www.borderlinks.org

At BorderLinks, we distinguish between the banking model of education and education for positive social transformation.  The banking model is a linear learning model that begins with teachers/experts who hold all the knowledge and serve as role models for students.  Success in such a learning system means conforming to the model of the expert, which supports the status quo. Conversely, education for positive social transformation is an integrated learning model that embraces and works with the tension between theory and practice, reflection and action, and teacher/learner knowledge and new information.

In all our work, whether it is with U.S. delegation participants or residents of border colonias, our educational pedagogy is grounded in the following commitments:

• Makes learning exciting and fun,
• Facilitates a space in which all are treated with dignity and respect, and in which violence of any kind is not tolerated,
• Names, challenges, and transforms social, economic, and environmental practices that support domination and injustice,
• Anticipates, addresses, and transforms conflict,
• Embodies just and caring relationships between learners and leaders, and between group members and contact organizations and individuals,
• Includes reflection and action,
• Puts local issues into a global context,
• Encourages collective action for change,
• Is a part of a life-long process of transformation, not a single event.