D-News

Wearing the project t-shirts, with its bags slung over their holders and gripping its notebooks and pens, the pupils involved with the Megaphone at School project arrived for the third workshop. All this kit helped them fit into their new roles and teams, planning the daily routines of their research fieldwork.

Warming up, they started out by answering some questions related to the theme of the survey in a different way: moving from one side of the room to the other depending on whether their response was yes, no, or somewhere in the middle. Discussions grew heated on the issues that were raised: “I cooperate so that classes are pleasant”; “At my school, the opinion of the pupils is taken into account by the principal”; “My school building is clean and well cared for.”

This was the last meeting before the interviews begin at the schools, and the pupils tested the teacher questionnaire on teachers at the event. With the field work plan drawn up, they returned to their schools with the questionnaires ready to use. Each respondent will receive a bookmark with information on the project and an invitation to continue the discussion through the Megaphone at School community on the Orkut website, as yet another way of extending discussions of secondary education by the schools themselves.

Learn more about the workshops at: megafonenaescola.blogspot.com

		Conceptualised by the Instituto Desiderata, the Megaphone at School project is a participative consultation that trains schoolchildren to interview their classmates and teachers in order to discover how schools view the challenges faced by secondary education (6th ? 9th grades) in Brazil. Check out the survey here, step by step.