The turning point in workshops

It's often the same in workshops - everyone starts off a little unclear what's going on, whether it will all work out, and often a little lost about how anything will be achieved...and that's just the people organising it.  Even when you know that things will change, all sorts of feelings come up and it's important to return to the basics - trust emergence, every group contains skills and ideas and just needs to find how to express them,...a film will be born at some point.

In the mean time, The key in my experience is giving breathing room.  I think it's a mistake to rush in too fast and try and solve whether everyone has a common vision for how things will work out.  The joy of workshops is that you can respond to things as they come up, and in doing start to build the kind of trust out of which participation becomes possible. Mixing up different experiences, stopping one strand of work to build up another and then returning to consolidate and combine things - it really works, especially if you can keep up an honest conversation with participants which recognises some of the things they would like to say or feel that it's legitimate to feel.

So we've worked hard for three days now.  A lot of that work has been playing and learning, and Rick and I were up front that it would be confusing at times.  The pay-off comes at least three times - first during the feedback on particular sessions, secondly when ideas start to coalesce and a rich script emerges, and finally when I can relax and let a group simply get on with it because I'd be in the way.  Sitting back in the shade is always richly rewarding, because it mean things are going well and a film is on it's way.

A different kind of teacher... PV Workshop Days 1 and 2...

I’ve spent the last ten years visiting rural schools across Sub-Saharan Africa, but it was good to be reminded (as I keep trying to remind other people through my work) that no two are the same. Nasonjo and Matindi are only a few kilometres apart, but have very different issues. For example… Matindi is over-crowded, while the river running close to Nasonjo means that the school temporarily loses around a fifth of the student population every rainy season when the river becomes too wide for them to cross. Anyway, regardless, the school visits were still more familiar ground for me than the workshops yesterday and today. I’m so excited by the idea of trying to use PV for research, and so the last two days have been spent simultaneously trying to be an active participant in the workshops, learn about the kit and contribute to the activities… while also trying to predict / prompt / surface some of the ideas that might feed into the film… while also trying to conceptualise the bid… while also trying to sit back and observe the process itself and think about how we might scale it up and, more importantly why it would be helpful to do this…! It’s been pretty hectic!

It’s also been really, really fun and really wonderful to get to be so hands-on with the kit so quickly (I knew this having been to Rick and Chris’ workshops before, but this is the first time I’ve done it where the end result has to be an actual film… so all of the activities seem more meaningful). It’s also great to be trying out smaller, less technical bits of kit like iPads – which is a key element of our pilot.

What always strikes me is how great you feel when you make a film – yesterday we did an exercise where we had to secretly film an object with an iPad and the rest of the group had to guess what it was through a game of iSpy. I was oddly proud of our 10-second shot of a bottle of water, so today to shoot a mini 3-frame film (ourselves) with a plot and actors and lots of cool kit like a boom mic, a light screen etc… was amazing. Even if (especially because?!) it took five takes to get Henry’s last scene – there was a real sense of a shared desire for it to be ‘right’. I really hope the teachers feel so strongly about the film they’ll be making over the next two weeks.

We’ve got an early start tomorrow – alarm set for 5:30am - so we can all finish in time for the kick off between the Blantyre Bullets and a team from the Comoros Islands - so I'd better go... apologies for my photos on the blog by the way... all this fancy kit and I've been taking pictures with my iPhone... still, even a phone camera can't ruin this view (which we can see from various angles on our journey home from the workshop). What a commute...

Getting to know the schools

Yesterday morning we spent visiting the two schools we'll be working with in the project.  Well, a little bit of shopping for water and internet and other things at the bottom of Maslow's hiearchy of needs.  Well some packing too, as we needed to bring the kit for the first afternoon's workshop. It's so great working on a bigger project with a team and a kit budget again, but sometimes I feel like I've sold out compared to when research was a four hour bus journey out of Madurai with a spare lungi, a notebook and an audio-recorder.  Maybe I 'll miss this simplicity when I'm using a crew bus, or a research ship.

Anyway, the schools are in Blantyre rural district - not too far outside the city.  The first, Matindi, is just off the main road to Lilongwe, and we reached it in about 30 minutes by car.  There were a lot of children, working in much simpler conditions compared to a UK school, but the first impression was one of order and purpose.  And people - lots and lots of children.

After some introductions and visiting some classrooms and the Mary's Meals' school feeding scheme, we set off for the other school, Nasonjo, which was further back towards town, but well off the main road.  Again we were made welcome and shown around, even sitting in on one of the lessons for a while.

Some initial impressions:

• It's a challenging environment to teach in, with limited facilities.  Classes sizes up to 120 sometimes.
• Education in important here, families are behind their kids and there's an active engagement with the communities around them, at least in these two schools.
• There are lots of extra projects going on - forest gardens, a headmaster's house, a library, and so on and so on.
• The head teachers organise everything on their walls.  It's so easy to forget that computers aren't essential for working on things.
• Children who can't reach one school (because for example there's no bridge from their side of the river) might be at another school for several months, and then show up back again.
• Hysteria and 'orphan' are special needs categories, along with some more familiar ones.

A big welcome to Blantyre

Having met Rick and Alison in Heathrow, and Olga in Johannesburg, we took to final leg of our trip to Blantyre yesterday afternoon.  After hours and hours of travelling, we began the descent down to  the green, green hills of Blantyre.

 After quite a minimum of fuss and chaos, we found ourselves installed in a roomy and somewhat faded lodge – House 5 -  which feels comfortable and homey.  My room is like a small apartment with a really nice desk to sit and type at.  We’re still working on internet, but it seems promising. 

In the late afternoon, we met our newest team member Gift and Lisbet from DAPP, getting a full briefing on the NGOs work in Malawi.  It includes vocational training, agriculture, health and of course education. 

It’s certainly a different kind of teacher education, with a lot of responsibility taken by the trainees for how they learn.  Spread over 3 years, it includes a year of teaching practice, and a 4 month bus trip when a cohort of trainees manage their own itinerary for a study tour that spans local countries.  The claim is this produces highly sought after teachers who are more willing to stay in rural areas and take responsibility for their students’ capacity to learn  rather merely memorise for exams.  I’m looking forward to meeting them.

What we're doing

It's still not going to be clear to everyone who's seen this blog so far what the project is - we've simply started blogging with what we're doing as we're preparing.  So as an overview here're the details from the information sheet we've put together for our participants.  The project itself starts on Wednesday:

Featuring ‘another kind of teacher’: a participatory video project in Malawi

You have been invited make a film about your experiences of teaching in Malawi. The film will be the output of a project which brings together DAPP (Development Aid from People to People), their umbrella organisation HPP (Humana People to People), the Open University (OU) in the UK and the media company Catcher Media Social (CMS).

The purpose of the project is to showcase the impact of the DAPP approach to teacher preparation by making a film about how DAPP teachers experience rural teaching environments. The project is using a technique called participatory video (PV). This means that the teachers who feature in the film are also responsible for making the film: the film will belong to you. Support, equipment and training will be provided.

The film-making process

You will receive extensive training in film-making (including story-boarding, scripting, interviewing, directing and editing) at a series of three workshops in February-March 2015 (see schedule). In your group you will plan a film that you can make together. During the workshops and in the intervening periods you will capture footage of your teaching experiences. You will edit these into a film which you, as a group, will own. Support and guidance from experienced filmmakers will be on hand every step of the way, but all of the decisions about the film will be made collaboratively with your teacher colleagues. It really is your film.

Transport and lunch/refreshments will be provided at all workshops.

What will you get out of it?

When you are a teacher you rarely have time to pause and think about what you are doing. Participatory video gives you the opportunity to reflect on your practice and the context in which you are working and see these from a new perspective.

The teaching profession is also often misunderstood by other people. Participating in this project will provide you and your colleagues with the opportunity to tell your story to audiences all over the world. It will also give you the opportunity to showcase what you learnt as a DAPP student and how this influences the work you do every day in the classroom.

You will receive extensive training which will enable you to experiment with and use a wide range of film-making equipment. You may learn new skills in listening and communicating which are essential in your role as a teacher. You may learn new ways of working collaboratively and as a team which is important in a school environment.

Film-making workshops are also really fun!

What will we get out of it?

DAPP and HPP get an advocacy film to showcase and promote the work they do in Malawi. Catcher Media Social get to extend the work they have been doing in Europe and India to Sub-Saharan Africa and to test out new kinds of filmmaking kits in rural environments. The Open University get to learn about how to use participatory video techniques within research in order to support education in rural areas in Malawi and internationally.

As a group we are hoping to extend this pilot into a bigger project exploring teacher preparation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Through this pilot we hope to better understand the lives and experiences of newly qualified teachers in rural schools and the usefulness of participatory video in capturing these experiences.

Schedule

Key
	Workshop
	Opportunities for filming

Month	February			March
Date	26	27	28	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
Day	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Weds	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Weds	Thu	Fri
AM
PM

The team

Mr Gift Vasco, Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) Malawi

Ms Olga Guerrero, Humana People to People (HPP), Spain

Dr Alison Buckler, The Open University, UK

Dr Chris High, The Open University, UK

Mr Rick Goldsmith, Catcher Media Social, UK

Packing

I'm right in the middle of the heaps phase of packing, when piles of different kinds of kit get winnowed down to what's really needed and what can be carried.

As well as all the contradictions of going to the subtropics in the middle of a rainy patch, working in a rural area and living in a lodge, there's the issue if what kit to take and what software to install.  This could go on for a while.  Luckily I've got Rick's library to get sorted out in, rather than the back of my van.

Catcher Media Projects

Below I've posted some links to videos and some information about myself and our organisations:

Catcher Media Social is a new Community Interest Company that enables children, young people and adults to become active, well-skilled and responsible citizens in their use of digital media, the web, mobile devices and social media. www.catchermediasocial.co.uk with our latest project: www.chewingthecud.net

Catcher Media Ltd is our sister company and has been established since 1997. www.catchermedia.co.uk Previous clients include Welsh Assembly, NHS, Open University, Department for International Development (DFID), National Children’s Bureau (NCB), Ministry of Justice (MOJ) , Food Standards Agency (FSA) as well as many local authorities, school clusters and charities.

For details of our PV work see: http://www.catchermedia.co.uk/showreels/showreels1 and our particpatory media initiative: http://www.catchermedia.co.uk/Discover/copy_of_inter-act

I co-authored a Digital Film-making course for the OU with Chris High: http://www.catchermedia.co.uk/Discover/film-school

For a recent school-based project see: http://www.catchermedia.co.uk/more-news/copy2_of_easysre

For our award-winning EasySRE site co-created with teachers, health-workers and young people
from Walsall see: http://www.easysre.net/

Rick

Rick's Introduction

Hi all

I feel honoured to have been invited along to Malawi to work with people from the OU, DAPP and a small group of teachers from schools in the area. I have never been to Africa before, so on one level this is just very thrilling for me, as like many people I have had rich and definitive experiences through aspects of African culture, so stepping onto African soil for the first time is going to quite a big deal.

Added to this, in the training I'm very keen to explore the way in which aspects of PV (participatory video) and film-making will be able to:

·      To create an opportunity for teachers and other stakeholders to reflect on the value and impact of the AKT approach

·      To disseminate good practice by creating a video which explores and disseminates AKT activities

·      To increase social and technical confidence as facilitators and PV

·      To gain familiarity with a broad suite of kit and identify relevant workflow, in order to support good decisions about what to specify in future projectsAdded to this, in the training I'm very keen to explore the way in which aspects of PV (participatory video) and film-making will be able to:

Alongside the video cameras and camcorders we more commonly use, I'm very keen to explore with our group the way in which cheaper and more mobile technology such as iPads, Google tablets and smartphones (iPhone of Samsung Galaxy)  will add to these ways of working.

Chris High and I have worked together for many years, ever since we became friends and he got curious about the social film-making techniques and PV that I was involved with in my work with young people within the West Midlands. Our first project together was for DFID in Southern India in 2001. Since then we've worked together in Eire, Hungary, France and the UK. This time we're bringing with us a whole variety of kit and ideas, and are looking to work closely with our group - to listen, facilitate and explore the ways in which these technologies and working methods can facilitate learning and effect positive change.

Looking forward to working with you all!

Rick Goldsmith, Catcher Media Social

Ali's introductory post

Like Chris, I'm still amazed that this project is happening, and that it went from an idea to reality in such a short amount of time. When I've told friends and colleagues about it they've all been really excited - there's definitely something about 'making a film' that grabs people more than my usual research approach of sitting quietly in the corner of a classroom. I thought the other day that you couldn't dream of such an amazing idea, and then I realised that's not entirely true, because, well, we have... and then I realised that it was the 'we' that was really grabbing me - I've just loved witnessing / being a part of the development of a collaborative idea that has been created with - I feel - a real sense of respect for and consideration of the strengths and needs of everyone in the core team.

So, for me, the teamwork aspect is something that's really exciting. I did a PhD, followed by a year of maternity leave peppered with solo consultancies, then the first year of my current job was pretty solitary (and still is - as anyone who has visited my little desk in the corner of a very big and empty office will testify) - my other main project involves long stretches in Ghana with really interesting fieldwork during the day, but then long evenings - more often than not in the dark as the electricity in Kokomlemle is (literally) 50:50 (12 hours on, 12 hours off) - with no one to discuss this really interesting fieldwork with. I'm so excited about not only working in a completely different way, but having a whole team to share and debate and reflect on this with each evening.

And finally, what Chris said about the stars aligning for him really rings true for me too. Over the past ten years I've worked mainly in academia, but dabbled in journalism and the NGO world. This is such a great opportunity to bring those three strands together. Collaborations between academics and NGOs are increasingly valued, but I feel there's a lot of work and thinking to be done about how these collaborations work and what the purpose is. I often review (and send back with major corrections) journal submissions from academics who have been commissioned to do research for an NGO (or state government, or something) and what they submit is simply a project report which could be (and often is) reproduced almost word-for-word on the NGO's website. I think (hope) that this pilot will be an opportunity to think more about how the data collected in collaborations can be theorised, or perhaps more simply, to think about what value academics can add to these collaborations rather than being a 'rent-a-data-collector' (because really there are companies who can do that much better than most academics can...). I'm really looking forward to spending more time talking to Olga and DAPP about what kinds of data and ideas would be useful / interesting, and then working together to think about how we can move towards this. 

I sometimes wonder if the challenge is communication - both in terms of both academics and project teams being able to properly articulate what they want and what they can offer each other, and then a second layer of communication challenges occur when trying to discuss what is happening - maybe it's hard for the two sides to share a discourse / language around this? For this reason I think the PV element of this project fits so well. I'm so, so interested to see how the film (and the process of making it) will serve as something for the team (and I mean the wider team which includes the teachers) to talk to each other about, and to communicate through.

I'm not a blogger and I'm not sure how to end these things but... I'm really looking forward to this. And I'm enormously relieved that the lodge is now confirmed and we have a lovely stoep to sit on in the evenings with a beer :)

Dealing with rights and consent in PV

I've written in a different blog about an idea of how to handle rights and consent in PV: http://1ideapertime.blogspot.se/2014/10/getting-rights-right-for-participatory.html

In this project, we're actually doing it.  The idea is that the participants in the workshop (a mix of local teachers, NGO staff and one of the team from the OU) will make a film, taking the role of film-makers and handling consent and rights like a production company would.  Once complete, if they're happy with it, they will sign the film over to the NGO who will be the copyright owner.  In turn, they make it available on a CC BY  NC  basis or similar.

This, as a public document is available to the research team as data, to complement interviews, ethnographic data and documentary analysis of production resources produced during the project.  All of these are also covered by informed consent with the participants in the workshop to contributing to the research project.  

Getting Going

It's late and there's far too much to do before I take a break for holiday next week, but nevertheless I feel very excited about this project.  Sometimes the stars are just right, and a whole set of ideas and conversations all crash together and you're off.  Even so, going from an initial meeting in London with a colleague and two staff from an NGO I'd not even heard of before to a live project in Malawi in just a few months is not bad.  As a researcher I've sometimes spent years pushing to get something off the ground, or months developing a bid which was rejected.  I think it shows the quality of the people that have collected around this project that it all took off so quickly.

A few things I personally think are special about what we're doing:

- It's a chance to properly try out some of the ideas I've had for some time now about how PV can be used to generate research data
- Ditto for PV practice and mobile devices.
- I'm working with some really cool and effective people.  We'll have to introduce ourselves and the project next.
- We're going to Malawi, somewhere I've never been, via Johannesburg, where I was born
- It starts in a fortnight.