PRA, Literacy and Empowerment : the REFLECT Method

The new adult literacy methodology REFLECT (Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques) uses PRA methods to teach literacy instead of a traditional primer. This workshop discussed the experiences of the three pilot projects in Bangladesh, El Salvador and Uganda. Six sources to this new approach are identified as : Freire, PRA, visual literacy, women's literacy, numeracy and the failure of other methods. Role play was used to show workshop participants the process of map and matrix construction and how literacy/numeracy work emerged. Discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of REFELECT led to workshops on : PRA philosophy and practice, materials development, organisation, training facilitators, learner assessment, monitoring and evaluating empowerment, gender and REFLECT, adapting to urban areas and post-literacy. Individual reports of these workshops describe and discuss in more detail issues around implementation of REFLECT and actual training methods used.