kokospirates

Transformadores Sociales - Colombia An exploration into education, entrepreneurship and social transformation

Zulma SofĂ­a Patarroyo - Team 12 - 2008

Contenido

Foreword Preface Introduction What & why?

So, what is this project?

Current state of things in Colombia - background: What is going on in relation to entrepreneurship What is going on in education The relevance of education, Competencies as an articulating axis So, what are the general work competencies?

And who is responsible for their development How are the General work related competencies to be integrated with the schools curriculum?

Conclusion

How 1. Research and network building while in Denmark 2. Web-site – www.liderazgocreativo.org 3. Research, interviews, network building 4. Piloting the pilots 1. A world cafe session in Collaboration with Dendrita 2. Pilot workshop Conclusions

Results - future scenarios Scenario 1: To establish a school for “transformadores sociales” in Colombia State of agreement and future projections: Scenario 2: Collaboration with educational institutions State of agreement and future projections: Scenario 3: Develop a curriculum for a “solidarity agents” educational program State of agreement and future projections: Some Key Contacts and possible supporters

Conclusion Literature list Links

7 9 13 15 15 17 17 21 21 23 25 26 26 28 28 29 29 31 32 33 35 40 41 41 41 42 42 42 43 43 44 45 47 50 51

To my sea-horse baby, who inspired me and kicked me along the way and gave me a whole new perspective on what really matters.

¿Qúe tipo de liderazgo necesitan Colombia y América Latina para moverse hacia el futuro con el que soñamos?

¿Cómo lo prepara a uno la educación con las herramientas y experiencias para contribuir con los retos de su sociedad?

¿De qué se trata la pedagogía de proyectos?

¿Qué tipo de educación se necesita en un mundo constantemente cambiante y globalizado?

No podemos predecir el futuro, pero lo podemos construir juntos

¿Cómo podemos crear la educación más creativa e inspiradora de América Latina?

www.liderazgocreativo.org info@liderazgocreativo.org

¿Qué es el emprendimiento social?

y que tipo de educación se necesita para promoverlo?

¿Cómo se aprende y trabaja en equipos multidisciplinarios?

Aliados: TRANSFORMADORES SOCIALES www.liderazgocreativo.org

Entendemos como Liderazgo Creativo el Liderazgo con la intención de crear soluciones que generen cambios positivos en la sociedad, las comunidades, y en nosotros mismos.

El líderazgo creativo busca generar más líderes y no más seguidores, busca potenciar la capacidad del individuo de trabajar en equipo, inspirar y contribuir.

KAOSPILOT www.kaospilot.dk

La escuela danesa KaosPilot tiene quince años de experiencia en la formación de emprendedores sociales en una atrevida manera de concebir la educación y la formación. A través de un programa de tres años, los estudiantes forman habilidades para el desarrollo de proyectos, las interrelaciones grupales, la creatividad en la solución de tareas y la capacidad para el liderazgo.

Liderazgo Creativo

PROSJEKTDESIGN www.prosjektdesign.no

Prosjekt design es una educación de un año en Oslo, Noruega para gente que quiere aprender a través del trabajo en proyectos reales.

Trabajan en un ambiente interdisciplinario de estudio y se enriquecen de las experiencias creativas, prácticas y académicas de los participantes.

CORPORACIÓN EMPRENDEDORES COLOMBIA www.corporacioncec.com

CEC es una organizacion que agrupa emprendedores, operando bajo una política de compromiso social, responsabilidad ambiental y ética profesional, a partir de la formulación de proyectos.

Trabajan a través de convenios con instituciones como Programa Presidencial Colombia Joven, Ministerio de Comercio Industria y turismo,Colombia es Pasion y Sena entre otros.

ProsjektDesign

Foreword Zulma appeared one evening at City and Islington College in East London for an interview to study on a Higher National Diploma course in Multimedia. We sat down on benches outside my office, with several pot plants and a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation talking lift for company. During the next half hour, Zulma explained she had come from Colombia, was here to study and learn English, and that she generally wanted to help make the world a better place. Due to some odd bureaucracy regarding admissions procedures for Colombians, Zulma ended up enrolling on a different course, helped by some creative enrolment procedures and referral to her, at the time, unrealized Spanish nationality.

Since that time have known Zulma as a student, a work colleague and a friend. We don’t always agree – we have had some uncompromising arguments – but I greatly respect her passion, enthusiasm and ability to learn.

I have seen her develop into a consummate all-round performer. She is a talented graphic designer, and an accomplished web developer with a rare combination of design and back-end programming skills. Zulma studied for a post-graduate certificate in education but enhanced this with research into pedagogic technique employing multimedia delivery. She was always looking for the best ways to get learning across, using existing technology but often researching emerging innovations and ideas.

Latterly, as a Kaospilot, Zulma has utilized the tenets of the school to see how social co-operative innovation can improve the lives of many caught in an often downward destructive cycle of poverty and developmental stalemate.

In particular, Zulma has tried to help the underprivileged in her own country, something very close to her heart.

She has always resented the negative impression of

Colombia held by the majority of outsiders – and some insiders. The image of cocaine gangs, kidnappers, revolutionary factions and civil conflict is usually the first one that springs to the mind of the average Westerner.

In Hollywood movies, Colombians are rarely portrayed as anything but ‘the baddies’. I spent some time in Colombia with Zulma and her family and I met friendly, generous, helpful, intelligent people pretty much everywhere I went. Obviously the bad stuff exists, but then, it exists in most places. Zulma is desperate to help to overturn this bad press, through education, socially beneficial entrepreneurship and political change. Ultimately, successful political change is borne out in the hearts and minds of the people, and it only happens when people feel good about themselves and their overall environment.

With this project, Zulma is hoping to make some first steps towards this goal. It is a final project, as part of the assessment for her award and Zulma could be forgiven for treating it as such – “that was my education; after this I can start to do it for real”. But she doesn’t – she is passionate about engaging in the change process and has great energy to bring it about.

I wish her well.

Ian Busby Co-ordinator for multimedia City and Islington College London – UK.

Preface My questions and perspectives on education, leadership and social transformation in Colombia My call, my dream • What is the kind of leadership Latin America needs to be able to move towards the future we dream of?

• How does education prepare you with the skills and experiences you need to contribute to the challenges of your society?

• Could an education prepare you for working creatively in cross-disciplinary teams on projects that have a positive social, environmental and economic impact?

• How can an education help unfold the potential of people to be creative, resourceful and whole?

• Why is there so little social and environmental focus on creative educations (I am a graphic designer myself) and should people have the opportunity would they see their profession as having a role in creating positive change?

• How can we make young Colombians proud of their achievements, aware of their resources, willing to participate in the construction of a better future?

• How can we create an education that addresses the needs and characteristics of the Colombian society and that has the perspective of becoming the most inspiring and sought after education in Latin America?

I never expected to end up working in education.

I remember many of my teachers having a hard time with me and what they called discipline problems, “you are clever Zulma, you can if you want, but why do you have to be so rebellious?”.

Many years later, when I was first offered a job as a teacher while doing my master studies in England I thought that it was some kind of bad karma I had to pay for having been such a difficult student, all the mean things I did to my teachers were coming right back at me! but it was a fantastic opportunity, a great job, and as a foreign student when the perspectives of finding a professional job in Europe are so narrow I just couldn’t decline the offer. (cleaning toilets or teaching... what would you choose?)

So I ended up teaching, and I ended up studying education, and reading and practising and experiencing how people learn and how people work, what motivates them, what they find meaningful (or not), and I started liking it and finding it fascinating. Is it true that a lot of people have difficulties taking initiatives and just want to be told what to do? Why some people never do as they are told?

Parallel to my work as a teacher and my studies in education I was also working as a web developer and studying software engineering. This meant I was constantly swapping hats, from student to teacher to practitioner to observer, and this lead to a lot of reflections in relation to the purpose and potential of education.

There were a lot of positive experiences and learning, but also a lot of disappointments. Very often my work as a teacher was more about making sure we had enough students at the end of the year so that the university or college would get the budget for the coming year, than about learning and motivation and people being creative and all those beautiful things I was reading about in my education studies, and if that meant doing students homework so to guarantee that they will pass the course it was accepted... it was expected!.

And in my work as a designer and web developer, I also started thinking “but what is the point?” what is the point of making these websites or games or applications to help companies sell or promote products that I couldn’t care less about. How could I use my experience and skills in creating something that was more meaningful, that inspired people, that created change?

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And I suppose there are many different ways in which that can be done, but in my search for meaning I ended up studying at the Kaospilot.

Was an entrepreneurial education with emphasis on social innovation something that could give answers to my questions? To a certain extent it was, but more importantly it helped me mature ideas and develop more questions, and gave me the opportunity to try things out and do projects in many places and settings including two projects in Colombia with emphasis in entrepreneurship and education and a recent trip to Cuba, where I, together with a Kaospilot teacher, conducted a two week course in creative leadership for young social entrepreneurs. This was done right after being for 2 months in hectic, never sleeping New York where I was working with a design company that works with information design and visual sensemaking.

I am putting the pieces together, and it is an exiting journey, I don’t know exactly where it will lead to, but great things are emerging and every now and then life dances with me and these great things that want to happen make use of me, my skills and experiences and I know I am instrument of something much bigger than myself, life, at least for the moment, makes sense.

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Introduction What the reader can expect to find or get out of this report This report will give the reader an overview of the experiences, challenges, learnings and conclusions I gained while working on my final starting project for the Kaospilot school.

It includes a chronological description of what happened from the 15th of February until the 8th of April, the two months I worked on the project with the objective of contextualizing the reader.

While being a report for my final starting project at the Kaospilot school, this report is also intended to give a quick guideline to anyone interested in getting a door into entrepreneurship and education in Colombia and how a Kaospilot inspired education could fit in the current structures of the country. As well as some concrete future scenarios that visualize what the possible next steps of this project could be.

This model gives a quick overview over the project which will be explored in more detail throughout the report.

Within the time boundaries of the kaospilot final project, this project concentrates on the research and feasibility study phases, as well as creating a network of key partners. It does not include for instance the establishment of a school. The emphasis was put on finding key partners, conducting pilot workshops, creating material to take the project further and outlining future scenarios.

My activities during this two months consisted of: While in Denmark • Research and network building 13

• Website design and publishing While in Colombia • Research, interviews, network building.

• Design and execution of pilot workshops.

This is an invitation to see how this was done, what motivated, challenged and inspired me, and how I see this project developing in the future.

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What & why?

Description of the purpose of my action research project in Colombia So, what is this project?

I believe there is a need in developing countries for new paradigms of leadership and new practices in education.

I believe there is need in the academic settings for opening space for reflection and more importantly ACTION in regards to the social, environmental and economic challenges of our societies. I believe that young people, having the means and tools are invaluable resources for coming up with creative and sustainable solutions to their own problems, and I believe this is of major importance for the future of our countries.

I started this report with a series of questions in regards to leadership and education. To try to give an answer to these initial questions from my own very narrow perspective would not only be pretentious, but also insufficient and limited, so I used my final starting project at the Kaospilot to conduct a feasibility study for starting up an education that promotes social entrepreneurship in Colombia.

These two months of work and exploration have taken me through loads of iterations, revisions and redefinitions of what my execution plan could looked like, but isn’t it precisely dealing with this kind of complexity and unexpectedness what we are trained for at the Kaospilots?

Initially the project was framed around building on the experience in Cuba and developing a training course for creative social entrepreneurs in Colombia.

While I was doing research and contacting potential partners for this initiative, I was invited to be part of an initiative to start up a school in Colombia that is inspired

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by the Kaospilots and the Prosjektdesign school in Norway. Being a Colombian citizen myself, and with the experience of having worked in very different cultural settings (Cuba, Canada, USA, Colombia) before, I know that externally made solutions imposed from the outside never work in the long term, the challenge was to investigate how an education that is based on project work, personal growth, motivation and leadership (such as the Kaospilots or Prosjektdesign) can be adapted or developed taking into consideration the Colombian culture, society, economy and the specific needs of the country. And this from a respectful not neo-imperialistic perspective, I am not to come with the solution to all problems, but what interests me is to find out what is being done there already, who is working on the same areas, who can we learn from, who should we work with?

Through this initiative to start a school in Colombia I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to there to meet people, tell my story, and invite them to dream, think together, suggest ideas and work in investigating how such an education would look like there.

Even though the project was now framed within the idea of starting up of a school, it also investigates other structures for non-formal training and strategic partnerships that could prove more flexible or effective considering the needs and characteristics of the country.

The ultimate objective was that of establishing contacts, generate interest, present and develop ideas in relation to developing a creative educational project that promotes social innovation and which provides practical tools and experience to people across disciplines and social classes, giving them the opportunity to work, cocreate and devise innovative solutions to real social, environmental and economic challenges. - and have fun!

This report will also present different different future scenarios that were developed as a result of my work during this two months, as well as alternatives and proposals on how to guarantee, or at least maximize the chances of, the sustainability and future development of these scenarios.

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Current state of things in Colombia - background: I have been away from Colombia for the last 8 years, so what I knew about entrepreneurship, education or entrepreneurial education in the country could only based on my own experiences and memories from long long time ago. This time in Colombia gave me the opportunity to find out about what is currently going on. I had the opportunity to meet with people working in entrepreneurship, people with direct experience in the business world, entrepreneurs, people from the ministry of education and from different educational institutions etc. present my perspective and questions together with the concept of the Kaospilot school and evaluate the relevance of such an approach into Colombia’s current educational system.

From my talks with different people, and the research I did I have tried to summarize the most relevant points not only in relation to my project and my own interests, but most importantly for anyone interested in developing educational initiatives to do with entrepreneurship in Colombia.

What is going on in relation to entrepreneurship There is a huge interest in the country at all levels, public and private, to promote entrepreneurship. Considering that only 3 Latin American companies made it to the 500 Fortune list, while there are 185 American companies, 156 European, 130 from Japan and the Asian tigers and 12 from China, and additionally considering that the new Asian companies grow 3 times faster than Latin American companies[1] and that the rate of business creation is an important factor in the economic

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growth of any country, it is easy to understand the interest of the Colombian government in the promotion of entrepreneurship at all levels in the society.

According to Corporation Emprendedores Colombia there are about 11.000 organizations, public and private, working with entrepreneurial initiatives. Here is a very general outline of who are the main players on this game:

Network of organizations that have to do with entrepreneurship Aciet -Asociacion de Instituciones Tecnológicas Association of Technological Institutions

Asociacion Colombiana de Universidades - Ascun Colombian University Association

Ministerio de Educación Nacional Ministry of Education

Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo Ministry of Comerce, Industry and Tourism

Asociación Col. de Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas - Acopi Colombian Association for Small and Medium size Companies

Ministerio de la Protección Social Ministry for Social Protection

SENA Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje

National Public Institution for vocational training

ENTREPRENEURSHIP Departamento Nacional de Planeación IN COLOMBIA National Planning Department Presidencial Program for the youth - Young Colombia Programa Presidencial Colombia Joven

Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología - Colciencias.

Colombian Institute for the Development of Science and Technology

Asociacion Col. de Instituciones Técnicas Profesionales - Acicapi Technical and Professional Institutions Association

Banca de Desarrollo y Microcrédito Bank for Development and Microcredit

Youth Entrepreneurs associations

Federación Nacional de Comerciantes - Fenalco National Federation of Traders

Cajas de Compensación Familiar Family Welfare Funds

Asociaciones de Jóvenes Empresarios

Incubadoras Empresariales Business Incubators

Of great importance for contextualizing any initiative in relation to entrepreneurship in Colombia is a recently passed law from 2006 for the “Fomento a la cultura del emprendimiento” - “promotion of the entrepreneurial culture”.

This will have impact at national level, and involves all areas of society. Some of the key outlined objectives of this law are: 18

• To promote the entrepreneurial spirit in all educational institutions of the country.

• Develop a set of principles and norms for creating a state and institutional policy for the promotion of entrepreneurship and business creation.

• Create an inter-institucional framework for the promotion and development of the entrepreneurial culture.

• Establish links between the educational system and the national productive sector through training in basic, work related, civic and entrepreneurial competencies. This is to be incorporated throughout all stages of formal and non-formal education.

• Work towards the development of innovative micro and medium size companies And some of the key general principles for any entrepreneurial activity as described in this law are: • Integral training in aspects and values such as human development and that of his/her community, self-esteem, autonomy, sense of belonging to the community, team work, solidarity and innovation which encourage an spirit of research and permanent learning.

• Strengthening of associative and team working processes around profitable projects with social responsibility.

• Acknowledgement of the conscience, right and responsibility of the development of people as individuals and members of a community.

• Support to sustainable entrepreneurial processes from a social, cultural, environment and regional perspective.

This law also encourages the creation of regional and national “redes para el emprendimiento” - “entrepreneurial networks”. This networks, with representatives from a wide range of organizations such as: different governmental programs, research centres, educational institutions, the business and financial sectors, incubators, youth organizations, the chamber of commerce, etc.

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Are responsible for articulating the implementation and development of the entrepreneurial culture across all areas of society and creating the necessary mechanisms for the support, guidance, establishment and sustainability of entrepreneurial initiatives.

Entrepreneurship is on the tip of every tongue in Colombia, and perhaps also because of that there is also a lot of unclarity in relation to what this entrepreneurial world is all about and most importantly why it is so important for the the individuals and for the development of the country.

Many people see it as an excuse from the government not to deal with the very high unemployment numbers, and a way to shift the responsibility to the individuals as in “what do you mean we have to guarantee you a job, you should have an entrepreneurial spirit and start up your own businesses�.

There are numerous fairs to promote entrepreneurship, and various possibilities of economic support that are given particularly through presenting business plans after having been engaged with some training program at one of the hundreds of incubators that are approved by the government.

One of the complaints I heard from several sources in relation to the kind of support entrepreneurs receive is that it is possible to access loans and obtain some starting up money, but there are very limited mechanisms to guarantee the survival and sustainability of a business, the focus is on starting up things, based on business plans, but once started the entrepreneurs find themselves having to deal with a reality they are not prepared for, including a not so friendly tax system, which results in many of these initiatives having a very short life-span, discouraging people and in many cases leaving them in an economic situation much worse than before entering the entrepreneurial world.

This is a very important thing to take into consideration when thinking of entrepreneurship in a country such as Colombia, as opposed to Scandinavian countries where there is a very strong social security system in place, Colombians have, to a much greater extent, to be responsible themselves for many of the things and 20

expenses people here take for granted. This has serious implications when starting a business venture, it is often a matter of survival, it is what is supposed to give you food for you and your family, it is what is going to pay for your health and education or that of your children. The result of this reality is that there is a very conservative approach to entrepreneurship in Colombia and it is usually limited to middle and high class people with the necessary economic security. This means that in Colombia’s entrepreneurial world to a large extent people limit their ventures in areas where there is some kind of economic security, they are not in the position to risk so much, (specially not those from middle and low social classes) and in the words of Jaime Ospina, a serial entrepreneur whom I had the opportunity to talk to, it all ends up being “rebusque y más de lo mismo en lugar de emprendimiento e innovación”, “survival ventures and more of the same instead of real entrepreneurship and innovation”.

Another not so positive perspective I have been presented to from university students, is that they feel they are “forced” to come up with business plans for which they don’t necessarily see the relevance of.

The guys from C.E.C who have also been giving talks and participating in conferences at several universities also complaint of the lack of interest and motivation from the students, those that attend, they say, do it only because it is part of the timeschedule given by the university, but very few have real interest in it.

What is going on in education The relevance of education, Competencies as an articulating axis One of the most interesting things from recent reforms and what is called in Colombia the “educational revolution” (reforms in the educational legislation from 2003) is the introduction of the concept of competencies as a central element of education in Colombia. This means a greater emphasis in the “know how” as opposed to the traditional focus on the “know what” that I at least grew up with. Looking for a more integral education that articulates theory and practice and allows for experiences 21

and learning that can be transferred to real life. “Para que los jĂłvenes sean capaces de actuar, producir y transformar su paĂ­sâ€? - “so that our young people are equipped to act, produce and transform their countryâ€?.

A competent student uses knowledge to apply it to finding new solutions outside the classroom, in different contexts and to act efficiently in her personal, intellectual, social, community and working life.

The competencies that the educational system has to develop in students are of three kind: basic, civic, and work related.

Working competencies are general and specific. Specific working competencies are those acquired in vocational and technical education as well as undergraduate and

Competence model of Colombia’s educational system Competence model of Colombia`s

Basic PREPARE THE STUDENT TO BECOME BETTER AT COMMUNICATING

THINKING IN A LOGICAL WAY USING SCIENCES TO KNOW AND INTERPRET THE WORLD

Civic

educational system

Work related

PREPARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR LIVING TOGETHER IN COMUNITY AND FOR DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF SOLIDARITY

)NCLUDES THE KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ATTITUDES THAT ARE NEEDED FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO PERFORM IN THE PRODUCTIVE WORLD

Specific

General

postgraduate education, they are the competencies a person is trained at for working on an specific field.

The inclusion of general working competencies in the academic plans should start from primary education.

The following graphic illustrates how the different competencies are expected to fit in Colombia’s educational system.

The general work competencies are particularly relevant to the approach to education that I am interested in. According to the ministry of education

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Competencies as an articulating axis

Specific Working Competencies General Working Competencies Civic Competencies Basic Competencies

Infants

Basic

Secundary

Mid

Tecnical

Technological

Undergraduate

Postgraduate

Lifelong learning

documentation these are fundamental elements to making education relevant not only as preparation for becoming part of the productive sector, but to prepare the individuals to proactively and constructively interact with others and to become life long learners.

So, what are the general work competencies?

The General work competencies are the collection of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that a young student should develop to perform in any productive setting, regardless of the economic sector, the position, the complexity of the task or the level of resposibility required.

With these competencies the young people acts with assertiveness, knows how to work in teams, develops a ethic sense, manages resources effectively, is able to solve problems and to learn from other peoples experiences as well as acquiring the necessary foundations to create, lead and sustain entrepreneurial projects by herself.

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There are six types of General work competencies:

Intellectual: Thinking processes that the student should use for an specific purpose.

Personal: Behaviour and attitudes expected in any productive or work environment.

Interpersonal: The needed skills to adapt to a working environment and to interact with others with a common purpose.

Organizational: It refers to the ability to learn from own and others experiences as well as apply strategic thinking in different scenarios.

Technological: How to identify transform and innovate in the use and development of procedures, methods and devices, as well as the use of Information and communication technologies.

Managerial and towards entrepreneurship: Needed abilities for the student to create, lead and sustain entrepreneurial initiatives.

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Types of Work related General Competences

INTERPERSONAL • • • • • •

PERSONAL • • • •

Ethics Personal mastery Emotional intelligence Adaptability to change

Communication Team work Leadership Conflict management Ability to adapt Proactivity

ORGANIZATIONAL • • • •

INTELECTUAL • • • • •

Decision taking Creativity Problem solving Atention and memory Concentration

Information management Service orientation Resource management Environmental responsibility

TECHNOLOGICAL MANAGERIAL AND TOWARDS ENTREPRENEURSHIP

• Identify oportunities for business creation • Attainment of resources • Develop plans for productive projects and business ideas based on personal interests • Ability to be risk-taking • Marketing and sales

• Identify, transform, innovate processes • Use of ICT • Create, adapt, make suitable, manage and transfer technologies • Elaborate technological models

And who is responsible for their development Keeping in mind the overall objective of making education more relevant to real life, the responsibility of the development of these competencies is not a task exclusively for the educational institutions. But it is rather seen as responsibility of the community in general.

There are six main protagonists of this happening.

• Local secretaries of education. (local bodies of the ministry of education) • Productive sector and businesses • Parents • Students • Teachers and curriculum developers • Heads of school.

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How are the General work related competencies to be integrated with the schools curriculum?

General work-related competencies are not to be seen as an extra subject students should learn about, but rather incorporated in the academic and extra-academic activities of the educational institutions and are very much related to the use of project based pedagogy. Four ways in which the ministry of education thinks this can be done are: 1. Classroom projects related to an specific knowledge area. (e.g. Maths or biology) 2. Interdisciplinary and transversal projects.

- Projects where two or more subject areas are combined, allowing students to transfer knowledge and have an interdisciplinary approach between teachers and students.

3. Institutional projects – School extra curricular activities such as science fairs, compulsory social service, etc.

4. Entrepreneurial projects.

Conclusion These recent reforms in education and in legislation will probably only show results in a few years, but the important thing is that any new proposals need to take these into consideration. Once again I reinforce my position that it is not about bringing externally made solutions, but about understanding what is in place, seeing the possibilities present there, and finding the best way to learn from and support the growth of these initiatives. A bit like the Ashoka perspective of supporting the ones that are already making a difference.

I believe this is a time of big opportunities where educational institutions and anybody working with entrepreneurship will benefit a lot from external perspectives and with so much happening in these areas in Colombia at the moment there is also a great opportunity 26

for exchange of experiences and good practices with institutions such as the Kaospilots or Prosjektdesign.

One area where I see a lot of potential is actually in the training of trainers. One thing is the vision and expectations seen from the perspective of policimakers, but are those who will have to execute them prepared to do so? Are teachers in the position to build links to the productive sector for example? Are educational institutions prepared to bridge their academic activities to more real life experiences? It is ok that the government says that it is important for the economic development of the country, but are teachers really being effective at motivating individuals to adopt an entrepreneurial and more independent perspective towards their learning and their lives? When you have worked all your life in a traditional model of rota learning and preparing students for tests, it is not necessarily simple to know how to move towards a more participatory, real life and project based approach to teaching and learning.

But the need is there, the conversations are there, the expectations, the legislations, and that seems to be the way things are moving towards.

How then do I become a player in this game?

Considering this context, how is it that an approach to training and education can contribute to the growing of initiatives of social transformation in Colombia?.

What follows is a more detailed description of my approach and activities in relation to these questions.

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How What was my action research strategy From the planing phase this project was envisioned to transcend the timeframe of the Kaospilot final project, and it is understood as a long term initiative.

Looking in more detail into how I approached this project in the time I had to work on it I have divided it in two main stages: While in Denmark - from the 6th of february to the 11th March.

1) Research and network building 2) Website design and publishing While in Colombia – from the 12th March to the 8th of April.

3) Research, interviews, network building.

4) Design and execution of pilot workshops.

1. Research and network building while in Denmark The first step was to establish some key contacts, allies and potential stakeholders in Colombia as well as internationally. Although not extrictly speaking clients, The kaospilot and Prosjektdesign schools in Denmark and Norway respectively, can be seen as examples of beneficiaries of my work in during these two months.

Both of them being institutions that have a strong interest in expanding their network in Latin America, and finding ways of helping develop like-minded educational projects around the world these two institutions have in this report a very sound platform should they at any point be willing to take their Colombia- Latin American plans any further.

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I travelled initially to Norway to visit the Prosjektdesign school and got an offer to travel to Colombia during a month, invited by Kaj Voetmann, an external lecturer at the Kaospilots and Prosjektdesign schools who has some experience working in Colombia and wanted to build on the Prosjektdesign’s interest in Latin America to explore the possibilities and potentials for starting a similar kind of school in Colombia.

2. Web-site – www.liderazgocreativo.org At the beginning of the project period I created a website to refer people to when talking about the project. At this point the project was framed around building on the experience in Cuba and finding local partners to develop a training course for creative social entrepreneurs in Colombia.

Even though this is not exactly the path I took, it is still very relevant to my overall purpose of working with education to promote social entrepreneurship in Colombia. The site has created some attention and I have been contacted by several people (the wonders of the internet) interested in the topic of creative leadership not only from Colombia, but also from Mexico and Spain.

Using some of the interviews in Colombia as a starting point I am planing to develop a section in the website where video interviews are collected with reflections around “the kind of leadership that is needed for the future we dream with in Colombia. It is intended to create an online platform to extend the dialogue I started while being in Colombia”, making use of information and communication technologies to continue having a conversation, generate attention, allow for participation and foster the growth and development of the initiative.

3. Research, interviews, network building I (sometimes on my own, sometime together with Kaj and Sara) visited several people and interviewed them with the objective of finding out what the current state of thing is in

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Colombia in the areas of entrepreneurship and education.

These interviews gave me invaluable insights and understanding of the Colombian reality, with its specific characteristics, challenges and opportunities. I know this is only a very limited view of a very complex reality, but it certainly widened my understanding and it constitutes a more stable starting point than my own assumptions.

In this interviews I presented the idea of a school using the Kaospilot as inspiration. Here is a digital version of the very nice analogue material I used to tell my story:

Telling the kaospilot story...

ONAL LEADERSHIP PERS

creative PROCESS design

creative PROYECT design

• Learning procesess • Creative procesess • Personal leadership • Team building • Process consultancy • Systemic consultancy • Human centred

• Project management • Project economy • Team work • Real clients • Project as an organizational model

AD LE

E IV AT M

P HI RS

TR

AN SF O

R

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• Entrepreneurship and innovation vs. more of the same • 4th sector - PPP • Conservation economy, sostenibilit • Based on personal motivation, values and ethics • Social innovation

EL E AD E

creative BUSINESS design

CRE AT IV

HIP ERS

¿WHAT DO WE LEARN?

Responsibility Solution focus “YES”

Familiar

Motivation

Flexible

Collective learning Diverse

Innovation

Systemic Values

PHYSICAL

MENTAL/ LANGUAGE

Web 2.0 Projects

Community

Learning by doing

¿HOW DO WE LEARN?

VIRTUAL

Resources

TRAINING

Purposeful

Natural progression

Global network Inlcusive

Experimental

SOCIAL

Team

Groups

Local network

Clients

Team leader

and then invited people to answer the following questions: Would a school like this in Colombia be: • Relevant?

• Necessary?

• Possible?

• Who should I talk to next? (snowball technique) This report would not be enough to present all the perspectives and answers I got, and many of these interviews ended up in very interesting conversations that are much richer and nuanced than anything I can present here.

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Many of these meetings were purely informative, but some of them also lead to opening up for future partnerships and collaboration at different levels.

This is an initiative that needs many partners to succeed, I have just been planting some seeds, that need to be looked after and that will hopefully result in something inspiring and with the potential to generate positive change in the Colombian society.

I have tried to visualize my interviewing journey to give an idea of the kind of people I talked to, the key contacts I established and some key learnings from these meetings.

Networking and interviewing Mayra Carrillo

People Contacted People Interviewed Direct Partners Indirect Partners

Zenaida Osorio

Lecturer Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Proy. Ceramistas Sociales

Lecturer - Graphic Design School Universidad Nacional de Colombia G15 - Art projects of social research

Mariana Mosquera

José Muñoz Alvis

Director Proyecto Dendrita Escuela de Diseno Industrial Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Proyecto Dendrita Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Orlando Beltrán

Augusto Noriega - Raul Rodriguez NETWORKING MAP Corporacion Emprendedores Colombia

Maria Inés Bohorquez Business Consultant BIT consulting

Graphic Designer

Amparo Ardila

Adriana Guerrero

Ministry of Education Consultant

Ecoopsos - Solidary Economy consultant

Transformadores Sociales School

Business entrepreneur Venture Capital Expert

Amadeo Cardona

Ecological Architecture program Universidad Piloto de Colombia

Viceministra de Educacion Preescolar, Básica y Media

Mauricio Torres

Sandra Buitrago

CSR responsible Chaid Neme Hns

Academic director Konrad Lorenz University

Human Ecologist Carbon neutrality consultant Proj. Urban Agriculture for elderly people

Jaime Ospina Sardi

Lourdes Chaid Neme Graciela Amaya

Carolina Salazar

Proy. Competencias Laborales, Formación para el Trabajo y Pertinencia de la Ed. Media Ministerio de Educacion Nacional

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Kaj Voetmann - Sara Gomez

Isabel Segovia Ospina

Magdalena Flórez Ramos

Ecoopsos, Fundamos - Gerente General.

Lars Mortensen L. Prosjektdesign Founder

Lecturer Escuela de Diseno Grafico Social innovation school Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Isabel Sandoval

Lecturer - Industrial Design School Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Ana Paula Santander

Artefacto Magazin - Arts Faculty Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Kaospilot

Eduardo Naranjo

Proyecto de Fortalecimiento Educación Técnica y Tecnológica en Colombia Ministerio de Educación Nacional

4. Piloting the pilots At the beginning of this journey I asked myself, How would an education inspired in the Kaospilots look in Colombia? And I decided that the best way to find out is to try it out, so I set myself to do a pilot workshop to identify needs, gain an understanding of the potential target students profile as well as having a concrete experience in Colombia one could refer to when talking to potential partners and stakeholders.

The workshop was planned as a meeting point for people from different disciplines as follows: • people working with entrepreneurship • people from creative educations • people working in social or environmental projects The idea was to work with a cross-disciplinary team to explore how they could come up with ideas for social transformation.

I designed an invitation and distributed it in my network.

It got some attention and was later made as a facebook event. From the start I considered it was very important to have some local partners involved supporting the workshop, and after a long exchange of correspondence the C.E.C finally agreed to be part of the organizations inviting to the event and distributed the information about the workshop to their 6.000 members network. This, and my other networking activities lead to two things: 1. World cafe around the topic “the academia” 2. Pilot workshop

1. A world cafe session in Collaboration with Dendrita Dendrita, a project lead by students and faculty of the Industrial design school of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, (and who became strategic partners not only during my stay in Colombia but also for possible future collaboration) regularly organizes gatherings called “converstorios” a space open to anybody to have a dialogue about a set topic.

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My visit coincided with a “converstorio” with the topic “la academia” - “the academia” understood as “the academic environment or community”. We decided it was a great opportunity to do some collaboration, and that is how I ended up being in charge of facilitating the “conversatorio” which was done using the world cafe methodology with the intention of creating a more participatory dialogue. (they had previously told me that the previous “conversatorios” had traditionally been dominated by a few people and got to being a space for intellectual showing off that didn’t lead to much participation).

The topic of the “conversatorio” was in itself extremely relevant to my own research, as it wanted to generate reflections and new thinking in relation to things such as education, the relevance of the educational institutions, learning, the gap between the university and the real world etc. The questions addressed in the different tables were: • How do I transform the academia?

• Why is the academia important for me?

• University - real world, what is going on?

• How do I construct through the academia?

About an hour after the programmed beginning time we had around 35 participants from different disciplines and different universities, (punctuality is certainly not something Colombians are known for). It was very important to create this space for multidisciplinary dialogue, and considering the fact that the university you come from has a very strong social significance in Colombia, it was a key success to be able to provide a meeting point for these diverse points of view.

People got very engaged and feedback was very positive.

The purpose of the meeting was never to generate any concrete action plans, but rather to promote dialogue and thinking and inspire, which is something the world cafe methodology is very good at. And we ended the meeting (an hour later than planned) with the good feeling one has when given the opportunity to talk and listen about things that matter to oneself.

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From the presentations and the feedback session at the end of the activity these are my key reflections: • People are very receptive to more participatory forms of learning • People are very critical of the traditional educational institutions and their role in addressing the needs of their society.

2. Pilot workshop

¿Has tenido tiempo de ser creativo hoy?

The original plan of having a workshop to try out participatory and project based learning methodology (such as used at the Kaospilot or Prosjektdesign schools) around the topic of social transformation concluded in a 2 days workshop which constituted the hardest and most challenging part of this journey.

The purpose of the workshop was defined as: To identify challenges and possible solutions to generate social transformation and empower people in Colombia to become social transformers.

The invitation to the workshop read:

¿Cómo contribuyes a solucionar los retos sociales de tú país desde tú carrera o tu trabajo?

We invite you to participate in a two days workshop to investigate, create, believe, learn, ask, dream, generate initiatives in relation to an educational project with a group of curious and creative people interested in contributing to the development of their communities and of society in general.

We work from a perspective of co-creation, our objective is to create learning spaces that strenghten the potencials in individuals and groups, create possitive and reachable visions, motivate and inspire.

¿Cómo se aprende y trabaja en equipos multidisciplinarios?

I believe is fundamental for effective project work to find ways of working in cross-disciplinary teams, so the people invited were entrepreneurs, people from creative educations and people working on social or environmental projects.

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Design of the workshop With the guidance and support of Kaj Voetman and Sara Gomez, I designed the workshop using the U theory as the backbone of the activities.

Design of the workshop WORKSHOP RELATED - Warm colours day one day two U - MODEL RELATED - Cold colours

Welcome - dialogue

Design the alliance

REALIZING

SENSING 1. Suspending

7. Institutionalizing

PURPOSE:

Indentify challenges and possible solutions to generate social transformation and empower people to become social transformers

Team creation

Floor map evaluation

6. Prototyping Game plan

Brainstorming on social transformation

2. Redirecting

5. Crystalizing

PRESENCING

Prototype brainstorming

Non-verbal Communication

3. Letting Go

4. Letting Come Dynamics of Co-creation

Visual brainstorming

Cover story

AI Interviews Best stories U - MODEL - Otto Scharmer

And how did things happen in real life?

The day before the workshop I had around 28 people enrolled, which was much more than I had planned for, and also many more people than I felt comfortable to work with on my own. This included people who had received the invitation through Corporacion Emprendedores Colombia’s newsletter, people who had accidentally come to the “liderazgocreativo” 36

website, participants of the Dendrita world cafe, and people that had heard about it through friends.

Many of these people didn’t contact me directly, and I just received lists of people enrolled the day before the workshop this meant I didn’t have the opportunity to send any further information or get to know anything about them or their expectations until the very day of the workshop.

Considering it was a weekend, and knowing my people I estimated that around 18 people out of the 28 would show up, in the end only 11 did, which was now as unsettling as the idea of having too many people.

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Participants had very dissimilar expectations and as I was trying to please everyone, I ended not facilitating but desperately trying to stop total catastrophe from happening.

Fear and lack of confidence is certainly not a pleasant place to facilitate a group learning dynamic from. This combined with torrential rain which stopped us from going out and finding some food, and my 7 months pregnancy resulted in a very hard first session.

This all got much better after we had a break and food and I dared to trust myself and my process facilitation methodology and stopped trying to please everyone. I had fewer participants the second day, and opposite to my initial intention of having cross-disciplinary teams people ended up grouping with people from their own disciplines but the day was very fruitful, people enjoyed it, we had some very good reflections in relation to the day before and in relation to learning and team work.

Conclusions Considering that if, as I have experienced, frustration is part of the learning in a process type of education as the Kaospilots, we definitely got that element in the pilot workshop. A real Kaospilot pilot experience couldn’t be complete without some frustration but more importantly the reflections and learning that come out of it. And I certainly feel this was the case, not only for me, but most importantly for the participants.

I would have preferred to have had more contact with the participants before the workshop, to make sure there was alignment in what they were expecting and what I was offering, but this was not the case, and this meant it gave me a superb opportunity to a certain extent have to build the plane as I was flying it! And in the end we all landed safely in a place where we all knew more about social transformation, education, participatory learning environments and co-creation.

For the exploratory purpose of a pilot workshop this was the perfect setting, and it certainly created a

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lot of learning and opened possibilities for taking this type of workshops to other settings with a more clearly identified need. In the end several participants expressed interest in helping me take this experiences to educational programs and training for entrepreneurs.

My perception after facilitating this workshop is that the world of entrepreneurs is one where people want to be given answers, they expect ready made recipes for success, perhaps to have someone concrete to blame when things just don’t go as they expected. It is not easy, but certainly not impossible, to engage people in taking an active role in the creation of knowledge and contributing to the learning of a team, we are used to a spoon feed type of education, and it takes a bit of hard work and determination to lead a group to allow themselves to rethink how to learn.

Considering the changes in education and entrepreneurship that the country has envisioned (as presented in the background section) I see experiences like this one as very relevant to finding ways to get closer to that vision, I am very encouraged to keep exploring ways and keep building on my knowledge and my network to allow for these things to happen.

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Results - future scenarios

There are many ways in which the seeds of this exploration can grow, I have decided to present in more detail 3 concrete results of my work during the exam project at the Kaospilots that are built on the knowledge and network created during this 2 months and which are based on a greater understanding of the characteristics of the current state of entrepreneurship and education in the country.

To me people is what matters the most and human relationships are what make things happen. It was of prime importance to establish some agreements with these people, I know I am not to make this happen on my own, and I see of prime importance the alliances and collaboration that I can establish with people to create things together.

I have decided to project this work in three main areas as follows:

Scenarios

1. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL

FUTURE SCENARIOS

FOCUS AREAS

2. WITHIN FORMAL EDUCATION

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3. NON FORMAL EDUCATION

Scenario 1: To establish a school for “transformadores sociales” in Colombia Transformadores Sociales School Key contact persons: Sara Gomez – Kaj Voetman.

Description of organization: Sara and Kaj represent key allies in the future development of many of the scenarios that emerged during my work in Colombia. Kaj has a lot of experience in education and an important network in Europe. Sara, his wife, has been working for many years in human development and organizational change for different companies in Colombia.

State of agreement and future projections: This was the initial initiative that made it possible for me to come to Colombia.

At the moment Sara, using the material I have prepared for her, will continue contacting potential sponsors and stakeholders and will be the contact person in Colombia for this initiative.

One of the main interests of Sara and Kaj is to find out whether the school could be privately financed possibly through companies’ CSR strategies. We talked to some people in this respect who showed interest and will be open to consider it should the school project be materialized in the future.

Some of the next people and organizations that she will contact include: • Observatorio de responsabilidad social universitaria (Social responsability watcher organization for universities) – Universidad Javeriana de Colombia.

• SENA– Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje. (The main public institution for technical and technological adult education in the country) Unidad de emprendimiento.

• Camara de Comercio de Bogota. (comerce chamber of Bogota) The organizers of the young entrepreneurs fair, and an the official institution for the promotion of entrepreneurship in the country.

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Scenario 2: Collaboration with educational institutions Establishing a collaboration agreement to promote projects between students of the Kaospilots and Prosjektdesign schools and students from the creative schools of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Dendrita Project - Universidad Nacional de Colombia Key contact person: Jose Muñoz

Description: Dendrita (Dendrite – a short extension of a nerve cell conducting impulses to the cell body). Is a project started by a group of industrial design students of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (the largest public university of the country) and financially supported by the arts department of the university.

While being an academic project Dendrita wants to generate not only a reflection, but concrete actions in regards to the role the professional activities related to design play in the building of a society, in this case the Colombian society.

They believe in their job as cultural agents within the frames of social transformation and want to generate awareness not only in the academic arena, but starting from it, of the responsibility we all have in contributing to the construction of a more sustainable, participatory and social and environmentally conscious future.

Their project currently focuses on three concrete actions: • The publication of a magazine where people from different disciplines are invited to write articles around an specific topic. Some of the topics investigated so far are: “the origin”, “the use” and “the heritage”. These are very open topics that welcome perspectives and opinions from a very wide range of disciplines and lines of thought.

• Public interventions. These are of two kind, one for the launching of every magazine, and one where people from different disciplines and universities are invited to have dialogs around afine topics to the ones presented in the magazine.

• A website.

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State of agreement and future projections: After a very fruitful and fun collaboration with the Dendritas people during this month in Colombia, this is how our near future plans look like: • Two representatives from the university, a student and a teacher in the industrial design department are planning to visit us in Denmark- Norway in the month of June 2008, the purpose is to explore possibilities for working in projects for social transformation in Colombia with Kaospilot and Prosjektdesign students in the near future. They already have some projects outlined and are very much looking forward to any collaboration opportunities with these two schools.

• We are discussing the possibility of conducting a series of workshops for industrial design students in topics such as dynamic project management and appreciative inquiry within the frames of social transformation. This would take place after the summer and will be further discussed and planned for when they visit us in June.

Scenario 3: Develop a curriculum for a “solidarity agents” educational program Ecoopsos – fundamos Contact person: Magdalena Florez

Description or organization: Ecoopsos started as a co-operative that works with providing health services to the lowest social strata in the country. And has to this date 14.000 members.

Ecoopsos works for the construction social model for the development of communities based on: • An organization where the users of the services are co-owners of the co-operative and actively participate in the comities and decision taking processes of the organization.

• Providing leadership skill-building to help strengthen communities • A competitive and modern organization with real and effective participation of the community.

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• A systematic process of training to the users to guarantee that they act in a proactive way for keeping and improving the quality of the health services provided.

• In the areas of the country where Ecoopsos provides its services, it does an important job of providing training and courses in solidary economy.

Seeing the potential for having a greater social impact of the structures and network they have created with Ecoopsos, they have created an Non for profit organization called “Fundamos” this organization offers services such as: • Advice and guidance to communities interested in creating any kind of solidary organization.

• Capacity building, consultancy and technical assistance in the starting up of social, cultural or self-sustainable productive ventures.

• Capacity building legal and economic advice for environmental, social and sustainable initiatives.

• Consultancy in the area of health services promotion, legal controls and auditing • Research in social processes and health to contribute to policy making in social, economical, environmental and cultural areas that aim to contribute to the construction of a society with more justice and social equity.

They currently support a wide range of projects in the different areas of the country where they are present, including partnerships with educational institutions to provide training in human development and entrepreneurship.

State of agreement and future projections: After my meeting with Magdalena, (the manager and co-founder of ecoopsos and fundamos) we agreed that we would like to collaborate in the building of a study program, or a curriculum for what she calls “gestores solidarios” - “solidarity agents”. Having this as a mid term perspective for our collaboration. Fundamos is 44

also willing to provide their network and resources for developing workshops, and other shorter training programs within the scope of their organization.

We are in conversations and expect to have a more concrete strategy for our collaboration within the next 4 months.

Some Key Contacts and possible supporters In addition to the previous scenarios there are also some key contacts that have expressed interest in supporting or joining an initiative in the areas of education, leadership and entrepreneurship.

Here is short description of some of them.

Corporacion Emprendedores Colombia Contact person: Augusto Noriega

CEC is an organization created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, it groups starting ups supporting them in the different stages of consolidating a productive business.

They count with around 6000 associates and have established agreements of collaboration with several governmental bodies and programs as well as being part of the international network YES Campaign (Youth Employment Summit).

CEC has also established connections in the retail sector with the purpose of helping starting ups comerzialise their products.

They work under a policy of social and environment responsibility and professional ethics through formulating and carrying out projects around entrepreneurship.

Their work and activities have lead to significant things such as the design of an entrepreneurial program for a school in Bogota which has now been running for a couple of years and is to be replicated in other areas of the country.

They were also active promoters of the law of “fomento a la cultura del emprendimiento” - “promotion of the entrepreneurial culture” whose main objective is to

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incorporate entrepreneurial training and capacity building across all levels of formal and non formal education.

The CEC guys were rather skeptical around the idea of establishing a school, but are nevertheless willing to embark join ventures should a concrete project opportunity arise. I see them and their pragmatism as an important reality check filter for any initiative involving entrepreneurship in the country. They don’t necessarily do things in a new or innovative way, but they have accumulated a lot of experience that is very relevant for anyone wanting to enter these arenas in Colombia.

Ceramistas Sociales Contact person: Mayra Carrillo

The “Social ceramists” are a group of 5 students and teachers that work with art as a social catalyst for change. They recently won a prize by the Bogota’s government to carry out a project to create spaces for art in underprivileged communities. They are working together with social workers and the local government to develop a training program that combines pottery and human development and that has as objective the strengthening of social participation and community building.

Mayra, the director of the group, is an art teacher at the Universidad Pedagogica de Colombia and has a big commitment to working from her field for creating spaces for social transformation.

They have experience in designing and carrying out this kind of projects in the Colombian context, and are willing to be active players in future initiatives.

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Conclusion So, did those questions from the beginning got answered?

To a certain extend they did, but most importantly I discovered a lot of people with similar questions, people who inspired me and guided me, and people with whom I will be creating things in the future.

I have tried to give you, dear reader, a view into what this two months of work have been like, with all the ups and downs, my conclusions and the future paths into which this can develop.

During this journey I had, in different ways and circumstances, to put to test my Kaospilots competencies:

Discipline-specific competence/the ability to master a discipline.

Designing and conducting processes, transfering my previous knowledge and experience into new settings, preparing communication materials.

The competence to form relationships.

Creating contacts, building a network, having meaningful conversations.

The competence to undergo change.

Framing and reframing the project and adapting to the circumstances.

The competence to take action.

Keeping my eyes and ears open for opportunities and taking decisions accordingly

The competence to form opinions.

Daring to fail and learn and listen 47

Many times during this journey I though whether it wouldn’t have been better to engage in something more concrete, a short term project with a clear begining and end where I could present to you a nice finished product the day of my exam. But I have learnt at this school thatI I have to go where my dreams and my passions are, and I could not help but use this opportunity to take this important first step, because as I said when this all started, I see this not as the kaospilot final project, but as the Zulma Patarroyo’s starting project.

During these two months I learnt a lot about entrepreneurship and education, and about Colombia, a country that will never end to fascinate me, I see what is comming not only as an opportunity to do something good for my Country, but to do something good for the world. I feel very motivated when thinking about not only what my fellow Colombians can learn and use of my experiences and contacts in other countries, but what can people here in Europe learn from Colombia?

How can for example a young Scandinavian student learn from Colombian students, how can young people from the world learn to work together, to create things together, to make a better future together...

I believe that developing countries, more than help and charity need the opportunity to be treated as equal human beings, to engage in inspiring projects across borders, to connect in what inspires us and use our diversity as an asset and not a hindrance.

I am looking forward to seeing you on the 2nd of may, I will have some nice things to show you, and will update you in how the different scenarios have developed. And I am very much looking forward to your questions, and hope we can all create an experience where learning is the main ingredient.

Zulma and the Sea-horse.

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Literature list Methodology/approach Freire, Paolo(1970). PedagogĂ­a del oprimido, Montevideo, Tierra Nueva.

Scharmer, Otto.(2007). Theory U: Leading from the future as it emerges. Cambridge, MA: Senge, Peter, et al. (2000). Schools that learn. New York: Currency.

Senge, P. and others. (2004).Presence; Exploring profound change in people,organizations, and society. Society for Organizational Learning. NY Doubleday Currency.

Wheatley, Margaret. (2005). Finding our way: Leadership for an uncertain time. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

Maturana, H. & Varela, F. (1987). The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc. Bornstein, David. (2004). How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, New York,NY: Oxford University Press.

Sibbet, David. (2002) Principles of Facilitation: The Purpose and Potential of Leading Group Process - , The Grove Consultants International

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Links Law for the promotion of entrepreneurship http://www.secretariasenado.gov.co/leyes/L1014006.HTM

Ministry of education website http://www.mineducacion.gov.co

Corporacion Emprendedores Colombia http://www.corporacioncec.com

Liderazgo creativo - Creative leadership http://www.liderazgocreativo.org

Ecoopsos http://www.ecoopsos.com.co/

Ashoka http://www.ashoka.org

Camara de Comercio de Bogota Bogota’s Chamber of Commerce http://camara.ccb.org.co

Accion social - Social action http://www.accionsocial.gov.co

Revista Dinero - Dinero magazine http://www.dinero.com/wf _ InfoArticulo.aspx?idArt=40749

Programa presidencial Colombia Joven Presidential program for the youth http://www.colombiajoven.gov.co/empresarialidad.htm

Jovenes con empresa http://www.jovenesconempresa.org/

Ventures - a national contest for entrepreneurs http://www.ventures.com.co/content/view/55/1/

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