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ERIC Number: EJ1157756
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1927-2677
EISSN: N/A
Curricular Changes in Higher Education in Mexico (2002-2012)
Díaz-Barriga, Frida; Barrón, María Concepción
Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, v3 n2 p58-68 2014
Based on the analysis of 1241 documents published in Mexico (2002-2012) concerning curriculum studies, we find that the issue of innovation was addressed in 6 out of 10 research papers that focused on the higher education level (60.4%). It shows an increase in empirical research, quantitative and qualitative, that accounts for the process of implementation of innovative curriculum models and recover the experiences of his actors. There is still a predominance of neoliberal discourse and a vertical approach in curricular reforms, the "top-down curriculum design", but there are also examples of active agency of actors (mostly teachers and students), ranging from acts of resistance and rejection, to proactive experiences in their academic communities based on the organization of groups of teachers or researchers who took a leading role and achieved successful experiences related to the needs of their context. The lack of a systemic change approach, and especially appropriate teacher training processes, are the main obstacle to educational change prescribed in the curricular reforms in Mexico. In higher education are two important issues: the competency based education approach and the curricular flexibility. In both terms prevails polysemy, and there are no consistent attempts to innovation through them in the sense of changing conceptions and practices in the classrooms. The competencies approach suffers a "pedagogical vacuum", and in some curricular reforms it has tried to fill in several ways, primarily the adoption of business models or neo-behaviorists conceptions transferred to universities. The flexible curriculum is not only a technical issue, because of its implications in the management and administration of universities, as well as in school practices and processes. There is evidence that the most important problems in their implementation concerns legal aspects, academic organization and operation, as well as by the lack of mentoring and academic mobility of students and teachers.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Mexico
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A