Curriculum Studies in Mexico: Technical Rationality, Curriculum Communities, and Neoliberal Globalization

Abstract

This chapter outlines the evolutionary trajectory of curriculum studies in Mexico. Kumar organizes this evolution into three phases. The first phase (the 1970s) was marked by the importation of the American technicist-behaviourist models of curriculum. Several works of American curriculum scholars were translated into Spanish and were drawn on to guide Mexican curricular policies and programs at the time. With the start of the second phase (the 1980s), this American model came under critique from Mexican curriculum scholars, who viewed it as being reductionist, rigid, and decontextualized. In subsequent years, these critical scholars converged into various intellectual communities (e.g., critical theorists, interpretivists, constructivists, and professional developmentalists) and pioneered research on Mexican curricular scholarship. The third (current) phase is characterized by a general orientation towards economistic visions of education with the introduction of globalized educational reforms marked by neoliberal notions of “innovation” and “accreditation” turning education into a vocational project evaluated through quantitative measures.