Going Entrepreneurial in Colombia
Chapter 42 - 5 Years in Colombia - How I Reeducated Myself on the Streets of Laughter
Once back in Sweden, we began the intensive work of compiling all the material from the field study, i.e. the observation forms and interview surveys. It was time-consuming work to enter all the answers in a structured way into the statistics program we used for the analysis of the answers. It was also a work that we greatly enjoyed, as well as its entire process.
We lined up the forms and surveys in long rows on the tables in our workroom, one of the university's smaller computer rooms, which we also besieged over a few months. Our process was thorough and ambitious.
Pauline Dixon was of immense help here as she had both the knowledge of the work, as we basically replicated her and James Tooley's work, as well as a strong curiosity to see our results, which we would put in an international perspective through direct comparisons with the only comparable studies that were published at the time, i.e. Pauline's and James's.
A long literature review was also in front of us before final writing would reach our goal. We’d had the ambition to present the thesis in January, at the university's first presentation opportunity. However, time passed quickly and Christmas was approaching. An email I wrote to Pauline describes the situation.
22/12/2007
Thank You, Continued Research and Merry Christmas
Dear Pauline,
First of all, thank you so much for your wonderful help and guidance throughout our thesis work! And thank you so much for your most friendly approach to all our wonders and issues!
The last two weeks past too fast for us to perfectly manage our self-set agenda and as Patrik got a bad flue and was ill this entire last week, we didn't really pass the reading stage and thus couldn't advance much in the writing.
We will try to make the final additions and editing after Christmas when I, Joni, am back from Finland, where half of my family lives. We'll try to send you the latest version of our work by January.
Secondly, I (Joni) will try to go back to Colombia in late January or early February as soon as we've finished and defended the Thesis. For me to stay in Sweden would require full-time employment here and, since I don't want to get stuck here, I don't see that as an option but rather go entrepreneurial in Colombia. I have a good and flexible working opportunity there as partner to a friend's company and hope that my presence there will give me the opportunity to continue the research and seek funding from there.
With this said, I would like to express my desire to become your (and James') research assistant in Colombia and Latin America if time and interest allow. For me (and surely for Patrik as well) it would be an honour to get to write and publish an article with you and I would personally really enjoy getting to know the schools more deeply on a field level as well.
For now I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May it be a most joyful and peaceful time for you and your family. Also, our best Christmas and New Year wishes to James as well! This year, having found the perfect thesis topic by reading and becoming inspired by your work, with the first phone contact with you already in February, truly has been an inspiring and rewarding year.
Yours sincerely,
Joni (and Patrik)
Her reply came the day after, the day before Christmas Eve.
23/12/2007
Re: Thank You, Continued Research and Merry Christmas
Thank you Joni. What a lovely email. James has returned home now after 3 months away, so I will talk to him about any opportunities we see for you.
But until then have a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year.
Love
Pauline and James.
Pauline Dixon, PhD
Lecturer in Education,
EG West Centre,
University of Newcastle
I had decided to move to Colombia. As I had written to Pauline, I did not want to get stuck in a job in Sweden at a time, when I knew exactly where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do…
29/1/2008
Education for all, something we often take for granted but don't learn enough about to realize the limitations that the world's states face to contribute to for its fulfillment. Educating children in areas characterized by poverty, conflict and safety concerns, includes so many more factors to consider than is often understood in the Western world. Prioritizing not only factors, such as financial resources and effective educational plans, but also taking into account children's safety for life, their physical and mental health, nutritional intake and family situations, pose enormous challenges for educational institutions in many developing countries. This mostly concerns schools for the poor, which often have few opportunities for funding from the state budget.
From the day I started my Major in International Economics at SSE, I searched persistently for the perfect Master thesis topic for me. I realized early on that I wanted to write my thesis related to Development Economics, when I had just returned home after a year in Colombia teaching English. When my thesis partner finally suggested the topic of Private Education for the Poor, by presenting the hugely inspiring studies of Prof. James Tooley and Dr. Pauline Dixon from India and Africa, I felt an excitement I had never felt before about anything related to studies.
My first experience in Colombia took us there for three intense months of fieldwork among the country's poorest school children, teachers and principals with an entrepreneurial spirit of the highest caliber. This work gave me immense satisfaction in having found myself in a future career as an education economist. I saw that my future would be about field research and working for better education opportunities in developing countries, and specifically pushing for better targeted investments and administration of funds for the best possible education for the poor.
Thanks to my fantastic entrepreneurship training at the student association of SSE for several years, this future could begin, if I was provided with this dream-like scholarship for me and with it the financial means to go back to Colombia to specialize in education for the poor, in the developing world in general and in Latin America in particular.
…
The choice of Colombia is strongly related to my previous experience in the country, which gave me good knowledge of the country, a good understanding of the culture and a wide network of contacts, all of which contribute to my conviction of good opportunities for me to start a successful career right there. Through the work for my degree thesis (which is now in the absolute final phase), I came into good contact with the majority of important researchers, both in person and via email, who are all open to further contact for the development of the subject of education for the poor in Colombia and Latin America. To an even greater extent, I managed to make personal and physical contact with about 200 schools and their principals, all of whom with warm welcomes filled my work with great joy and a strong feeling that I was doing something highly significant.
Through this application, I wish to seek a correct and deeper understanding of the situation in marginalized areas in developing countries and thereby begin a career as an education economist carrying out extensive work for the education of the world's most vulnerable children.
It is thus with great pleasure and the greatest desire to begin the fulfillment of a dream that I hereby apply for this year's Jubilee Scholarship from SASSE, to enable the best possible progress for me in the field of my passion: Education for All.
Joni AlWindi
The above was my application for the Anniversary Scholarship of 2008 of my University’s Student Association, SASSE, announced for students’ personal need and improvement of professional ability.
Although I had won a scholarship to start my research in Colombia a year earlier, I didn’t get this one, and had to find another way back to Colombia.
The above is an excerpt from the upcoming book “5 Years in Colombia - How I Reeducated Myself on the Streets of Laughter”. It’s the first book in a 15-year memoir trilogy, highlighting the educational adventures from the author's final years as a disillusioned top student to becoming a young professional with a purpose far beyond what he could have imagined. For more information, please reach out to the author directly.
Author: Joni AlWindi
Published by: Joni AlWindi
Audio intro: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/5yearsincolombia
The complete thesis can be found here:
Private Schools in the Slums - Do they provide an effective primary educational service? - A case study of Aguablanca in Cali, Colombia
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