Education for Sharing

Due to the stark decrease of funding allocated to public-school education globally, there is an urgent need to provide training and professional development opportunities to teachers. E4S’ innovation aims to provide valuable resources to the most marginalized communities in the countries the organization operates in, addressing their current needs. Today, funding for education is decreasing since “squeezed budgets could translate into a fall for aid to education of up to US$2 billion by 2022” (UNESCO, 2020). The work of nonprofits, like E4S, is fundamental to provide resources to demographics that do not have access to them through traditional means.

Specifically in Mexico, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) noted that Mexico’s annual expenditure on spending per student was already well below the OECD average (2014). Three years later, economic pressures caused the Mexican government to cut their education budget by more than 11%. Mexico’s textbook budget has been cut by a third and teacher training programs have been reduced by 40%. Consequently, 5.4 million young people and children are not receiving the best quality education possible. The effects of the decrease in the budget and lack of training for teachers are exacerbated in low-income communities (National Council to Prevent Discrimination, 2018). According to a Gallup poll, only 56% of Mexicans believe all Mexicans have access to an education, regardless of economic status. Furthermore, Mexicans who receive an education do not necessarily receive a quality education: the average student in Mexico had the lowest reading, literacy, math and science scores among the nations in the OECD. 

Furthermore, the pandemic’s consequences for the mental health and well-being of children and young people remain enormous. According to the latest available data from UNICEF, at least 1 in 7 children has been directly affected by lockdowns around the world, while more than 1.6 billion children have suffered some loss in their education. The disruption of routines, education and leisure, as well as family concerns about income and health, make many young people feel fear, anger and worry about their future.

E4S seeks to contribute to the betterment of the educational system and re-engage learners by incorporating innovative play-based learning models into the school's curriculum to promote the development of socio-emotional skills, essential amidst a pandemic. Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), E4S programs emphasize that education should be oriented towards the development of skills necessary in the face of current global challenges, including mental health amidst a pandemic. More specifically, E4S’ methodology consists of teaching the SDGs and socio-emotional skills so students can take action in their respective lives and make sustainably conscious choices. For instance, the program aims to strengthen skills such as resilience, responsible decision making, social responsibility, and self-regulations. As a result, students go through a learning process where they find themselves more conscious of their respective feelings and in turn, understand their responsibilities as a global citizen. 

E4S seeks to complement the resources and/or lack of them, provided by public institutions through a spectrum of partnerships with the private and public sectors. As a result, E4S predominantly works with low-income and marginalized schools to give students access to innovative forms of learning and their teachers, often of the same background, alternative access to professional development opportunities. The goal is that at the end of the day, low-income students will be able to receive a quality education, like their higher-income counterparts. 

The organization's approach to generating systemic change is by equipping teachers with innovative pedagogical tools and making them aware of their role in children’s future. Educators who participate in the training process to implement our programs are left with skills and new teaching methods they can adopt long after the program has run its course; this is precisely what makes E4S’ solution future-oriented. 

Through the E4S programs, the integration of key concepts related to the development of socio-emotional skills into the current curriculum allows teachers to better understand their students' needs and contexts; teachers help their students to express and implement these skills in their daily lives. 

Throughout implementation, E4S programs have shown significant results exemplifying that the methodology is effective in complimenting the public school infrastructure of resources:

• Increase of 15.2% (from 50.0% to 65.2%) in practice of frequent empathy on the part of girls and boys (2020-2).

• Increase of 33% (from 66.7% to 83.3%) in the perception of teachers about the frequent practice of tolerance on the part of their male and female students (2021-1).

• 88.9% of the teachers consider that their group learned to strengthen their social-emotional skills. (2021-1).

• On average, 89.7% of the families declared that they cultivated emotional well-being within themselves. (2020).

• On average, 87.7% of the families declared that they cultivated well-being in their households. (2020).

• On average, 95.1% of teachers consider that E4S programs enriched their teaching practice (Participating teachers, 2020 and 2021).

E4S is paving the way regarding the positive transformation of education as we know it; through partnerships that push E4S out of its comfort zone, play-based learning and the incorporation of socio-emotional skills as a part of the curricula are becoming more prevalent.  For example, E4S launched, alongside the Mexican President’s office and the Ministry of Education, the first book to translate the SDGs, 2030 Agenda, for all 6th graders across Mexico. Millions of children received this text; this is our experience in public policy in action. The textbook can be found online at the following link: https://conaliteg.sep.gob.mx/cuadernillo_ODS.pdf.  Moreover, E4S will continue to reach teachers and educational authorities by creating an accreditation course regarding Learning through Play in partnership with the LEGO Foundation and Ministry of Education. 

In summary, E4S continues to participate in systemic change by reshaping the traditional processes of the educational system, starting with educators, as they are key players in empowering students to thrive. E4S’ methodology aims to address the current complex global context and leave essential capabilities installed in students and educators to succeed in the present and future.

E4S’s direct beneficiaries are teachers from diverse contexts. Moreover, the educational offer impacts children from 3 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. 

Training teachers to develop socio-emotional skills help them to improve their students' learning process, so they can achieve higher levels of academic success and as a result, have better prospects for a successful future both professionally and personally. 

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 takes a spectrum of measures to insure community ownership over the program’s implementation in local schools and to fully understand the needs of the communities it serves. Since E4S works closely with the public school system to detect which schools may be most in need of teacher training and quality education, the program implementation is aligned with the needs of each school and demonstrates to be a valuable asset to today’s educational climate. The partnership with these public institutions also allows the organization to understand the current educational priorities and build a methodology that addresses them in an engaging manner. In the case of COVID, it was detected that the programs should have a strong component regarding socio-emotional skills. The implementation model considers the needs of our beneficiaries and consists of the following: 

1. Facilitator recruitment and training: E4S facilitators are crucial to the success of the implementation, as they are familiar with the context, facilitating a smooth implementation anywhere. E4S facilitators are young college graduates who get hired and receive comprehensive training that develops the knowledge and skills necessary to replicate the play-based methodology with teachers. 

2. Informative Sessions: The informative session is the first direct interaction E4S has with school directors and/or teachers; it explains what the methodology consists of, its objectives, trajectory and impact, along with other relevant information. The E4S team gets a better understanding of the school’s areas of opportunity. 

3. Teacher Training: Local facilitator transfers the organization’s models to teachers so they can internalize the methodology and share it with their students. The first part of E4S’ programs trains teachers in the implementation of innovative, play-based pedagogical methodology. Teachers are accompanied by E4S local facilitators throughout the training and implementation process in the case of any obstacles. By the end of the project, teachers will be able to integrate and adapt the tools they have acquired into their curriculum and will be experts on E4S play-based educational methods and socio-emotional skills.

4. Monitoring and Follow-Up Visits: Based on the planning carried out during the training, the E4S team will carry out monitoring through face-to-face follow-up to the program implementation activities. In this stage, facilitators and teachers provide one another  with feedback in order to improve the implementation process of play-based sessions.

5. Implementation of Play-Based and Special Sessions: Teachers, closely accompanied by a facilitator, will carry out E4S’ activity sessions with their students. A description of the Special Sessions are below: 

   1. Family and Guardian Session: Parents and guardians are part of the impact of E4S by participating in special sessions that aim to reinforce learning at home.

   2. Change Agent Session: Role model from the community facilitates a session with the students and presents on their career.

   3. Ambassadors Session: Students choose the initiative they prefer and implement it in front of the school community.

6. Evaluations and Reports: All program’s effectiveness is measured through qualitative and quantitative assessment tools. The method consists in gathering information through questionnaires for teachers and students, at the beginning and at the end of the implementation. This will help E4S to identify changes in behaviors and knowledge, comparing the results from two different stages.

The implementation model is designed to leave capacities installed in schools and allow teachers to utilize the training they received long after the program’s finalization.

To complete the organization’s fundamental mission of forming conscious global citizens from childhood on an international scale, we have identified three important pillars subject to  improvement. 

1.Organizational Development

• Diversification of funding streams towards overhead costs of the organization.

• Generation of new partnerships in a spectrum of regions, with a predominant focus on Latin America. 

• Achieve the financial and operative sustainability of our international chapters. 

2.Operations

• Expand our program, Growth for Sharing, to promote the development of socioemotional skills in children from ages 3-6. 

• External long-term evaluation: As the organization keeps growing, there is the need to have an established process with external institutions to assess the program implementation worldwide. 

• Become a world reference in regards to play-based learning through the creation of publications that expresses its impact on students and educators with relevant indicators and results. 

• Development of new contents, materials, and games for E4S  existing programs  through our Pedological Development team.

3.Talent

• Impulse professional development opportunities for the existing team and future team members with the aim of training them in capacities aligned with E4S’ mission (example: written and oral communication) and in necessary technological skills relevant to the digital age.

As a recipient of the MIT Solve prize, E4S will gain the necessary resources to achieve the goals stated above, particularly in respect to a digital transformation.

Education for Sharing’s play-based methodology proves to be a catalytic intervention in today’s current social, political, and economic context during times of COVID-19. Research during the pandemic points to concerns around poor mental health and well-being for children and their parents (Kaiser Family Foundation); as a result, socio-emotional skills are increasingly crucial to successfully navigate the current global challenges. In response to these cross-cutting issues, E4S’ pivoted the methodology to address the intersections between the lack of funding for teacher training and COVID-19 by providing teachers and educational authorities with innovative pedological training to complement the resources available to them through the public school system. Additionally, E4S ensures that the programs incorporate this component of socio-emotional skills development for both teachers and students. 

Creative Approach to Education

Through E4S, Dina strives to revolutionize traditional educational structures by making them flexible and responsive to today's challenges; the objective is to link current global challenges established by the United Nations Sustainable Development- 2030 Agenda with basic education curriculums by incorporating the socio-emotional skills into our program. The E4S model aims to motivate students to use the skills they developed and take action in their daily lives, making empathetic and sustainable decisions regarding concepts such as consumption, auto-regularization, ect. For instance, one of the activities during the “Family and Guardian” session aims to highlight the importance of self-awareness by recognizing one’s emotions and taking action to find a solution. 

The E4S educational model focuses on building and developing practical skills that respond to the specific needs and concerns of the community. 

Moreover, E4S offers teachers pedagogical tools that improve the learning process of their students. The traditional educational system is based mainly on teaching theory, which can demotivate students because it is difficult to understand how theory is practiced in day-to-day life. Teachers have the discretion to adapt the materials in the program to better fit their community, students, and culture. For example, “Corno (2008) highlights the importance of adaptive teaching practices to meet the needs of students who may have diverse developmental levels, cognitive abilities, language and cultural backgrounds, social-emotional competencies, and socio-economic backgrounds” (Research Gate). Historically, benefitted teachers consider that E4S programs provided them with the skills and tools to plan and structure their classes, while adapting the model to fit their context (Focus Group with teachers from the State of Mexico in 2015).

A Disruptive Concept

Dina found a way to build programs on citizenship education focusing on civic values, social-emotional skills and relevant knowledge. To achieve it, Dina uses cooperative games and a “play-reflect-act” framework that encourages to take active roles, both locally and globally, in building more peaceful, tolerant, and inclusive and secure societies. Children not only learn about global challenges but also find possible solutions that promote the overall welfare of their community in a fun and easy way, using their universal language - the power of play. 

These programs also include essential components related to the gaps of knowledge of a future global citizen, considering its modern needs.  Dina´s social innovation is a construction of the global citizen, who knows how to control and manage their emotions, tolerant and respectful for the diversity, use science, digital skills as a tool to solve daily challenges, develop healthy lifestyles, consider children's and e-rights, environmental and social issues. Each of E4S’ programs promotes socio-emotional learning from different perspectives:

• Sports for Sharing program, where children and teachers reflect on diversity and practice healthy lifestyles.

• Science for Sharing involves children and teachers to transform their understanding of mathematics, engineering, and science through games and experiments.

• Art for Sharing is where adolescents and teachers develop their socio-emotional skills through art to involve them to participate actively in society.

• Initiatives for Sharing engages teachers to be committed to forming agents of change, while girls and boys generate local solutions to global challenges.

• Digital Citizenship, where teachers and children use digital platforms to contribute to their local solutions, being informed about their e-rights and responsibilities.

• Finance for Sharing works to empower children and teachers to make economic and financial conscious decisions.

• Growth for Sharing aims to develop knowledge, skills and values in 3-6 year old children to face the sustainability challenges of the 21st century early on.

Beyond the traditional concept of education, programs based on civic values and targeting social and emotional skills such as social awareness, relationship, and decision-making skills. It is all combined by applying science, arts, project management, SDGs, digital platforms and financial models, so a global citizen has the necessary skills to participate and change his or her community. The E4S methodology proves to develop skills, knowledge, and self-awareness that shape society for the better, seen through the following indicators:

• An average of 78.5% of teachers consider that the program helped team organization and dialogue between girls and boys in their care (2021).

• Increase of 20.5 percentage points (from 79.5% to 100.0%) in the preference of girls and boys to play with peers of both sexes (2021).

• On average, 80.5% of girls and boys who participated during 2020 and 2021 in the Initiatives program recognize that they can help solve the problems of their school or town.

• The most significant increases during the years 2020 and 2021 were recorded in fair play values (average increase: 22.7 points percentage); responsibility (average increase: 25.5 points percentages) and teamwork (average increase: 15.2 points percentage).

The pace of operative growth of E4S leads us to expect an exponential development in contents and models of intervention. For the years to come, all the acquired knowledge of the past 15 years will help us reach more underserved communities and marginalized populations, not only in Mexico but in the rest of the world.

In the next year, E4S aims to achieve the following goals: 

• Diversify the streams of funding towards overhead costs of the organization.

• Strengthen operations through diverse models: in person, hybrid, and remote.

• Amplify positioning on social media and internet platforms to attract more partnerships and funding opportunities. 

In the next 5 years, E4S has the goal to deliver a quality education to students through our play-reflect-act educational model to over 3 million women, men, girls and boys.

• Expand our programs to other countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. 

• External long-term evaluation: efforts have been made to measure long term impact of each program. As the organization keeps growing, there is the need to have an established process with external institutions to assess the program implementation worldwide. Moreover, the costs of assessment methods such as the required, are expensive. Although E4S has found pro bono partners to conduct evaluations of E4S’s projects, there are a few sponsors that have interest to fund such studies, which is a challenge itself.

All program’s effectiveness is measured through qualitative and quantitative assessment tools. The method consists in gathering information through questionnaires for teachers and students, at the beginning and at the end of the implementation. This will help us to identify changes in behaviors and knowledge, comparing the results from the two different stages.

Quantitative method: It is deployed through input and output surveys. Under this model, information is collected at the beginning of the implementation in order to have a baseline that allows to know the starting situation of students in relation to the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on which change wants to be generated. At the end of the program, input and output surveys are compared in order to identify the results attributable to the intervention.

Qualitative method: This evaluation method is based on observations, data and evidence collected by the E4S site facilitator. Qualitative evaluation allows to establish improvement actions based on the identification of strengths and areas of opportunity. This measurement is attained through audiovisual documentation of beneficiaries’ testimonies.

Specific Indicators: 

• Increase in the practice of democratic participation through dialogue;

• Increase in the practice of socio-emotional skills such as: resilience, self-awareness, auto-regularization, social awareness, soft skills, responsible decision making. 

• Increase in the exercise of Children Rights;

• Increase in the practice of civic values such as gender equality, empathy, fair play, respect, tolerance, responsibility, and teamwork.

• Increase awareness of the SDGs through play.

E4S arises from the need to activate in students the interest to know, participate and collaborate in matters related to their development, with the environment in which they live and with the world that surrounds them; that is, to provoke their condition as active and responsible citizens.

Our theory of change focuses on working closely with public schools, as they are the core of communities, and the families of benefited children. E4S generates systemic by equipping working closely with teachers. Through the SDGs, E4S emphasizes that education should be oriented towards sustainability and through socio-emotional skills, E4S exalts the importance of taking into consideration their communities’ wellbeing when making a decision or creating an initiative. 

To achieve this, the main problems identified are:

1. Educational systems that do not respond to current social challenges and that do not include the development of skills for sustainability in the curriculum;

2. Educators who lack teaching methods to make learning a channel that responds to the needs and characteristics of their students.

Inputs and activities

• Planning: Design and development of content and activities linked to the SDGs and civic values

• Execution: Includes construction of project plan and includes the following: 

  • Operations management activities;

  • Teacher training;

  • Advisory visits to support teachers; 

  • Ordinary and extraordinary sessions implemented in the school community.

• Talent: Operative team

  • Staff to ensure the quality and relevance of programs’ implementation;

  • Staff to assess the impact of projects.

• Materials: 

  • Manual for teacher training;

  • Workbook for students;

  • Stationery kit; 

  • Instruments for evaluating the results and impact of the program.

Services

• Educational programs for the formation of global citizenship in students;

• Local team trained to fulfill their job responsibilities; 

• Teachers trained in the programs’ methodology;

• Teachers advised and accompanied during the implementation of the program;

• The school community invited to participate in the programs and playful methodology;

• Educational centers are provided with various materials to adequately develop the activities of the program.

Intermediate results

• Teachers with knowledge and tools for teaching and appropriation of the playful methodology of E4S and the topics related to the formation of citizenship in girls and boys.

• Participants develop knowledge of the great global challenges (SDGs) associated with citizenship education and have the skills and competencies to analyze them.

• Students understand the concepts of values for citizenship education and practice them.

• School communities made aware of the importance of citizenship education.

Impact

• Citizens who are aware, purposeful and committed to their environment.

• Teachers dominate, resume and adapt the methodology of the program.

• Citizen interest and participation in global challenges.

• Citizens who promote a peaceful coexistence.

• School communities geared towards local solutions to global problems.

• Citizens co-exist inclusively and with equal opportunities.

• Individuals who exercise their role as change agents in their community with commitment and social responsibility.

E4S’s way of operating during this past half year has incorporated more than ever the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). This has been an integral part to deliver contents to our beneficiaries through audiovisual materials and the use of software and mobile applications, such as Google Meet, Canva, Zoom and WhatsApp. 

As the intention is to reach communities that have limited or no access to internet connectivity, we reached out to them by SMS, phone calls and printed materials. 

During this past year and a half, we have been acquiring experience through the implementation of E4S’s programs in site and in virtual environments, proving success of our play-reflect-take action model as mentioned in the impact goals question.   

E4S is committed to create monumental change while recognizing that diversity enriches learning processes for a better understanding of the world around us. 

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.

Business model

E4S has a business model that has transformed to meet the needs of societies, without losing the essence and core mission:  

• Identified problem: to summarize what the challenge has been addressed throughout the document, the educational systems do not have the sufficient resources to develop competencies in children, that they need to thrive and have balance between cognitive skills and mental and emotional wellbeing. 

• E4S goal: to incorporate global citizenry into educational curricula through a play based methodology. 

• Value proposition: offer educators and students a holistic educational model to foster socio-emotional skills, values practices and sustainable behaviors through cooperative games.

• Key stakeholders: Ministries of education to access educational spaces; educational authorities (Principals and teachers), donors (corporates, philanthropic foundations, international entities); other partners for external assessment and operative allies.

• Key activities: 

  • Implementation of the E4S educational offer (trainings for educators and follow up with students) 

  • Creation of new contents

  • Engagement with governmental agencies and the private sector in implementing existing programs and in the creation of new ones. 

• Resources: experienced operative team in E4S play methodology and needed materiales (ludic and printed materials) free of charge for beneficiaries and covered through financial contribution of E4S’s partners

• Customer Segment (beneficiaries) 

  • Children 3 to 15 years, teens from 16 to 18, youth 19 to 25, and adults of all contexts. 

  • Educators of primary and secondary education

Ensuring financial sustainability entails a fundraising strategy to carry out activities based on a diversification of financial sources model:

• Create private sector partnerships through social responsibility programs

• Individual and corporate donors campaigns to have a monthly income of different amounts depending on the individual/company

• Governmental alliances with federal and local authorities

• Application of international grants of philanthropic organizations 

• Provision of educational services to corporations worldwide

In order to achieve long-term sustainability, our E4S fundraising team is planning on using 2022 as a chance to engage with local and national institutions, individuals, and government entities while establishing the organization as a leader of education in the countries where it is present. 

E4S long-term goal is to be completely self-sufficient. Our organization has developed a solid funding strategy so the methodology keeps reaching more communities worldwide.

E4S has a Strategic Partnerships Area that oversees the funding diversification strategy. This has allowed us to build strong alliances with private and public institutions at the national and international level. These alliances are founded in order to build multi-year and multi-sector synergies for the next 5 years. 

Here is a list of some of the main donors of E4S in the last year and in the first semester of 2022 that have granted over $25 thousand USD: 

• LEGO Foundation

• AT&T Mexico

• BBVA a Mexican banking institution 

• Fechac Foundation

• Telefonica Foundation and "la Caixa Foundation”

• Qatar Foundation, through the WISE Award

• Cargill

The required resources are allocated for the advancement of the E4S offer, envisioning face-to-face projects in the near future, tentatively for the first part of 2022. This implies to raise funds for: salaries, evaluation, ICT improvement, among others. Our fundraising strategy pursues to cover those expenses.

The average monthly investment per beneficiary is $2 USD. To obtain the costs of each E4S intervention, a budget is made considering operational and fixed variables; the number of children and teachers benefited are the main indicators to define costs.  

Finally, E4S establishes partnerships with the aim of generating shared well-being that will directly impact a social return on investment. According to a Mexican Philanthropy  Agency, each dollar invested in E4S implies a social investment return of $2.20 USD over the course of a year, emphasizing the cost-benefit of the programs.