CARE

What is the CARE Methodology?

The CARE methodology consists of four key processes, as depicted in Figure 1, for developing and implementing student-driven learning assignments that can provide the means for:

Increased Engagement
Personalized Learning
Development of the 10Cs (Critical and Transversal Skills)
Empowerment and Autonomy
Relevant and Meaningful Learning

The CARE learning design framework involves four interactively functioning processes, from conceptualizing a learning intervention through activating learning processes to critical reflection and student engagement. In practice, these four processes are interactively functioning.

Why the CARE Methodology?

Many educational systems at all levels, from primary to higher education, still prioritize teacher-led instruction, where the educator is the primary source of knowledge and the key authority in the classroom. This approach to teaching and learning can overshadow opportunities for student autonomy and exploration. Besides that, rigid curriculums often focus on static content driven by predefined learning outcomes that do not allow students to innovate. This can limit the flexibility needed for student-driven activities, as teaching staff may feel pressured to cover specific content within set timeframes. Professional development may often focus on traditional instructional methods rather than promoting student agency.

Developing student-driven learning activities and assignments is crucial for several reasons:

Engagement and Motivation: When students have a say in their learning process, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated. Student-driven activities allow them to explore interesting topics, making the learning experience more enjoyable.
Ownership of Learning: Empowering students to take charge of their learning fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility. This can lead to deeper learning as they become invested in their educational journey and outcomes.
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: Student-driven tasks encourage students to think critically and develop problem-solving and problem-posing skills. They must evaluate options, make decisions, and reflect on their processes and conclusions.
Collaboration and Communication: Many student-driven activities involve collaboration with peers. This helps students develop essential teamwork and communication skills, which are valuable in academic and real-world contexts.
Differentiation and Inclusivity: By allowing students to choose or design their learning paths, educators can better accommodate different learning styles, interests, and abilities. This fosters an inclusive environment where all students can thrive.
Real-World Connections: Student-driven assignments often integrate real-life situations and challenges that can address SDGs. This relevance can enhance the learning experience and help students reflect on their role as change agents for building a more sustainable and just society.

Using the CARE methodology for developing student-driven learning activities and assignments that address sustainability issues primarily elicited from the SDGs may require additional resources, time, and training. Student-driven learning activities promote a more active, personalized, and meaningful learning experience, equipping students with the skills and mindset needed to succeed in an ever-changing world.

To Whom the CARE Methodology Aims?

Training for developing student-driven learning activities and assignments typically aims at several critical stakeholders in the education system:

Teachers of all education levels and types: Training for the CARE methodology focuses on educators, equipping them with the skills, strategies, and resources necessary to facilitate student-driven learning. This includes understanding how to design activities that promote autonomy, choice, and collaboration.
Education leaders and administrators: Training may also target education leaders and administrators to ensure they understand the importance of student-driven learning and can support teachers in implementing these approaches. This includes advocating for curriculum as a process and praxis that allow flexibility and emancipatory professional development opportunities.
Curriculum designers: Those involved in curriculum development can benefit from training to incorporate student-driven elements into instructional frameworks. This ensures that the curriculum encourages student agency and aligns with educational goals.
Support staff: Training may extend to support staff, such as instructional coaches and specialists, who can help educators implement student-driven learning practices effectively.
Policymakers: In some cases, training can benefit policymakers who shape educational standards and regulations, helping them understand the value of student-centered approaches and the need for systemic support.
Other stakeholders: Through training, engaging other stakeholders in education, such as parents and community members, can foster a broader understanding and support for student-driven learning initiatives, making them active partners in the educational process.

Training for the CARE methodology can target these groups and allow them to develop a more comprehensive and emancipatory approach to designing, implementing, and assessing student-driven learning activities and assignments addressing sustainability issues in multiple academic disciplines.

Applying the CARE Methodology

Step 1: Conceptualization

Conceptualization involves clarifying what, why, who, when, and where. This refers to the process of setting up the critical drivers for learning, such as the transversal 10Cs skills, the six pillars for 21st learning, and sustainability justice (Makrakis, 2017ab; Makrakis and Kostoulas-Makrakis,2017).

For example, one of the examples, entitled “Refugees Crossing the Aegean: Learning from History,” reflects the social dimension of sustainability justice. The scenario for this lesson takes place in Lesvos, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea, a few miles from the shores of Asia Minor. Lesvos has been the world’s epicenter in recent years, raising positive and negative feelings. The learning design scenario consists of the following four parts:

Part 1: The Journey of Hope and Death

Part 2: The Moria Refugee Camp on Lesvos Island

Part 3: Connecting Past, Present and Future

Part 4: Simple actions can make a difference

Let’s develop a student-driven learning assignment step by step on a course where refugee issues can be integrated into many courses in areas of Education, Social Sciences, and Humanities, giving you insights to build yours. For your course, you can use the open space. Since there will be several drafts until you reach the final one, you are advised to enter the final product ready for submission.

Example: Conceptualization

Identify Assignment(s)
- Choose a course (e.g., Teaching Methodology, Sociology, Environmental Science, Human Rights) where you want to incorporate a student-driven assignment.
- Example Assignment Title: “Voices of the Displaced: A Comparative Study on Refugee Experiences.”
Contextualize Themes with SDGs
- Align the assignment with relevant SDGs, such as:
  - SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  - SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
  - SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Set Up the Critical Drivers for Learning
- Integrate transversal skills (10Cs) and sustainability justice into the assignment.
- Outline the four parts of the assignment, taking inspiration from your identified theme:
  - Part 1: Understanding displacement through storytelling (analyzing various refugee experiences).
  - Part 2: Historical context of refugee crises and local community responses.
  - Part 3: Comparative analysis of past and contemporary refugee scenarios.
  - Part 4: Identifying actionable steps for improving local perceptions and support for refugees.

Step 2: Activation

Activation refers to a process shifting from the learning design to concrete learning activities, providing opportunities for learners to meaningfully dialogue, reflect, and engage before, during, and after learning intervention. Activation attempts to make the classroom a negotiation space through problem-posing questions that allow teachers and students to co-construct knowledge. For example, in the third part of the lesson “Connecting Past, Present, and Future,” the activity uses some short films to help learners understand that the refugee crisis is not a new phenomenon and that people both on the island of Lesvos and elsewhere have been accepting refugees massively in the past. The challenging and essential problem-posing questions in this activity are:

How has history affected how some individuals respond to the refugee crisis today?
Why might it be helpful to focus on similarities and shared human experiences rather than differences? What can we learn from doing this?
What would you like to ask the different generations experiencing displacement and becoming refugees?
How does the voyage to Lesvos in 1922 relate to the present journey of Syrians and other displaced people elsewhere? What are the similarities and differences?

To show how activation is applied in the context of the CARE methodology, we draw an activity from the “Refugees Crossing the Aegean: Learning from History” lesson plan, using Freire’s (1973) concept of codification and de-codification. Learners divided into pairs are given two pictures, one codifying an image of life from the refugee camp of Moria Lesvos and another from a similar refugee camp in the same place dated back almost one century. The two pictures represent a concrete reality in different times but in the same place, which can become the object of the teacher-learner dialogue. Learners are asked to:

Describe what they can see and what is happening in the pictures. How does the photo make them feel? Would they like to be there? Why/Why not?
Compare and contrast the pictures by briefly describing the refugee camp and its location, writing what the pictures have in common and where they differ, and justifying their comments.
Speculate about the situation and the feelings, thoughts, fears, and hopes the two pictures convey.
React to what they see and think, expressing their feelings, thoughts, fears, and hopes and thinking of themselves living in one or the other refugee camp.

Starting with an analysis (de-codification) of this concrete, natural, and “coded” situation, using learners’ experience, aims to turn them to arrive at a critical level of knowing (Learning to know) and being (Learning to be). Through this activity, learners reach a level of conscientization (critical consciousness), that is, a deepening awareness of the sociocultural reality that shapes their lives and community and their capacity to transform that reality (Learning to transform oneself and society). Hence, learners take a position and express their feelings about the message conveyed through these two pictures.

Several of today’s local parents on the island of Lesvos pose obstacles to refugee children’s attendance in schools. The paradox is that these people are grandchildren of Greek refugees who arrived on small boats on the island, as depicted in the old picture in the 1920s. Looking back to history by reading newspapers at that time, we find precisely the same reactions from many local people, even those the locals were from the same ethnicity. Initiating a class dialogue with prompting questions such as: Did you expect such a behavior? Justify your answer. What would you like to tell them? What might their ancestors say to them? How might they feel? Would they also be acting the same? Through these reflective questions, learners will develop critical consciousness, which will probably help them overcome the naive state of consciousness and injustices.

Example: Activation

Continuing with the second step in developing the assignment, that activates you and your students to:

Design Learning Activities:

- Ask students to identify and use technology and media to present various narratives (videos, podcasts, articles) regarding refugees.
- Facilitate cooperative learning through group discussions and peer teaching.
Engage with Problem-Posing Questions
- Based on what has been conceptualized in the previous step, encourage your students to initiate discussions with questions such as:
  - How do social media narratives influence perceptions of refugees?
  - In what ways can historical events inform current policies on refugees?
Encourage Critical Codification Activities
- Provide visual or literary content. Have students compare historical accounts of refugees with contemporary reports.
- Engage them in coding (Give writings by Paolo Freire on codification and de-codification) the narratives- what values are depicted? How does this shape their understanding of social justice?

Step 3: Reflection

Reflection is a process that cuts across all the other processes, engaging learners in identifying, exploring, and clarifying their values, thoughts, feelings, habits, and experiences contrasted to alternative ones. This qualifies reflection as a critical process that is often used interchangeably with critical reflection, taking place before action, during action, after action, and beyond action. In an attempt to facilitate the process of critical reflection, we have further elaborated Rolfe et al.’s (2001) reflective model, adding “Do What?” to their What? So What? Now What? (Figure 2).

Using the structure depicted in Figure 2, one can start with a central event (the ‘what?’), aiming to establish the context and describe an event with facts. Questions raised to prompt more profound the “What?” critical reflection process using the previous example of activity are:

What is life like in a refugee camp?
What is it like to be a newly settled refugee in a new country?
What prompted the refugees to flee their homelands?
What do you know about refugees’ treatment?
What are your feelings?
What are some positive and negative representations of refugees in the media?
What challenges do refugees bring to the people of Lesvos?

The So What? following the “What” question refers to analyzing the facts elicited through the previous questions that are likely to resonate with what learners think about the issue. Questions raised to prompt deeper the “So What?” critical reflection process are:

Why are hundreds of refugee boats heading to the small Greek of Lesvos?
Why should local/world leaders care about refugees?
Why should individuals care?
Why are some local people opposing the registration of refugee children in local public schools?
Why does this situation exist?
Do you share their reasons? If yes, why?
What emotions does it evoke? How does it make you feel?
How does your understanding of refugees change?
Explain what caused your ideas to change or why you think your ideas did not change.
What conclusions can you draw from the experience?

The “Do What?” is a process that refers to the actions to do or should do. It is anchored within the context of acting, merging knowledge (Learning to know) with action (Learning to do), enabling learners to deal with a variety of diversities (Learning to live together), and expressing empathy, not merely sympathy (Learning to be). Questions raised to prompt deeper the “Do What?” critical reflection are:

What are some of the pressing needs of refugees in the Moria camp?
What can you do now or should you do to satisfy these needs?
What can people in the community do now?

The “Now What?”, extends the “Do What” by referring to proposed actions, inviting learners to present the next steps/actions required to move forward. In other words, ‘Now what?’ turns “Do What” into go-forward actions or what should be done next. Questions raised to prompt deeper the “Do What?” critical reflection are:

What learning occurred for you in this experience?
What would you like to learn more about refugees?
How can you apply this learning?
What knowledge can you share with your peers, family, and community?
How do you think the people in Lesvos would respond to this situation?
How do you think your community would respond similarly to Lesvos?
What other work should be done to address the needs of refugee children?

Example: Reflection

In this part of the student-driven assignment focusing on reflection, you are advised on the following to:

Promote Critical Reflection
- Ask students to reflect on their learning journey using Rolfe et al.’s model, focusing on:
  - What? What have they learned about refugee crises?
  - So What? Why does this learning matter in a global context?
  - Do What? What actions can they undertake as future professionals, advocates, or community members?
  - Now What? What additional inquiries or exploration do they need to pursue?
Facilitate Individual and Group Reflective Practices
- Encourage students to maintain a reflective journal throughout their project.
- Organize feedback sessions where students present their reflections and suggested actions to peers.

Step 4: Engagement

While activation is a process of co-constructing knowledge and making meaning by developing learners’ existing knowledge to achieve more profound levels of understanding through critical reflection, engagement further merges knowledge, critical consciousness, and experience with action. This is what Freire describes as praxis. In the context of the CARE methodology, engagement as a process can be driven through:

Behavioral engagement:Learners are motivated to adhere to the rules, values, norms, and actions associated with learning to give and share and learning to do.
Socio-emotional engagement: Learners are motivated to learn to live together sustainably.
Cognitive engagement: Learnersare motivated to learn to know and learn to be.
Reflexive engagement: Learners are motivated to learn to reflect on their own values.
Transformational engagement: Learners are motivated to learn to transform themselves and society.

Throughout the student-driven learning generated through the CARE methodology, learners are invited to merge cognition (Head), that is, what they have learned, with what they have felt (Heart), and translate both into action (Hand). This is the 3Hs strategy Kostoulas-Makrakis (2014) has proposed using the Earth Charter as a tool.

Example: Engagement

Finally, elaborate on the following to complete the newly constructed assignment using the CARE methodology.

Foster Different Forms of Engagement:
- Behavioral Engagement: Provide students opportunities to participate in community outreach or support organizations focused on aiding refugees.
- Socio-emotional Engagement: Host workshops or seminars with refugees sharing their stories, facilitating empathy and connection.
- Cognitive Engagement: Assign research projects encouraging deep exploration of refugee policies and their implications.
- Reflexive Engagement: Stimulate discussions around personal beliefs and biases concerning refugees and migration.
- Transformational Engagement: Encourage students to develop action plans or campaigns addressing local refugee issues.
Utilize the 3Hs Strategy:
- Ensure that students synthesize their cognitive learning (what they now know), affective responses (how they feel), and actionable outcomes (what they plan to do) throughout the entire process.

Connection to SDGs, Strengths, and Improvements

The two lesson plans described using the CARE methodology align with several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those focused on social justice, equality, and education. The lesson plan titled “Refugees Crossing the Aegean: Learning from History” and the newly constructed example titled “Voices of the Displaced: A Comparative Study on Refugee Experiences” embody several principles of Education for Sustainability (EfS), aligning educational practices with the long-term goals of fostering social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

Each lesson part encourages students to engage with refugees’ experiences and develop empathy, knowledge, and action-oriented strategies to address injustices and inequalities. By integrating SDGs into the lesson plan, educators can promote awareness and encourage students to become active global citizens who understand pressing social issues and work towards solutions.

Overall, the lesson plan provides a robust framework for promoting education for sustainability, emphasizing social justice, critical engagement, and empathetic understanding. Enhancing its focus on sustainability justice dimensions, global contexts, actionable outcomes, and assessment methods could better promote comprehensive education for sustainability and empower students to take meaningful action in their communities. Here are some key points justifying this pose-critique concerning ESD and SDGs.

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

While not the main focus, discussions around the mental and social well-being of refugees and host communities can be incorporated, promoting understanding of the psychological impacts of displacement.
While it might not be the focus, there are implications for the well-being of both refugees and local communities: The reflective questions about local parents’ opposition to refugee education implicitly touch on the well-being of children involved: “Why some local people are opposing the registration of refugee children in local public schools?”

SDG 4: Quality Education

The lesson promotes inclusive and equitable quality education by addressing the experiences of refugees and fostering critical thinking, empathy, and understanding among students. It emphasizes engaging learners through dialogue and reflection on historical and contemporary issues faced by refugee populations.
The lesson plan emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and reflection, as evidenced by the activation phase, which engages learners in dialogue about complex social issues: “Through problem-posing questions, activation attempts to make the classroom a space of negotiation in which teachers and students co-construct knowledge.”
It also highlights how integrating digital technologies and the arts can enhance learning and understanding: “The use of art forms—music, drama, painting, storytelling- and so on create privileged insight into educational policies and practices.”

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

The lesson plan explores the refugee experience and the historical context of displacement, encouraging learners to reflect on social justice and address inequalities faced by marginalized communities, including refugees.
The lesson identifies the social dimension of sustainability justice, specifically concerning refugees and their treatment: “The theme ‘Refugees Crossing the Aegean: Learning from History’…reflecting the social dimension of sustainability justice.” Furthermore, learners can reflect on and discuss inequalities by exploring local attitudes towards refugees: “Some today’s local parents in the island of Lesvos provide obstacles to refugee children’s attendance in schools.”

SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

The lesson plan promotes peaceful societies by educating learners about refugees’ challenges. It encourages learners to advocate for justice and engage in constructive dialogue around sensitive social issues.
The lesson expresses the necessity of understanding historical context to inform present actions and foster peace: “How has history affected how some individuals are responding to the refugee crisis today?” This aligns with promoting institutional solid responses to social issues, encouraging students to advocate for justice.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

The lesson plan can foster collaborative actions among students, schools, communities, and organizations to create a supportive environment for refugees. It highlights the importance of partnerships in addressing the needs and rights of displaced individuals.
The call for community involvement in addressing refugees’ needs signifies the importance of collective action: “What are some of the pressing needs of refugees in the Moria camp? What can you do now or should you do to satisfy these needs?” This highlights students’ roles in fostering partnerships within their communities.

Strengths:

Interconnectedness of Issues
- The lesson effectively highlights the interconnectedness of social issues, the historical context of refugees, and contemporary challenges. Encouraging students to explore how past events shape present responses fosters a comprehensive understanding of how society’s responses to displacement are influenced by history. Quote: “How does the voyage to Lesvos in 1922 relate to the present voyage of Syrians and other displaced people elsewhere?”
Critical Engagement and Reflexivity
- Freire’s concepts of codification and de-codification are powerful tools for teaching critical engagement. Students are encouraged to reflect on societal dynamics and question existing norms. Quote: “Starting with an analysis (de-codification) of this concrete, real and ‘coded’ situation… aims to turn them able to arrive at a critical level of knowing.”
Inclusivity and Empathy
- The lesson promotes inclusive education by acknowledging diverse perspectives and experiences, particularly those of marginalized groups. It fosters empathy through personal reflection on the feelings and thoughts of refugees and local communities. Quote: “What would you like to ask the different generations experiencing displacement and becoming refugees?”
Active Participation
- The emphasis on active participation (“Do What?” and “Now What?”) encourages learners to think pragmatically about their roles in society and how they can contribute to social justice and sustainability. Quote: “What can you do now or should you do to satisfy these needs?”

Areas for Improvement:

Broader Environmental Context
- While the lesson focuses thoughtfully on social equity, it could integrate environmental sustainability more explicitly. Education for Sustainability encompasses sustainability awareness and provides examples of how refugee crises impact ecosystems and local environments, which could enhance the understanding of sustainability.
- Suggestion: Incorporate discussions on how increased migration affects local resources and biodiversity, expanding the lesson to cover ecological issues.
Integration of Global Perspectives
- The lesson could benefit from a more global perspective, not only centering on the Greek context. Students could gain insights into global challenges and solutions by comparing countries’ responses to refugee crises, enhancing their understanding of global citizenship.
- Suggestion: Include case studies of refugees in various countries to show diverse institutional and community responses.
Actionable Outcomes
- While the “Do What?” and “Now What?” sections encourage critical thinking into actions, specific, actionable projects could be outlined. This would provide clearer pathways for students to implement change in their communities.
- Suggestion: Introduce collaborative projects or community service initiatives to support refugees or educate peers about displacement issues.
Assessment Methods
- The lesson plan needs to integrate a clear framework for assessing student learning outcomes related to sustainability. Including formative assessments that measure students’ understanding and engagement may add value to the educational experience.
- Suggestion: Incorporate reflective journals or portfolios where students can document their learning journey and actions in response to the lesson.

References

Freire, P. (1973). Education for Critical Consciousness. New York: Seabury.

Freire, P. (1985). The politics of education: culture power and liberation.

New York: Macmillan.

Freire, P. (1997) Pedagogy of the Heart, New York, Continuum.

Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, democracy, and civic courage. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Little.

Kostoulas-Makrakis, N. and Makrakis, V. (2020). Developing student-driven learning activities to promote quality education for refugees through the CARE methodology. International Journal of Early Years Education 28:2, 176-188, DOI: 10.1080/09669760.2020.1765091.

Kostoulas-Makrakis, N. (2014). The use of the Earth Charter at the primary teachers’ education department University of Crete, Greece. In: A. Jimenez Elizondo & D.F. Williamson (eds.) The Heart of the Matter: Infusing Sustainability Values in Education: Experiences of ESD with the Earth Charter (pp. 91-95). San Jose, C.R.: Universidad para la Paz. Available at https://earthcharter.org/virtual-library2/images/uploads/ESD%20EC%202014.pdf

Kostoulas-Makrakis, N. (2015). Integrating Sustainable Happiness in Pre-Service Teacher Training Enabled through the Earth Charter Lenses. In K. Karras, et al. (eds.), Pedagogy of Happiness: Towards an Unconventional School (148-171). University of Crete.

Kostoulas-Makrakis, N. (2017). The Earth Charter through the lenses of sustainability justice. 9th International Conference in Open & Distance Learning, Athens, Greece – Proceeding. Available at https://earthcharter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Kostoula-EC-and-Sustainability-Justice.pdf.

Makrakis, V. (2014). ICTs as transformative enabling tools in education. In R. Huang, Kinshuk & J. Price (Eds.), ICT in education in global context (101-119). Berlin: Springer Verlag.

Makrakis, V. (2015). A methodology for developing a sustainability justice curriculum: Turning teachers able to act as agents of change. In K. Karras, et al. (eds.), Pedagogy of Happiness: Towards an Unconventional School (148-171). University of Crete.

Makrakis, V. 2017a. Developing and validating a sustainability justice instrument to transform curriculum, learning and teaching. In 9th International Conference in Open & Distance Learning, Athens, Greece. Proceedings. https://eproceedings.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/openedu/article/viewFile/1368/1303

Μakrakis, V. (2017b). Unlocking the potentiality and actuality of ICTs in developing sustainable–justice curricula and society. Knowledge Cultures, 5(2), 103-122. doi: 0.22381/KC5220177

Makrakis, V. and Kostoulas-Makrakis, N. (2017). An instructional-learning model applying problem-based learning enabled by ICTs. In P. Anastasiades & N. Zaranis (eds.), Research on eLearning and ICT in Education (3-16), Springer.

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