Did Teachers College Influence the Mexican Rural School Project? Unraveling External and Internal Relations Among Key Actors (1915–1930)

Abstract

Background and Context: I approach the debate on Mexican postrevolutionary rural schooling by describing both the intellectual environment encountered by Mexican educators who studied at the college, and the configuration of their involvement in federal education in the 1920s. I discuss findings in relation to current historiographical trends that view the transnational circulation and refraction of educational models as a complex, contextualized process. Purpose: I trace possible influences of John Dewey and other Teachers College (TC) scholars of the early 20th century on the Mexican Rural School project. Research Design: I examine various accounts written by leading educators and present documentary evidence from the Secretaría de Educación Pública (Ministry of Public Education) archives related to rural schooling in the 1920s. I also draw on archival evidence and oral testimonies to describe the schools Dewey visited in Tlaxcala that sparked his admiration. Conclusion: Despite long-term attribution of Mexico’s postrevolutionary rural schooling program to the adoption of Dewey’s ideas, primarily through Moisés Sáenz, I find evidence in support of the version voiced by contemporaries that the Mexican Rural School had endogenous origins and some significant differences with the diverse projects and practices of progressive schooling promoted by TC scholars in those years.