Creative learning challenge Brazil: a constructionism approach to educational leadership development

The Creative Learning Challenge Brazil is a fellowship program of the Lifelong Kindergarten group of the MIT Media Lab in partnership with the Lemann Foundation. Each year the fellowship selects approximately 10 innovative educators, the “Creative Learning fellows”, dedicated to making Brazilian education more hands-on, relevant, playful and collaborative for all. Based upon the documentation of reflective practices, as well as materials produced by the program and its participants, this paper analyzes the fellows’ development through the lens of Constructionism theory of Seymour Papert. Constructionism based practices are revealed at multiple levels of the program, including the selection process, project development, and fellowship design, thereby providing a robust immersive learning and leadership development experience.