Remco

Evaluating future scenarios

  1. Present to students an unsustainable situation of water use/availability and sanitation. Present three possible improvements to the learners showing impact on related stakeholders
  2. In groups, students think of advantages and disadvantages (possible benefits and/or negative impact) of each option for the various stakeholders.
  3. Groups then decide which option seems best and why, share and defend their choice and present one possible way to reduce and potential disadvantages.
  4. In plenary, discuss the challenges of taking decisions when things are uncertain.

Students perform a role-play where a job role is to offered to either a male candidate or a female candidate and a decision needs to be taken. Encourage learners to think about the decision making process and how this can be implemented taking gender issues into consideration.

Personal diary method

  1. Individually, ideally over a few days, each student describes his or her own relationship to water, his or her use and what he or she would like to change in his or her practice (professional or private, individually and/or collectively)
  2. In pairs, each person presents some elements of the reflection to their partner
  3. As a whole class, students present key reflections of their partner.
  4. Discuss things that were presented and share thoughts and discuss implications

Individual reflection:
Encourage learners to reflect individually on situations in their lives where they had to take decisions which had gender implications and
encourage them to consider any memorable dilemmas they had and whether they made well-judged and gender balanced, or misjudged and
gender imbalanced decisions. Share and discuss.

Ask students to write an I-report in which they describe a range of rights, roles and responsibilities in daily life from a gender perspective and how they accept personal responsibility and accountability towards achievement of better gender equality and how they act transparently by reporting to others in appropriate ways. Ask them to give as many examples as possible.

Then ask each group of pairs to discuss one report and add their reflections.
Finally ask all learners to reflect on their reports: describe what you can change in order to become (even) more responsible and accountable in promoting better gender equality.

Select a set of opinion-texts that argue around the question: “Is water a global common good or an economic product?”

Students explain each author’s point of view and then critically analyse it on the basis of scientific sources.

Students discuss which perspective contributes most to guarantee access to water for all and justify their opinion with scientific arguments.

A discussion takes place in plenary around what makes a text a scientific text (difference between fact-based processes in texts that are peer-reviewed vs opinions/perspectives on a question).

Students are given various case studies from different countries representing data, assumptions and opinions relating to gender issues. Students analyse and identify examples of each.

Take a decision leading to a more sustainable water management situation within a democratic process:

  1. Set the frame of a situation in which there is a water problem. Each student thinks individually of one possible thing he/she would change to make the situation improve, summarising which stakeholders would be affected by the change.
  2. In groups of 4, the students exchange their ideas and choose one suggested change (consensus).
  3. Each group presents their change-suggestion to the rest of the class, trying to convince them that their idea is the most appropriate. After each group has presented, the three most convincing projects are voted for (majority).
  4. Back in small groups, students think of the best way to combine the three voted solutions.
  5. The results of the discussions are presented in plenary, and either one option is voted for (majority), or elements of all solutions are combined (consensus).
  6. A parallel is made with the solutions implemented “in real life” within the presented situation, or the suggestions made by students can be presented to someone (eg. the local government).

If there is a risk that the students might not be able to think of possible solutions, it is possible to present three possible ways to make situation A evolve to situation B, the students have to choose one for themselves, discuss it in groups of four, present their choice to the class, and vote for one.

Students use the Investigation – Vision – Action – Change Approach (IVAC) to propose and implement changes in a specific situation in order to improve gender equality.

World café around a case study

Based on a real case study (e.g. Maracaibo, Venezuela), identify strategies to ensure access to water for all. There are districts that receive water every 20 to 25 days, but other districts have not received water for 3 months, 6 months or even a year. In addition, the lake water is polluted and causes diseases.

  1. Read a text (or video reportage – RTS, Tout un monde, 29.11.2019)
  2. Highlight the problems of the city
  3. Brainstorm around possible solutions along the world-café method:
    • Separate the class around three tables where three types of solutions will be discussed: technical, political, economic
    • Each 7 to 10 minutes, the groups mingle. One person, the host, remains at the table and summarizes the discussions held to the new group
    • After three shifts, the whole class goes through all three tables, a short summary being given by the host.
  4. In groups of four, formulate some proposals to guarantee access to water
  5. Identify the conditions for implementation (or the first steps).

Reflection on gender using pictures:
Technique used: group discussion about pictures
Materials required: Pictures collected from magazines, newspapers or taken from the street by smartphone that represent different types of situations – family life, working life, sports, arts where evidences of gender differences could be identified.
Group discussion to analyse pictures exploring examples of gender imbalance/bias and think about the possibility of introducing changes to address this.