GPN Speaker Series: Top-Down or Bottom-Up? Insights from 20 Years of Socio-Emotional Policies in Colombia

In 2003, a new Minister of Education was interested in giving citizenship, socio-emotional development, peaceful relationships, and democratic education as much relevance in the Colombian educational system as mathematics and language. With great trust in academia, she asked Enrique Chaux, full professor in the Department of Psychology at Universidad de los Andes, to lead a group of experts to construct the national standards of citizenship competencies and a national test to evaluate those standards. This started a large top-down movement of the whole educational system that continues today, 20 years later.

Meanwhile, many inspiring teachers, students, parents, schools, and organizations have been developing very creative bottom-up innovations to promote peaceful relationships throughout the country. These local initiatives have generated great enthusiasm and engagement from the communities, favoring sustainability. One of their main challenges, however, has been that these initiatives are based more on intuition than on research.

In this talk, Chaux will share how Columbia is currently promoting a synthesis of top-down and bottom-up approaches to support socio-emotional development in the country. In particular, he will discuss how each approach has challenges and advantages, but integrating rigorous research with local expertise can favor impact and sustainability, even at large-scale implementations.

Enrique Chaux is full professor in the Department of Psychology at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. He holds a doctorate in education from Harvard University, a master’s degree in risk and prevention from Harvard, and a master’s in cognitive and neural systems from Boston University. His main interests include prevention of aggression, school violence, citizenship competencies, socio-emotional development, conflicts, bullying, cyberbullying, peace education, and humane education. He led the teams that created the Colombian National Standards of Citizenship Competencies, the National Test of Citizenship Competencies, and the school-based program Aulas en Paz (Classrooms in Peace). He has advised the Colombian government on topics related to peace education, school violence, citizenship education, and socio-emotional development. In 2012 he was recognized for his leadership in Colombia.