Indigenous higher education in Mexico and Brazil: between redistribution and recognition

Abstract

Indigenous groups in Latin America face a double exclusion from higher education, with low levels of access to institutions and little acknowledgement of their distinctive cultural and epistemological traditions within the curriculum. This article assesses current policies in Mexico and Brazil towards indigenous populations in higher education, considering the various responses to the challenge, including affirmative action programmes in mainstream universities, intercultural courses and autonomous institutions. These policies and initiatives are analysed using the theoretical frames of redistribution and recognition, focusing on demands for formal equality and material wellbeing on the one hand, and a distinctive cultural and educational space on the other. While state-sponsored policies focus primarily on the redistributive element, initiatives based on recognition come largely from autonomous organisations, raising a series of dilemmas and tensions around educational justice for indigenous populations in the region.     

Willingness toward organ and body donation among anatomy professors and students in Mexico

Most anatomists agree that cadaver dissection serves as a superior teaching tool in human anatomy education. However, attitudes toward body donation vary widely between different individuals. A questionnaire was developed to determine the attitudes toward body and organ donation among those who learn the most from cadavers: medical students, medical student teaching assistants, medical students involved in research, and anatomy professors. A cross‐sectional, prospective study was designed in which the questionnaire was distributed among first‐year human anatomy students before undertaking cadaver dissection at the beginning of the semester, and then again after a commemoration service at the end of the course. The questionnaire items included demographic data, as well as questions designed to characterize participants' attitudes regarding body/organ donation from strangers, family members, and whether participants would consider such practices with their own bodies. Out of a total of 517 students enrolled in the Human Anatomy course in the Medical School at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Mexico during January to June 2016, 95% responded to the first (491) and second (490) surveys. Participants' opinions on their own organ donation was similar before and after exposure to cadaver dissection, with between 87% and 81% in favor of such practices, and only 3% against it, in both surveys. Participants' willingness to donate their own bodies, as well as those of family members, increased, while reluctance regarding such practices decreased by half (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.05). Professors had the highest rates of positive opinions regarding their own body donation (74.9%), with 18.8% undecided. Low opposition toward organ and body donation remains prevalent among both anatomists and physicians in training in Mexico. Anat Sci Educ 10: 589–597. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Do Spanish secondary school teachers really value different sorts of procedural skills?

The aim of teaching science at secondary school level is that of achieving the scientific literacy of all citizens. This must involve diverse objectives, among which may be found the development of procedural skills (thought, manipulative, communicative, etc.). The new curricula of many countries provide for these objectives. However, it is important to know to what extent the teaching staff consider them as true content to be taught. In this article, we analyse the opinions of secondary school teachers belonging to schools in north‐western Spain with regard to how they value different types of procedures. Our findings show that the surveyed teachers establish differences between various procedural skills as far as the recognition of their presence in the classroom and their evaluation are concerned, although it may be said that they generally value procedural skills highly. These findings are discussed. In addition, the persistence of traditional conceptions in the teaching of science, as well as the difficulty of assuming that the changes promoted by new curricular approaches are addressed, are highlighted.     

How knowledge brokers emerge and evolve: The role of actors’ behaviour

This article investigates how actors positioned in a network can evolve as knowledge brokers, as well as how they act to develop new brokerage roles. Our focus is on actor's behaviour while previous studies concentrate more on the structural and positional determinants of brokerage roles. This research combines brokerage roles with a broker's functions in an exploratory study of a small Italian comics publishing house. Over 20 years, the firm played different brokerage roles involving different actors at national and international levels. We find that if all brokerage roles involve transcoding functions, the ability to overcome transcoding obstacles, through the use of shared imprinting with receiving partners, could be useful for developing any brokerage role. Moreover, heterogeneity in the competences and industry experience of hired members of the management team could support the development of new brokerage roles, with differentiated effects on various brokers’ functions. If a brokerage role involves new actors with no previous allegiance, the status of the broker, signalled through network relations, can have significant impacts by indirectly communicating its superior knowledge. The proposed, emerging theoretical framework has direct implications for studies of knowledge brokers and innovation in social networks, as well as for entrepreneurship research.     

Leading for social justice in challenging school contexts

This article is part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) and aims to analyse the success factors of two Spanish secondary school principals working in the line of social justice in challenging contexts. The factors are arranged in traits and beliefs of principals and in the strategies they used to bring successful leadership. The article concludes by showing a model of leadership that emphasizes both personal and professional characteristics of principals and their central role as agents of social change.