Date of publication
Oct 14, 2026
Category:
Practice Insight
Puerta Politécnica al Cosmos: understanding programme implementation in an itinerant science popularisation initiative in peri-urban Mexico
by
Ma. Luisa Montes-Rojas
,
Felipe Caballero Briones
,
Dr David Alonso Leija Roman
Although itinerant science popularisation initiatives extend opportunities for public engagement beyond established science communication infrastructure, limited empirical evidence exists on how programme implementation is shaped under peri-urban conditions. This Practice Insight examines Puerta Politécnica al Cosmos, an itinerant astronomy programme in north-eastern Mexico, as an instrumental case for identifying recurring implementation conditions from which analytically transferable implementation insights were derived. We employed a convergent mixed-methods design integrating visitor surveys (N = 404), collaborator surveys (N = 30) and semi-structured student interviews (N = 40) through analytical triangulation. We identified four interdependent implementation conditions demonstrating how educational experiences, organisational coordination, participant engagement and territorial context interacted throughout programme delivery. These conditions revealed implementation trade-offs associated with accessibility, logistics, visitor management and technical infrastructure. The study demonstrates how analytical triangulation can generate implementation knowledge that provides the basis for analytically transferable implementation insights to inform the planning, adaptation, delivery and evaluation of itinerant science popularisation initiatives in peri-urban and other territorially underserved communities.