Lessons of globalization: encounters and discoveries of us secondary students in Mexico

In June 2003 the author travelled with students to Mexico to explore pre‐Columbian culture and traditional artisanal work in the Valley of Oaxaca. They arrived in the midst of a massive teachers' strike and their education really began. When they were not visiting the Zapotec ceremonial city of Monte Alban or the communities of artisans in the valley beyond, these American high school students were in the streets outside their hotel where thousands of teachers were quartering. The teachers had gathered in the state capital to protest government indifference to the dearth of school supplies, their meagre wages and the general poverty throughout the state of Oaxaca. The politics of rebellion reverberated in the hotel as peasants from distant communities gathered in political rallies demonstrating against government duplicity concerning a massacre of indigenous villagers a year earlier. The American teacher arranged an opportunity for his students to speak with Zapotec and Mixtec students of a bilingual school who were in the city to support the teachers. Within this narrative an analysis of globalization and the politics of education takes shape.