Analysis of the consultative interviews. Project report 2 (2)

Abstract

The present investigation had three purposes related to the current and potential characteristics of the Upper Secondary Education system in Nayarit:

i. To collect data about preferred curriculum principles for the upper secondary curriculum age-group in Nayarit;
ii. To collect data about curriculum models and teaching approaches used currently in the various subsystems in Nayarit at the three levels (1st to 3rd year);
iii. To begin the process of dialogue and reaching an agreement about the curriculum and its associated pedagogy at these three levels with all relevant stakeholders.

Initial analysis was conducted by identifying the accounts and evaluations that respondents provided in relation to the concrete questions they were asked (first order themes). In a second step relevant and salient second order themes that emerged from the interviews were identified and their relationship to the first order themes established. In this way, differences and similarities between the views of different individuals and groups of stakeholders could be brought into perspective and thereafter be interpreted and analysed from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Rather than expressing opinions or ideological stances that contradicted each other participants seemed to differ in terms of their respective position, knowledge and interests and thus illuminated the same complex phenomenon from different angles. Entrepreneurs, for instance, focused on the vocational component of this educational level and the relation to the productive sector while educational leaders and academics tended to emphasize more social objectives. Those directly involved in schooling, i.e. students and their parents, discussed teaching and learning at the level of the individual.

The range of factors that impact upon educational quality included pedagogical topics (for instance the lack of time to cover the whole programme, the heterogeneity of the student population, the work of the academies, the necessity for continuous professional development of teachers, the aspirations, hopes and attitudes of students), institutional and inter-institutional aspects (the relation between administration and academia, the control of educational quality, the financing of schools including the necessity for and forms of fundraising, the resistance of administrators towards change etc.) and the socio-economic situation (the real opportunities that different schools and subsystems offer young people, the situation of the labour market and its effects on the future expectations of students, etc.).

A set of recommendations has emerged from the analysis of the interviews (see pages 47-53) and these are structured in a similar fashion to the presentation and analysis of the interviews. It begins with the curricular and academic level, including the current and desired curricular models and pedagogic approaches (micro or curricular level), the institutional and inter-institutional practices and relations that shape the actual teaching and learning and possible future ones (meso level) and the socio-economic context the upper secondary education system is embedded within (macro level).

The ambivalent objectives of the system – to prepare students as technicians for the labour market on one side and on the other for university – seem to be reflected in a division between institutions. Entering a technological school is in many cases terminal while access to a general bachelor with its strong focus on the propaedeutic component opens up possibilities to continue at the university level. In this context it is important to note a general geographical advantage for those students who attend schools in the political and economic centre of Nayarit where schools seem to count with a better infrastructure and families on average have a better financial background, factors which in turn are reflected in a higher level of academic achievements. In the schools which are further away from the political and economic centre, students are educated through more traditional methods in institutions with a poorer infrastructure and less qualified teachers. The student population in these areas seems to be more culturally heterogeneous but also more homogeneous in terms of socio-economic class. Given that those who have more resources also have a better educational offer, this could therefore lead to the conclusion that the education system in Mexico still reproduces a socio-economic stratification and hinders upward social mobility. Social inclusion and equitable access to educational opportunities are therefore still on the agenda and have to be addressed by any curricular reform.

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