Faith-based School Teachers Fellowship (FbSTF)
Saya Foundation’s Faith-based School Teachers Fellowship (FbSTF) Program will use education as the entry-point to present and mainstream peace-related concepts. This approach focuses on faith-based school teachers given their important role in building lasting peace and restoring social harmony, as they are in a position to deliver positive messages and bring positive changes in the community. Saya Foundation chose education as a theme to integrate other peace-related concepts when training people from different faiths. The goal of this project is to improve the capacity of teachers from diverse faiths in Myanmar to promote safe, positive, and inclusive learning experiences for children, and contribute to preventing intolerance and extremism in their communities.
Saya has developed the Teachers Competency Standard Framework, 11 training modules, 1 children activity book and other learning resources such as powerpoints and videos on Saya’s learning platform. Before the development of these materials, Saya also consulted with regional and local experts of various fields to include their respective perspectives and take on their guidance for faith-based school teachers to integrate diversity and tolerance concepts into their classrooms. As for the Teachers Competency Standard Framework, Saya has collected surveys and interviewed 22 religious leaders or educators of different faiths. For the training modules and the children activity book, Saya worked along with 3 of our regional consultants from Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar on a monthly basis.
In addition to that, to be able to get a better understanding of other religions, Saya also arranged Virtual Tours by inviting local and international speakers of different faiths and expertise. Through Virtual Tours, Saya covered religions and topics namely; Baha’i, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Trauma Healing, Gender based Violence, Conflict Transformation and Forest School Approach. With the help of IWP, Saya also gained knowledge on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, and integrated the lessons learned in the Children Activity Book.
The Children Activity Book was also pilot tested with 10 teachers and 96 students from partner schools. At the same time, the developed training modules were also sent to the consultants and validated. Saya revised and edited the developed materials based on the feedback, the relevance and effectiveness of the materials. In the year 2023, the developed materials will be used in Faith Based School Teachers’ fellowship program and teacher training for teachers from partner schools.
The target beneficiaries are faith-based teachers from different religions in Yangon, Mandalay, and Bago regions. The activities will be evaluated on the effectiveness of the fellowship program and relevance of the materials to faith based schools. The proposed activities do not aim to achieve and measure learners’ outcomes such as changes in students’ attitudes and knowledge on tolerance. The activities also do not aim to reform education curricula or policy but to use education as a medium to build bridges between different communities.
