Oaxaca Project

The Oaxaca Project:
Creating a Cyber Community

This paper was presented at CCALL3: Third Canadian Conference in Computer Assisted Language Learning. Université Ste. Anne. June 23-27, 1998.

The Mexican Government, with NAFTA now a reality, is committed to improving basic education for “basic education stimulates the productive capacity of a society and improves its economic, social, political and scientific institutions.” President Ernesto Zedillo signed these words, along with 31 State Governors and the General Secretary of the National Teachers’ Union, in the document: A National Agreement for the Modernization of Basic Education (18 May 1992). Later, in the same document it states that basic education “promotes a more equitable distribution of income; stimulates more national consumer habits; elevates respects for human rights, in particular the position of women and children in the community; and facilitates social adaptation to technological change.”

Zedillo’s education reforms mean the complete reorganization of a highly centralized national system, including curriculum, texts, methods, and teacher education. Quite simply, the Oaxaca Project is a partnership between Canadian and Mexican partners (St. Thomas University [STU], the University of New Brunswick [UNB] and the Centro de Idiomas [C de I] at the Universidad Autónoma "Benito Juárez" de Oaxaca [UABJO]). Enhanced literacy programs, improved use of information technology, poverty reduction, and good governance will facilitate making Zedillo’s changes “a concrete reality.”

What exactly is UABJO? UABJO is the Universidad Autónoma “Benito Juárez” de Oaxaca. Benito Juárez, a lawyer from Oaxaca, was the first indigenous president of Mexico. He was also the greatest reformer of the Mexican education system and he strove always for equality of opportunity for his people. It is no surprise that UABJO, named after Benito Juárez, continues this egalitarian tradition offering education at affordable rates to all the population of Oaxaca. But more, much more: UABJO is the heart and soul of development in Oaxaca.

It is the second largest employer after the State Government and, as the only State University, it represents learning, culture, development, opportunity, and progress for all the people of Oaxaca, especially the poor. To develop UABJO is to develop Oaxaca, for UABJO is at the heart of all development plans for the State of Oaxaca. Oaxaca has been declared one of the most underdeveloped areas in Mexico. Bordering on the State of Chiapas, it has been targeted for development by the Mexican Government. The UABJO Administration has begun a campaign to upgrade more teaching faculty at UABJO; currently only 10% have PhDs; a further 15% have Masters Degrees; some 40% still do not possess qualifications related to their areas of teaching. 6 of the 85 members of the Centro de Idiomas Faculty are upgrading their qualifications right now. More will follow in the immediate future and STU and UNB wish to assist UABJO Faculty in this process.

The STU/UNB/UABJO Exchange has been in place for four years (1994-1998). Initially, the Director of the C de I, Lic. Claire Cabedoce Melaine, travelled to the University of New Brunswick, at the invitation of the UNB Faculty of Education, in the Fall of 1994. She also visited the Spanish Section at St. Thomas University. In the Fall of 1995, Dra. Amalia Cruz Reyes and Lic. Piedad Ortega Ramírez visited the campuses of STU and UNB and were involved in a series of lectures and classes at both institutions. As a direct result of this second exchange, Prof. George Haley of the Faculty of Education at UNB received an invitation to form a team of Education Specialists who would visit Oaxaca in November/December 1995. The faculty exchanges continued in 1996 and during the visit of the Canadian team (Moore/Haley) to Oaxaca, the need to develop the Human and Institutional Resources of the Centro de Idiomas was perceived. It was clear immediately that the funds in place were insufficient for major resource development (human and institutional) and for the changes in curriculum being contemplated; therefore, it was decided to seek various means of alternative outside funding.

But what is literacy? The Oaxaca Project team have agreed to use the definition of literacy employed by the Organization for Economic and Commercial Development in its publication: OECD International Adult Literacy Survey: Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society: “Literacy refers to a particular skill namely the ability to understand and use printed information in day to day activities at home, at work and in the community.” When we say “literacy”, especially in the context of Oaxaca, we refer to the five levels and three types of literacy highlighted by the OECD. In addition, we added computer literacy.

Types

prose literacy

document literacy

quantitative literacy

computer literacy

Levels

the teachers who graduate from UABJO will teach at all five levels indicated in the OECD report, including the most basic one of alfabetización [i.e. providing the alphabet to those who lack it]).

Note that in this region of Oaxaca, as in other countries that participated in the IALS survey, literacy, employment, and poverty reduction have proven to be very closely related. UABJO, which provides poor people with access to state education, is central to all development in Oaxaca. By developing the human and institutional resources of UABJO, UABJO’s ability to teach the teachers to teach literacy will also be developed. By teaching the teachers to teach life long learning practices, especially with information technology, a self-sustainable human resource will also be instituted.

During the December 1997 meetings in Oaxaca, it was decided to target 2 Canadian International Development Agency principles: Basic Human Needs (Education) and Women in Development while access would be provided to programs in a third area: Good Governance, Human Rights and Liberal Democracy. Under Basic Human Needs, Basic Education will be improved. The Oaxaca Project works towards an improved resource center (library system, computer centre and multi media resources); a new diploma for the teaching of Spanish to combat illiteracy; a new Certificate in Computer Literacy; and an MEd program at UABJO preferably delivered by electronic means for teaching literacy; design and delivery of computer skills and multi media programs, all targeting teacher training and program design for improved literacy and the teaching of literacy. As a result, increased numbers of UABJO’s graduate teachers will reach a wider spectrum of pupils and offer, together with improved literacy, a commitment to life long learning through information technology. Training in information technology will be central to the development of all new teachers at UABJO. Quite simply, by training more and better teachers of literacy (the plan is to double the size of the graduating class of teachers over the next five years), the Oaxaca Project will help lessen illiteracy, increase employment and reduce poverty in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Results for Community Development
(Where UABJO Graduates Teach Literacy)

Other UABJO Faculties

Law, Business, Medicine
Business and Professional groups
Tourism Hotels Artisans Taxi Drivers Waiters Markets
Oaxaca City Schools
Oaxaca State Schools
Distance Education Rural Schools
National Service Teaching
Community literacy programs

In order to improve Human Resources, it will be necessary to develop the following:

the capacity to train other people in teaching literacy;
expertise in course design aimed particularly at a continued advancement in methods of literacy teaching;
expertise in evaluation (formative and summative);
abilities for the expansion of skill and knowledge transfer (a) between the Mexican and Canadian Communities and (b) from teacher to student within UABJO;
leadership roles (particularly among women, who form 60% of the staff and the students at the C de I);
expertise in drafting grant applications;
realistic and practical planning over an initial five year time frame;
methods for the implementation of innovative practices in the workplace;
a maintenance team able to upgrade, expand, and improve the Information Technology (IT) systems which are in the process of being installed;
an academic team who can (a) use, (b) implement, and (c) design their own multimedia literacy teaching programs;
a plan to enable UABJO to enter fully into the Mexican National Distance Education Network, as both a user of, and a supplier of, electronic information.
This will necessitate (a) the installation of, and basic training on, Information Technology equipment; (b) training for use of IT equipment in basic literacy teaching; (c) training for maintenance of IT equipment; (d) skill and knowledge transfer within IT methodology as a means to improve the delivery of teaching and literacy programs; (e) building a website on which to develop literacy teaching.

At the most BASIC LEVEL, faculty in Oaxaca will be able to access the WWW, use word-processing programs, and employ e-mail for teaching and learning. At the INTERMEDIATE LEVEL, faculty in Oaxaca will be able to use spread sheets, manage data bases, and integrate the WWW into their teaching of literacy. At the ADVANCED LEVEL: faculty will be able to design their own WWW site and will be able not only to utilize the WWW in the planning of their teaching and learning programs, but also to design these programs for themselves in joint projects elaborated with international team members. As a result, faculty in Oaxaca will be able to contribute to the Mexican National Distance Education Network with its outlets in Oaxacan schools.

Clearly, the above program will also contribute to the internationalization of the Canadian universities in all aspects of their mission as well as to the promotion of Canadian University expertise in higher education, for UABJO will be developing teaching and literacy programs jointly with STU/UNB.

In addition, and this is key to the development of language teaching, a joint meeting place will be developed (on the WWW) in which students and faculty from both universities can exchange information and complete joint projects on current social and educational issues. To this end, Mexico has been targeted as an interest area within the STU-UNB learning community and official agreements for further cooperation have been signed by all three universities and by both national embassies. As a further development, STU and UNB are currently developing education modules covering various aspects of Mexican-Canadian relations, for the necessity of developing new techniques for the delivery of improved teaching is recognized on all 3 campuses. Eventually, links will be constructed between the teaching of Spanish within the New Brunswick University and High School system to the jointly maintained Oaxaca Project Website. Meanwhile, faculty in Oaxaca will have access to and use of distance education packets in, for example, Literacy and Cultural Studies, Social Work, Human Rights, Gender Studies, Native Studies, Liberal Education, Model United Nations, Distance Education, and Information Technology.