TREES Challenge: Revealing classisms - 2024

The classism is the white elephant in our interactions with other people. Often, this form of discrimination is hidden in social structures and manifests itself in everyday life. Recognizing and revealing classism in our environment enables us to questioning our own attitudes and prejudices, as well as understanding how it affects people in a multiplicity of ways.

Want to research classism to understand its scope and work towards a more just society?

Using certain methodologies of the participatory action research, students will inquire about attitudes, perceptions, relationships or practices. related to classism to design participatory and collaborative strategies that strengthen social cohesion and solidarity.

Participants will learn to:

  1. Apply appropriately methodologies of participatory action research.
  2. Use strategies to cooperate and resolve tensions arising from collective action.
  3. Identify and critically analyze attitudes, perceptions, relationships or practices that promote or mitigate classism.

This challenge is aimed at:

Students of any discipline of master's degree or undergraduate from fifth semester or higher. Each team must be made up of five students of legal age and have a university professor to provide overall leadership throughout the challenge.

The challenge

It is divided into six phases that guide teams in designing and conducting participatory action research in their immediate environment to identify and critically analyze attitudes, perceptions, relationships or practices that promote or mitigate classism. Each team will work collectively and with the people who are part of the environment where the research is conducted. The six phases will work as follows:

  • In the first, The teams will choose the setting in which they intend to conduct the participatory action research.
  • In the second, The participants will discuss with the people in their chosen environment whether and to what extent they wish to participate.
  • In the third, The teams will define, together with the people in the chosen environment, the research question and the methods they will use to solve it.
  • In the fourth, The teams will do the research.
  • In the fifth, The learning process will be synthesized and consolidated into three deliverables.
  • The sixth, The last phase will be a face-to-face meeting with all the teams at the Universidad de los Andes on the following days. October 19 and 20. In this space, the teams will share their experiences during the development of the challenge and will receive feedback from the other participants. On October 20, each team will make a final presentation to a panel of judges and the other teams. All teams that obtain an average final score of more than 80/100 will win.

There will be six virtual master classes on participatory action research methodologies and principles and on concepts and issues related to classism by university professors.

Financing

In this edition of the TREES challenge: revealing classisms, If a team is selected, we will select the best six teams from all those who apply. Each team selected will receive $500,000 COP to cover expenses directly related to conducting the participatory action research. From these six teams, we will select the winning teams who will will receive $2,000,000 COP to cover expenses related to the continuation of the participatory action research process or to implement a concrete action to address classism, depending on its results and conclusions.

We will award two scholarships for teams made up of students from universities in Colombia who reside outside of Bogota. This scholarship covers lodging, food, local transportation and round-trip tickets to attend the face-to-face meeting on October 19 and 20 at the Universidad de los Andes.

Application process

  1. The application process will be open between May 9 and June 5, 2024. The friday, june 21 we will announce the six teams selected to take part in the challenge.
  2. In order to apply for the challenge, teams already formed must pre-register at Obertura.
  3. Then, fill out the Application Form, attach the Mentor commitment letter and attach the Motivation letter. Instructions are available in Overture once pre-registration is completed.
  4. The teams will be evaluated by a panel of jurors of the TREES initiative according to the evaluation criteria of the Motivation Letter, available in Overture.

Commitments and responsibilities

Teams selected to participate in the challenge must sign and complete the Commitment Agreement which is available in Overture. Students should have an average of two hours per week. 

Intellectual Property

The people participating in the challenge and participatory action research will be. co-authors or co-owners of the documents, presentations, conclusions and deliverables they produce. TREES team to provide outreach support of some of these and will give visibility to the authors who participated in their creation.

As stated in the Engagement Agreement, individuals participating in the challenge and participatory action research must provide permission for use and dissemination to the Ford Foundation and Universidad de los Andes.

If you have any additional questions, please please do not hesitate to contact us by mail at [email protected]