Curriculum Studies in Mexico: An Overview

Abstract

In this chapter I provide a synoptic view of the evolution of the field of curriculum studies in Mexico, as portrayed in the chapters to follow. Broadly, I have organized the evolution of the Mexican field into three phases. The first phase—the decade of the 1970s—was marked by the dissemination of the Spanish translations of curriculum studies texts from the United States, primarily articulating the technicist-behavioral curriculum theory (see Frida Diaz Barriga Arceo’s Chapter 3; Angel Diaz Barriga’s Chapter 4; William F. Pinar’s Chapter 91). During the second phase—the decade of the 1980s—Mexican field experienced its consolidation in the form of four major curriculum communities (critical theory, constructivism, inter-pretivism, and professional development), which posed critical challenges to the dominance of the technicist-behavioral curriculum theory of the previous decade (Chapter 3). In the third and the current phase of curriculum studies in Mexico, which began in the 1990s, the globalization of educational reforms—marked by the neoliberal notions of “innovation” and “accreditation”—has promoted an economistic vision of education, which has reduced education to vocationalism and evaluation, and latter to what can be measured through quantitative means (see Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Raquel Glazman-Nowalski’s Chapter 7; Ma. Concepcion Barron Tirado’s Chapter 8).