Yo, Si Peudo: A global literacy movement

Since it was first trialled in Haiti in 2000, Cuba’s Yo, Si Puedo model for mounting mass adult literacy campaigns has mobilised over six million people in twenty-nine countries to acquire basic literacy. Cuba’s unique south-south approach to international aid and cooperation and its extensive experience with mass literacy campaigns over more than five decades makes this model a classic case study for postcolonial education theory and practice. Bob Boughton and Deborah Durnan’s case study is based on evidence collected in an extended participatory action research project during Yo, Si Puedo’s deployment in Timor-Leste’s national literacy campaign (2007-2011) and in a recent pilot study of the model in three Indigenous communities in Australia (2012-2014).