An Intercultural Education for Mexico: Career and Contributions of Sylvia Schmelkes

Abstract

This article introduces Sylvia Schmelkes’s contributions in the field of intercultural education. An outstanding Mexican educational researcher, Schmelkes was General Coordinator of the Intercultural and Bilingual General Coordination (GCIBE) at the Mexican Ministry of Public Education from its inception in 2001 until 2007. This article provides a perspective on interculturality and a brief overview of the Mexican context as it has been marked by political transition preceded by the Zapatista insurrection in Chiapas. The article then describes Schmelkes’s approach and her most significant contributions to the work of the GCIBE. We argue that Schmelkes’s main contribution was her commitment to building bridges between the research findings, the Indigenous demands contained in the San Andrés agreements, and the Mexican state. The depth of the challenges faced by Indigenous education in Mexico, and the extent of racism in the country were some of the challenges faced by her direction.

Notes

The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the editors of Curriculum Inquiry, Rubén Gaztambide‐Fernández and Dennis Thiessen, for their generous support and commitment to the discussions about the content of this essay, as well as their assistance with editing and translation. They also wish to thank Carmen Obregón for her assistance in the revisions and translation of various parts of this text.

Notes

1 Unless otherwise indicated, all direct quotes have been translated from Spanish.

2 The Spanish word mestizo refers to the majority population who are descendants from two or more racial/ethic groups, particularly those of European and Indigenous descent.

3 The Tlamatini, “those who know things” in náhuatl language, were equivalent to the philosophers in the time of the Mexicas. In April 1996 the board of the Universidad Iberoamericana established the Tlamatini Award to recognize those who have made very relevant contributions to education in Mexico.

4 The federal government centrally controlled the vast majority of the schools of basic and secondary education in the country. In 1992, this control, or at least its operational aspects and a good part of the administrative burden, was transferred to the states.

5 18 intercultural baccalaureates (BICs) in Oaxaca, 4 BICs in Chiapas, and 2 BICs in Tabasco.

6 Source: http://ventana.ilce.edu.mx. There are already 32 videos available, which contain more than 200 capsules or short stories about the following Indigenous groups of Mexico: Lacandon, Otomi, Mazahua, Chol, Mayo, Tepehuano, Purépechas, Chontales, Mixes, Chocholtecs, ValleyZapotecs, Chinantecs, Ixcatecs, BustamanteTlaxcaltecs, Triquis, Tarahumaras, Tzeltal, Hueyapan Nahuas, Zoques, Tojolabales, Totonacs, Tzotzil, Guerrero Nahuas, Mazatecs, Cucapah, Paipai, Kumiai, Kiliwas, migrant childfarmworkers, Matlazincs, Amuzgos, and Puebla Nahuas. Ten additional programs are being developed.

7 Lawrence Kohlberg (1992) is among the better known scholars of cognitive developmental theory. Taking Piaget’s studies and Dewey’s and Rawls’s philosophical premises as reference, Kohlberg proposed that human beings go through the same developmental stages in moral judgment about the concept of justice, with independence from the cultural context in which they evolve. Kohlberg proposes three developmental stages: the pre‐conventional, the conventional, and the post‐conventional. The post‐conventional stage implies an autonomous morality, where the subject is capable of assuming a critical stand in regard to social norms from an angle of universal ethic principles.