EU-Mexico’s cooperation in education projects for indigenous children

• Název v anglickém jazyce: EU-Mexico’s cooperation in education projects for indigenous children.
• Klíčová slova: EU, Mexico, education projcets
• Klíčová slova anglicky: EU, Mexico, education projcets
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2010/2011
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Katedra politologie (23-KP)
• Vedoucí / školitel: PhDr. Malvína Krausz Hladká, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 22.03.2011
• Datum zadání: 22.03.2011
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 20.06.2011 00:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 20.05.2011
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 20.06.2011
• Oponenti: Mgr. Markéta Žídková, Ph.D.

Seznam odborné literatury

- Cortina Regina, “Empowering Indigenous Languages and Cultures: The impact of German Bilateral Assistance in Latin America,” in European Education, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Fall 2010).
- Díaz-Polanco Héctor, “La diversidad cultural y la autonomía en México,” Nostra Ediciones, Mexico City, 2009.
- Escobedo Resano Maria Emilia, “La Unión Europea y las Organizaciones no Gubernamentales en el apoyo a los derechos humanos. Estudio de caso: Centro Educativo Ixtliyollotl, Puebla,” Tesina ITAM, Mexico City, 2008.
- Freire Paulo, “La educación como práctica de la libertad,” Siglo Veintiuno Editores, Mexico City, 2009
- Freres Christian, “The European Union as a Global `Civilian Power`: Development Cooperation in EU-Latin American Relations,” in Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Vol. 42, No. 2, Special Issue: The European Union and Latin America: Changing Relations (Summer, 2000), published by Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami.
- Muñoz Izquierdo Carlos (Director) “Calidad de la Educación: Políticas instrumentadas en diversos países para mejorarla,” Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, October 1997.
- Orme Joan & David Shemmings, “Developing research based social work practice,” Palgrave Macmillian, UK, 2010.
- Post David, “Region, Poverty, Sibship, and Gender Inequality in Mexican Education: Will Targeted Welfare Policy Make a Difference for Girls?,” in Gender and Society, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Jun, 2001), published by Sage Publications.
- Ramos Bustillos María del Rocío, “Cooperación al desarrollo y pueblos indígenas: El caso de la relación Unión Europea-México,” Tesina ITAM, Mexico City, 2004.
- Robles Vazquez Héctor (Coordinator), “Panorama Educativo de México. Indicadores del Sistema Educativo Nacional (Educación Básica),” Published by Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación, Mexico City, 2009.
- Commission of the European Communities, “A Special Place for Children in the EU External Action,” Brussels, 5.2.2008
- “Mexico- European Commission Human Rights Education Program,” in http://www.sre.gob.mx/english/events/dgtg/humanrights.htm
- “The EU’s Human Rights & Democratization Policy,” in http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/ddh/eidhr_en.htm
- “The EU’s relations with Mexico,” in http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/mexico.htm
- Interviews with 4 children, with 4 coordinators of Community Organizations, with 1 person from the NGO’s headquarters, with Professor Regina Cortina from Teachers College Columbia University, with Gabriela Sanchez from Instituo Mora in Mexico (expert in European non governmental cooperation in Mexico).

Předběžná náplň práce

The first chapter will consist of a detailed description of the Cooperation Agreement, contextualizing it with the EU-Mexico former relations and the troubles both countries encountered before signing it, especially the Democratic Clause which presented a big issue for the Mexican government.
The second chapter will go through Mexico’s indigenous education status and the laws that improved the coverage, quality, and access to schooling. I will also present some national statistics comparing the non-indigenous with indigenous children’s access to education, quality of public schools, and academic achievement .

The third chapter will be about the EU’s education guidelines for Mexico, explaining both projects, in which budgetary line they fall in, the funding process, and the actors involved: Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Ministry of Education; and the way these projects work. All of this is in order to understand EU-Mexico’s cooperation on indigenous childrens’ education, how it is carried out, and the participation of different level actors.
The fourth chapter will deal with the assessment of the projects; this is a crucial point for evaluating the impact on the population, the spill-over effect and the accuracy of these very specific projects for the receiving communities. It is also important for further project implementation in similar subjects and populations, in order to improve the outcomes, avoid the mistakes and learn more about the needs of these communities. It is based on a series of interviews, one to one questionnaires that I designed according to my knowledge of the projects and the research I did on the needs for education.

For the last part of the fourth chapter I will develop proposals for assessing the projects, always taking into account the EU’s main directives on these kinds of co operational projects, in order for the help to reach more people and be more effective taking into account the situation of the already finished projects.

Finally a series of conclusions will be part of the final chapter. The main finding is that there is no official qualitative or quantitative assessment from the EU, the EC, the NGO’s or any of the actors involved. This is a very important asset that has to be constructed, and asked for in every cooperation project in order to learn from the mistakes and improve the quality of the EU-Mexico joint work. I will emphasize the need for assessment and creation of a publicly available database to make the most of the Agreement, the money, the people involved and the reputation of this kind of co operational project; and for them to be measurable and respectable.

Předběžná náplň práce v anglickém jazyce

- Introduction
- Cooperation Agreement (Mexico-EU)
A brief description of the Mexican-EU relation on education and development cooperation in the context of the Cooperation Agreement in order to understand the present situation and challenges both parts face in this matter.
- Mexico’s indigenous education status
This chapter will present an overview of the public indigenous education, and public general education with an emphasis on comparing them in order to see their differences. For this it is necessary to present some figures like number of students, dropout’s data, length of their student life, among others.
The legal context and change of laws in Mexico that prioritize indigenous education with funds; curricula; bilingual textbooks; and other important issues. Education policy towards bicultural and bilingual communities in México, a review of the national policy making in this subject, the inclusion-exclusion debate of these communities.
- EU education policy towards Mexico
General description of the different kind of projects of cooperation, and the bilateral cooperation existing between member states and Mexico, in order to extract some of the highlights of these two ways of receiving money for indigenous children education, what different levels of action can be implemented, and the efficacy of the effort in development and education.
A brief description of an implemented already concluded project funded by the EU in Puebla, this project was about human rights education of indigenous children in order to empower them and make their own guardians groups of human rights watch in the communities they live in.
A brief description of a bilateral cooperation projects between Germany and LA countries for the bicultural University that promotes higher education among indigenous communities.
- Assessment (if any existing)
After my research I found out there is no official assessment of this kind of projects and cooperation, so I present some interviews of the indigenous children that accomplished the project, some of the kids that just accomplished half of it and that of kids, which did not take the course on human rights. I also present some interviews with the Community Organization leaders and with the person in charge of implementing programs and projects at the main office of the NGO in Mexico City. These personal assessment brings together a series of questions to try to resume the course on human rights, the good things it brought to the children, if they continued studying or drop out, and their personal view of the whole process. For the leaders and the NGO person I asked about the final achievement of the project, the spill over effect in the communities and a general assessment (including complaints, miss achievements, proposals and the possibility of implementing another project like this one).
- Proposals for better performance, follow-up, funding
Crossing the information from the field work, the real implementation process and the EU objectives on this kind of cooperation I would like to propose some ways of expanding this cooperation, of improving it, making it available for more people (via spill over amongst NGO’s or the Ministry of Education). For this purpose I will study and question the indigenist theory existing in Mexico for decades, the changes in the international development education theory, the pros and cons of both and the real approach of the EU towards Mexico. Mentioning some transparency and accountability on both sides and towards the NGO’s that use the EU funding. All of this, with the purpose of promoting benefits in implementing this kind of projects and some follow up from the funding agents, as well as strengthening the cooperation and making the best of it. This part is also complimented with some interviews conducted to expert scholars from Mexico and US Universities working in the subject.
- Conclusion