We're Bringing the Teaching for Equity Module to Soacha
In partnership with the Soacha Department of Education, we held the Teaching for Equity Workshop for the first time outside of Bogotá. Teachers from various subject areas shared their experiences and developed proposals to address inequalities through their own teaching practices.
From August 21 to September 18, 2026, we conducted the TREES Teaching for Equity Module in Soacha, in partnership with the municipality’s Department of Education. Over the course of five sessions, 23 teachers from various subject areas shared experiences and developed proposals to integrate equity into their daily classroom practices.
The module is part of the TREES Community of Practice, a forum for educators interested in reflecting on equity and transforming their teaching practices. This edition brought together teachers from subjects such as mathematics, social studies, physical education, and English. This diversity made it possible to explore different ways of addressing these topics based on the needs of each educational context.
As Andrés Bautista, coordinator of the TREES Community of Practice, explained, issues related to equity and inequalities “are not limited to a single discipline.” Participants recognize that they can address these issues in their classes, “in addition to developing the disciplinary understandings specific to each of their fields.”.
To achieve this, the module offers a process of training and reflection in which participants develop a plan for their own classrooms. With support from the TREES team and feedback from their colleagues, they define what they want their students to understand, design activities to achieve those goals, and propose strategies for assessing learning. Peer exchange allows participants to review the proposals and learn from the experiences of other teachers.
For Gisela Rodríguez, a math teacher at the Paz y Esperanza School, this process meant connecting an idea she perceived as abstract to the situations she faces in her work. “I was able to relate it more closely to my reality as a teacher, to the reality of my students, and also to my teaching practices,” she explained.
That reflection includes everyday decisions such as asking students how they are doing, whether they had breakfast, or how they got to school from home. Recognizing those circumstances, she noted, can change the way teachers approach what happens in the classroom and support their students’ learning.
During the closing session, participants presented posters featuring their teaching designs and their own definitions of equity. According to Bautista, the purpose of the work carried out was “to think about better ways to talk, teach, and discuss equity, inequality, and social justice in the classroom.” The proposals showcased different ways to connect these reflections with their students’ experiences.
Gisela, for example, proposed using chess—a game that sparks interest at her school—to explore the differences and needs of her classmates. By drawing on the various moves and possibilities of the pieces, she aims to help her students reflect on the perspectives from which they participate and the ways they can respond to those differences. The proposal also reflects her interest in promoting the participation of a student with a cognitive disability.
For her part, Vilma del Carmen Salcedo Muñoz, a social studies teacher who works with sixth- and seventh-grade students in District 4 of Soacha, focused her proposal on promoting empathy, solidarity, and recognition of classmates who need support to participate in classroom activities.
Vilma explained that she had already put her proposal into practice with seventh-grade students. For her, the process allowed her to connect her knowledge of equity with a specific need at her school: “In theoretical terms, I understood it very clearly, but I hadn’t adapted it to a real-world situation and an educational need.”.
The work of Diana Solis, a professor of Political Science and Economics, focused on recognizing one’s own rights and those of others. Her approach aims to help students connect these reflections to what happens in the classroom, at home, and in their community. Exchanging ideas with other teachers allowed her to expand the tools she uses to address these topics: “I want to build from a practical perspective, from a teaching perspective, through play, and by putting the child at the center.”.
The shared experiences also sparked reflection on the scope of this training. Ángela Peña Díaz, Improvement Leader in the Educational Quality Division of the Soacha Department of Education, noted that teachers developed their own definitions of equity and devised ways to address these concepts with their students, taking into account the different contexts of their schools.
For Peña, one of the challenges is to ensure that these reflections translate into practices that help reduce inequalities and enable students to recognize the conditions in which they live, grow up, and study, as well as their potential to transform their environment.
The exchange also broadened the TREES team’s perspective. For Bautista, it was an opportunity to rethink equity and educational equity “from the perspective of schools and teachers” pedagogical practices” and from their diverse disciplinary perspectives.
This first experience with the Module outside of Bogotá allowed us to continue developing an approach to teaching for equity together with the teachers. Their proposals show how this reflection can take shape in a math class, an inclusion activity, or a conversation about rights, based on what each teacher knows about their students and learns from their colleagues.
If you're interested in sharing experiences and continuing to explore these questions with other teachers, we invite you to join the TREES Community of Practice and stay tuned for upcoming announcements about our training opportunities.
See more Photos of the Soacha Module.