Abstract

ESPINOSA TORRES, Iván de Jesús  and  PONS BONALS, Leticia. Practical Solutions that the Teachers of Primary Schools in Chiapas Rebuild in the Face of Regional Educational Problems. Rev. latinoam. estud. educ. [online]. 2023, vol.53, n.2, pp.175-211.  Epub Oct 02, 2023. ISSN 2448-878X.  https://doi.org/10.48102/rlee.2023.53.2.550.

This paper aims to recover the experiences of elementary school teachers from Chiapas, Mexico, in the planning and execution of educational actions that respond to issues they face and in defining the routes to follow in the construction of meaningful learning for their students and the communities in which they are embedded. The results come from participatory qualitative research in which 386 teachers collaborated between March 2017 and January 2020. The authors gathered information from workshops, discussion groups, surveys, interviews, and on-site observations. Through a process of reflection-action, the authors designed teaching and learning strategies grouped into four emerging categories (teacher training, multilingual context, school-community links, and uncoupled curricula) that show the need to adapt the official curriculum to the regional conditions and needs of the schools. The paper reveals the importance of teachers' practical thinking to generate learning in school contexts marked by linguistic diversity, economic precariousness, and various social conflicts that, added to the imposition of the nationally standardized curriculum, hinder the educational task. The research process shows that the construction of regional curricula is a slow process that presents many difficulties because it breaks with the prevailing models of teacher training and evaluation.

Keywords : curriculum; regional inequality; teacher education; multilingualism; school-community relationship.