This semester, I have been accompanying the
Lutheran School of Theology, by teaching a course for the students called Sustainable
Community Development. In the course we have covered topics such as: What
is community? What is poverty? As well as different ways to conceptualize what
it means for a community to develop itself. We have also gone over practical
tools such as developing stories (public narratives) about the community in
order to demonstrate the mission of the community, and that these stories can
act as glue holding the community together as well as giving a solid foundation
to keep striving for improvement.
We developed understandings of community
development according to three identified principles: sustainability, empowerment,
and participation. Specific activities that can be implemented in communities
to guide in the search for these principles were also taught. Some of these
practical activities are: Community Asset Mapping, Appreciative Inquiry, how to
identify dominant frameworks (ways of explaining realities in the community)
that might be harmful to the self-esteem of the community, and how to uplift
subordinated frameworks that could foment more action, among many other tools
to be implemented.
Last week was the final class for the course (I forgot to take a picture of the class together).
In the final discussion about the class, the learnings, and the tools. I learned
that the content of the class has already impacted how some sermons are being
written, how some activities are being developed, as well as plans for further implementation
of the tools mentioned. The students also mentioned that they want to talk to the director of the Lutheran School of Theology to see if this course could become mandatory.