Three-Year-Old Agents of Social Change: How aeioTU Educators Build on Children’s Agency

aeioTU is a Colombian organization that works to enact social change through the field of early childhood education. In collaboration with the Colombian government, aeioTU oversees several public centers located in socioeconomically vulnerable municipalities in Colombia. This thesis analyzes the aeioTU curriculum and the practices of several aeioTU teachers through the theoretical lens of Freire’s critical pedagogy. This thesis argues that by fostering critical awareness of the world from an early age, as well as by collaborating closely with mothers and the communities at large, aeioTU teachers equip children with the tools to become social agents who can challenge and positively change their lived realities. The research presented in this thesis affirms the potential of aeioTU teachers to enact social change in socioeconomically vulnerable communities by building on young children’s social agency.