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In this article, I compare two distinct uses of "Popular Education" that emerged in Tlaxcala in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. I examine archival and oral evidence to reconstruct the situated meanings and political rationales that led to the use of the term in each case, beyond their contrasting pedagogical content. In 1917, a revolutionary faction promoted "popular education" by providing elementary schools throughout regions under its control, in order to secure legitimacy as a transitional government. In the late 1930s, the post-revolutionary federal state launched a campaign of "popular education" ostensibly to promote adult literacy, which served to control radical teachers and consolidate a popular front in support of the incoming conservative presidential candidate. Simultaneously, the traditional rural pueblos negotiated and appropriated schooling and literacy for their own ends, in ways that at times went counter to those deployed by governing authorities. Noting the ambiguities of the terms pueblo and pueblos in Mexican history, I reconstruct both the logic of schooling for the people and the logic of schooling of the people. These particular histories point to the multiple rationales sustaining popular education projects, linked to the political and social movements that produced or resisted their actual implementation. (Contains 40 footnotes.)

This article looks closely at how the process of artmaking linked to social critique unfolds in one community-based educational setting in Latin America. Drawing on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork with a community-based popular education organization in the northern desert of Mexico, the article examines the pedagogical uses of poetry, music, and other modalities to disrupt dominant discourses about what it means, in this case, to be "Mexican." At the center of the paper is an analysis of the "espina y jugo" (thorn and juice) metaphor, which refers to the outside and inside of the desert cactus. I argue that the processes of meaning-making and signification underlying the enactment of this metaphor represent a pedagogy that is oriented toward collective identity-building and social action. The enactment of such collective identities, forged in and through acts of multiliterate and multimodal engagement, can be interpreted as a pedagogy of the "new social movements of grassroots orientation" (Escobar, 1992b, p. 421). (Contains 1 note.)

This article looks at literacy from social and critical perspectives in order to understand the literacy and numeracy practices of women in small savings groups in northern Mexico. In this case, women's literacy and numeracy practices were not only situated in a rural desert context but also oriented toward concrete action to address their particular social and economic circumstances. The study was based on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork with a Freire-inspired, popular education organization in Mexico.

This article presents the rich history of community psychology in Latin America, describing how the field was systematically built during the second half of the 20th century. Discussed are social and political influences such as the critique of individualistic emphasis dominant at that moment, Paulo Freire's popular education, critical sociology (Fals Borda), and the need to intervene to transform unequal societies. Also described are early characteristics of Latin American community psychology, its rapid development during the 1980s, marked by the emphasis on social transformation, participation, power and empowerment in communities, and a critical orientation. The construction of a paradigm during the 1990s, as well as two models used in community psychology projects coexisting in Latin America societies, are presented. Current trends in community psychology in Latin America are summarized. (Contains 2 tables.)

During the Latin American oppression of the 1970s, as the rapidly increasing number of grassroots "popular" social movements sought to profit from and expand the ideas of the radical Brazilian educationist Paulo Freire, there developed, in its own right, a "popular education" movement which engaged in radical education for change independently of and often in direct opposition to the state. With the apparent demise of open dictatorship and the rise of formal, albeit limited, "democratic" states in the 1990s, the popular education movement began to debate the type of relationship it should now have with the state in this changed political context. In recent years the election of a number of left-leaning governments has made the issue even more urgent. Drawing comparisons with practice in the UK, this article explores the relationship between "popular" and "state" education in Latin America and argues that the strength of the popular education movement outside the state is the most likely determinant of its impact within it.

Environmental popular education workshops intended to increase local capacity for sustainability in Mexico meet obstacles such as distrust and misunderstandings over jargon. Environmental popular education must be relevant to local concerns as well as increase communication about broader social, economic, and environmental issues. (Contains 21 references.) (SK)

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Copyright of Prospectiva is the property of Universidad del Valle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, we offer a socio-historic overview of the development of social work and social pedagogy in Mexico. First, we examine the rise of the welfare state in Mexico in the immediate post-revolution period and the way the new secular government assumed control of social intervention. We describe the inception of the School of Social Assistance and the emergence of social work in the country, as well as exploring the role and influence of Cultural Missions and the training of social workers. We discuss the role of Fundamental Education, rural schools and their resemblance to the ideals of social pedagogy. Finally, we describe the founding of the Degree in Educational Intervention, which we consider sows the seeds of socio-pedagogical thought and practice in Mexico. We conclude that, despite the many periods of reorganisation of social intervention by successive governments, different initiatives use education to promote individual and collective development. Though social pedagogy does not exist as a profession in Mexico and social work is an imprecisely defined profession, education has a socialising potential that underpins pedagogical work of an extensive network of areas and agents animated by social ideals and goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term research has identified significant water contamination and associated poor health outcomes in the indigenous community of Alpuyeca, located in south-central Mexico. We set out to develop a popular education initiative in this community to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) knowledge and practices. In order to avoid recreating hierarchical power dynamics in this vulnerable community, a participatory action research (PAR) design was used, wherein the community took leadership and facilitation roles in each stage of the research process. In qualitative interviews and design sessions, community members identified unsatisfied WaSH needs in households and community institutions and articulated a clear worldview of the spiritual role of water, which guided the development of a series of popular education-based workshops and discussions. The popular education initiative process was documented with a mixed methods framework, using before-and-after surveys, semi-structured interviews and participatory observation. Increases in knowledge and practices related to water purification, water consumption and hand hygiene were noted in the community. The community identified locally installed and managed ecotechnologies as a key opportunity for sustainable development, community participation and the adoption of water and sanitation systems, compatible with public imaginaries of the role of water., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The article describes the process and results of educational work in rural community, based on the popular education, as a strategy for achieving the social mobilization and influence on the social determinants of context. Consisted of four stages: 1. Knowledge of the community, 2. Formation of Primary Group, 3. Social mobilization with integration of working commissions, 4. Growth process with different modalities of participation. The educational model, to three years of work, offers the possibility of achieving social mobilization by way of public demand toward organized agencies and institutions of health, education, and social development with the community empowerment and strengthening the social fabric to make an impact on the social determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empowerment holds a special appeal for organizations and funders involved in rural development, but its meaning and long-term usefulness for target communities remain unresolved theoretically and inconsistent in practice. This article proposes that empowerment be rooted in the daily language and life experiences of target communities if it is to realize its potential significance as an ongoing, individual and shared process that reaches beyond the short-term, goal-oriented rubric of many development projects. Rural perceptions of empowerment are explored and a locally resonant language is adopted for participatory group discussions of community development, capacity-building, and human dignity in an indigenous community of Oaxaca, Mexico. Integrating local understandings of empowerment with ethnographic descriptions of local reality as seen by community residents, a set of dimensions and indicators of empowerment is designed through community participation, in order to provide a snapshot of the subjective and objective processes that impact daily life in the community of El Oro. The authors suggest that such a tool can be put to service by the community as a self-assessment in order to graphically depict one moment in the empowerment process and consolidate collective and individual efforts to promote reflection on the nature of social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I compare two distinct uses of 'Popular Education' that emerged in Tlaxcala in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. I examine archival and oral evidence to reconstruct the situated meanings and political rationales that led to the use of the term in each case, beyond their contrasting pedagogical content. In 1917, a revolutionary faction promoted 'popular education' by providing elementary schools throughout regions under its control, in order to secure legitimacy as a transitional government. In the late 1930s, the post-revolutionary federal state launched a campaign of 'popular education' ostensibly to promote adult literacy, which served to control radical teachers and consolidate a popular front in support of the incoming conservative presidential candidate. Simultaneously, the traditional rural pueblos negotiated and appropriated schooling and literacy for their own ends, in ways that at times went counter to those deployed by governing authorities. Noting the ambiguities of the terms pueblo and pueblos in Mexican history, I reconstruct both the logic of schooling for the people and the logic of schooling of the people. These particular histories point to the multiple rationales sustaining popular education projects, linked to the political and social movements that produced or resisted their actual implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bordón: Journal of Education / Revista de Pedagogía is the property of Sociedad Espanola de Pedagogia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Within the context of neoliberal globalization, portrayals of “literacy” and “knowledge” are increasingly emphasized for their instrumental value for individuals and markets. At the same time, locally situated movements have emerged to challenge, resist, and transform these representations. This article examines a grassroots movement in Mexico, the Feria Pedagógica (Pedagogical Fair), as one such site of contestation. Grounded in nonmainstream notions of “civil society,” this movement represents an alternative educational space where literacy practices are tied to the construction of counterhegemonic identities and epistemologies.[literacy, civil society, social movements, popular education, Mexico] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In marginal regions of Mexico, grass roots educational innovations have often provided what the official system has not: basic education that responds to the cultural particularities of such populations while satisfying the national curriculum's requirements. The way these have developed, the article argues, offers valuable lessons for a new devolved, more democratic and sustainable form of educational provision in which the school is the heart of the educational system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Taking into account the massive installation of technological centers in marginal communities in Mexico's adult education system, the starting point for this article is the disintegration of technology, learning and rural problems. A description is provided of a model for the meaningful use of technology and real access for young people, adults and natural groups, assuming a constructivist sociocultural posture and principles of popular education. Emphasis is placed on the empirical results of the pilot application of the methodological strategy of the model, in four "community locations", through active research and qualitative techniques of recording experiences. The article describes and discusses three trends for applying technology that were generated by 103 participants for developing relevant life projects; their relation with expected objectives; and some emergent findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing debates surrounding the effects of globalization on historically disenfranchised peoples, such as rural communities, have traditionally ignored grassroots organizations efforts to"globalize from below."Expanding on Appadurai's (2000) notion of globalization from below, this article examines the knowledge creation and social action of rural Mexican women (campesinas), who affected by the transnational migration of loved ones, are actively involved with a grassroots organization. From a 3-year ethnographic study, I argue it was the organization's establishment of community groups-where knowledge and consciousness-raising reflections were shared-that helped alter the negative effects of globalization. As a result, campesinas began to initiate their own community projects and take on leadership roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]