Some challenges for educational research in Latin America

Founding director of the Centro de Estudios Educativos (Centre for Educational Studies) in Mexico City and of the Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos(Latin American Journal of Educational Studies). He was in charge of the National Programme of Educational Research of the National Council for Science and Technology. He now carries out research at the Regional Centre for Adult Education and Functional Literacy for Latin America. His recent publications include: La política de alfabetización de seis países latinoamericanos, Participatory Research: A New Research Paradigm?and Elementos para una propuesta orientada a elevar la calidad: La enseñanza tutorial.     

Professions and educational counseling in Mexico and Latin America

Conclusion In these circumstances, the prospect of the counselor for the professions is to play a new and different role inside the field of educational counseling. This new role will rely, in great measure, on the foreseeable behavior of society and, consequently, educational systems.It is relevant to consider the kind of society which is expected to emerge in the next twenty-five years. When this desirable scenario has been defined it becomes possible and necessary to join efforts, open new pathways and formulate new alternative solutions to present problems.Educational counseling should acquire properties that give it a new, more concrete meaning in a way that allows it to be used in a more accurate and effective way institutionally, in relation to the educational system and to career and national planning.Educational counseling should be more aware of and open to what is happening in the sectors that give a mandate to education at the economic, political, and social levels.Educational counseling and counseling for professionals must have continuity inside the educational system, and it may not be reduced to the role of filling in holes and taking responsibility for the contradictions of the national education system. Counseling must have a preventive task. In order to fulfill this, it is important that counselors have a solid background in education, politics, economics, and social areas; so they should be able to establish a connection with fields of work and their development potential.It is essential to systematize and share research on the discipline in order to delineate problems which are immediate, medium, or long-range in the different areas of counseling.     

Relevance in pedagogy and the problem of educational quality in Latin America

The educational reforms implemented in various Latin America countries at the end of the 60's and early 70's shared a common desire to ruralize rural primary schooling in the search for relevance. Some reforms promoted differentiated content for rural areas while others, notably the Mexican, emphasized the adaptation of standard material to the local context through the use of a progressive methodology of teaching.Questions are raised as to whether the Mexican approach is any the less dualist for adopting standard material and whether it represents a viable strategy for the improvement of the quality of education in rural schools. The progressive model of teaching proposed is seen to be based on a number of assumptions of unproven validity, especially with regards to its ability to promote social and political awareness. In practical terms it is seen to depend for its success on types of teachers and pupils that are largely unknown in rural areas, and on a type of school organization that should precede any such reform of methods.More a philosophy than a practical plan of action, the progressive methodology is unlikely to act as an adequate substitute for more expensive but more determined policies designed to tackle the basic problems of truancy, drop-out and poor pupil performance.     

The spread of targeted educational policies in Latin America: global thesis and local impacts

This article analyses the new educational mandate for Latin America, exploring its repercussions on the design and development of certain educational policies. In particular, it concentrates both on the anti‐poverty educational agenda (at a global level) and on targeted educational policies (at a regional, national and local level), analyzing, on one hand, their interaction and, on the other, their limits, opportunities and omissions. Within this framework, the article is organised as follows. First, it presents the current anti‐poverty educational agenda, analysing its thesis and foundations. Second, it discusses the repercussions of this agenda on Latin America, explaining the emergence, spread and logic of action of targeted educational policies. The third and fourth sections focus on a particular model of educational targeting, initially explaining the features of the programme (called Bolsa Escola) and then presenting an assessment of its impacts from an educational standpoint. Finally, to conclude, it analyses the shortcomings and omissions of both targeted educational policies and the global anti‐poverty agenda.     

拉丁美洲高等教育大众化探析

拉丁美洲国家在二十世纪六七十年代基本实现了高等教育大众化 ,采取的主要政策与措施包括改革公立高等教育 ,发展多层次的私立高等教育 ,创建公私立学校趋同的新型办学模式等。拉美国家高等教育大众化的成果是明显的 ,但也带来了职业分层化和投资效益低下等问题 ,其过度发展高等教育 ,忽视基础教育的教训应引起我们的警觉     

新自由主义在拉美的失败

拉丁美洲是新自由主义理论的主要实验场之一,而"失去的十年"、"失去的六年"、"拉美化"等名词不同程度地证明了新自由主义理论作为经济改革的指导思想和政策规范导致了拉美国家现代化进程受挫.     

An overview of educational policies in the countries of Latin America during the 1990s

In this paper we want to examine the construct of the Learning Society in its economic and social context in the UK. We will argue that the policy rhetoric which makes up the current discourse of the ‘learning’ society is both powerfully normative and unhelpfully reductionist and that it displaces and masks issues of inequality. The discourse of the Learning Society has conflated the achievement of increased levels of participation for 16‐ to 19‐year‐olds with the insertion of market mechanisms and relations and the assertion of self‐interest. This has meant that issues of exclusion, polarization and social justice have been systematically neglected. The Learning Society provides, we suggest, for a redrawing and relegitimation of patterns of exclusion. In particular, in a time of social crisis, middle‐class retrenchment (masked as familial duty) has re‐asserted itself, in part, through a specific, particular engagement with the Learning Society in order to ensure advantage and distinction. As Connell (1996: 5) puts it, this ‘is the point on which the politics of education markets mainly turns’. Thus, we believe it is critical to address the question, ‘Whose Learning Society'? We shall attempt this through a preliminary examination of data collected from a cohort of 16‐year‐olds who are in the process of transition from statutory schooling into a post‐16 education and training market (ETM), and deploy their ‘emergent narratives’ to problematize the normative simplicities of the Learning Society.     

Educational research in Latin America

Educational planning specialist at Unesco's Regional Office for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC). Former staff member of the World Bank and Coordinator of the Latin American educational research exchange network (REDUC), he was also Head of the Chilean Educational Planning Office (1965–70). Co-author of Development of Educational Planning Modelsand of Eight Years of their Lives.     

Higher Education in Latin America

This article presents an analysis of, and proposals for, international co-operation in higher education. It focuses on Latin American higher education, its current situation, and the expected transformation of the goals of higher education in the context of international co-operation. Education in the Twenty-First Century must be part of the world economic order. As such, it must attend to human necessities. One of the most important goals of the Twenty-First Century should be the building of a new kind of solidarity among human beings, one in which higher education systems will play an important role. The author describes the challenges that globalization poses to Latin American higher education.     

Educating cities in Latin America

This article considers the development of educating cities from a political perspective, illustrating in detail the diversity of organisations and individuals involved and the challenges they are facing. Bearing in mind that educating cities were established from the 1990s onwards in Europe and spread to other continents from there, the purpose of this article is to demonstrate how this proposal was adopted in Latin America. After discussing the basic aims of educating cities, the paper focuses on the Latin American experience, giving examples of existing projects within the educating cities initiative. The authors are particularly interested in the contrast between the political intentions of educating cities on the one hand and the social, economic, political and cultural world on the other hand. They observe that in this context there is a danger of the individual being forgotten, which contradicts the actual intention of the educating city concept. They also discuss the problem of who should carry out the realisation of educating cities and how the various stakeholders might coordinate their actions. Contemplating new directions at the end of their paper, the authors sum up a number of guidelines and offer recommendations for action in developing educating cities.     

Learning analytics initiatives in Latin America: Implications for educational researchers,practitioners and decision makers

This study presents several Latin American research initiatives in the field of learning analytics (LA). The study’s purpose is to enhance awareness and understanding of LA among researchers, practitioners and decision makers, and to highlight the importance of supporting research on LA. We analyzed case studies of LA research conducted at four levels of the educational system (the national, institutional, classroom and student levels), which were implemented in four countries (Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay). Diversified cases were selected to demonstrate the use of LA in primary, secondary and higher education, and to allow the inclusion of different types of datasets. These cases also showed the development of legal frameworks for handling ethical issues, and they met the requirements for data privacy protection in Latin America. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings and their implications for further research and practice in the field of LA for teaching and learning.     

The Changing Nature of Non-formal Education in Latin America

This article highlights the history of innovation and creativity in non-formal education programming in Latin America since the 1920s. These include community-based programmes, literacy, fundamental education, community development, technical vocational training, extension education, consciousness raising, popular education, and community schooling. With the economic downturn in the 1980s, non-formal education became less viable as part of socio-economic development strategies owing partly to the social progress made in the region, a shift to schooling as a priority and the pulling back of governments from social service funding. Nevertheless, the 1980s saw the informal economy and social movements as emerging avenues for non-formal education programming and non-governmental agencies became the dominant vehicle for educational delivery. During the 1990s, technical education was going through privatisation and adult basic education was being criticised and overhauled. Citizenship education, a potential avenue for non-fomal education investment in the newly democratised region is identified as an area overlooked by policy makers. Similarly, the growing needs of the indigenous populations of the region and urban youth unemployment are singled out as potential areas for non-formal education programming.