Introduction Vicky Colbert and Clarita Arboleda spoke animatedly in the car as they returned to the headquarters of Fundacin Escuela Nueva (FEN) in the La Soledad neighbourhood of Bogot, Colombia. They were driving back from Usme, a locality on the fringes of the greater metropolis, where they had visited two of the most recent additions to the network of FEN-assisted Escuela Nueva schools. The field visit had been encouraging. The principal, who had long advocated for the Escuela Nueva model in his schools, was enthusiastic and supportive, and the teachers had strongly embraced the new pedagogy and curriculum introduced by FEN earlier in the year. The students and their teachers appeared to be thriving as part of the Escuela Nueva network. Both schools were considered multigrade primary schools, or schools where teachers were responsible for teaching more than one grade simultaneously. with its growing reputation, FEN had also promoted Escuela Nueva internationally, influencing the education systems of over 20 countries in Latin America and worldwide. Colbert checked her diary as Arboleda answered her mobile phone. A number of pressing appointments were on their agenda, and Arboleda was scheduling a meeting with the national Vice Minister of Education to visit some of the Escuela Nueva schools. Furthermore, FEN was organizing the III International Congress of Escuela Nueva for the following month, where over a thousand teachers, principals, researchers and educational specialists and planners from around Latin America would convene for two days in Bogot. The Congress, which had been in the planning stages for over a year, would be a culmination of nearly four decades of growing the Escuela Nueva model. Both Colbert and Arboleda believed that the situation in Colombia presented an important set of opportunities for FEN and the Escuela Nueva model. Just two weeks before, the Colombian government had signed a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC), the primary guerilla group involved in the 52 years of civil war. A week later, the country was stunned when the peace accord failed the referendum process with the Colombian public, who voted by a slim margin to reject the terms of the primary document of the peace process. While the rejection was heartbreaking, it reflected the continued divisions in a country where two generations had never known peace. Millions had suffered because of the half-century of war, resulting in a thriving illicit drug trade, 220,000 deaths and unmeasurable instability in Colombia.2 Negotiating terms which would be acceptable to both sides required an enormous amount of compromise from both sides and some Colombians were not yet sure that they had reached a deal that was acceptable given the enormity of the suffering. Despite this setback, the country was closer to peace than it had been in over half a century. Colbert was convinced that transforming education for the rural, underserved areas of the country was essential to promoting a new peaceful reality for Colombia. The Escuela Nueva model had shown significant success in fostering peaceful, democratic behaviours in children compared to conventional schools.3 As she explained: Furthermore, recent economic slowdown, precipitated by the global downturn in commodities prices, had placed increasing pressure on financing for public services.6 Colombias geography and half-century of civil war created unique challenges to delivering government services to the communities which were historically underserved. Nearly three quarters of municipalities had less than 20,000 inhabitants, and it was in these peri-urban and rural areas where the rebel groups operated most heavily. Due to the rebel activity, some of these areas were largely untouched by official government services. These areas were also the most affected by violence, with high homicide rates, as well as forced recruitment into war. Educational opportunities in these areas were sometimes non-existent. Despite these significant challenges, in the last three decades, Colombia had made great strides in improving its public education system, increasing access and coverage across most populations. Since 1990, Colombias education system had been compulsory for all children from ages five to 15.7 As a result, Colombia increased its average school life expectancy rate from 11.4 years in 2001 to 13.5 years in 2010. Basic education was nine years, with five years of primary education and four years of lower secondary education. Upper secondary education was non-compulsory and lasted two years. In 2014, there were approximately 8.6 million children enrolled in basic and secondary education in nearly 52,000 government schools in the country. In addition, there were nearly 10,000 private institutions serving approximately 1.5 million school-aged children.8 However, repetition and drop-out rates were still significant problems plaguing the system, primarily in lower income schools. The education system in Colombia reflected the large disparities that affect all types of government service provision in the country. However, these concepts were almost exclusively taken up by elite schools for wealthy families. This model inverted the traditional method of teachers leading lecture-style sessions from the front of the room, and instead promoted personalized learning where teachers created the lesson plans and designed self-instructional cards for students, which students worked in pairs and small groups to independently complete in the classroom. First and most importantly, the self-preparation of the instructional cards was a significant hurdle for teachers who had little time to assume the task 12 Behaviorism is a learning theory that focuses on objectively observable behaviors acquired based on environmental conditions, which discounts any independent activities of the mind. Behaviorists believe that all human behavior is learned, thus all behavior can be unlearned and new behaviors learned in its place. 12. Behaviorism is a learning theory that focuses on objectively observable behaviors acquired based on environmental conditions, which discounts any independent activities of the mind. Behaviorists believe that all human behavior is learned, thus all behavior can be unlearned and new behaviors learned in its place. 6 Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change of preparing learning materials in addition to their teaching responsibilities. Second, the teachers were not given adequate training or supervision to implement the Unitary School model, which required a substantial departure from the way they themselves had been instructed. Third, the model did not address the issues in the community that affected childrens learning, such as relevant content and flexibility to align with the schedules of agricultural families. Finally, there were political issues that were standing in the way of the Unitary School model. Teachers unions opposed the model for two reasons: first, designing self-instructional cards demanded too much additional time for teachers; and, second, they felt that promoting multigrade schools could potentially decrease the number of teachers in the country. Despite the drawbacks, Colbert saw significant promise in the model. To overcome the challenges that she and Levinger had identified, Colbert organized a national seminar to reach consensus on the different perspectives of the Unitary School model in the country. As a result of this seminar, a synthesis was developed, detailing the problems that had been identified, including the design of training materials, teacher training, the interaction between the schools and the community, and the way the approaches dealt with ideological theory.13 Through the process of building consensus, Colbert recognized a unique opportunity to build on what was already working in the country, yet design a more systemic model, rethinking the learning process and creating a model for rural, multigrade schools. In this manner, through a very experiential, practice-focused approach, Colbert and her team started implementing a pilot project in 500 schools in three regions of Colombia, thereby, creating a network of schools that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the Escuela Nueva model. To evaluate the pilot, two institutions, Nemequene Scientific Association of Colombia and Instituto Ser de Investigaciones, led studies of the new model. Their evaluations, issued in 1978, 1982 and 1988, demonstrated that quantitative and qualitative improvements could be made in the most disadvantaged schools. This was evidenced in better academic scores, a reduction of drop-out and repetition rates, improvement of self-esteem and increased participation of girls when compared with conventional schools.14 From Pilot to Regional Scale Once the pilot stage had evidenced positive results, Colbert realized that the next step would be to prove that the model could be scaled significantly, and to make the case for national rollout. With the support of departmental governments and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Colbert and her team assembled the funding needed to expand to 3,000 schools. The National Federation of Coffee Growers and Fundacin para la Educacin Superior (FES) also became interested in supporting regional expansions to some of the coffee regions, the department of Valle and to the Pacific West Coast of Colombia, one of the poorest regions in the country. These funding alliances were critical to gaining support within government, since budgetary support for rural schools was limited. At this time, Colbert also worked to build the leadership to make the case for national rollout of the model. To do this, the national team and Colbert coordinated a series of visits to demonstration schools by high-level policymakers in the Ministry. Mogolln, meanwhile, was also working at the departmental level to prevent obstacles for Escuela Nueva for a national rollout. An initial obstacle was the teachers unions, that had opposed the former Escuela Unitaria model and the multigrade concept under the premise that a single-teacher model would justify under-staffing as a matter of policy. Colbert worked to bring the unions and leaders together in support for Escuela Nueva, emphasizing the progressive tenets of the model, with the focus on child-centered, participatory learning. By communicating the goals and benefits of the model, Colbert was able to earn the support of teachers, who in turn were strong influencers to the unions and departments. As Colbert built her team and corralled resources, she began to meet significant resistance from within the Ministry as well. As demand for materials adaptation and implementation support grew, so did FEN. In 1996, Colbert decided to leave her position at UNICEF to focus on growing FEN full-time. Funding for projects generally came from governments seeking to adapt and implement the Escuela Nueva model, and from partners (international organizations, private sector) supporting the adaptation and rollout of the model to different contexts. Unrestricted funding was used to provide matching funds for projects that required investment from FEN, as well as R&D long-term initiatives, such as building the community connections around the Escuela Nueva model. Accordingly, FEN ramped its staff, both permanent and contract, up and down over the years based on the demand for their services. Over the years, their activities grew to include the following: Technical Assistance: FENs primary role was to provide technical assistance and support to governments and partners wishing to implement the Escuela Nueva model. Importantly, technical assistance was promoted as a package, including the distribution of learning guides, provision of teacher training, and ongoing evaluation and support. Community Connections: FEN also worked to build a learning network and community around the partners who were implementing the Escuela Nueva model, so that they could continue to learn from one another and support the continued roll-out and adaptation of the model. Teachers were a vital component of this network, and it was interesting to note that teachers who had been trained with Escuela Nueva decades before still remembered the model with great affection. FENs flagship community-building event was a series of global Congresses (2003, 2006, 2016) that brought together practitioners and policymakers from around the world to learn and promote the model. Research and Evaluation. FEN also promoted the evaluation of the Escuela Nueva model through partnerships with academic and research institutions. More recently, they had undertaken a process of developing standardized assessments and metrics to achieve a global understanding of how the Escuela Nueva model was being used and what impact it was having. Fundacin Escuela Nueva 11 New Developments FEN realized early on that adapting the model was necessary for its survival. Escuela Nueva had long been associated with rural, multigrade schools, and this was detrimental for expanding its impact to education systems as a whole. Colombia indeed, the world was urbanizing rapidly, and Escuela Nueva was, in essence, a model whose principles could be applied in various settings. FENs first project, funded by the Inter-American Foundation in 1987, supported the adaptation of the Escuela Nueva model for urban settings, developing a new model called Escuela Activa Urbana. This model had been implemented in more than six cities in Colombia. FEN also expanded upon its focus on community and civic behavior, deciding to make civic and democratic values a central part of the learning because of the intimate relationship between pedagogy and citizenship building. While the Escuela Nueva model had always emphasized student governments to elect student leaders who had authority and responsibility for activities in the school, FEN placed greater emphasis upon these activities. TThe Colombian government had also at times promoted the use of light versions of the Escuela Nueva model, or even alternatives, as part of its menu of options for departments and municipalities. Even in those regions or countries where Escuela Nueva was being used in a quality fashion, it was difficult to measure the impact of the model. In situations where FEN had provided technical assistance to adapt and implement Escuela Nueva, there was little funding available for long-term monitoring and evaluation typically, projects included a simple baseline and short-term assessment. Therefore, although they were working to develop a more robust, standardized monitoring and evaluation system, FEN was not able to fully measure its impact or attribute their impact to educational improvements. These challenges aside, the Colombian peace process with negotiations continuing despite the referendum result would likely result in increased support and funding for rural education. Colbert and Arboleda strongly hoped that the peace process would give them an opportunity to revitalize and reposition the model in the country.

Questions:

1. Discuss resourcefulness and innovation in relation to the FEN case study, concluding on one type of resourcefulness or innovation such as Jugaad at FEN.

2. Discuss the cultural challenges mentioned in the FEN case study. Provide practical ways in which FEN could be overcome these challenges

3. Explain what type of social capital Colbert had in the FEN case study. How did this type of social capital affect FEN. Recommend actions or practices that FEN could adopt to overcome any limitations identified.