Who is leading the workshops:
Amukta Mahapatra (bio below)

When:
Friday 27 April

First session:
09h30 – 11h00
Topic:  “What do we mean when we say democratic culture for schools, for organisations?”

Should the children we’re teaching be able to decide individually how, when, what, where and with whom they learn? Should they be able to participate in how their school is run, and which rules and sanctions, if any, are necessary.

We are part of a democratic society, can this be implemented in a school? How do we prepare children for the democratic structures of a parliament at a national level or a decision-making group in the workplace they will one day be a member of.

The democratic culture of any community, be it a school or an organisation, needs to be evolved, and constructed. The decision-making structures then need to made to validate these processes.

For example the ground rules developed for a classroom need to be discussed and laid out after children experience the democratic nature of the classroom. The rules cannot be made first, which then perhaps will be an uninformed decision or an imposed structure on the majority.

Join Amukta as she shares her knowledge in running a democratic school. Why it is a good fit with the Montessori philosophy and how you can empower your children to be world change agents.

Second session:
12h00 – 13h30
Topic:  “Needs of the Elementary Child; Milestones from birth to adolescent”

Whichever age group one is working with, be it 3-12 or 12-18, the continuum of a child’s life, from birth to adulthood needs to be understood and reflected upon by the educator to be of true assistance to the child. To know where s/he is coming from and what s/he could become… so that the past, present and future can be held in view by the educator.

Register Now

Early Bird Bookings until midnight 27 March 2018:

JHB Workshop:

SAMA Members:  R750 (for every 10 booked get 1 free)
Non-Members:  R950


Amukta Mahapatra

Amukta is an independent consultant, working with organisations including the government sector in India. She was involved in reviewing Activity Based Learning (ABL) and its variations in seven states of India for the UNICEF–EI study.

While she worked with UNICEF, she was part of a task force that brought out the Quality Package, which was initiated in 1000 schools in 13 selected states.

She worked with the department of education in Tamil Nadu, developing a model for large-scale training of educators, with the faculty of the District Institutes of Education Training (DIETs), which ultimately trained 200,000 elementary school teachers and other government functionaries.

This programme laid the ground for ABL methodology for classes one to four in Tamil Nadu. She conducts one-year and short term teacher development programmes enabling teachers to work at elementary level following Montessori principles of pedagogy. She has been associated with the International Democratic Education movement for many years.