Is the World Bank education policy adequate for fighting poverty? Some evidence from Latin America

This paper focuses on the relationship between the World Bank’s education policy and the recent anti-poverty priorities and strategies that shape the present Bank’s agenda for development. The paper provides a critical assessment of the explicit strategies of the World Bank’s education policies aimed at fighting poverty by identifying the contradictions embedded in anti-poverty discourses and strategies, and relating them to an education policy that generates inequalities and shows little effectiveness in helping people to escape from poverty. This analysis is applied to the situation of Latin American education systems, which have, during the last decade, experienced an important expansion but have also maintained strong inequalities in educational performance and access to post-compulsory education.     

On global absences: Reflections on the failings in the education and poverty relationship in Latin America

This paper explores some of the aspects of the relationship between education and poverty as it has been constructed by international organisations and national governments in Latin America. The analysis is carried out from two separate angles. On the one hand, the paper highlights the main failings that underlie the positive and hoped-for relationship between investment in education and the reduction of poverty. On the other, it demonstrates how a good number of these failings can be attributed to an underestimation of the inverse relationship, i.e. the effects that poverty has on education. Though this analysis can be understood from a general perspective, evidence from Latin America is used to illustrate the consequences of these global absences.     

Conceptualising Education for All in Latin America

In this paper we discuss issues in conceptualising the education of poor and marginalised adults in Latin America. Our starting point is the World Education Forum 'Dakar Framework for Action' affirmation that education is the key to sustainable development, peace and stability. We argue that a reconceptualisation of the education of adults, informed by an understandingof adults' everyday and work practices, may help us understand the ways in which education can contribute to these goals. Such an analysis requires both a socio-cognitive and a political dimension in order to take account of the cognitive abilities and agency as citizens of those whom Frantz Fanon memorably called 'the wretched of the earth'.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Spanish Bilateral Initiatives for Education in Latin America

The research presented in this article concerns la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation—AECI) and its growing presence in Latin America since the late 1990s. The aim is to evaluate the transformative potential that bilateral funding can have on educational reform in the region. The article starts with a brief history of Spain’s past and present strategies for educational initiatives in Latin America, and then it focuses on three of AECI’s successful projects: basic and adult literacy; gender mainstreaming in development projects; and multicultural and bilingual education. The article explains the effectiveness of Spanish-sponsored projects in Latin America and compares their strategies with those of other bilateral and multilateral donors, such as PREAL. The article concludes by analysing multi-sectoral development efforts that are the foundation of educational strategies sponsored with Spanish funds, based on the grounds that elimination of poverty will not result from projects that focus exclusively on the individual or the family, but rather from those at the community level. AECI’s efforts are directed at cultivating internal capacities already present in the communities through training human resources and deploying financial resources.     

Preparing teachers for inclusive education in Latin America

This article analyzes the current challenges facing inclusive education in Latin America and explores some possible solutions. The author suggests that teachers play a key role in providing education that is inclusive for all. In Latin America, today, however, inclusive education often does not respond to the needs of children and young people, and teachers often finish their professional training without acquiring the skills they need to work with children and young people living in difficult circumstances. Teachers also need incentives to work in remote or difficult geographical areas, and they benefit from national efforts to improve their status, including awards for innovative work. Much remains to be done, but the training of teachers for a more inclusive education system is gradually being incorporated as part of the educational policy agenda in Latin America.     

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.     

Educational research networks in Latin America

During the last ten years research papers of good quality on Latin American education have risen from almost nothing to more than 100 a year, and the original three or four research centres have multiplied ten times. Diffusion has improved through regional distribution of journals and through opportunities for personal exchange, though this is handicapped by salary levels and poor communications. Networks, of which ten years ago there were only five, are expanding, and may be identified under sponsoring organizations or by topics. Many reasons for the high level of activity may be advanced, which include the key role played by journals, pay off from previous graduate training, facilities such as the use of computers, higher standards of librarianship and new sources of funding. Knowledge from previous research is also being put to use, and improvement programs are receiving support from research, but the danger exists that research may be transformed into an elite exercise.

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Zusammenfassung Während des letzten Jahrzehnts ist die Anzahl von Forschungsarbeiten guter Qualität über das Bildungswesen in Lateinamerika fast aus dem Nichts auf über 100 pro Jahr gestiegen, und die ursprünglich drei oder vier Forschungszentren haben sich verzehnfacht. Die Verbreitung hat sich durch regional zirkulierende Zeitschriften und durch Gelegenheiten zu persönlichem Austausch verbessert, obwohl dieser durch noch niedrige Gehälter und unzureichende Kommunikationsmittel behindert Netzwerke — vor 10 Jahren gab es nur fünf — haben sich vermehrt und können nach Förderorganisationen oder nach Themen klassifiziert werden. Für die Vielfalt der jetzigen Aktivitäten können verschiedene Gründe angeführt werden, u.a. die Schlüsselrolle der Zeitschriften, die Früchte früherer Universitätsausbildung, neue Möglichkeiten wie Gebrauch von Computern, höheres Bibliothekarsniveau und neue Finanzierungsquellen. Ausserdem werden durch frühere Forschung erworbene Kenntnisse angewandt und Verbesserungsprogramme durch Forschung unterstützt. Allerdings besteht die Gefahr, dass die Forschung einen elitären Charakter annehmen könnte.

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Résumé Au cours de ces dix dernières années, les articles sérieux concernant la recherche dans le domaine de l'éducation en Amérique latine, sont passés d'un nombre infime à une quantité depassant la centaine chaque année, et les trois ou quatre centres de recherche qui existaient à l'origine se sont multipliés par dix. La diffusion s'est améliorée grâce à la distribution régionale des publications spécialisées, et aux opportunités d'échanges personnels, bien que le handicap des bas salaires et des communications difficiles soit considérable. Les réseaux d'information qui, il y a dix ans, n'étaient qu'au nombre de cinq, se développent et peuvent être classés d'après les organisations qui les prennent en charge ou d'après leurs sujets d'enquête. On peut avancer de nombreuses suggestions pour expliquer ce haut niveau d'activité, entre autres le rôle-clef joué par les publications spécialisées, l'amortissement de la formation antérieure des enseignants, des facilités telles que l'usage des ordinateurs, un niveau plus élevé des bibliothécaires, et de nouvelles sources d'investissement. Les expériences de la recherche précédente sont aussi utilisées et les programmes d'amélioration reçoivent une aide de la recherche, mais le danger subsiste que cette recherche soit transformée en un exercice d'entraînement de l'élite.