Education and Development in Central America and the Latin Caribbean

" This insightful book critically examines the global–local tensions between imperial political economic designs and national education reform in Central America and the Latin Caribbean. It unveils how coloniality shapes the systematic restructuring of education in the region." Jairo I. Fúnez, Texas Tech University

“Moving between regional and hemispheric frameworks, this important and highly original volume closely analyzes the educational landscapes of Central America and the Caribbean that are seldom placed in relation to one another, enabling us to see how in-country politics as well as intra-regional and global forces have impacted the trajectories of schools, universities, and alternative spaces of learning in the region. From local schools to national curricula and global education design, this volume uses a political economy of education approach to expertly reveal how underdevelopment, dependency, and country inequities become hardened through elite-led development, privatization, and divestment, to deepening social problems and frustrating social change. These ongoing dynamics, to which educators, students, and their families have routinely challenged, resisted, and sought to transform, nuances our understanding of social exclusion, inequality, and educational processes in the region, resituating education’s principal role in producing the Central America and Caribbean of today.” Jorge E. Cuéllar, Dartmouth College

D. Brent Edwards Jr. is Graduate Chair of the Department of Educational Foundations and Professor of Theory and Methodology in the Study of Education at the University of Hawaii.

Mauro C. Moschetti is Assistant Professor (Serra-Húnter Lecturer) in the Department of Theories of Education and Social Pedagogy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Pauline Martin was Professor and Researcher at the Central American University (UCA) for 23 years. She is currently Coordinator for the Education in Risk and Conflict Situations program at the UCA.

Ricardo Morales-Ulloa is Professor, Researcher, and Director at the Cooperation and Development Institute at the National Pedagogical University Francisco Morazán.

PART 1: INTRODUCTION, CONTEXT AND FRAMEWORK

1.Neglect of Central America and the Latin Caribbean - D. Brent Edwards Jr., Mauro C. Moschetti, Pauline Martin and Ricardo Morales-Ulloa

2.The Political Economy of Education and Development in Central America and the Latin Caribbean: Regional Dynamics & a Framework for Analysis - D. Brent Edwards Jr.

PART 2: CENTRAL AMERICA

3.Comparative Analysis of Education Reform in Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua—1990-2010 - D. Brent Edwards Jr.

4.Deconcentration of Education in Honduras: Restriction and Ritualization of a Chimeric Reform - Ricardo Morales-Ulloa and Mauro C. Moschetti

5.Locally-Driven Innovation Through Teacher Peer Mentoring in Times of COVID: A Professional Learning Community in Rural El Salvador - Kristin Rosekrans, Celia Morán and Carolina Bodewig

6.Learning Convivencia at School: Lessons on Peaceful Coexistence Policy Enactment from El Salvador – Pauline Martin

7.When Schools Become Gang Turf: Schools and Government-Sponsored Prevention Programs in El Salvador - Wim Savenije

8.Bridging the Curricular Divide: Open Education Resources and the Digitization of Guatemala’s National Basic Curriculum - Matthew Aruch, Felix Alvarado, Rachel Dyl, Michael Lisman, Shue-kei Joanna Mok, Katherine Summers and Kate Maloney Williams

9.Balancing Global Education Policy and Inclusive Education in Costa Rica: Capitalist Pressures, Social-Democratic Tendencies, and Technological Responses - Vanessa Pietras

10.Edtech and Equity in Panama: Mobile Technology for Leveling the Learning Field – Nanette Archer Svenson and Mariana Leon

11.Education as an Antidote to Underdevelopment, and the Epistemicide that it has Entailed – Tobias Roberts

PART 3: THE LATIN CARIBBEAN

12.The Impact of the Opening of the Market Economy on Education and Teachers in Cuba: An Analysis of the Special Period - Changha Lee

13.Contrasting Trends of Low-Fee Private Schools in the Dominican Republic and Honduras: Dialectical Relationships and the Ethos of Privatization - Alejandro Caravaca, Mauro Moschetti, D. Brent. Edwards Jr. and Xavier Bonal

14.Educational Policies on Gender Perspective in Puerto Rico in the Face of the Transnational Anti-Gender Crusade - Loida M. Martínez Ramos

PART 4: CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

15.The Dialectics of Education and Development in Central America and the Latin Caribbean - D. Brent Edwards Jr.

16. Whither Education and Development in Central America and the Latin Caribbean? Dialectical Reflections, Decolonial Options - D. Brent Edwards Jr.