Antropoloops

This AW project is an example of process innovation to promote cultural inclusion in a primary public school in the South of Spain (Seville). Its main aim is to transform the teaching and learning processes to prevent stigma, dropouts and exclusion right at the youngest possible age. This idea was put into a project by Antropoloops, a NGO focused on combining music, education and technology. It consists firstly of an exchange of musical life stories between students (ages 10-12) of the CEIP San José Obrero School (Seville, Spain). Secondly, the students leave the School and record sounds and later mix those sounds and musics with other students, even from foreign schools. This mode of collaboration between the CEIP San José Obrero and Antropoloops seems to fit well in the rapid application model as the planning, delivery and innovation processes are one. It is an unplanned innovation, that was originally designed to find funding, but then changed into this other loose, less formal structured and spontaneous process, given the nature and aims of the project.

No digital transformation process involved.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• To promote the interest and knowledge of other cultures through music and personal stories;
• To improve musical listening skills and an emotional and cultural interpretation of music;
• To promote creativity and imagination through narratives and stories generated from music and images;
• To improve English language skills through the translation into English of student-produced texts;
• To improve the knowledge of students with examples of traditional music in different locations in the world.

A summary of the seven impacts and goals identified and achieved through the first year, fully described in the case, is:

• To expand the musical knowledge of students and to awaken their curiosity for the diversity of traditional World music as a source of inspiration for new creations. Students understand this heritage is not something parked far away and fossilized, but it is something alive and reusable;
• To develop new ways of composing music. Use of tradition from creativity and remixing, with an approach that combines electronic music with traditional music to foster student interest in the proposed repertoire.

The main barrier outspoken by our interviewees is the level of flexibility required to get the most of the project. “Only in a school like ours, devoted to work by projects, that is not opposed to changes of class schedules, class contents, and with faculty that is willing to take the extra step to work and be available beyond expectations, is AW possible.” The project is extremely rewarding for teachers and motivating for students. “But it is a lot of hard work and dedication.” A second potential barrier comes from the perspective the project produces in kids. While at their early education stages they experience teaching and learning through integration, practice and playful experiences, later stages do not seem to follow and build over the same perspective. This breach and the abilities they receive to cope with it seems a matter of concern for the design team.

The AW project uses a pedagogical approach based on working by projects. As with any of this type of projects, it requires that the School adapts its teaching curriculum to the needs of students – in this case, more than 32 nationalities. The AWs are run in a public institution with a managerial team that has understood its potential as an integrating element of many of the programs and teaching currently being carried out. Also, and from this institutional perspective, the project might help deepen the position of the school in its district as a cultural and relational reference.

One of the major drivers for this AW project has been the support of the Carasso Foundation. Through their regular calls for projects to innovate in nutrition and feeding, and in education, they shaped the individual contributions of a group of seven friends and colleagues into a prototype to innovate the integration of school’s boys and girls. They put together an original design combining education, integration, music, experiences and remixes. But it was through the call from the Carasso Foundation that they formalized the prototype and were able to get the funding. A second driver is the commitment of the school management and faculty. “A project like this involves a lot of flexibility, changing schedules, topics, and it could not be successful in another environment where management and teachers are not fully committed to it.” It is through it, developed over time, with results, and evident in the sheer number of active projects being run in the school at any given time, that AW has received full support from all the agents. This commitment is seen beyond the participation of the teachers in the activities of AW. They are adapting their own classes according to the experiences they and the students are being exposed to in AW. Even non-participating teachers, being aware of these experiences, are expected to modify their own approaches and behaviors thanks to AW. Thirdly, the AW network is constantly evolving the original design. Not that this design is no longer valid. It holds as the centerpiece of the project: Music and remixes for integration. But the project now involves exposure to neighboring institutions (a chorus of elder people, the local mosque, the local stores), language and verbal expression in Spanish and English, body coordination, or teamwork. This evolution is the result of the constant interaction of the two operating and design teams.

This is a case reflecting a top-down network with a social aim. The distinctiveness of this case is its initiation: The call for projects of the Carasso Foundation aiming for social innovation. The call is won by an informal group of musicians and IT technicians that put up a project that, through music, teaches inclusiveness and cultural emotions. The project found an immediate welcome in one of the most committed schools of Seville, and its management saw in it a transversal project to help kids aging 10-12 years. It has served not only as teaching tool. Teachers involved in the project use some of the techniques in less soft classes. And it has enacted the school as a means of generating community in the neighborhood. Out of the interviews, we perceived that the principal of the school, is the champion of the project. Her commitment to innovate socially is paramount; she is driven by inclusiveness and making an impact in the neighborhood through the kids and their engagement with their families. The rest of her team, and the willingness of the Antropoloops team has leveraged the school principal’s drive to motivate themselves and produce significant benefits for the kids and their families – that large that they are planning to expand the experience to other locations.