Search

Schools across the United States serve children from families that have crossed the U.S. border without documents. Some of these children have crossed the border themselves. For teachers and other educators, the Supreme Court decision of "Plyler v. Doe" (1982) has set the precedent that all children in the United States are entitled to a public education, regardless of their immigration status. Nevertheless, undocumented immigration remains a highly polarizing issue, and the struggles of immigrant children and their families often takes a back seat to political posturing. The authors of this article believe that it is an act of both courage and solidarity for teachers to provide support for undocumented children and their families. They also assert that it is a moral duty supported by international human rights agreements signed by the United States. The following research study raises questions about how the United States serves and supports the children and families who arrive in our schools and communities with or without "papeles" ("papers")--documentation of their legal entry into the country; about how much Americans will tolerate the abuse, neglect, and death of men, women, and children who attempt to cross our border with Mexico; and about men, women, and children who attempt to cross our border with Mexico. This study describes the involvement with a humanitarian organization on the Arizona border with Mexico, and what was learned from conversations with ranchers, border patrol agents, Mexican officials, and the migrants themselves.

Engineers make things, make things work, and make things work better and easier. This kind of knowledge is crucial for innovation, and much of the explicit knowledge developed by engineers is embodied in scientific publications. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of publications and citations in engineering in a middle-income country such as Mexico. Using a database of all Mexican publications in Web of Science from 2004 to 2017, we explore the characteristics of publications that tend to have the greatest impact; this is the highest number of citations. Among the variables studied are the type of collaboration (no collaboration, domestic, bilateral, or multilateral), the number of coauthors and countries, controlling for a coauthor from the USA, and the affiliation institution of the Mexican author(s). Our results emphasize the overall importance of joint international efforts and suggest that publications with the highest number of citations are those with multinational collaboration (coauthors from three or more countries) and when one of the coauthors is from the USA. Another interesting result is that single-authored papers have had a higher impact than those written through domestic collaboration.

Introduction: The present paper shows the importance of a joint use of pencil and paper activities and of technology so that students may develop a complete understanding of ratio and proportion. A previous experience with strategy use when solving ratio and proportion problems provided background. Prompted by a recognition of the cognitive components in students, we decided to offer support through the observation and manipulation of representations made using dynamic geometry software. Method: Application of three activities to be solved by a group of 29 sixth-grade pupils public, primary education in Mexico City. The activities were solved with paper and pencil and using dynamic geometry. Results: Students built figures proportional to others they were given, using comparison by superimposing one figure over another, by dragging them, and by enlarging or reducing a figure by click-and-drag on one of its vertices. They also established numerically equivalent ratios by obtaining measurements for the figures given and making the comparison as a quotient. They also were able to recover data from the problems given and represent them using drawings, then they made use of these drawings to help them solve the assigned activity. Discussion and Conclusion: Most of the students could establish figures that were proportional to the ones given by using registers of representation, such as using drawings with the data that they were able to extract from the story problems, using a table which they filled in with both external and internal ratios, as well as equivalence relationships between the ratios and the operations used to get the numeric values. They also showed development in their qualitative proportional thinking as a support to quantitative proportional thinking. (Contains 11 figures, 1 table and 1 footnote.)

This paper discusses the type of professional learning that international academic mobility makes possible during a PhD program. The conceptual approach used Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, which allows analyzing PhD students as 'newcomer' members who bet on mobility under the idea of "illusio." The methodology used was qualitative. The information was obtained through semi-structured interviews with twenty-four new researchers who studied in four prestigious PhD programs in education and history in Mexico. The findings demonstrate that mobility fosters relationships with peers abroad, makes it easier to learn to do research, favors the reconversion of capital within the scientific field, and offers practical knowledge related to the need to publish results in order to achieve international recognition.

Engineers make things, make things work, and make things work better and easier. This kind of knowledge is crucial for innovation, and much of the explicit knowledge developed by engineers is embodied in scientific publications. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of publications and citations in engineering in a middle-income country such as Mexico. Using a database of all Mexican publications in Web of Science from 2004 to 2017, we explore the characteristics of publications that tend to have the greatest impact; this is the highest number of citations. Among the variables studied are the type of collaboration (no collaboration, domestic, bilateral, or multilateral), the number of coauthors and countries, controlling for a coauthor from the USA, and the affiliation institution of the Mexican author(s). Our results emphasize the overall importance of joint international efforts and suggest that publications with the highest number of citations are those with multinational collaboration (coauthors from three or more countries) and when one of the coauthors is from the USA. Another interesting result is that single-authored papers have had a higher impact than those written through domestic collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a descriptive multiple case study carried out with six teachers of English in five public secondary schools in a city in northwestern Mexico aimed to determine how writing was taught. A mixed methods approach was followed with an embedded design in which qualitative data had increased weight and quantitative data was supportive. Qualitative data were collected through an interview guide approach, non-participant observation, and qualitative document analysis, while quantitative supporting data were collected using structured observation and quantitative document analysis. In the qualitative analysis, four themes emerged: (1) writing activities, (2) resources, (3) assessment, and (4) frequency of work on writing. Results suggest that writing activities in which students are required to write one word, a phrase or a sentence predominate. Also, findings show that paper-based resources for writing tasks are frequently used. Qualitative results suggest that written exams, word dictation and class projects were assessment practices assigned by teachers; besides, findings suggest that the writing activities are form-driven rather than meaning-driven. The relevance of this research is that findings might provide the basis for designing quantitative studies in this context that allow for generalizations.

This article analyzes the social production of space in Atenquique, an industrial town in the southern region of Jalisco in western Mexico. The theoretical framework draws on insights from critical geography. Through the case of Atenquique we reflect on the transformation of the area from the beginning of the neoliberal period in Mexico. Neoliberalism ushered in the growth of precarious and insecure working conditions, something which has deepened over the past several decades. The methodology employed is based on ethnographic research undertaken over a period of four months in Atenquique. During this time period we used three different audiovisual methods to collect information: photography, oral history and the production of an ethnographic documentary film. The results of the study show how the ex-inhabitants of Atenquique have knit together complex constructions- both material and symbolic- that provide insight on how the changes of the past several decades have affected the area. In the conclusions, we return to the broader debates on the local and territorial consequences of the implementation of the neoliberal policies in Mexico.

This paper is focused on one of the most common and basic ways of processing corpus information; concordance, and how it can be used in the classroom to offer language learners useful vocabulary that they would face in genuine conversations and help them detect language patterns as this ability helps them with their learning process. In addition, a sample of a corpus-based activity will be presented to show how classroom activities based on corpora can be developed. What is more, this paper has the purpose of encouraging teachers to use this type of activity and to offer them a straightforward guide to follow.

Service learning (SL) engages students in intentional, collaborative service experiences that promote civic citizenship. The COVID-19 pandemic forced traditional face-to-face SL courses to transition into virtual service learning (e-SL). This paper examines the academic and civic outcomes of an e-SL binational sustainable tourism course for undergraduate students. The course was designed to deliver disciplinary knowledge in sustainable tourism and transborder civic citizenship competencies in the following areas: 1) Ethos, 2) Literacy, 3) Inquiry, 4) Action, 5) Leadership, and 6) Partnership. A post-course student survey was deployed to assess student perspectives regarding the achievement of course outcomes. The findings revealed significant (positive) academic and civic transformations among the students due to the intentionality of the e-SL course design and implementation. Results indicate that e-SL in sustainable tourism education can be an effective pedagogy for inculcating civic learning, responsibility, and engagement among students and future professionals in the field of tourism.

Globally, there is considerable investment in education technologies leading to increased attention from stakeholders (Trucano, 2017). For a deeper understanding about the implementation of various technologies, research is needed to examine how teachers are incorporating them in teaching and learning. This study focused on eight countries to examine how teachers used ICT in mathematics instruction and factors that contributed to ICT use. Results show that teachers' education levels and cooperation amongst educators are associated with ICT use in instruction. The paper includes recommendations and implications for practice and future research.

The extent to which writing assessment training (WAT) impacts writing scores has been widely explored in L2 testing contexts. However, little is known of the benefits of WAT to classroom assessment of writing. This paper analyzes the impact of two WAT sessions on the classroom assessment of writing of eleven EFL Mexican university teachers. Twenty-two interview transcripts suggested an impact in three main areas: classroom teaching of writing, classroom assessment of writing, and teacher self-awareness. The category of teacher self-awareness displayed the most impact. The paper proposes a categorization of impact on writing assessment.

Educational research has reported different benefits related to the use of practice tests. In the case of the teaching and learning of mathematics, evidence has been found that the use of practice tests is associated with an improved performance in standardized tests. However, it is less known about the emotions that students experience during such practice tests. This paper reports on a study on the use of practice test in mathematics instruction at the undergraduate level, which focuses on exploring students' emotions during a practice test for linear algebra. 78 students answered a questionnaire one day after having participated in an oral practice test on linear algebra. The results suggest that before the practice test nervousness was predominant among students, but this emotion decreases as the activity progresses.

This paper aims to describe the development process of the Observation Protocol for Teaching Activities in Mathematics (POAEM) and to report the findings from the qualitative and statistical analyses used to provide evidence of validity and reliability of the information collected with the first version of the POAEM. As part of this development process, 20 teachers from Mexican primary schools were videotaped twice while teaching mathematics. The study assessed the reliability of the POAEM rubrics. Results showed that the dimensional structure of the instrument can be grouped in one factor. A generalizability study provided information on the different sources of error in the measurement, showing that the dimensions accounted for 78% of the variance. This study provides an exemplar of the design and validation of an instrument that can help other researchers develop their own instruments and data collection to generate evidence of validity and reliability in different sociocultural contexts.

Higher education institutions have been complicit with the ongoing coloniality project that reinforces and perpetuates inequities, dismisses interests, knowledges, alternative discourses, and world views different from Western European thought (Bell, 2018; Dastile & Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013; Harms-Smith & Rasool, 2020). Education is rooted in colonialism, which raises doubts about the feasibility of universities implementing a decolonial agenda (Dhillon, 2021). To contribute to the conversation about decolonial praxis and the documented efforts in the literature on how to enact a decolonial rehumanizing agenda, this paper presents a systematic literature review of works from the Global South that attempt to disentangle universities from colonial practices in higher education. The works reviewed describe a variety of practices from pedagogical practices, curriculum changes, and institutional connections with marginalized communities that make visible knowledges, languages, and perspectives traditionally excluded from universities.

Education has been considered a cornerstone for human and economic development. Although there is a national educational strategy in most countries, various implementations are at the state level. This paper studies academic efficiency at the primary and secondary levels and the human development dimensions -- long and healthy life, being knowledgeable, and enjoying a decent standard of life -- at the state level. For this purpose, a network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) with two stages was proposed. The first stage studies the educational process efficiency, while the second evaluates its impact in the form of the human development index. The study found significant differences between the evaluated states in the education stage, where the lowest efficiencies are mainly in the southwest of Mexico. The results also indicate that better education quality leads to greater regional, economic, and social development at the state level. This study contributes to the NDEA applications on the understanding of the impact that education has in improving the development of the regions holistically.

This paper analyzes the extent to which the use of digital education platforms (DEP), which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, has modified educational policies for digital transition in schools in the context of the last Mexican educational reform (2019), teaching-learning processes, and school-family relations. Our main hypothesis is that the digital leap, in the New Mexican School that emerged from the last educational reform, has considerably modified the methods of educational governance, the pedagogical processes in schooling, and the ways of communication between schools and families, with implications for children's rights. The objective is to identify, from the stakeholders' perspectives, the effects of the growing importance of BigTech corporations in Mexico and of the expansion of digital capitalism, which deepened as an effect of school closures due to the pandemic, and to analyze the results from the gender perspective. The research methodology is qualitative based on in-depth interviews with policymakers and a survey of 70 school principals, teachers, and families from the five educational regions of the country. Our main research objective is to explore the perceptions, experiences, and opinions of women and men in urban and rural environments about the changes experienced since the pandemic in terms of digital transition and to identify the benefits and constraints of using DEP in schooling contexts.

OBJETIVO: Elaborar un diagnóstico sobre la aplicación de la perspectiva de género en el campo de la investigación en salud en cuatro revistas mexicanas de los institutos nacionales de salud. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: Se revisaron 999 artículos publicados en cuatro revistas científicas (2000-2003), con dos niveles de análisis: a) desagregación de datos por sexo, que permite describir las diferencias entre mujeres y hombres; y b) análisis de estas diferencias desde la perspectiva de género. RESULTADOS: De los artículos revisados, 25.4% desagregó sus resultados por sexo, de los cuales el mayor porcentaje se publicó en Salud Pública de México (48.8%) y el menor en la Revista de Investigación Clínica (16.1%). Solamente 4.2% de los artículos aplicó la perspectiva de género, y los temas mayormente abordados fueron las adicciones, el comportamiento sexual y la violencia. CONCLUSIONES: Este es el primer estudio en México que evalúa la aplicación de la perspectiva de género en la investigación en salud. Al igual que en otros países, es baja la proporción de artículos que analizan las diferencias por sexo y aplican la perspectiva de género. Esto destaca la importancia de promover la investigación interdisciplinaria que ayude a comprender los orígenes biológicos y sociales, o la combinación de ambos, que determinan la salud desigual entre mujeres y hombres.OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the application of gender perspective in public health papers in four journals published by the Mexican National Health Institutes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 999 papers published in the four journals between 2000 and 2003 was reviewed. Two levels of analysis were considered: a) data presented by sex, providing description of differences between women and men, and b) the analysis of these differences from gender perspective. RESULTS: One quarter (25.4%) of the articles described results by sex. The largest percentage was published in Salud Pública de México (48.8%) and the smallest in Revista de Investigación Clínica (16.1%). Gender perspective was used in only 4.2% of papers; of these, drug addictions, health behaviour and violence were the topics that occurred most frequently. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to assess the application of gender perspective in Mexican health articles. Similarly to other countries, a very small percentage of authors analyzed sex differences, and a smaller proportion applied gender perspective. Results demonstrate the importance of promoting interdisciplinary research that may promote the elucidation of health inequalities between men and women.

The goal of this paper is to introduce an emerging theoretical lens and strand of research in the field of language teacher education, that of threshold concepts (TCs). We do so by a) defining and explaining the construct of TCs itself, b) systematically reviewing the small body of literature that has explicitly used a TC lens to research language teacher education and c) discussing the implications of using this construct for research and practice. To find and select papers, we used a combination of inductive and deductive searches with Scopus, Google Scholar, and Research Gate. Papers not using TCs as an explicit theoretical lens were excluded. The review of the literature shows that 5 threshold concepts have been identified so far in language teacher education: interlanguage, effective teacher talk, real language use, fostering learner autonomy, and grammatical rank scale. All but one of the threshold concept studies in language teacher education have been conducted in the British Isles. The only non-British paper is by a Mexican author and was conducted and published in Mexico. Action research has been the preferred design. Other established methods for identifying threshold concepts have not been applied to language teacher education, which means that there is much potential for expanding and improving upon existing research. We suggest that threshold concepts hold potential to both investigate and enhance the disciplinary identity of language teachers.

In this paper, I report on research about the experience of a group of English teachers who returned from the violent gang culture of Southern California to Mexico, seeking a means of changing their identities from gang members into productive, educated members of society. On returning to Mexico, the teachers had to negotiate their otherness and differences stemming from the customs and traditions they learned to perceive as normal. They learned to adapt to and blend the culture and values they had in Southern California with those of Mexico, using their English as capital to join a new community of practice, English Teaching. Through teaching they were able to gain cultural capital and bring meaning and purpose to their lives as they adapted and their identities changed through time and space. This paper offers insight into the struggle of transnational youth and how they adapt to different communities. This is especially important in a country like Mexico, where Mexican youth often grow up in the United States and have to come back to Mexico, a country they often do not feel they belong to.

The pandemic has provoked disruptions in students' lives and studies worldwide, which has caused them to feel moderate to high levels of anxiety and stress. Universities have responded by offering online counseling and communicating self-help recommendations via their websites. Curiously, the role that professors could play to reduce this emotional hardship has been ignored in the literature. This instructional paper describes how and why three professors in Mexico include a brief, daily mindful practice in class to help their students cope with the negative emotions that may arise. Psychological and educational research has indicated that the development of mindfulness reduces emotional pain and increases one's sense of well-being. Importantly, the focused-attention meditation described herein does not require an experienced mediator. A script to guide the practice is being used by the three professors, and could serve as a starting point for willing professors. Educators may also discover that the practice improves academic achievement because it activates executive functions (e.g. inhibitory control; working memory), thereby enhancing cognitive functioning. The paper also presents several practical implications involved with the practice, as well as initial reactions from professors and students.

Number sense has been considered as one of the most important mathematical notions to be addressed in school mathematics in the 21st century. In this paper, we identify how students of a public middle school, located in a rural area in Mexico, showed several aspects of number sense by performing tasks involving arithmetic operations in a shopping context. Students invented mental and written calculation strategies that provide evidence of understanding regarding numbers and operations. Students used fantasy money as a representation system to decompose quantities in non-standard ways, or referred to strategies employed by unschooled people. Compensation strategies that involve modifying the quantities before applying the written algorithm for subtraction, in order to perform a subtraction without regrouping, also appeared. That is, it was identified a transfer from mental calculation strategies to a paper and pencil scenario for facilitating calculations during problem solving, which is an indicator of student creativity and number sense. Additionally, the proposed tasks provided evidence that contextualized tasks could promote the understanding of decimal numbers.

Although developing countries have established scores of new protected areas over the past three decades, they often amount to little more than “paper parks” that are chronically short of the financial, human, and technical resources needed for effective management. It is not clear whether and how severely under-resourced parks affect deforestation. In principle, they could either stem it by, for example, creating an expectation of future enforcement, or they could spur it by, for example, creating open access regimes. We examine the effect of Mexico's natural protected areas (NPAs) on deforestation from 1993 to 2000, a period when forest clearing was rampant and the vast majority of protected areas had negligible resources or management. We use high-resolution satellite data to measure deforestation and (covariate and propensity score) matching to control for NPAs’ nonrandom siting and for spillovers. Our broad finding is that Mexico's paper parks had heterogeneous effects both inside and outside their borders. More specifically, at the national-level, we cannot reject the null hypothesis that NPAs had zero average effect on clearing inside their borders, nor can we reject a similar hypothesis for spillover clearing outside their borders. However, we can detect statistically and economically significant inside- and outside-NPA effects for certain geographic regions. Moreover, these effects have different signs depending on the region. Finally, we find that NPAs with certain characteristics were more effective at stemming deforestation inside their borders, namely, those that were large, new, mixed use, and relatively well-funded. Taken together, these results suggest that paper parks have the potential to either reduce or exacerbate tropical deforestation and highlight the need for further research on the conditions that lead to each outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes a series of extralegal procedures implemented by Guatemalans to acquire Mexican personal identification documents. The research focuses on the experiences of descendants of families who took refuge in Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s and returned to Guatemala between 1994 and 1996. These young people, born in Guatemala after their parents returned to their country of origin, employed the practice of buying Mexican birth certificates which were later used to enter Mexico legally. The fieldwork was carried out in two Guatemalan villages, as well as two Mexican ones, located in Cancun and Playa del Carmen. The main argument is that for them Mexican identification documents become a singular force that confers recognition and offers them the possibility to be incorporated into governmental logic which grants material benefits. Such forms of political imagination are related to the experiences of multiple documentation accumulated by older generations during their refuge period and are now encouraged by the Mexican State's new border security strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses to what extent mechanisms of quality control and results-based financing hinder innovative programmes. Focusing on one precise example, the paper will demonstrate how bureaucratic schemes that prioritise the production of evidence of compliance force higher education institution (HEIs) to adapt their internationalization programmes to government policy requirements as a matter of routine, and to pay less attention to meaningful activities such as knowledge production and the development of networks. Because of the conditions of its implementation, internationalization has become merely instrumental and limited in scope, which weakens its sustainability. The question of how to internationalize such that programmes of mobility, exchange, joint research, networks, and collaborative degrees incentivize projects of institutional development, innovation, and social responsibility, has become a secondary concern.

There will be elaborated several facts about creativity in Twenty First-Century educational reforms in six countries (The US, India, Chile, Mexico, China, and Singapore). The crucial source of the content in the paper relies on the book, "Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-First Century" (Reimeres and Chung, 2016). Nevertheless, my exploration of creativity in modern education in the six countries has a limited range. Creativity depends on three meaningful factors of education such as equality, quality and implementing modern educational reforms. The paper sheds light on similarities and differences of six countries that they experience with the three factors (equality, creativity, and implementing modern educational reforms). All countries strive to apply equality in the whole country, although, none of the countries has employed equality throughout the nation. Some countries made better progress on applying equality in education, and others are facing many obstacles with equal education throughout the country. Creativity is significant to every educational system, and it is interrelated with equality and applying modern education. The US system of education applies creativity in a few school districts. Other countries state creativity in their curriculum, but they do not use it in the classrooms at all. Six countries have different economic development, and different economic demands; therefore, they have different approaches to implementing modern educational reforms. Despite the fact all countries have dissimilarities with implementing creativity in educational reforms, they all know creativity's weight in modern education. Creativity as a first step of the innovation that defines the progress of education especially accelerates the growth of the entire economy within a society.

Given the increasing number of learners in massive open online courses (MOOCs), students' self-directed learning (SDL) skills are necessary for their success. The purpose of this study was to explore learners' motivation for enrolling in MOOCs and their SDL strategies, as well as instructional elements that support SDL from learners' perspectives. This qualitative study adopted a phenomenological research design. The data source was semi-structured interviews with 15 learners from three MOOCs. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The researchers found that the motivation for enrolling in MOOCs included intrinsic motivation (e.g., curiosity, improving personal knowledge, and personal interest) and extrinsic motivation (e.g., supporting formal education and career development). The learning strategies used by MOOC learners were task strategies, self-monitoring, and self-management strategies. The task strategies included taking notes, reading texts or subtitles, watching videos, and conducting further research. The self-monitoring strategies included self-assessment, self-reflection, progress indicators, final projects, and authentic tasks. Learners' self-management strategies (e.g., time management and resource management) varied depending on their diverse motivations. In addition, the instructional elements that support SDL were self-assessment and discussion forums, instructor feedback, flexibility, clearly stated learning goals, the authenticity of the content, and small learning units. The implications of the study are discussed in the paper.

In this paper, the author analyzes 89 studies published from 1990 through 2020 that focused on literacy preservice teachers' involvement in action research as part of learning to teach. In doing so, the author provides an example of why critical reflexivity is necessary in qualitative literature review methods. The author relies on a social practice view of race and uses activity theory to answer the questions: How have researchers considered race as a factor in research on literacy preservice teacher education? How can preservice teachers' experience with research be (re)designed to help develop their racial literacy? Findings demonstrate that in the reviewed studies, 51% of researchers addressed preservice teachers' race, and 34% addressed K-12 students' race. Far fewer studies, however, acknowledged their own race or that of field supervisors and mentor teachers, which ultimately minimized their roles. Findings also emphasize four design principles for literacy teacher education programs that aim to include research: collaboration between K-12 partners and universities; selective teacher educator scaffolding; engagement with diverse communities; and extensive time spent as part of the pathway toward racial literacy. The implications and uses of an existing literature base that reflects shifting reporting standards related to race are also examined.

The design studio is the core element in the design curriculum where students gain key knowledge and skills. Typically implementing a project-based approach, it is characterised by learning by doing, collaborative learning and a prominent studio culture. The traditional notion is that the social domain of the studio has a counterpart in the physical environment. However, with the pervasion of information and communication technologies, the design studio was inevitably transferred to the digital realm. When the traditional face-to-face studio had to be transferred to an online modality enforced by COVID-19 pandemics, re-conceptualization of the structure was required in order to ensure the quality of the teaching and students' satisfaction. Based on the premise that the contents should not be simply adapted to an online version but an entirely new learning experience should be created, the redesign of the class was inspired by the principles of connectivism (Siemens, 2005). Connectivism as an alternative learning theory recognizes the societal shifts and the impact of technology on the learning processes. This new framework for understanding learning, states that knowledge is derived externally of the individual through a process of connecting nodes and patterns recognition. The paper explores the potential of connectivism applied in two online design studios at the University of Monterrey, Mexico. It describes the structure of the course and the results obtained in the online learning environment. The outcomes are verified in a survey on the perceptions of the students about their satisfaction and the effectiveness of their knowledge acquisition.

The article discusses the role of women in the development of the printing industry from the 16th to the 19th centuries, focusing on their work in Spain and Mexico. Particular focus is given to the series of exhibitions “Las otras letras: mujeres impresoras en el mundo del libro antiguo,” featuring old books printed by women. A series of profiles of Spanish and Mexican women printers is offered, including Isabel de Basilea, Jerónima Galés, and Brígida Maldonado.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has highlighted a 'vicious cycle of decline' in rural, regional and remote (RRR) regions, with significant inequalities in educational outcomes between rural and urban areas. However, interventions have not resulted in transformative or lasting improvements to education in rural contexts. This paper presents a cross-comparative country analysis of current global policy on RRR education. We used a policy analysis framework to interrogate national policy texts concerning teacher education for RRR contexts in three countries - Australia, South Africa and Mexico. A rigorous selection process of the literature yielded 17 key policy texts, which were examined for the influences, practices, language and outcomes relating to teacher education preparation for RRR locales. Findings highlighted a legacy of historical influences and a metrocentric bias in policy texts, with limited examples of assets-based education. We argue that these factors may be perpetuating the significant and persistent disadvantage in RRR education. We recommend an alternative policy discourse that recognises the productivities and potentialities of an assets-based approach within the local context, where school leaders and teachers are positioned as central change agents in RRR education.

This paper explores families' investment in skills development through education in a high-inequality, low-education quality country such as Mexico, comparing it to a lower-inequality, higher-quality education country such as the United States. The paper uses a series of Household Income and Expenditure Surveys for both countries spanning around 20 years and different methodological approaches. Of particular interest is the analysis of education expenditure patterns along the income distribution. Policy implications for both cases are discussed. While in Mexico stimulating private spending in education through public resources might be regressive, the contrary might be the case in the United States.

The COVID-19 global pandemic resulted in the cancellation of face-to-face classes in Mexico, as it did across the world. This paper focuses on the experiences of 75 rural teachers in Mexico, who represent a minority in a country where approximately 80% of the population lives in urban areas. An online survey was administered to participants, who taught in a variety of schools, including K-12 and university settings. These participants shared how they changed their teaching practice, the challenges they faced, and the support they required. The digital divide represented a key challenge for both teachers and their students. In the face of inconsistent, unclear, or non-existent government support, most rural teachers showed commitment, resilience, and resourcefulness. They took control of, and responsibility for, their professional development by seeking ways to fill gaps in their knowledge and continue supporting their learners. Recommendations for institutional authorities and policy makers are discussed.

This paper reports a phenomenographic study exploring diverse understandings and experiences of teacher leadership among 12 members of the International Study of Teacher Leadership research team comprised of 20 academics located in 10 countries. Mind mapping and semi-structured, online interviews were used to explore the ways that the participants related with the phenomenon of interest: 'teacher leadership'. Phenomenographic analysis of interview artefacts revealed nine qualitatively different conceptions of teacher leadership in the study's outcome space across three broad domains: A: The school, school community and formal education system; B: The teacher leader's professional self; C: The broader historical, socio-political and global contexts of teacher leadership. In addition to providing a 'touchstone' for the team's ongoing research, these findings serve as an experiential framework for thinking about teacher leadership, potentially encouraging more inclusive, more complete and richer understandings of the phenomenon.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the qualification measures of 12 German multi-national companies (MNCs), all of which are present in China, India and Mexico. In particular, the transfer of dual initial training practices and further training measures are investigated. It examines the impact consistent training strategies across national borders have emerged in German companies or local arrangements have developed despite identical internal influencing factors. Design/methodology/approach: Because of its design, the focus is on the external factors that influence the companies' training measures. However, an exploratory approach was followed. To pursue the research question face-to-face expert interviews were conducted with 46 training managers in 12 active companies in all 3 countries. The interviews were completely transcribed and evaluated using qualitative methods. Findings: The analysis shows that it is not internal company factors but country-specific contextual factors that influence training measures and that companies cannot act in the same way worldwide. Research limitations/implications: The study is based on 12 MNC and only analyses the blue-collar area. Therefore, it would have to be evaluated whether a similar analysis would result from a survey of other companies in different sectors or whether the differences in terms of training and further training measures would then be even greater. Practical implications: The study supports the internationalization strategies of MNC by providing first-hand empirical results concerning recruitment and training of blue colour workers on an intermediate skill level. It gives evidence on the need of national adaptation in the process of transferring training cultures from countries of origin into the host countries. More attention must, therefore, be paid to external factors when developing and implementing training measures. Social implications: The economic development in many countries includes an expansion of foreign investments. MNC provides employment and income for workers and their families. However, successful foreign investments also include sustainable recruitment and training strategies of the local workforce. The results of the study support policymakers to guide and support foreign companies to develop successful Human Resource Management strategies in the host countries. Originality/value: This paper is original because due to the research design the internal factors are kept largely constant and the external influencing factors are singularly focused in detail. Therefore, this procedure makes it possible to investigate whether consistency training strategies across national borders have emerged in German companies or local arrangements have developed despite identical internal influencing factors.

The evaluation of learning in mathematics is a worldwide problem, therefore, new methods are required to assess the understanding of mathematical concepts. In this paper, we propose to use the Item Response Theory to analyze the understanding level of undergraduate students about the real function mathematical concept. The Bayesian approach was used to make inferences about the parameters of interest. We designed a test containing twelve items, to which a reliability analysis and validation test were applied. The experiment consisted in administer our test to 48 undergraduate students (18-20 years old) who are in a math career. We concluded that 25% of the students reached a high level of understanding, 39.6% a medium level of understanding and, 35.4% a low level of understanding. Furthermore, that students obtained low levels of understanding for tasks with high cognitive demand, and they obtained high levels of understanding for tasks with low cognitive demand.

This paper analyses the use of Twitter as a presidential communication channel during the first few months of the COVID-19 crisis. The aim is to determine how four recently elected presidents (those of Spain, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil) managed their political communication, and to explore the thesis that they resorted to populist messages during the first months of their terms in office. Using a qualitative methodology and the XL Node tool to capture data, a comparative analysis was performed on the messages posted on their personal Twitter accounts during the first 20 weeks of 2020, classified in six categories: polarization; conspiracy; exaltation and leadership; personalisation and privacy; emotions and feelings; and media publicity. The results indicate that the four presidents share populist traits, but to a different extent. López Obrador and Bolsonaro display a more populist profile, with emotional appeals to the people and to their saving action as regards the implementation of health policies. Conversely, Alberto Fernández and Pedro Sánchez are more akin to the pop politician profile, posting photographs and media messages with a view to receiving press coverage. Both post tweets, based on values and historical events, aimed at their grassroots supporters. The main conclusion is that the pandemic has enhanced the presidential and personalist profiles of the four leaders, although their actions during the COVID-19 crisis were not necessarily in keeping with the populist paradigm. Thus, Sánchez and Bolsonaro implemented a health management communication strategy, while López Obrador and Fernández paid scant attention to health policy.

The goal of this paper is to describe a group of adult Mexican English learners' ideologies about different APPRAISAL patterns in English-language scientific texts. APPRAISAL is a descriptive framework of the linguistic resources used to convey feelings and attitudes (Martin & White, 2005). This topic is particularly interesting in EAP (English for Academic Purposes)/EFL (English as a Foreign Language) contexts where L1 academic language ideologies proscribe the use of APPRAISAL features in scientific prose and where such proscriptions are followed in some disciplines and national contexts. Spanish-speaking countries often exemplify this. Forty Mexican undergraduate EFL students majoring in Health Sciences read two versions of the same short paragraph with different APPRAISAL resources. They were asked to say which of the two versions corresponded to a published research article and why. Evaluation patterns in their answers were analyzed using the attitude system of the APPRAISAL framework (Martin & White, 2005). The prevalent types of attitudes were valuation and complexity. While most students preferred the more personal text, a minority chose the more impersonal one. The latter group's attitude constructs a language ideology that equates scientific rigor and technicality with impersonal prose; they also show less awareness of the relationship between APPRAISAL resources and writing for specialized audiences.

Employing traditional approaches for cross-cultural adjustment, this paper presents findings from a qualitative case study about the early adaptation of Mexican international students pursuing a postgraduate degree at a British university during the 2016-2017 academic calendars. Data was collected from 15 participants using focus groups and interviews during their third and fourth week of stay. In consonance with empirical evidence (Brown 2008; Schartner 2014), findings revealed that the participants' feelings within the initial stage of their arrival were not associated with those of "the honeymoon", but were associated with those of "the crisis" stage (Oberg 1960). Nonetheless, evidence suggests the students, particularly those without previous experience abroad, did go through a "honeymoon" period, which took place prior to the sojourners departure. The implications of these findings for a holistic understanding of the international experience are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic generated a new scenario in education, where technological resources mediate teaching and learning processes. This paper presents the development of a virtual teacher training experience aimed at promoting inferential reasoning in practicing and prospective mathematics teachers using inference problems on the Chi-square statistic. The objective of this article is to assess the implemented or intended institutional meanings and the degree of availability and adequacy of the material and temporal resources necessary for the development of the training experience. For this purpose, we use theoretical and methodological notions introduced by the Ontosemiotic Approach to Mathematical Knowledge and Instruction (OSA), among which are the notions of practice and suitability criteria. The participants of this experience were divided into three groups; one of them was comprised of practicing teachers and the other two of prospective teachers. The intervention used different virtual modalities that enabled the development of the participants' inferential reasoning in a similar way.

This work reports, from a qualitative research perspective, the development of an English Corner project for a preschool Children's House classroom in central Mexico over the course of a 3-year period. It shows the transition of a language specialist over six consecutive periods of work, from a traditional understanding and practice of teaching English as a second language to young learners into a more comprehensive one of the Montessori Method. The analysis of my own practice is used to recover insights through a reflective process with the intention to develop a second language (L2) Montessori program for 3- to 6-year-olds that aligns better with Montessori pedagogy. Variables such as instruction time, setting, group constitution, materials, and teaching and learning strategies allowed for certain aspects to arise as leading points of interest for the focus of the analysis and the methodological and pedagogical adaptations that followed each period. This paper is an attempt to fill the gap between the need to deliver a second language effectively in Montessori education and the lack of guidance for doing it the Montessori way; it is especially for practitioners who do not have a Montessori background but also for Montessori-trained teachers for whom morespecific preparation would aid their practice. I also hope to stimulate further research in the field of second language acquisition and multilingualism in Montessori education at every level of education.

This paper reports the results of research in which the objective was to explore the preconceptions of slope in seventh-grade students. Preconceptions are understood as students' knowledge prior to the formal teaching of a certain concept. For data collection, task-based interviews composed of ten tasks applied to 21 Mexican students were used. The data analysis was carried out using the Thematic Analysis method. Results indicate that the students have several preconceptions in which they consider the slope as any of the following: an intersection with the X or Y-axis, an arithmetic operation, a length, an object, a height, and "something to do." These findings pose the challenge of achieving conceptual changes from these preconceptions. In this sense, science education has been the field most exploited in mathematics education; a collaboration between teachers and researchers from both fields could contribute to finding strategies to face this challenge.

Purpose: Recently, high-quality vocational education and training has attracted much attention in Mexico. In this context, more practically applied skills are taught "on a dual basis", combining classroom-based training with practical, on the job, training within the company. Dual practices are expected to modernize the skill formation system, and simultaneously support companies, while ensuring provision of skilled workers. For this reason, the Mexican vocational training system has been reformed in recent years. Hence, it is necessary for vocational schools and universities interact closely with companies in order to coordinate their activities. The aim of this paper is to examine the cooperation between learning venues of vocational education in the hotel industry in Cancún (Quintana Roo, Mexico), one of the most important tourism destinations in Latin America. By using this empirical case, the study contributes to research in vocational education and training about the principles that are necessary for successful cooperation between learning venues. This study thereby critically discusses the setting of common goals, communication between companies and training organizations, and governance. Method: In an exploratory approach and based on a qualitative framework, ten face-to-face expert and semi-structured interviews were conducted in Cancún. The interviews were then fully transcribed and evaluated using qualitative methods. The exploratory and qualitative study is complemented by further document analysis. Findings: The results show that for successful cooperation between learning venues, the coordination of a common goal (to secure the availability of skilled workers) between different actors, and communication between companies and educational organizations (vocational school/university), are particularly important for successful cooperation. Furthermore, it seems that companies are taking on a dominant role, so that vocational training organizations must be more in line with the wishes of the hotels. The results indicate that partnership-based action is not very obvious. Accordingly, the aspect of governance plays a subordinate role regarding the cooperation between hotels and educational organizations. Conclusion: There are general findings, which can also be useful for other regions. This study shows that learning venues cooperation are possible with both vocational schools and universities. In order for learning venues cooperation to be successful, certain principles are needed. However, these principles are related to the specificity of a region or a particular industry.