Sport as an instrument of adult learning and education in Peru

At the invitation of DVV International, 45 adult educators gathered in the Peruvian capital Lima at the end of October to take part in the workshop “Sport for Development”. They learned about a wide range of possibilities for using sport as an instrument in their educational programmes.

The two-day workshop brought together adult educators from education centres, penal institutions, universities, non-governmental organisations, municipal education collectives and social migrant organisations, as well as experts from state institutions such as the Ministry of Education and the National Education Council.

Participants learned about alternative methods of adult learning and education such as experiential game dynamics, sports and physical activity which can be used in the work with unaccustomed and vulnerable target groups. For example, the participants reflected on their own experiences of gender-based violence and ways of preventing it in the context of the group-dynamic ball game “Guardians of Equality”. They also got to know the “History of Football” method, which uses analogies to the rules of football to playfully spark interest in learning topics that are difficult for some target groups to access, such as history, mathematics, economics, etc.

The participants built on what they had learned and developed concrete ideas and approaches for applying the methods in their work environment. “The dynamic methods, which involve a lot of activity and participation, will be very useful in our workplaces. I will use them together with my colleagues at the Santa Monica prison,” says David Chuquimajo, a teacher at the women's prison in the Chorrillos district of Lima. 

Because the participants in educational programmes have very different expectations, learning goals and learning styles, the workshop was an important step toward diversifying the repertoire of methods used in youth and adult education. A broad repertoire of methods is necessary to reach everyone effectively. Sport – especially when working with vulnerable target groups such as traumatised migrants or prisoners in penal institutions – can be a low-threshold means of activating learners, of putting them in a state where they are willing to learn in the first place, and of strengthening their own sense of effectiveness and group cohesion.