SPELL is a coming together of communities of learning that continuously sharpens thinking on what it means and what it will take to realize the right to transformative lifelong learning and quality education in a globalized and climate-challenged world. SPELL is a coming together of communities of learning in the Philippines that continuously sharpens thinking on what it means and what it will tak
e to realize the right to transformative and inclusive lifelong learning and quality education in a globalized and climate-challenged 21st century and beyond. As a starting point, SPELL believes that quality learning in formal, nonformal and informal education should encompass the 5H - Head, Heart, Hands, Health and Home – with ‘Home’ referring not only to family but also to our communities, our country, and ultimately Earth itself. SPELL members invest their strength and their collective voices to craft and advocate for a rights-based education agenda that is anchored on the diversity of their life experiences and their individual, community, and national needs. SPELL has taken collective action, sought fresh ideas, and borrowed those that already work to tackle chronic and emergent inequities, bring about gender justice, pursue responsive education governance and financing and practice genuine partnerships. While striving to bring about a culture of solidarity and resistance, SPELL challenges the neoliberal concept of human capital development and its political economy and seeks instead to build sustainable human capacities for development towards a Life of Dignity. Programs are implemented through SPELL Circles, and currently these are:
1. Transformative Education Policy Advocacy (TEPA) -- engaging policy makers together with the underserved;
2. Empowerment Conversations (EC) -- learning sessions on education-related issues;
3. Narrative Creation and Sharing (NCS) -- documenting stories of learners, teachers, parents;
4. Catching Up and Enhancement Sessions (CUES) -- addressing learning deficits;
5. Arts, Music, Poetry and Performances (AMPP) – engendering a culture of solidarity and resistance;
6. Solidarity and Partnerships for Alternatives (SPA) -- co-organizing initiatives to test alternatives.
