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Literacy Instruction in Mexicoreviewed by Rodolfo Rincones - 2004 ![]() Author(s): Robert Miller Publisher: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, Bloomington ISBN: 0873678435, Pages: 123, Year: 2003 Search for book at Amazon.com These are transitional times for the Mexican society. Mexicans
had very high expectations after the electoral victory of Vicente
Fox in 2001, the first candidate from an opposing political party
to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) to
become president in nearly 80 years. Fox’s victory, in part,
arose from a society that had become disenchanted and unhappy with
the old regime. His victory was also related to his electoral
promises. However, three years into his presidency, political
analysts speak of ungovernableness. The relations between the
legislative and executive branches are marked by constant tension
and conflicts. The most important reforms proposed by Fox’s
government have died in Congress. In terms of education, the current government’s policy is
embodied in the Compromiso Social por la Calidad de la
Educación (Social Compromise for the Quality of Education)
signed by the government, the national teachers’ union,
university presidents, business leaders and social organizations.
In reality, this agreement basically continues with the principles
of the educational reform started during the presidency of Carlos
Salinas de Gortari in 1992. This reform brought to the forefront of
Mexican education the neoliberal ideas marked by commitment to
efficiency, market, privatization, and choice. The touted positive
results that the neoliberal reforms were to bring to the Mexican
educational system have yet to be seen. Of course, to change the
Mexican educational system, which has been plagued with problems
and contradictions since its creation in 1921, will require more
than an alliance among the different political forces. Since 1992,
three identifiable national projects have been competing with each
other to take control of the Mexican education system: The
neoliberal, the populist or corporatist, and the social liberal
(Ornelas, 1997, p. 54). As the educational system transitions into
the new century, the struggles continue with each project trying to
become hegemonic. Due to its complexity and convoluted historical past, Mexican
educational system may not be easy to understand. Robert
Miller’s monograph Literacy Instruction in Mexico is
an attempt to do that. His book documents the progress of
México’s basic educational system from the 1970s to the
1990s. Miller writes in a descriptive tone and combines basic
historical information with official data to offer a glimpse of one
of the most complex educational systems in North America. The book
is the product of 20 years of research conducted by the author.
Information was obtained through numerous visits to urban and rural
schools, interviews with government officials, school principals
and teachers, administration of teacher questionnaires, and review
of official documents. The information is organized in seven
chapters and ends with a bibliography. After the introductory
notes, the author offers an overview of the Mexican school system,
a brief historical account of basic literacy in Mexico, a
description of the literacy efforts in rural and bilingual schools,
the development of special education, teacher training, and
information on the literacy projects for Mexican nationals in the
United States. The last chapter includes the author’s
perspectives for development of the Mexican educational
system. Mexico’s dilemma has been how to deal with conflicts
created between traditional and modernizing efforts. Education has
not been exempted from these conflicts. The Mexican educational
system is rooted in historical and ideological battles and power
struggles. Many of the problems being faced currently are
historical. Miller rightfully places these problems in an
historical context as he traces the origins of the educational
system back to the late XIX century, during the Reform Movement,
and the enactment of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 to the
creation of the Secretaria de Educación Publica
(SEP) in 1921. Miller also documents the influence of John Dewey on
Mexican educators who were forging the Mexican educational system
at the beginning of the last century. Since its official
establishment in 1921, the SEP has dealt with conflicting
functions. It has been charged with providing literacy and a strong
nationalist education to homogenize the Mexican population with
profound ethnic and socioeconomic differences. Writing about Mexican education, one is always taking the risk
of not dealing with the topics that would offer a balanced view of
an educational system. And, in the case of México, there is a
plethora of ideological and political issues. Although
Miller’s book deals with the issues superficially, the
monograph offers a balanced view and presents an account of some of
the current and most controversial issues in the Mexican education
system such as the challenge of providing and enhancing educational
services for students attending schools in marginal urban and rural
areas and improving the infrastructure and conditions of schools,
teaching conditions, and teacher salaries. Another issue touched on
tangentially but equally important, is the conflicting situations
associated with the approval of the 1992 Acuerdo Nacional
para la Modernización de la Educación Básica.
The enactment of this major piece of legislation was intended to
make the educational system more flexible, improve quality, and
decentralize decision making to the states. This last issue is
perhaps the most controversial of all. It has generated what some
analysts have referred to as the “politics of
ambivalence.” On one side, the Mexican government
decentralizes education to the states but keeps control of the
curriculum and remains in control of capturing and distributing
funding for education. On the other side, the Mexican state intends
to bring efficiency to the educational system and at the same time
generate and increase legitimacy. More than a decade later,
decentralization of the Mexican educational system is still a
challenge. Miller concentrates his study on primary or basic education.
Basic education in México includes six years of elementary
education and 3 years of secondary education (middle school).
Elementary education has been a priority for the Mexican
government, since it serves approximately 80% of the total student
population and employs 68% of the teachers. Therefore, it is at
this level where most of the reform efforts have been directed
throughout the years, becoming one of the main battlegrounds in
Mexican education. Every aspect of basic education has been touched
by reforms and every aspect of these reforms has been contested and
resisted, which has generated several unresolved
conflicts. Despite the daunting challenges faced by the Mexican educational
system, it has also had several achievements worth noting. The
illiteracy rate for the population ten years of age and older
decreased from almost 78% in 1990 to 10.6% in 1995. For individuals
15 years or older, the literacy rate is less than 10%, while the
average number of years in school for this population group
increased to 7.7 in the 1990’s from 2.6 in the 1960’s
(Programa Nacional de Educación 2001-2006, p.
59). The expansion of educational services and enrollment also grew
considerably. One out of twelve Mexicans attended school in the
1930s while one out of five did in the 1970s (Prawda & Flores,
2001, p. 90). The number of children between the ages of six and 14
not attending school decreased from 2.8 million in 1990 to
approximately 1.2 million in 1995 (Prawda & Flores, 2001, p.
94). Undoubtedly, several generations of Mexicans have benefited
from the growth of the Mexican educational system, either in terms
or personal development or social mobility. Prospective readers should be warned, however, about some minor issues in this monograph. Besides concentrating most of his attention on literacy efforts in elementary schools, the author makes generalizations throughout the text that are not substantiated with empirical data, or are stated without proper context. His sources of information appear to be mainly from official sources and authors from the United States who have studied different aspects of the Mexican educational system. Prospective readers wanting a more in-depth analysis of Mexican education should consult Mexican authors such as Carlos Ornelas, Gilberto Guevara Nievla, Pablo Latapí, Sylvia Schmelkes, Juan Prawda, and Carlos Muñoz Izquierdo. In addition, the text has a large number of incorrectly translated and misspelled words; this eventually makes the reading distracting. Despite the minor limitations mentioned above, it is encouraging to see that books dealing with international studies in education, and in this particular case a book dealing with education in México, are being published in the United States. Miller’s monograph offers a glimpse to those interested in the Mexican educational system. It provides an overview of reform efforts, the challenges of modernization, and it examines how the Mexican educational system fits into society as a whole. His book provides an opportunity to dispel perceptions about US and México relations and reveals Mexico’s attempts at improving its educational system. When some Mexicans perceive that the United States treats Mexico as a “backyard” (Alfredo Aguilar Zinzer, former Mexican UN Ambassador), books like Miller’s can contribute greatly to improving our understanding about our neighbors. References Ornelas. C. (1995). El sistema educativo mexicano: La
transición de fin de siglo. México, DF:
CIDE. Prawda, J. & Flores, G. (2001). México educativo
revisitado: Reflexiones al comienzo de un nuevo siglo.
México, DF: Océano. Secretaria de Educación Pública (n.d.). Plan
Nacional de Educación 2001-2006. México, DF: SEP.
Retrieved August 2003, from http://www.sep.gob.mx/wb2/sep/sep
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