ERIC Number: EJ1077369
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1948-5891
EISSN: N/A
The University as Agent of Social Transformation: The Case of the University of Central America in El Salvador
Valiente, Orfilio Ernesto
Journal of Catholic Higher Education, v34 n2 p281-299 Sum 2015
In 1965, the Jesuit-run Central American University (UCA) was launched in El Salvador as the wealthy family's educational alternative to the increasingly leftist National University. But within a decade, the UCA would shift its focus to the inequalities and injustice experienced by the country's popular majorities and to its own role as society's conscience. This article examines the evolution of the UCA's institutional identity during the civil war and how it negotiated its public role as the nation transitioned from a time of war to an uneasy process of democratization. It proposes that the evolution of the UCA's public role from the university's founding to the present day unfolded over three rough stages of development, and that these stages illustrate the transformation of the UCA into a Christian social project that embraces the preferential option for the poor in its institutional and public life. The article concludes by assessing the significance of the UCA's transformation for Catholic higher education today.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Catholics, Church Related Colleges, Universities, Social Change, Change Agents, Social Differences, Institutional Characteristics, War, Institutional Role, Democracy, Christianity, Poverty, Educational Change, Conflict
Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. 1 Dupont Circle Suite 650, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-457-0650; Fax: 202-728-0977; e-mail: accu@accunet.org; Web site: http://www.accunet.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: El Salvador
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A