DRAG
I decided to become an educator because of the transformative power I witnessed in the classroom. There I can share my ideas with students while they transform mine. In my professional career I have also discovered that beyond the classroom, there are other spaces where I can articulate what I learn as a researcher. This section describes the educational projects where I have worked hand in hand with others, moving academic knowledge past the boundaries of the university to reach formal and nonformal educational spaces:
Respiramos Inclusión (with Maria Jose Bermeo): This proposal was designed especially for educational agents working in urban and rural areas of Ecuador; however, it can be adapted for Latin American contexts where the student population is diverse.
Youth Voices Rethinking the War on Drugs (with Theo Di Castri): This material is designed as a tool to generate teaching and learning opportunities around difficult and controversial issues such as drugs and drug policy and the violence they have generated.
Pedagogías desde y para la ruralidad: experiencias exitosas y replicables de rectores y docentes. Through visits to educational establishments located in rural areas in Colombia and informal conversations with school administrators and teachers, we discovered a pedagogical richness seldom acknowledged. These guidelines are not prescriptive in nature. Instead, these successful and replicable experiences of principals and teachers have been designed to be implemented and enriched by educational communities across diverse settings.
Guía Catalyst para enseñar temas relacionados con la política de drogas en las aulas de secundaria de las Américas (with Theo Di Castri and Daniela Romero). s drug policy program was an initiative that began in 2017 with the inauguration of a summer program targeting youth in the region affected by the war on drugs. Since then, its content has been implemented, evaluated, and formally edited four times. We invite you to take advantage of it!
Throughout my career, I have benefited from generous friends and colleagues who have shared their grant and award applications with me. I am eternally grateful for them!
At the same time, lately I have become accustomed to friends or friends of friends asking me to share my application materials. After sharing them, I am always left with the same question: what about those who do not feel comfortable emailing me? In this section, I share three applications. While each was successful, none is perfect. Each time I read them, I find possible adjustments. However, each represents my commitment to a more equitable and transparent academy, one less dependent on who is friends with whom.
If you use them, in return I ask you to send me an email, a message, or even a tweet (even though I rarely check it) telling me how you used them.
Research: Research: Schooling in (Il)legal Economies: A Comparative Study of Educational Experiences in the Midst of the Drug War. 2021 Postdoctoral Fellow of the US National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation.
**Thanks to the Spencer Foundation for their permission to make this document public.**
Teaching: Pedagogical proposal. 2020 Winner. Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP), Junior Faculty Teaching Award, Center for Latin American Studies, Ohio State University.