(2011). Negotiating Worlds: A Young Mayan Child Developing Literacy at Home and at School in Mexico, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. In Mexico almost ten million people speak an indigenous language. Recognizing the pluralistic nature of the nation, the Mexican Constitution mandates bilingual-intercultural education; in reality, however, the school system typically imposes the Spanish language and dominant culture on indigenous children. For these children their academic success comes at the expense of their own language and culture. In this article we share the case study of Yadira, a Mayan girl living in Yucatan, Mexico, whom we met when she was in first grade. Using ethnographic tools we document the different literacy events in which Yadira participates at home and at school, and how these shape her understandings about print. We discuss how Yadira negotiates between two worlds using informal sources of Maya and Spanish to construct meaning from written language. [More] Descriptors: Multicultural Education, Indigenous Populations, Written Language, Maya (People)
(2011). Trends and Characteristics of Economics Degrees in a Developing Country: The Case of Mexico, Journal of Economic Education. This article documents trends in enrollment in undergraduate economics programs in Mexico in 1970-2007 and discusses the characteristics of the programs–particularly the typical curriculum and graduation requirements–and the entry of graduates into the job market. Recent data show a pattern in enrollment rates surprisingly similar to those of developed countries. First-year enrollment has been decreasing relative to enrollment in other undergraduate programs, mostly because of the rise of substitute majors. This confirms a declining trend observed in the developed world. In contrast to other developed countries, Mexico has seen a steady increase in the participation of women, who currently represent more than 40 percent of total enrollment in economics programs. This trend is not exclusive to economics, but is similar to the average enrollment of women in other majors. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Economics Education, Undergraduate Study, College Programs
(2018). Suicide Risk and Resiliency Factors among Hispanic Teens in New Mexico: Schools Can Make a Difference, Journal of School Health. Background: Youth suicide is a serious public health problem in the United States. School environments, and the attention of school adults, are promising but minimally studied avenues for promoting mental health among students. Methods: The 2013 New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey data were analyzed to identify ways in which the school environment influences suicide attempts in a sample of Hispanic students. Factors examined were: relationships with school adults, speaking a language other than English at home, being born outside the United States and not having enough to eat. Odds ratios were used to measure relationships. Results: Factors influencing suicide attempt were similar for boys and girls. The odds of suicide attempt declined by approximately one third as measures of positive relationships with school adults increased. Post-high school education plans also were protective. Being born outside the United States and not having enough to eat increased the odds of past-year suicide attempt. Speaking a language other than English at home was a weak risk factor for suicide attempt only among Hispanic girls. Conclusions: Teachers and other school adults can decrease suicide risk for Hispanic teens by forming supportive relationships with students. Special consideration should be given to providing free breakfast in schools. [More] Descriptors: Resilience (Psychology), Suicide, Risk, Hispanic American Students
(2014). Professional Development of Mexican Secondary EFL Teachers: Views and Willingness to Engage in Classroom Research, English Language Teaching. The effective implementation of any educational reform is largely dependent on the preparation of teachers. In the case of the National English Program in Basic Education, (NEPBE) implemented in public schools in Mexico in 2009, teacher preparation options have been designed by both public and private higher education institutions in several states of the country. Most options have been based on the needs of teacher trainers and educational administrators, rather than on teachers' needs. This paper presents the partial results of a professional development needs analysis carried out with secondary English language teachers in northeast Mexico. The study examined the teachers' previous professional development experiences; their views on professional development contents and formats; and disposition to engage in inquiry-based professional development. Results indicated that stand-alone and degree courses were the only professional development activities the participants had experienced. Other practices such as mentoring, peer observation, attending conferences, or networking, were unfamiliar to the majority of them. Although most of the teachers considered that training courses had a high impact on teaching, some of them valued the impact of professional development practices that involve autonomy, reflection and collaboration. A high percentage of teachers reported disposition to learn about and engage in classroom research. [More] Descriptors: Mexicans, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Faculty Development
(2014). Charter School Innovations: A Teacher Growth Model, Phi Delta Kappan. Committed to being a charter school with a professional learning community that empowers teachers, New Mexico's South Valley Academy (SVA) staff transformed its state evaluation process into a practitioner action research process (Anderson, Herr, & Nihlen, 2007). While teachers self-diagnose growth needs and play active roles in improving their own practice, SVA's new model holds teachers accountable for addressing student performance challenges and requires classroom-generated data for measuring student learning as a result of teaching practices. Using artifacts as evidence collected by teachers and an action-research timeline built into the school calendar that allows for collaboration and feedback, the rigorous evaluation process both nurtures and measures teaching effectiveness. New Mexico requires teachers to submit annual professional development plans (PDPs) that include improvement objectives, action steps, and measures of desired results. This article describes how to develop a PDF rubric, the necessary skills needed to develop a manageable and relevant PDP, the steps needed to build a culture of feedback and improvement, and the effect of the PDP model on staff culture. [More] Descriptors: Charter Schools, Educational Innovation, Models, School Law
(2014). The Education of Indigenous Citizens in Latin America, Multilingual Matters. This groundbreaking volume describes unprecedented changes in education across Latin America, resulting from the endorsement of Indigenous peoples' rights through the development of intercultural bilingual education. The chapters evaluate the ways in which cultural and language differences are being used to create national policies that affirm the presence of Indigenous peoples and their cultures within Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Guatemala. Describing the collaboration between grassroots movements and transnational networks, the authors analyze how social change is taking place at the local and regional levels, and they present case studies that illuminate the expansion of intercultural bilingual education. This book is both a call to action for researchers, teachers, policy-makers and Indigenous leaders, and a primer for practitioners seeking to provide better learning opportunities for a diverse student body. This book contains the following chapters: (1) Indigenous Intercultural Bilingual Education in Latin America: Widening Gaps between Policy and Practice (Luis Enrique López); (2) Partnerships to Promote the Education of Indigenous Citizens (Regina Cortina); (3) Intercultural Bilingual Education in the Andes: Political Change, New Challenges and Future Directions (Bret Gustafson); (4) The Tension between Western and Indigenous Knowledge in Intercultural Bilingual Education in Ecuador (Carmen MartÃnez Novo); (5) Indigenous Students as Graduates of Higher Education Institutions in Mexico (Sylvia Schmelkes); (6) Beyond Cultural Recognition: Training Teachers for Intercultural Bilingual Education in Guatemala (MarÃa José Aragón); (7) Indigenous Leaders and the Challenges of Decolonization in Bolivia (Luz Jiménez Quispe); and (8) Political Discourse and School Practice in Multilingual Peru (Laura A. Valdiviezo). [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Indigenous Populations, Educational Practices, Multicultural Education
(2011). 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook. New Mexico. For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook includes NCTQ's biennial, full review of the state laws, rules and regulations that govern the teaching profession. This year's report measures state progress against a set of 36 policy goals focused on helping states put in place a comprehensive framework in support of preparing, retaining and rewarding effective teachers. For the first time, the "Yearbook" includes a progress rating for states on goals that have been measured over time. An overall progress ranking is also included, showing how states compare to each other in moving forward on their teacher policies. New Mexico received a D+ for Overall 2011 Yearbook Grade. New Mexico ranks 39th among states and has made low progress compared to other states. Highlight from recent progress in New Mexico includes: (1) Elementary teacher preparation in reading. (Contains 141 figures.) [For the full report, "State Teacher Policy Yearbook, 2011. National Summary," see ED528825.] [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Accountability, Beginning Teacher Induction, Beginning Teachers
(2015). Student Engagement and Academic Performance in Mexico: Evidence and Puzzles from PISA, Comparative Education Review. This paper investigates the relationship between student engagement–with teachers and schools–and academic performance in Mexico. It uses hierarchical linear models and data from the OECD 2003 PISA study to examine the relative importance of engagement in comparison to other educational inputs–school and family characteristics–as predictors of performance. Our findings suggest that stronger engagement with the school positively affects students' achievement. The estimates are similar to those of socioeconomic status or family composition. However, stronger engagement with teachers does not necessarily improve achievement, and can even negatively correlate with performance. The findings provide an insightful approach to understanding the educational process by incorporating a greater diversity of schooling factors, and support the need for evidence of the factors that make up engagement with different school aspects. Additionally, they speak to the influence of policies that contribute to student engagement that may improve academic performance for Mexican students. [More] Descriptors: Learner Engagement, Secondary School Students, Academic Achievement, Mexicans
(2015). Evaluation of the Teaching Performance of University Lecturers: Comparison between Mexico and Spain, Journal of Curriculum and Teaching. Comparative educational studies allow the study of the differences and similarities between different educational systems. This research, which consists on an educational evaluation, has studied the teaching behavior of ten university lecturers from a Spanish university–the University of La Laguna–, and seven from a Mexican university–University of Guadalajara–, laying the foundation in the Teaching Functions Model. It has been made through the observational methodology and by registering their real conduct while teaching. The observational instrument, PROFUNDO_Uni, v3, was adapted for its implementation in both universities. Before developing the coding of the behaviors, we trained ten Spanish lecturers and eight from Mexico. Data was analyzed using the sequential lag analysis. The displayed results show a great similarity between the behavioral patterns developed by both groups of lecturers with their students. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Comparative Analysis, College Faculty, Coding
(2013). Education Policy Outlook: Mexico, OECD Publishing. This policy profile on education in Mexico is part of the "Education Policy Outlook" series, which presents comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Building on the OECD's substantial comparative and sectoral knowledge base, the series offers a comparative outlook on education policy by providing analysis of individual countries' educational context, challenges and policies (education policy profiles), analysis of international trends, and insight into policies and reforms on selected topics. This profile reviews the current context and situation of the Mexico's education system and examines its challenges and policy responses, according to six policy levers that support improvement: how to raise outcomes for all in terms of (1) equity and quality and (2) preparing students for the future; how to raise quality through (3) school improvement and (4) evaluation and assessment; how the system is organised to deliver education policy in terms of (5) governance and (6) funding. This country profile draws on OECD indicators from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and the annual publication "Education at a Glance," and refers to country and thematic studies such as OECD work on early childhood education and care, teachers, school leadership, evaluation and assessment for improving school outcomes, equity and quality in education, governing complex education systems, vocational education and training, and tertiary education. References and further reading are included. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Educational Policy, Educational Practices, Educational Improvement
(2018). Toward an Intercultural Approach to Evaluation: A Perspective from the National Institute for Educational Evaluation in Mexico (INEE), Education Policy Analysis Archives. The National Institute for the Evaluation of Education (INEE) in Mexico has begun to meet the challenges in evaluating indigenous children and teachers and the educational programs and policies targeted to them. Several evaluation projects are described in this paper. One is the "Previous, Free and Informed Consultation of Indigenous People," which focuses on quality of education they receive. A second is the design of a protocol for reducing cultural and linguistic bias in standardized tests, which requires oversampling of indigenous students and the involvement of anthropologists, linguists and indigenous teachers in item development. A third is an indigenous language evaluation for candidates for entry into the teaching profession, which they must pass before they can work in indigenous schools. A fourth is the development of a qualitative instrument for evaluating teacher performance. The instrument asks evaluated teachers to contextualize their planning; scorers decide whether the plan is adapted to the cultural context and the characteristics of the children. The projects described are only a starting point. In the near future, several dilemmas, such as the apparent trade-off between contextualization and quality, have to be faced and solved. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Educational Assessment, Indigenous Populations, Educational Quality
(2015). eComp at the University of New Mexico: Emphasizing Twenty-First Century Literacies in an Online Composition Program, Composition Forum. With distance education on the rise, a new program at the University of New Mexico provides an innovative way to teach first-year composition in a fully online format. The program, called eComp (short for Electronic Composition), insists that instructors receive formal and educational training before working in the model. In addition, the curriculum taught within the first-year writing courses attends to multimodal literacies, and students receive help with their drafts from various sources, including instructional assistants who are tutors embedded in each course shell. This profile describes the program, including the scholarship that informed its design, the pilot project, and results from a small-scale assessment. Furthermore, we discuss future expansion of the program. This program description can serve as a model–in whole or in part–for other English departments when structuring a successful, integrative online program that emphasizes teacher training and multimodal literacies. [More] Descriptors: Online Courses, Freshman Composition, Distance Education, Instructional Innovation
(2013). A Canadian Lens on Facilitating Factors for North American Partnerships, Journal of Studies in International Education. What does it take to develop and maintain effective international education partnerships between institutions in the Canada, Mexico, and United States? This was a driving question for the qualitative study funded by a Fulbright-Enders-Garcia grant examining the relationship between North American partnerships and campus internationalization. Administrators, professors, and students at four institutions in Quebec, Canada and two institutions in Mexico shared institutional documents and their perspectives on North American partnerships and campus internationalization to help eluminate this relationship. This article features a Canadian lens on what factors contribute to effective partnership development with institutions in Mexico and the United States. The qualitative case study approach yields data on the facilitative institutional documents, administrative structures, and supporting mechanisms that exists within a given institution. Through probing interviews with diverse stakeholders, this approach also yields the human dimension–that is the factors that facilitate individual efforts to craft and maintain partnerships. The piece features primarily the internal workings at work on one side of the partnership equation–in this case within the Canadian institutions. Internationalization champions who are initiating new North American partnerships or seeking to maximize the effectiveness of existing international partnerships are the intended audience. It draws illustrations from the case studies to substantiate the argument that through the combination of visionary leadership, facilitative mechanisms, and competent internationalization leaders who are intentionally collaborating successful partner relationships are established and sustained. It is clearly critical in this global era for institutions to develop international partnerships that advance individual research agendas and student global learning. The issue at hand is how might leaders articulate their vision and organize their institutional structures so that these partnerships contribute as well as they might to advancing student global learning. Drawing elements of good practice from each case, this piece offers a structural model for maximizing partnership engagement. [More] Descriptors: Partnerships in Education, International Cooperation, Higher Education, Foreign Countries
(2009). The Use of Market Intelligence Tools to Optimize the Economic Impact of a Chronic Disease in Mexico, American Journal of Business Education. The pharmaceutical products market in Mexico involves four main actors: health providers, health payers, patients and pharmaceutical companies. The relationship between health providers and the pharmaceutical companies that supply the products required to prevent and treat illnesses is of particular interest. This relationship can be described within the frame of the treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM), a major health issue in most countries, and an urgent one in Mexico. The financial impact of the treatment of diabetes could be optimized through the use of the tools provided by market intelligence systems and best clinical practices. These results would also have an impact on major health metrics for the relevant population. [More] Descriptors: Health Services, Public Health, Health Care Costs, Pharmaceutical Education
(2013). Mexican and Mexican-American Children's Funds of Knowledge as Interventions into Deficit Thinking: Opportunities for Praxis in Science Education, Cultural Studies of Science Education. In this case study, I use an ethnographic-style approach to understand the funds of knowledge of immigrant families living in "colonias" on both sides of the US/Mexico border. I focus on how these "knowledges" and concomitant experiences impact the ways we perceive and treat immigrant students who have all too often been viewed through deficit lenses that relegate them to the lowest expectations and outcomes in the classroom. I find that Mexican and Mexican-American families hold unusually sophisticated and relevant "knowledges" to mitigate their everyday lives. In this paper, I will refer to citizens of Mexico, whether they reside in Mexico or have crossed to the United States legally or without documentation for purposes of work, as Mexican. People who have crossed the border and are living in the US as legal residents or have gained citizenship are referred to as Mexican-Americans. They live a hybrid identity that is varied and dynamic, an issue that adds to the complexity of the content and contexts of this study. These families know and use these "knowledges" on a daily basis, yet they are not recognized by teachers in the US as a starting point to affirm and support immigrant children. Instead, immigrant children are relegated to the non-gifted and lower track classes where science is taught from an abstract and non-contextual and therefore less engaged basis. The approach I outline here, based on insights from my case study, can greatly improve teachers' abilities to prepare their curricula for diversity in science education and science literacy as well as for broad expectations for student success. [More] Descriptors: Science Education, Immigrants, Mexican Americans, Hispanic American Students