One of the challenges we have as a region is the collaborative work to think beyond our borders. We spoke with Ulrike Wahl, representative of Siemens Stiftung International Foundation, Latin America regional office, who told us about the STEM network that Siemens Stiftung has been leading since 2014.
1.- What does the STEM Latam Network consist of, since when has it been carried out and in which countries is it present?
The STEM Latam Network is an ecosystem of educational innovation focused on STEM, which began in 2014 in Santiago de Chile and to which more than 180 institutions from 14 countries in Latin America have joined due to motivation and shared objectives. It is a dynamic and constantly growing network, based on collaboration and the interest of its members in articulating ideas, experiences, capabilities and work spaces that enrich dialogue and actions. Its vocation to co-design, exchange and transfer educational resources and formats for teaching and learning related to the STEM approach is noteworthy.
This growing network that learns and fosters linkages between people and institutions at local, national and interregional levels is currently coordinated by the Siemens Stiftung International Foundation. It fosters intersectoral alliances to promote, in an articulated effort and agenda, education with a STEM focus as a strategic vector for social and sustainable development. Currently, there are 44 STEM Territories initiatives in Latin America, many of them formally declared, each with a STEM education agenda under development.
The Network vibrates with a spirit of co-construction and sharing based on common objectives, coinciding and complementary thematic lines, and the motivation to cooperate to develop and contribute with concrete and useful answers to the different contexts and needs in Latin America.
The Network promotes the OER Movement (Open Educational Resources, under Creative Commons licenses), which promotes the production and transfer of educational and didactic media and formats for free public use. The collaboration with UNESCO in this regard, and the joint action to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals is a common ground. One of its most concrete expressions on the Web is the Center for Open Educational Resources, CREA, which houses more than 1,500 open educational resources focused on STEM, available to anyone interested, particularly teachers. This portal coordinated by Siemens Stiftung was created from and for Latin America.
2.- What are the challenges you have faced for its implementation in the region?
More than challenges, I would say that the Network, like all Networks, is a challenging process. It is not intended to generate structures that limit, but to enable and generate virtuous links between people, institutions and common agendas. The potential to articulate efforts has to do with capacity for dialogue, openness, willingness to cooperate in the idea of a plural and large shared table where everyone puts and takes, knowing that the conjunction of knowledge, experiences, management capacity and funding can have a real impact on educational and social innovation.
The value of cooperation as a valuable tool, as well as trust, have achieved important advances in the STEM Latam Network. Undoubtedly, it is also challenging: although education in the continent shares urgencies and issues, it is important that the solutions are able to understand and adapt to local particularities. That is why one of the most important strategies promoted by the STEM Latam Network is that of intersectoral alliances linked to the reality in the territories. We share the idea of the "STEM Territories" model, defined by the Ministry of Education of Colombia as: "Initiatives of collective impact that aim to create agendas for mobilization, inspiration and promotion of the STEM+ educational approach in the country, as a transformative response to the challenges that education and citizenship training demand for the 21st century".
3.- Why is the STEM Latam Network a strategic issue for Siemens Stiftung in the work they are doing in the region?
In a globalized world, in which borders are not an impediment to integration and collaboration, Siemens Stiftung is present in Latin America as an actor committed to contribute to strengthen capacities, competencies and skills that allow expanding opportunities and ways to achieve a better future for children and young people, especially those living in complex contexts and vulnerability. Educational justice, diversity and inclusion, sustainable development and climate change, integral health, and digitality are some of the issues around which Siemens Stiftung joins forces, drives, serves as a bridge and acts as an ally.
4.- How important are networks and collaborative work for projects like this in the region?
Partnerships and networks are an essential element in the way Siemens Stiftung operates around the world. We are deeply convinced that only through partnerships can the complex and global problems of our time be addressed. The articulation of efforts, the collaborative work to focus on common themes and projects, but above all, always, the complementary work, make the difference.
There are those who provide a portfolio of highly relevant content because of its relevance for application in the field; there are others who have funds in search of impact, not alone but together with others; and there are those who need, and are very clear about what is needed to improve. Siemens Stiftung's alliance with Latimpacto is to be able to unite supply, demand and management, articulation and financing capacities. We believe that by joining knowledge and tasks, we can do much more than alone.
