Education for Sharing (E4S)

We are committed to solving the challenge that represents shifting to virtual spaces, in which educational communities struggle to give meaningful and didactic content to develop cognitive knowledge, but also to procure the emotional, mental and physical well-being of students. 

The E4S play-reflect-take action methodology empower teachers, students and their families through a content that addresses global citizenship education and social emotional skills; this provides beneficiaries the confidence and knowledge to be resilient, while enjoying their learning experience, from home or wherever they have to be. 

For 14 years, E4S has been providing educators with pedagogical tools to improve their work and methods of teaching. Our model is deeply rooted to their core, so we ensure that the E4S methodology keeps being replicated and enhanced throughout the years, benefiting more future generations. 

This E4S model has been replicated already and its flexibility quality is mented to exist so we can share the power of play with other latitudes and communities around the globe. 

According to UNESCO (2020) during the first half of the year, 90.2% of the total number of students enrolled worldwide did not attend classes. This leads us to wonder about the needs of the school community, which for E4S are framed in three main challenges:

1. Reduction of spaces for recreation: The right of children to play and participate in recreational activities, was hampered by social distancing policies. Strategies to counter this situation have been inefficient at communicating the importance of providing spaces that scholarly contexts provided in the past.

2. Absence of a formal accompaniment for the management of emotions: The breakdown of the daily routine of children brought an imbalance in school life. A consequence noticed by specialists is the impact on the mental/emotional health of students, which can be reflected in changes in behaviors and even in states of depression, anxiety and violence.

3. Lack of strategies to achieve meaningful learning in distance models: A 2020 survey of Valora (consultancy Company) on a sample of 3,919 Elementary Mexican teachers, identified that the majority expressed not being prepared to teach online classes and to develop their role in this new modality.

Our solution is to implement strategies, using the technology that we have at our reach (computers and cell phones) as well as printed materials, with the mantra of maintaining a global and flexible approach, which would allow us to be relevant to all the communities we serve.

Starting from the premise that learning happens in any situation, even in confinement, we offer E4S’s play model to strengthen the educational community, particularly teachers, through activities that aim to reinforce spaces for meaningful learning, strengthening emotional ties and maintaining the mental and physical health of families at home. To achieve this goal, we have been working on:

1. The implementation of proven and replicated educational programs on-site, hybrid and on online modalities, with operational follow-ups through text messages and calls.
2. Development of digital and printed booklets on topics of digital citizenship and education for sustainable development, including pedagogical support material for their use.
3. Generation of a social media campaign to share useful content through webinars, FB lives and audiovisuals.
4. Creation of games on relevant topics (healthy lifestyle habits, emotional health, play as a distance learning tool, among others) to meet the new normality in the school context. 

E4S’s direct beneficiaries are teachers from diverse contexts. Moreover, the educational offer impacts children from 6 to 12 years old and teenagers from 13 to 15 years old, teachers and families ranging from rural populations to large cities. 

With the objective of developing better strategies to provide them with the pedagogical tools that will empower their pedagogical practice, we carried out in-house assessments that will allow us to have a deeper understanding of our teachers’ network necessities. The results of the survey showed that teachers want to: 

• Integrate games and ludic activities into their current educational strategy 

• Generate support networks among their peers to share best practices regarding online classes.  

E4S provides a punctual solution to these needs by working closely with teachers and training them in how to transmit significant learning to their students using  play to strengthen their pedagogical practices.

Our operations team also acts as a support network who is constantly monitoring the needs and queries of  the teachers regarding the play methodology and the use of technological tools to implement  E4S’ programs.

E4S's solution is relevant because through its activities teachers:

1. Identify the benefits of the educational use of play to design and implement meaningful and engaging classes that respond to the interests of their students.

2. Incorporate strategies that allow them to strengthen the socio-emotional skills of their students, in order to contribute to their mental well-being and their integral development.

3. Integrate the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a tool to diversify their strategies and offer didactic situations that encourage the active participation of their students.

E4S's story began in 2007 with one project implemented in three vulnerable communities of northern Mexico. After 14 years of experience, the organization grew to operate in 8 countries so far, reaching over 1.3 million children, teachers and families. 

Currently, the E4S’s model is suitable to expand as the content and methodology are flexible enough to be tropicalized and adapted to diverse contexts and the needs of communities where we serve.

Additionally, the organization has undergone a consultancy process that aims to establish the elements and priorities to replicate E4S’s contents in a sustainable and meaningful way, without losing its essence.

Educational inequality has widened as a result of the pandemic. These circumstances need functional solutions to assure that no teacher or student lags behind in his or her educational path. 

ICT has been used to substitute on-site education, however the meaningfulness of non virtual experiences is missing from this model. Even though  we won't be able to substitute the richness of physical interaction, we found the innovation factor that functions as a catalyst to take advantage of ICT and to strengthen social emotional skills and the bond between learners and their acquired knowledge in our play methodology.  

Our play approach invites beneficiaries to explore and understand the emotions they are feeling due to the lockdown, reflect on which tools they have at their reach to develop abilities and skills (problem solving, resilience, self-awareness and adaptability) to cope with present and future circumstances. 

For example, teachers are trained and supported to strengthen their professional work, to overcome the technological and emotional barriers that their students face in online learning. That is the case of one implementation in a rural school located, without access to internet connection in a north central Mexican state, San Luis Potosi. We team-up with teachers to bring printed booklets with ludic activities to do at home so students from the Palictla community keep receiving follow-up of their educational process.

During 14 years of experience, E4S has benefited more than 1.3 million people worldwide. Currently, more than 50,000 are experiencing the E4S methodology on a distance or hybrid learning model. In 1 year we expect to benefit  more than 60,000 children, teenagers, and teachers in several communities. Finally, according to our strategic goals, in 5 years E4S will have reached at least 3 million people globally.

E4S evaluates each of the interventions through satisfaction surveys and impact results evaluations that involve a collection of information at the beginning and end of the interventions, through questionnaires for children and teachers, in order to compare the results in two different moments and clarify the achievement of the objectives.

Example of indicators used with adjustments for our remote, hybrid and face-to-face operating models: 

• Percentage of teachers who consider that E4S interventions provided them with teaching and learning strategies to strengthen their work

• Percentage of teachers who consider that in E4S interventions they acquired tools to promote healthy lifestyles with their students

• Percentage of parents who consider that E4S interventions strengthened their support capacities from home

• Increase in the practice of civic values among children

• Increase in the practice of healthy lifestyle habits  among students

Some of the results obtained last year from mixed and virtual implementations in educational communities are:

• 33.3% increase in teachers' perception of the frequent practice of values such as responsibility and tolerance from their students

• 29.8% increase in the declared practice of fair play by children

• After an E4S intervention, 65% of participating children practice frequent empathy with their families and peers.

• 100% of teachers participating in an E4S program consider that the intervention enriched their teaching practice and that they have taken up the methodology in other of their educational activities.

• 96% of mothers and fathers consider that the program generated mental well-being in their kids.

Full-time staff: 43

Volunteers: 24

Social service: 2

E4S’s team is full of passionate and prepared people who fight every day for a better and more equitable future for education. One in which every teacher, child and teenager can educate and learn while having fun. 

The team is integrated by people of various professional backgrounds and different points of view that enrich and strengthen the organization from its core as every new idea helps to build new ways of engaging teachers, children and teenagers with play-based learning. 

The Operations, Strategic Alliances, Evaluation, Pedagogic Development and Communications team interact and support each other to continue developing strategies that will allow our work to reach new latitudes where the power of play is recognized as an innovative milestone in education. 

E4S is committed to create monumental change while recognizing that change comes from educating minds and hearts. 

There are tons of stories on how inclusiveness and kindness work at its best in E4S. One of them is the story of Azaret and Roxana. They are two elementary school students with visual disabilities that were in a low motivation learning environment, as they didn’t have enough materials to be included in the school activities. When the operative team of E4S became aware of the situation, they knew that a change had to be made. In addition to having braille booklets, they made sure that these girls enjoyed the full experience as the other kids did. The E4S team sat down with them to understand what their needs were and found the best way to engage them in the sessions. They could play, reflect and act the same way their classmates did.

Regarding E4S's response to leverage gender equality, 80% of our Board of Directors are women. Also, we include a special session in our programs called agent of change.   In this activity an external role model is invited to inspire and empower children, we prioritize on giving visibility to successful women. 

Our work model is for everyone to enjoy. We embodied diversity, equity and inclusion by celebrating our differences rather than judging them, these values permeate into the E4S methodology and are transferred to our beneficiaries.

E4S wants a future where every child, teenager and teacher has access to a quality education without it being biased by the context in which they develop. We want to form better citizens who contribute to their community with small meaningful actions that lead to a better world.

Being part of the Solve community will be an excellent opportunity for the E4S play methodology to have an even bigger platform where we continue to contribute to stop inequality inside and outside the classroom. 

We want to provide the necessary tools for this to happen and the Solve initiative can do so by: 

• Helping us to get potential allies through the platform so that more people around the world get to understand our work, thus allowing our methodology to expand to places and people we never thought we could reach. 

• With funding opportunities that will allow E4S to increase its liquidity contributing to scale our hybrid and online training strategy that empowers teachers towards the present and future challenges of education.

• Providing monitoring and evaluation support to strenghten our impact measurement practice. 

• Acting as the catalyst that allows us to gain exposure in the media and at conferences.

• Strategic alliances: In order to assure financial and operational sustainability, E4S has to collaborate closely with various strategic partners from public, private and social sectors. 

• Advice and mentornship: We seek for the advice and mentorship of successful organizations and people who can help us achieve our goals. E4S counts with a Consultory Board who share their knowledge and experience in topics such as: legal implications of expansion and steps to achieve, processes and logistics of current operations, fundraising events, social media strategy and website optimization, grant opportunities and discretionary funding, business plan and strategic vision, among others. 

• Public relations: E4S wants to collaborate with partners that will enhance our positioning and reach in social media. 

By adding these strategies to our business model, we aim to increase our reach and recognition worldwide and, together with our partners, continue to educate countless generations of better citizens from childhood.

We are always looking for inspiring initiatives to share and connect, as combining forces and working together towards the same goals we are empowered to achieve them all. 

In E4S we invite everybody to the conversation, as education is an issue to be discussed in all dimensions, having cross-sector partners. 

E4S seeks to maintain and generate relationships with the public sector such as institutions at the state and national levels, in order to address current issues aligned to the public agenda. As part of the MIT Solve community, it represents a great opportunity to engage with members that can support our digital interventions, such as HP and Amazon. 

For E4S it is essential to build a network of actors committed to sustainable development, as well as establishing partnerships with the academia, local business, multinationals, foundations, civil society organizations and governments. 

All partnerships that we promote, seek to create a shared value for the benefit of the local communities. A match is made with the values and mission of the organization, with those committed allies who are actively involved in the solution of societal challenges

E4S is fully qualified to participate in the ASA Award as our methodology matches the objectives of the grant and is adapted to the United States educational context. E4S founded a chapter in Washington DC in 2014 where we worked with 26 schools and community centers developing after school and curricular programs for 3,400 girls and boys, 120 teachers and 6,120 parents and tutors. In 2018, E4S’ stand-alone United States chapter relocated to New York City. 

Through play, the E4S methodology invites its beneficiaries to reflect on the challenges of their community and the world, empowering them to take action in mitigating them. One of the strategies for doing so is to choose a career path that provides the skills and knowledge to meet their goals. 

One example is the Science for Sharing (Sci4S) program, which is focused on guiding children and youth to choose a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teachers are important partners as they are trained to transmit the importance of STEM careers to their students. They are also provided with the tools to approach scientific topics with confidence, enabling them to strengthen their professional practice. 

Sci4S was a finalist in the Teachers & Educators Challenge organized by the MIT which rewards innovative solutions to help teachers provide accessible, personalized and creative learning experiences. 

The ASA award will give us the opportunity to scale the project to new schools in the United States and provide an innovative way to deal with professional guidance.