Keywords
implementation
effectiveness
formative evaluation
mediation
child labor
Colombia
How to Cite
Abstract
The article describes the formative evaluation of an educational intervention program with working children in Barranquilla (Colombia). An international team of evaluators conducted qualitative interviews with a sample of facilitators (n = 8), families of participants (n = 38) and teachers of schools where the program was implemented (n = 40). The interviews focused on the implementation process and discussed the role of facilitators, which administered the program and develop strategies for community mediation. The results show the connection between the processes of community involvement and the effectiveness of the intervention. The facilitators connect the program with the organizational and community contexts. In the implementation process, the role of facilitators consisted on (a) to adjust the program to the peculiarities and difficulties of the context, (b) to exchange good practices, and (c) to mediate with teachers and families involved. While the role of mediation and community adjustment of the facilitators were planned in the design, the formation of an informal group among the most active applicators affects to the central components of the program. Paradoxically, this dynamic improved the implementation and outcomes. In this context we discuss the lessons learned in the prevention of child labor.This journal is registered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Thus, this work may be reproduced, distributed, and publicly shared in digital format, as long as the names of the authors and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are acknowledged. Others are allowed to quote, adapt, transform, auto-archive, republish, and create based on this material, for any purpose (even commercial ones), provided the authorship is duly acknowledged, a link to the original work is provided, and it is specified if changes have been made. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana does not hold the rights of published works and the authors are solely responsible for the contents of their works; they keep the moral, intellectual, privacy, and publicity rights. Approving the intervention of the work (review, copy-editing, translation, layout) and the following outreach, are granted through an use license and not through an assignment of rights. This means the journal and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana cannot be held responsible for any ethical malpractice by the authors. As a consequence of the protection granted by the use license, the journal is not required to publish recantations or modify information already published, unless the errata stems from the editorial management process. Publishing contents in this journal does not generate royalties for contributors.