Two complimentary, parallel components of the Program make up Phase II of
Digital Seeds: (1) Processes of Human Development and (2) Infrastructural
Improvements. The Human Development component is a set of interactive, systematic
and open "learning spaces" offered to the teaching team, “to enrich and reflect on the ways in which we think, feel, and act in our pedagogical day-to-day, and to motivate the search for new knowledge” (Moreno, personal correspondence, December 28, 2015). Safe, supportive spaces stimulate openness to critically self-reflect and embrace change, and actively support the development of teachers' "critical consciousness" (Freire, 1973). The process is facilitated by a purposeful and guided exchange of knowledge and experiences regarding three thematic modules: Motivation and Human Development, Digital Literacy, and Pedagogical Intervention and Innovation.
The module on Motivation and Human Development offers supportive, critical spaces to foment a school culture undergirded by a disposition to personal growth. To this end, we organize reflexive sessions directed at self-recognition to understand oneself and one's ways of being, thinking, and feeling. The group encounters are inspired by the PNL model (Programación Neurolingüistica o Neuro-Linguistic Programming), a strategy framework that includes communication, personal
development, and psychotherapy (Bandler & Grinder, 1976). Everything we do in life is determined by the ways in which we communicate with ourselves, consciously or subconsciously, and the Motivation and Human Development module facilitates
reflexive practice to enrich interpersonal communication and an understanding of self. It is a process through/in which all participants are experts, everyone knows something vital, and we all learn, analyze, and share with respect to content and experiences.
The Digital Literacy module shares and reflects on the utility of ICT tools and the functionality of technological resources available to schools. Participants' previous experiences and knowledge provide the foundation for the work and serve as the starting point for the guiding logic of this module. Through and with technology,
participants seek to enrich and co-create possibilities in their schools that focus on some of the following areas:
• Improve and enrich existing educational processes;
• Enrich curricular content and pedagogy;
• Increase access to information and communication technologies;
• Develop digital literacy skills;
• Expand social inclusion for students, teachers, and community members;
• Support development of critical thinking, critical consciousness, and problem
solving;
• Improve community participation in and commitment to education;
• Cultivate alternative spaces for dialogue, debate, collaboration, research, and
The development of digital literacy runs parallel to identifying links to practical pedagogical applications and how the integration of technology enriches and transforms the processes and relationships of learning and teaching. Building on the growing digital literacy of participants, the third and final module, Pedagogical Intervention and
Innovation, supports teachers with methodological tools and techniques and the tangible materials and resources to design learning spaces and project-based learning experiences.
All of the shared learning experiences (commonly known as professional development or training) are complimented by group exchange sessions and accompaniment visits (described below). Facilitators spend ample time in the
classrooms, accompanying the teacher and his/her day-to-day life, while also working closely with students as an in-class resource and help to the primary teacher.
It is worth noting that at no point are teachers obliged to participate in the professional development sessions or accompaniment. Instead, the Program espouses a purposeful and voluntary nature of participation, especially given the research and empirical examples from development projects describing participation as "the new tyranny" (Cooke & Kothari, 2001).
Accompaniment (Acompañamiento)
Accompaniment and facilitation go hand-in-hand in the Digital Seeds program.
The principal actors in accompaniment are facilitators, teachers, students, and administrators. Assuming inquiry as a vital stance on/in practice (Cochran-Smith &
Lytle, 2009), facilitators accompany teachers and students, and focus their curiosity and analysis on understanding the people, places, spaces, and communities of each
particular school down to the individual classroom and student. Through personalized visits, data collection, informal conversations, working and planning sessions, and classroom participant-observation, the facilitator supports the teacher in his/her human and professional development. Accompaniment emerges out of an agreement and plan between teachers and facilitators, and it is periodically evaluated to monitor processes, advances, and results in order to inform decision-making and to better reach the agreed-upon objectives (Tarditi, et al., 2012).
The priorities of accompaniment are co-defined during evaluative and
observational encounters between teachers and facilitators, before and after class, and also emerge through improvised coordination during class-time. To contribute to the learning environment, facilitators actively support teachers in instruction, classroom management, and direct one-on-one student interaction. Sharing in the process promotes the development of the teacher's skills as a facilitator of learning not the more traditional role as sole arbiter of knowledge and authority. For Facilitator María Luisa Herrera, "Accompaniment is sharing with the teacher didactic and methodological experiences that are going to enable us to improve student learning" (personal
communication, March 20, 2015). Herrera's colleague Silvio Díaz emphasizes the observational and feedback dynamic central to providing teachers with practical support. "One is observing and listening to how the class unfolds because [...] the
purpose is to see the entire development of the class and then provide a space with the teacher to be able to review everything that happened" (personal communication, August 3, 2014). Being present and observing enable the facilitator to better understand the activities, relationships and overall reality of the class. Elba García notes, "to be able to understand the realities that occur in the classroom, you have to be in it" (personal communication, August 2, 2014). Active engagement through the
Digital Seeds approach to accompaniment favors holistic human development of the
teacher. Specifically, the strategy supports self-awareness, critical self-reflection, positive affective relationships, service to community and others, and an openness to
change among other possible effects. Digital Seeds Coordinator of Methodology and
Monitoring and Evaluation Martha Alicia Moreno sums up the mutuality of facilitation and accompaniment at the heart of the program.
Ideally, facilitation is a form of mutualism, an interaction beneficial to all participants, a shared nourishment, growth, and/or learning. One example from nature is the relationship between pollinators and flowering plants. The pollinator is nourished from the nectar or pollen while plants benefit from the spread of pollen between flowers. In the
case of Digital Seeds, teachers and students intertwine and exchange
roles as pollinator and plant, at one moment nourishing the other and at another receiving nourishment. Accompaniment and facilitation foster these mutualistic relationships exemplified by the flowering plants and pollinating bees and realized by facilitators, teachers and students in classrooms across Nicaragua” (personal communication, December 28, 2015).