Project Background:
Vía Educación is a non-profit organization in Mexico seeking to improve people’s quality of life by promoting sustainable social development through education. The organization believes that every person is capable of improving their opportunities in life as well as those of their communities. Vía Educación implements Learning Communities, a project whose model is founded on 30+ years of research and practice by the Community of Research on Excellence for All (“CREA”) at the University of Barcelona. The model involves “implementing ‘Successful Educational Actions’ (SEAs) characterized by reorganizing the available resources in the school and the community to support all pupils’ academic achievement” (Flecha, Soler, 2013). The model is implemented internationally through different implementing partners in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Perú, among others. Vía Educación is the implementing partner in Mexico, working with nearly 200 public elementary and middle schools across 8 states in Mexico as of July 2019.
Opportunity:
Via is interested in expanding its work in citizenship education, and would like the team to review mechanisms for citizenship education in non-formal spaces around the world. We are developing a collaboration with a local Mexican organization focused on civic participation in neighborhoods to broaden the reach of our community programs. It would be great to have a review of what other organizations are doing, their theory of change, a comparison among the different initiatives, innovatives and high-impact practices and implementations, and some insights on how it could be adapted to Mexico. DAT students will have support from Via not only in providing information and responding to questions, but also in connecting the team with stakeholders for interviews and surveys, etc.
Definition of Success:
Working with the Notre Dame DAT, VIA hopes to be inspired to expand its work on citizen education, identifying best practices both globally and in Mexico in citizenship education as well as presenting the ideas in ways that are engaging with and attractive to policymakers and administrators.
