Contextualized Educational Experiences in Initial Teacher Education

Abstract

Designing and validating contextualized educational experiences in pre-service teacher education is fundamental because it allows future teachers to: 1) better understand how to apply pedagogical knowledge in real situations, 2) respond with their proposals to the particularities of the classroom, by promoting more relevant teaching, and 3) interact with teachers to develop a more critical and reflective perspective on concrete educational issues, proposing creative and adapted solutions. Within this framework, in the undergraduate courses on Rural Education and the Didactics of Social Thinking at the Faculty of Education, a teaching method was proposed based on the design and validation of educational experiences in two school contexts: a rural school with multigrade classrooms in the region of Ica, and a semi-urban school in the region of Lima. In the diagnostic stage, specialized sources about the school’s contexts were reviewed, and data collection instruments were designed: interview guides for the principal and teaching staff, as well as observation guides for class sessions, which were applied during field visits. In the creation stage, the proposals were designed considering the connection between curricular knowledge—that is, the content proposed by the curricular areas—and the local knowledge and needs of the population, gathered during the diagnostic activities. In the validation stage, the proposals were shared with the teachers of the visited schools, receiving relevant feedback.