Pedagogy and Theory

Pedagogy

The practicum courses that are operated in conjunction with the Cañada Project are collaborative, experiential, and premised on student initiative and active engagement with community partners, scholars, activists and public officials. We work with our partners to define, research, and propose technically well-founded and socially appropriate solutions to social and environmental problems facing slum communities. Our long-term, overarching goal is to develop democratic and deliberative forms of collaboration in research and plan-making that will facilitate the co-production of innovative urban planning and management practices, while strengthening the capacities of all partners and furthering just urban governance.

Field research methods include surveys, interviews, focus groups, workshops,participatory plan-making, and participatory design activities, as needed and culturally appropriate. Students work in teams to address the goals of the class. 

The pedagogical goals of the practicum courses include: 

1. To develop critical understandings of the social processes and political-economic structures that shape international development practice, particularly in informal settlements in Latin American cities.

2. To strengthen capacities for critical reflexivity, especially in terms of positionality and identity in the context of community-based, international development practice.

3. To develop advanced skills in research design and research methods for development practice in informal settlements.

4. To develop effective listening and communication skills for successful, collaborative international project development with diverse partners.

5. To develop productive writing and presentation skills for diverse settings and communities, both in Spanish and English.

6. To develop advanced thematic knowledge of community-based solid waste management, specifically from the perspective of gender & development theory, solidarity and alternative economies, and food security.

Theory and Knowledge Areas

Please explore the reading lists below if you are interested in the authors that  inform the theoretical perspectives and knowledge areas that guide the course and student participation in the larger Cañada Project. These lists are not exhaustive, but rather a sampling of the authors and readings students might engage with throughout their participation in a practicum course.

Culture, Race, and Power in the Dominican Republic 

Critical Development Theory 

Gender and Development 

Alternative Economies

Community-Based Solid Waste Management

Informality and Placemaking

Planning and Neoliberal Urban Governance

Theories of Knowledge Production and Critical Pedagogy 

 

An initiative of the University of Texas School of Architecture to address infrastructure challenges in informal settlements