Contents
The mother manual was developed to pull together best practice from the pilot projects for an audience of prospective practitioners. The manual was designed to explain the approach and enable people to adapt it to their local situation, producing their own facilitators' manuals adapated to their local social, economic, political and cultural conditions and interests.
The manual covers the theory behind the approach, the setting up and functioning of a Reflect circle, implementation of Reflect and a set of sample Reflect units, giving practical examples of how to use the approach. None of these were intended for direct use, rather the aim was that the units would be adapted to the specific needs of local groups and facilitators (hence the name 'Mother Manual'). The final section of the manual looks at ideas for adapting the approach to different types of communities, including urban areas, fishing communities, pastoralists and refugees, for work with children and for integrating the approach with other participatory approaches including song, role play and dance.
We have included all of the theory from the manual, unedited, as it appears in the manual, on this website, and a few examples of the sample units (the full published version of the manual is available from the current editor). As is mentioned on other sections of this website we are in the process of producing new resource materials to over come some of the problems associated with the mother manual (see Mother Manual Review workshop and articles from PLA Notes). However at the moment the Mother Manual is the most comprehensive publication for use by pratitioners that we have and much of the theory is still very relevant for Reflect practice.
Introduction - How to use the manual
Steps in Implementing Reflect
Introduction
Background Research
Developing a local
facilitators manual
Producing visual cards
Training of trainers
Selection trainers and facilitators
Monitoring and
Evaluation
Using participant generated materials for planning
Strenghtening the
literate environment
A note on post-literacy
Adapting Reflect for work in different
communities
For work in Urban areas
Fishing Communities
Pastoralist Communities
Refugess
With Children
Integrating other
particiaptory processes