Paying attention to social development can be difficult in a country that is still trying to restore democracy, and improving education can be at the bottom of a list when a country is trying to get back on its feet.
Brazil?s educational system lacks trained teachers, effective administrative and funding policies, and even classrooms that are suitable for teaching.
Sonoma State University international business professor Robert Girling has been working in Brazil?s northeastern state of Bahia in order to help improve school leadership and administration since 1995 when he co-founded the Program in Participatory School Management (PGP).
The program is currently working with 80 schools with a combined student body of 40,000. The PGP offers training in for example leadership, team building, school finance, and evaluation.
The PGP brings university professors and graduate students together with state and municipal schools to train personnel and to identify schools? needs. Girling says that he is delighted for having been able to play a part in empowering people in Brazil to work on the program.
"The PGP has changed life opportunities for some people for 1,000 percent," Girling says of the participants in the country with some of the lowest levels of primary education in the hemisphere. "The PGP plays a big part in generating self-esteem among students."
The program has turned out to be a success in Bahia, even to the point that the local authorities have asked the PGP to train administrators in all of the state?s 200 schools.
Robert Girling has recently received a Fulbright grant and a Ford Foundation grant to continue the two programs he?s involved in: the PGP and an exchange program between Northern California teachers and teachers in Northeastern part of Brazil. The exchange program is intended to promote a better understanding of the cultural diversity in Brazil and offers an opportunity for teachers to travel between California and Brazil.
For more information, please contact Robert Girling at (707) 664-2228 or e-mail him at robert.girling@sonoma.edu
