Many countries contain disadvantaged communities that have difficulty accessing a good education and parents who must choose between working to bring food home or taking care of their children. This often causes children to be left unattended and without good schooling. To resolve this predicament, some teachers propose collaborating through musical projects that promote education and a sense of community, while providing a respite for parents.

"This initiative began in Venezuela, with a program of orchestras, children and youth choirs and social rescue programs, and has been replicated in 60 countries around the world," Isabel Espinel explains. She is a student within the Master of Social Science Research (MICS for its initials in Spanish) of the University of Navarra, in the Education major offered by the School of Education and Psychology.

Espinel, a native of Ecuador, studies the MICS thanks to a grant from the Social Trends Institute and, in her final thesis, seeks to understand the origin and scope of this social phenomen on that has mobilized hundreds of music teachers. "This master has given me a solid foundation in methodology, project design and analysis, and synthesis of results," she says.

She tries to answer questions such as: What motivates a teacher to become involved so much and go beyond his work in school, creating initiatives such as choirs or orchestras? Are educators true agents of change? Why do they think interventions based on music are best suited for their purposes? In order to carry out this research, she will interview teachers who are part of a system of choirs and orchestras in countries such as Bolivia, Argentina, Canada, the United States, Brazil and Ecuador.

In her analysis, she will apply the relational paradigm, developed by Pierpaolo Donati (a professor at the University of Bologna, Italy)— who recently visited the Institute for Culture and Society— to understand what motivates an educator to take charge of these groups and if the current social climate has motivated this change and favored its systematic expansion. "We no longer expect the government to provide all the necessary goods, but rather are finding an alternative through community," she says. Espinel considers this positive since it favors the creation of networks and a common identity.

Educating in vulnerable areas

Before studying the MICS, Espinel graduated in Music from the University of the Hemispheres in Ecuador and studied a Master in Interdisciplinary Education of Arts at the University of Barcelona.

She came across music education thanks to her work at the Enseña Ecuador Foundation, which is part of the Teach for All network. The Foundation employs people who are not normally teachers at schools in disadvantaged areas about 60 kilometers from Quito to carry out new methodologies in community project work. Specifically, Espinel developed a music program with students at the Corazón de María Educational Center. She then hosted didactic concerts at nearby schools.

"People heard about our project and gave us instruments that they no longer used," she says. For students, these projects are a way of building bonds with the community and the educational environment beyond teaching. "Teachers serve as a reference point and these children need role models to follow," she says.

Once the MICS is over, she will return to Quito to start working at the Caminitos de Luz school. As she explains, "it is a center that welcomes children who do not have access to public education, whose families have many economic difficulties." In fact, the school offers a meal assistance program and it remains open in the evenings so parents can work during those hours.