Abstract:

Society as a whole must be converted into a gigantic school.
Ché Guevara

Today, globally, a myriad of issues and factors has contributed to a rapid and ever-changing topography in education. Rethinking educational theory and praxis has become an imperative priority and obvious necessity. However, despite the UN Declaration of Human Rights guarantee to the right to an education for everyone, there is a huge denial of access and opportunity to a quality education for marginalized students that is developing into a real threat to international development and security.

In response, Houston Preparatory Academy, a not-for-profit U.S.-based educational organization founded in 1991, has created a multi-partner, cross-national initiative called U-Prep that enhances longitudinal, high-quality educational opportunities to combat inequality and injustice in disadvantaged communities in Houston, Texas in the U.S., and Renacimiento, Guerrero, Mexico since 1998 and 2006 respectively. Universities in both countries see U-Prep as a seedbed of prospective students and campus leaders.

In 2011, due to narco-violence in Mexico, U-Prep expanded its well-developed, cross-cultural approach to Global Learning in both countries. (It presented this process at ICERi conferences in Madrid (2012) and Seville (2013 and 2014).

U-Prep created math, literature and English curricula based on multi-disciplinary research and best practices and eclectically coupled its model with the Salmon staged, scaffolded model of step-wise, on-line learning through the use of existing, internet-based resources (Skype, E-mail, and Texting). U-Prep transformed teacher-centered pedagogy into an empowered student-centered approach that is at once personal, inter-active, cyber-assisted and -friendly and highly participatory.

In 2015, Mexico’s lowered level of violence and improved Wi-Fi availability allowed U-Prep to further mobilize its approach. The static classroom was replaced by a dynamic and itinerant approach to the delivery of academic, counseling and social work services, i.e., the program was taken into the streets of the community. U-Prep students, who now are mostly college-age, study literature, perform community service and plan relevant group activities at selected locations throughout their city that complement the societal needs and course objectives.

This new stage in its programmatic approach enhances and complies with U-Prep’s longitudinal goal of fostering academic achievement and community leadership in its students’ community of origin. Students are offered internships that emphasize leadership and service.
This bottom-up, ethnomethodological method highlights available resources and mobilizes talent, potential, initiative and creativity for future change.

Therefore, mobile Global e-Learning delivered through a blend of mobile pedagogy and assistive technologies enables U-Prep to defend the global right to a quality education for all by providing a dynamic, community-based, student-centered educational model that enhances educational opportunities, supportive services and leadership development for students and families in Mexico.

Keywords:

Human rights, education, Global Learning, assistive technology, student-centered, educational opportunity, mobile pedagogy, community service, leadership.