Social Innovation in Central America: Mobilizing Students to Become Change Agents

• In Event: 20461 - Teaching and Learning Symposium Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 6: Teaching Ideas

Abstract

My session draws on teaching methods as applied to Central American villagers seeking better lives. Empowering “los pobres” (the poor) has been a feature of this scholar’s field work for over two decades. Teaching student teams in the university classroom, then raising funds and taking them to Latin America to launch innovative long-term programs has yielded superb educational experiences and important social impacts on the ground. Mobilizing villagers in Central America, community leaders, and indigenous change agents to use innovative social entrepreneurship strategies are themes.

I used my courses in the social sciences, to teach, train, mobilize hands-on practices to fight poverty. We’ve done this for over a decade. Five of these ventures led to legally incorporating class projects that evolved into NGOs in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and southern Mexico. Indigenous training occurred, village banks were created, microloans were issued, and financial literacy was taught, and the result has become quite phenomenal. Over time some 30,000 microcredit loans have been issued, and family self-sufficiency occurred. Babies were safely delivered, leadership increased, English teaching occurred, and Square-Foot-Gardens were developed that tripled family access to healthy food. Community gathering structures were built from local materials so women finally enjoyed their own communal gathering places to share problems, get new ideas, and experience more self-sufficiency. Now there are hundreds of informal village schools locally established.
Instead of passivity, self-assertion has blossomed. Rather than wait and hope for government services, new communal councils are delving into and resolving local problems on their own.

My paper will analyze and critique student learning and various social initiatives and their sustainability. I will assess the “good, bad, and ugly.” The session will conclude with my distributing useful handouts and contact information which academics may take home and adopt in their own teaching, including communication with the author for future Q&A interactions.

Author

• Warner P. Woodworth, University of Utah