Enseña por México

The Early Childhood Development Leadership Program in rural communities of Yucatan is an initiative in which we will directly support primary caregivers, educational agents and children from 0 to 6 years of age in the communities of Maní, Tekax and Oxkutzcab in the region south of the state of Yucatan. Enseña por México will recruit, select and train 5 local graduates called Enseña por México Professionals (PEM), who will provide and strengthen learning spaces, ongoing support and collaboration to promote educational systemic change, mainly in these rural, indigenous and vulnerable communities . The Program intends to accompany mainly the ecosystem of early childhood development (ECD), focusing on primary caregivers and educational agents who have few opportunities for personal and professional support, through the implementation of actions that promote the development of the maximum potential of children. infants (0-6 years of age). In line with the SDGs, ensuring that babies in early childhood have access to quality care and development services, and also aligns with the organization's vision that one day all children and young people will have an education that enables them to reach its full potential.

In Enseña por México we have incorporated 2 transversal priorities as an organization and for the development of projects: 1. evidence-based decision-making framework, and 2. goals of diversity, equity and inclusion for all areas and initiatives. Based on the experience in rural communities in Mexico, we seek the adaptability and flexibility of this proposal at all stages and a process of evaluation and approach to the regional context within the Mayan learning communities, referring to actions that go along the horizontal line of according to pedagogy based on culture, diversity, equity and inclusion and development of conscious leadership with a focus on otherness and interculturality.

 
Cultural contact is the source to get to know each other and deepen our knowledge of ourselves and of the culture. To this end, we have also decided to incorporate a local assembly made up of community leaders, parents, teachers and authorities, who will guide the decisions made in the different stages. Co-create key decisions from an intercultural perspective.

For an effective implementation, we are taking into account, at all levels of the organization, the deep understanding of the different cultural components for an effective articulation and solution of problems: traditional forms of organization, emotional elements (subjective) and symbolic elements (language). ) . By collaborating with the indigenous communities, the universes of meaning have a non-Western cultural matrix and we will work to internalize the conception of the community as a social actor that participates in the production and dissemination of knowledge and not as a passive object. The community owns the most important knowledge that is built before, during and after any external participation, therefore, a high value will be placed on social problems and the needs of the community. Open spaces that promote empowerment, self-reflection, self-determination, the right to participate and get involved in one's own social transformation, being part of the decisions that are made. Starting from experience, not from theory, listening to the different ways of living, observing and distinguishing between diversity, inequality and interculturality. Enriching each initiative, strategy and activity contextualizing and being advised by the authorities and community customs to give it a real cultural and linguistic relevance.

Likewise, through collaboration with universities and local organizations, we are collectively promoting good practices that contribute to an encouraged and shared social responsibility, which allows and supports graduate profiles to generate a positive transformative impact in their own communities.

Finally, thinking about education from a gender perspective means contributing through education to changing the power structures that reproduce gender discrimination, questioning the knowledge-power relationship in the production of knowledge, that is, what is taught, how to learn and what to do. use what you have learned to For this, it is expected to generate and adapt spaces with candidates (from the selection process), PEM (who are selected), primary caregivers and educational agents to re-signify gender identity, understanding that gender is acquired first by the family and second by . through socialization processes (school, media, market, church, etc.). However, people can endow their gender identity with new meanings, through resignification processes.

The Enseña por México early childhood program theory of change is based on the nurturing care framework developed by WHO, UNICEF, and the World Bank (2018). Our program focuses on 3 of those components:

Opportunities for early learning
Protection and security
responsive care
Throughout the leadership program, the PEMs receive a training path in the three components, where they begin by modeling and developing learning strategies through play for girls and boys while sharing information on early childhood development with the community (agents education, primary caregivers, institutions, companies, organizations, etc.)

The information shared with the community is done progressively, so that in this way there is first an awareness of child development issues and the importance of play for learning processes. The change of mentalities in the community is what will allow them to participate more actively in the projects and, above all, that these changes are maintained over time.

The theory of change seeks in the medium term to increase listening to the interests of girls and boys, increase the affective security provided by adults, increase play as a means of learning and reduce interventionism. These objectives will result in educational agents designing and implementing playful, relevant and meaningful learning experiences and primary caregivers analyzing their own accompaniment, protection and safety practices and responsive care with their daughters and sons.

At Enseña por México we promote systemic change through the intervention of our Enseña por México Professionals (PEM), educational agents convinced that small changes (within schools) can give rise to a collective transformation of the entire composition of the educational system: school, community, city and country. The PEM teacher influences the classroom where he teaches every day, his influence expands to the school, then to the community and from there to the educational system. This change begins with the personal transformation, continues with the educational one and continues with the social one.

One of the operational needs of Enseña por México is evidence-based decision-making. This priority constantly drives us to search for data and evidence that allow the collaboration of PEM and PEM teachers to be contextualized. Based on what the evidence shows us and in line with our priorities, Enseña por México promotes that it be the PEM and PEM teachers who determine the follow-up with the educational community according to the evidence collected through these instruments.
We train PEM to adopt this methodology in their daily practice and design pertinent solutions according to the problems detected. To promote this data culture, receive personalized support from your Leadership and Learning Coordinator (CLA) and continuous feedback on your strategy.

Every semester we carry out a conscious evaluation of the results of the diagnoses and surveys carried out during the school year, we present below all the instruments that we apply to obtain the evidence:

• SURVEY OF EDUCATIONAL AGENTS:

The PEMs design and implement strategies within the framework of Affectionate and Sensitive Care with educational agents (AE) to promote the development of capacities in Kindergartens and Child Care Centers. Through the strategies promoted by PEM and ExM with AE, we seek to increase the design and implementation of playful, relevant and significant learning experience strategies. Increase in the AE basic knowledge, conceptions and assessments about:

Opportunities for early learning- Learning through play; protection and security; responsive attention.

Listening and observing the interests of girls and boys (NN); Promotion of the autonomy of the NN; Affective security of the adult towards NN; Quality game.

• CENSUS OF PRIMARY CAREGIVERS:

The teaching PEMs and PEMs will record the access of primary caregivers to fixed internet and devices to understand their situation and adapt the support provided by the PEMs. Through the census, it seeks to identify:

- PEM curricular and extracurricular activities

- Conditions of access and connectivity of primary caregivers

- PEM strategy for monitoring primary caregivers

SURVEY OF PRIMARY CAREGIVERS:

The PEMs design and implement strategies within the framework of Caring and Sensitive Care for primary caregivers (CP) to promote and develop accompaniment practices in them that favor the comprehensive development of girls and boys. Through the strategies promoted by the PEM and ExM with CP, we seek to increase in them the analysis of their accompaniment practices in early learning, protection and safety, receptive care. Increase in the PC basic knowledge and conceptions about:

- Opportunities for early learning- Learning through play; protection and security; responsive attention.

- Listening and observation of the interests of NN; Promotion of the autonomy of the NN; Affective security of the adult towards NN; Quality game.

Indicators for educational agents:

% of educational agents that show positive conceptions and evaluations about opportunities for learning.
% of educational agents that show positive conceptions and evaluations about protection and security.
% of educational agents that show positive conceptions and evaluations about receptive care.
% of educational agents who increase the frequency of listening and observing the interests of boys and girls.

Indicators for primary caregivers:
% of primary caregivers who show positive conceptions and evaluations about opportunities for learning.
% of primary caregivers who show positive conceptions and evaluations about protection and safety.
% of primary caregivers who show positive conceptions and evaluations about responsive care.
% of primary caregivers who increase the frequency of listening and observing the interests of NN.
% of primary caregivers who implement actions that promote the autonomy of children and adolescents.
% of primary caregivers who implement actions that provide affective security to boys and girls.
% of primary caregivers who increase positive quality play interactions with NN.

The Early Childhood Development Leadership Program in rural communities of Yucatan guarantees access to care services and promotes educational systemic change

The implementation of the program in the communities of Yucatan aims to carry out a feasibility study on the strategies used for the formation of the PEM and the accompaniment of educators and families. Therefore, at this stage of the project, it is intended to answer the question of whether the accompaniment strategies are adequate and are contextualized according to the interests and objectives of the communities.

At the end of this implementation period, we intend to collect primarily qualitative information, to learn about the perceptions of PEM participants, educators, and primary caregivers about the spaces experienced. The external vision of a fellow will help the implementing and evaluating team to integrate this information into strategies for redesign, adjustment or change in accompanying strategies and determine how to adjust the indicators of the theory of change and the measurement and evaluation instruments so that they are adjusted to the context of the communities and, in turn, enrich the evidence collected so far in other regions. In the long term, these studies will improve monitoring strategies that allow us to test the long-term goals of the program's theory of change.