International Expansion of Escuela Nueva: A Transformative Pedagogy on a Global Scale

This case study presents the challenging task of expanding the widely successful Escuela Nueva pedagogy on a global scale. Escuela Nueva provides a cost effective, replicable and scalable solution to improve the quality of basic education in low income schools. It started in rural Colombia, but has since expanded principally to a large number of Latin American countries. Evidence shows that wherever Escuela Nueva is implemented, children become more interested in learning and are able to understand and retain new knowledge better. Research initiatives and evaluations confirm the superior academic, personal and civic achievements of Escuela Nueva students in addition to a reduction in drop out and repetition rates. The Escuela Nueva concept was invented in 1974 by Vicky Colbert, and the Escuela Nueva Foundation (ENF) was set up in 1987 to promote the Escuela Nueva concept. In the spring of 2009 Vicky Colbert had to decide how to proceed with the international expansion strategy of ENF. In 2007, she had received the Skoll award for social entrepreneurship and the Clinton Global Citizen award and was committed to expanding Escuela Nueva (EN) to at least one country in Asia and one in Africa. The case study explores the strategic choices (social) entrepreneurs face when deciding how to scale up their businesses on a global level. It addresses issues such as which parts of the business model are scalable, who to partner with, and which organizational changes need to be implemented. The case study can be used in a social entrepreneurship course, but also in a more mainstream entrepreneurship or strategy course with a focus on scaling up and expanding internationally.