Abstract
The opportunities to attend higher education in Mexico have traditionally been offered to the middle class population since around 30% of students who finish high school are able to attend higher education. The main reason for this low attendance is the poverty in which much of the population lives and the lack of higher education institutions in rural areas. Low attendance to higher education is accentuated in marginalised indigenous groups. Migration from the rural areas to the cities over the years has enabled that recently, some indigenous students pursue higher education as a way to improve their social and economic opportunities. Indigenous students attending higher education in urban areas have to face additional challenges given that they speak their own native language, they come from a different culture, usually have a history of poor academic achievement, and face discrimination. In the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez (UACJ), an urban university on the Mexico-US border, was implemented a programme to support indigenous students attending the UACJ to favour their academic success. This programme also aims to increase the number of indigenous students attending the UACJ to develop them as professionals and leaders to impact positively their communities. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study using participant observation and semi-structured interviews as the data collection methods to explore the implementation of the programme. Findings of collected data were grouped in two main themes: progresses and challenges of this programme. Key words: Indigenous leadership, higher education, Mexico.
Highlights
Indigenous peoples of Mexico constitute about 11% of the country’s population (Hall and Patrinos 2005), and it is the largest in Latin America representing a third of the continent’s total indigenous population (Rivera-Salgado, 2014)
The UACJ senior administration commissioned the department of social sciences of the Institute of Administration and Social Sciences (ICSA) to design an initiative aiming to increase the number of indigenous students attending the UACJ, offer them the needed support for their success as university students, and to have more connection with the migrant indigenous community living in Ciudad Juarez to favour their social and economic development
Previous to the UACJ launched this programme there were several indigenous students already enrolled at the university developing themselves professionally as a new generation of indigenous leaders despite the obstacles they had to overcome to attend higher education
Summary
Indigenous peoples of Mexico constitute about 11% of the country’s population (Hall and Patrinos 2005), and it is the largest in Latin America representing a third of the continent’s total indigenous population (Rivera-Salgado, 2014). Indigenous people in Mexico are poorer than nonindigenous peoples since 80% of indigenous peoples live in poverty, while only half of non-indigenous people live below the official poverty line (Ramirez, 2006). This reality has limited the access to higher education for indigenous peoples in Mexico. Several universities across the country have established programmes to favour the access and academic success of this type of population, and in some states, have been created intercultural universities to serve the indigenous population. Educational policy mandates that their inclusion to higher education should respect their cultural practices and traditions
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