The Role of Civil Society in the New Mexican School Project. Criticism to the governmental disdain.

• In Event: Civil society and democracy

Abstract

The role of civil society in education for citizenship is crucial since such an important public policy must necessarily involve coordinated action among different social sectors in order to achieve positive effects (1).
Traditionally, civil society has played a transcendental role in public policy contributions and has created new forms of collaboration with public and private sector groups. However, the current Mexican government has systematically disregarded their contributions to the development of national education policy.
The New Mexican School (NMS) is the current government's educational project aimed at combating educational backwardness and developing citizenship skills in children and young students between 6 and 20 years old. It is based on the following principles: fostering Mexican identity, civic responsibility, participation in the transformation of society, respect for human dignity, promotion of interculturality, promotion of the culture of peace, respect for nature and care for the environment (2).
In spite of having been announced more than four years ago, the NMS project has not been able to materialize in any concrete educational action for various reasons, among which stands out the resistance of some teachers' groups and the National Union of Parents who consider that "the transformation is ideological rather than pedagogical" (3).
To a large extent, this consideration is due to the document's lack of description of the learning methodologies it proposes to develop the aforementioned principles, such as Service Learning (SL).
The SL is a pedagogical proposal that, in addition to enabling meaningful learning, forms socially committed students. It is based on the development of educational projects that link learning with community service experiences. However, for this methodology to achieve the desired impact, the coordinated action of different actors (schools, teachers, community groups, civil society organizations and government) is necessary (4).
Service Learning has great potential for building positive coalitions for development. However, there is no evidence (4) of coordinated participation with civil society and even less of the Mexican government's recognition of these groups in its approach to the NMS.
Based on the following research question: “How has the participation of organized civil society groups been recognized within the Education Reforms in Mexico from 1994 to date?, this paper uses the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) (5) as a theoretical reference to describe the state of civil society participation in the configuration of the NMS.
This paper emphasizes the need for the Mexican government, from its different governance exercises, to reconsider the participation of organized civil society as a fundamental actor for national educational development.

References

1. Reynaga, A. & Márquez. El análisis comunicativo de las relaciones de colaboración presentes en las alianzas intersectoriales: una perspectiva desde el capital social. En: Arturo, H. M. (coord.) (2016). Perspectivas teóricas y casos sobre Análisis de Organizaciones Públicas. https://www.innovacioneducativa.unam.mx:8443/jspui/handle/123456789/4956
2. SEP (2019). La nueva escuela mexicana. Principios y orientaciones pedagógicas. Secretaría de Educación Pública. México. [Fecha de consulta: 11 de febrero de 2023] Disponible en: https://dfa.edomex.gob.mx/sites/dfa.edomex.gob.mx/files/files/NEM%20principios%20y%20orientacio%C3%ADn%20pedago%C3%ADgica.pdf
3. Padres de familia en contra del nuevo Plan de estudios de la Educación Básica Mexicana (elvalle.com.mx)
4. Cervantes, A. O., Morales, A. R., Téllez, M. D. C. N., & Villarreal, L. I. L. (2023). ¿ Qué y cómo se investiga sobre aprendizaje-servicio en México?. RIDAS. Revista Iberoamericana de Aprendizaje-Servicio, (15).
5. Jenkins-Smith, H. C., & Sabatier, P. A. (1994). Evaluating the advocacy coalition framework. Journal of public policy, 14(2), 175-203

Author

• Adriana Reynaga, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico