to function at all. If they had not accepted our teaching, he told me, they would have formed a mock committee and all would have known (except us) that it was a way of saying "yes" when they meant "no." But in this case, they meant "yes" and said "yes" through their choices for committee members. I believe it would not have happened if we had not modified our methodology to incorporate more kinesthetic learning tasks. The dialogic approach was fundamental however, towards generating the atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and equality, which encouraged their positive participation.

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¹Just a note of interest: Paulo Freire wrote “Letters to Guinea Bissau” speaking to their need for dialogue education. (Cartas à Guiné-Bissau, DEDILD, Bissau, 1978).

²Isabel Murphy, PhD, is a member of Wycliffe Canada, Inc., working in Brazil. The workshops are entitled Scripture Impact workshops, designed to promote the use of translated New Testaments in the mother tongue, as well building capacity for participants to teach literacy. The three workshops were conducted in 2003 (Balanta) and 2004 (Papel and Bijago).

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