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Popular Education for Rural Women in Mexico:
The National School for Leadership Training

Gloria Carmona
Comaletzin, A.C., Mexico

“Being in the Escuela de Dirigentas, the School for Leadership, has helped me change on a personal level, has helped me grow in order to be able to help other women in need of information. Knowledge is the most important foundation on which to build a life; it gives us the ability to have a different vision; it’s like changing the world to a different color.”
- Martha García Carreón, Youth Leader of Zautla, Puebla

Introduction

I wanted to begin this presentation with the words of a young campesina, or farm girl, because, in a manner that is clear and fresh, she expresses what she has achieved in her life as a rural woman through the training program based on the theory of Educación Popular which this paper addresses.

It is worth remembering that the so-called Educación Popular is a movement that goes back to 1962, initiated by Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and social activist who worked in many Latin American countries, executing adult literacy campaigns amongst farmers and laborers.

For Freire it was fundamental to link the reading and writing of words with the reading of the world in order to be able to transform it through collective action. Using these principles, Freire built a pedagogical and political proposal that went far beyond literacy and was based on the importance of promoting a critical awareness, a conciencia critica, in all who participated in social programs and action.

Over time, his proposals have been enriched through the support of educators from different parts of the world and are given form in reality in multiple methodological tools that serve the traditional sectors and particularly those whose people previously had no opportunities to study.

In this text I analyze some of the theoretical principals that sustain Educación Popular as well as the principle contributions towards feminism in this political-pedagogical proposal. At the same time, a concrete program is presented for the training of rural and indigenous women. Finally, a few questions are posed which give a base to the discussion on gender relations and the role of Educación Popular in the formation of a new society.

The theoretical principles of Educación Popular

A fundamental pillar sustaining Educación popular is the “methodological-dialectic conception” considered from different perspectives:

As a theory of knowledge: Plants a dynamic view of social reality seen as a permanent process of change and characterized by tension and conflict. From that perspective, in order to know, understand or interpret reality, it becomes necessary to form an analysis of the contradictions which helps locate the fundamental conflicts of the given context, identify the potential means of transformation of the subjects who protagonize these contradictions, and define the strategies of intervention in educational and developmental projects.

From this perspective, knowledge is conceived as a process originating from sense perception and arriving at abstract thought through the exercise of analysis and interpretation that allows us to draw conclusions which can be expressed through theoretical concepts.

From an anthropological point of view: Conceives of the human as a dynamic and contradictory being, with each person as unique with their own set of feelings and emotions and a specific life history whose existence unites with those of others, and through multiple, circumstantial factors that are historical, political and social, conditions the individual’s being.

The pedagogical perspective: Implies the development of educational action as a progressive process of creation, appropriation and accumulation of knowledge which comes from the reality of the subject, his or her experience, necessities, conviction and subjectivity, but that requires transcendence of the departure point, a distancing from the experience and immediate reality in order to reflect on it and act in view of its transformation in order to return to the point of origin but in a renewed form.

As applied methodology: Bases itself precisely in the establishment of a collective dialogue that allows a conscious-taking of its own being in relation with its natural and social resources in order to better understand itself and the world discovering its transformative potential and defining specific actions that contribute to a change in the situation according to interests and necessities. In this way, when one engages in dialogue it implies the risk of trusting in others, giving information about how one feels and thinks in an open and honest way, knowing that others share one’s feelings and thoughts.

It is through dialogue and reflection that one can discover the relationship between the facts and the situations, locating their causes and consequences in order to be able to form critical judgments and a proper opinion whether as an individual or collectively. In this framework, thought and language are indispensable instruments in the process of abstraction. From there arises the importance of executing and stimulating the subject of the educational process’ capacity for thought and expression.

To summarize, the “methodological-dialectic conception” (concepción metodológica dialéctica) constitutes a way of understanding reality and intervening in it. It originates from the conscious-taking of reality and the understanding of the world, advancing towards the construction of a collective subject with transformative potential, capable of instigating changes at the personal and social level. It is from that point that Educación Popular proposes a cyclical process that has as a starting point the experience and reality of a collective subject and that through an adequate methodology, “creates distance,” reflects on the problems it faces, analyzes its causes and is capable of committing itself to the realization of action in order to find a solution. Once these actions are brought to experience, it becomes necessary to reflect on them again and decide if one should continue or whether new actions need to be undertaken.

Contributions from feminist theory to Educación Popular

Feminist theory has incorporated “gender perspective” as a category of basic analysis used to understand the unequal relationship between men and women. With this concept it is possible to understand gender as a social construct of sexual differences and stop attributing the historic subordination of women to biology.

This perspective of analysis makes reference to the construct of identities of men and women as determined by social, historical and cultural factors that helps to explain the position of subordination, disadvantage and oppression of women in respect to men expressed in multiple fields of life and with the consequent negative effects not only for women on a personal level, but for men and society in their entirety.

With the certainty that this subordination can and should be overcome, feminism proposes to carry out actions that contribute to the transformation of power relations between the sexes. Therefore, put in the center of the discussion themes such as decision making, access and control of resources of all kinds, social worth of productive and reproductive work, the redistribution of roles and tasks in family and society, among others, with the desire to create conditions that welcome equal rights, opportunity and treatment for women and men and allow the formation of a different way of life based on respect, dignity, equality and justice.

This focus presents points in common with Educación Popular. Upon suggesting that we depart from the personal--but recognizing the existence of others who share similar needs and problems, concluding that the personal is also political and social—and in the search for transforming the world.

From a methodological point of view, the concepts of position and condition provided by gender theory constitute a crucial axis for work in education. The term “condition” refers to the material conditions of the lives of men and women and is related to another fundamental category that is social class. From this concept of “condition” follows a series of “practical necessities” which have to do with nutrition, education, housing, health and the various services that allow these basic needs to be met for each family.

For its part, the concept “position” refers to the location of women in relation to men on social, cultural, economic, and political terms. It is useful to see clearly how the difference between the sexes translates into inequality expressed in overwork for women and in their non-existent or scarce participation in decision making in many areas of life, be it personal, familial or social, from decisions related to their maternity and sexuality to opportunities to access and control the families various resources or educating themselves and occupying public positions.

From this position of inequality follow other types of “necessities and interests” called “strategies.” These have to do with the profound questioning of structural roots of subordination between the genders, and of the social impositions that support them. Reflecting on these themes contributes to the process of reconstruction of identity and the creation of favorable conditions so that women can take their place as beings with full rights.

In tune with Educación Popular, which proposes to stem from experience, the perspective of gender also puts in place the need to take as a point of reference the actual lives of the individuals and take into account their subjectivity, emotions, feelings, and perception of self and the world. In the same way, recognizing that women face obstacles of a distinct nature in understanding their abilities and skills, suggests the development of self-esteem as a way to favor recognition and personal values. In a special way, gender perspective includes contact with one’s own body in order to learn to know and view it as a source of knowledge. For this reason, it includes exercises and techniques for development of the five senses, learning to listen to the body and understand its language.

To summarize, from this perspective each person is considered an integral being made of body, mind, spirit and emotion who deserves respect and values personal dignity, physical and moral integrity, their bodies and their thoughts.

Educación Popular through gender perspective

In actuality, many traditional educators have incorporated the postulates of both currents of thought and action as part of our social commitment resulting in Educación Popular with gender perspective. In order to give a joint view of the proposals of the “methodological-dialectic conception” that sustains Educación Popular and the contributions of feminism, it is useful to draw a chart such as the following:

In Educación Popular with gender perspective it is fundamental to encourage the participation of the people and organizations involved using the following strategies:

• Reflect and study together in order to wake the conscience about the inequality of gender: “To understand old problems in a new way.”
• Aquire knowledge that permits the advancement of the understanding of the gender problem and create new knowledge stemming from an analysis of its concrete reality.
• Value strong feelings and emotions as engines for action and social and personal transformation.
• Instigate change in relationships between men and women in search of justice, equality and democracy.
• Clearly establish, between all members of the group and organizations, the nature of the transformation sought. Don’t take it for granted that everyone understands the same way, because one runs the risk of not reaching the desired objective.
• Begin the change in the individual; if there is no change in one’s own conscience, there cannot be an authentic commitment to social transformation.
• Search for alliances with other groups that share an interest in social change and contribute to their becoming sensitive to the problem of gender so that they include it in their own agendas.
• Recognize that traditional educators are also agents of social change and that the educational process should reflect not only the social interests of the facilitators, but also those of the participants of each group involved.
• Link local action carried out in groups with wider social movements that promote the desired transformation.

The experience of the Escuela National de Formación de Dirigentas

I would now like to present, by way of example, a leadership program for rural women based in Educación Popular which includes the gender perspective and come out of Mexico City in 1988 and is now known as the Escuela de Dirigentas. This initiative has been driven since then by the group Mujeres Femenistas Comaletzin, A.C. (Comaletzin Feminist Women) of which I am honored to be a part.

The objective of the program is to strengthen leadership among rural and indigenous women who are in charge of or have specific responsibilities within an organization or social group, whether mixed or consisting of only women.

The program is directed toward rural women “dirigentas,” female leaders who have participated in other courses and workshops designed by their own organizations or by different institutions and above all who can count on previous learning derived from their own experience.

Today, the program consists of five thematic modules that are given as individual courses over a period of two years. Ideally, the same women participate in the complete cycle and form part of their “generation” made up of 25 women from different states throughout the country and of different ethnic backgrounds. However, often it is not possible for various reasons and difficulties such as different stages of their reproductive process or seasonal farm labor or limitations imposed by familial issues, that they continue their participation.

Thanks to the modular structure of the program, there exists a flexibility so that women can become capable in one or several themes or achieve complete training as leaders, going through all five modules in one cycle of two years or in more than one cycle.

Each module consists of the following components:

• A four-day workshop, with a total of 24 hours of course-work in which different themes (mentioned later) are developed.
• A folder containing reading material to be used by the women during and after the workshop.
• A series of intervention tasks that are brought to completion by the participants of the workshop with the aim of strengthening the proposed capabilities. For the completion of these tasks, as well as the study of the teaching materials, the accompaniment and support of local consultants or the women of Comaletzin is needed. The participants produce written reports and materials gathered in the above mentioned activities which they turn in at the beginning of the next workshop.
• A report of their work in which the participants present the themes addressed in the workshop, discussions carried out, and the contributions of the leaders from their own concrete experience. This document includes a synthesis of the methodological development of the workshop that serves as a guide for the leaders for distribution in their groups.

Over time, Comaletzin has completed a constant process of revision and reworking of the content addressed, work methodology and materials used in La Escuela until finally forming Modelo Educativo para la Formación de Dirigentas de Organizaciones de Mujeres Rurales, Mestizas e Indígenas (Educational Model for Leadership Training for Organizations of Rural, Mestiza and Indigenous Women), in which it is made explicit the educational perspective, the purpose and orientation of the program, the profile of graduates and set of capabilities that strengthen in the participants the thematic spheres which each module should address and the cross axis of the program in its entirety.

The educational perspective from which the curricular design is drawn incorporates the following principles and positioning:

• Questioning the use of power as domination.
• Evaluation of education as a fundamental element for the building of new identities and social relationships between genders.
• Conception of development focused on the individual as an integral being.
• Recognition of inter-cultural identity as a basis for the strengthening of those social characters.
• Search for sustainability and equality in the development process.

Among the principle aims that we try to reach with our training model, one can find the strengthening of autonomy and the empowerment of rural women, as well as the building of proposals of development that incorporate values such as democracy, plurality, peace and love for life.

For this reason, Escuela has a defined profile of graduating leaders that includes the development of skills such as knowledge appropriation and aquirement of ability, as well as the appropriation of values and attitudes that orient their work in the social organizations of which they form a part. The training points that we consider are:

• Evaluation of the women’s organizations and the training events as means to attain the empowerment of women.
• Appropriation of concepts, values and tools for the fulfillment of their role as leaders.
• Recognition of the identity of gender and the importance of the fight for equality between men and women.
• Strengthening of cultural identity and the evaluation of dialogue with other cultures and ethnicities.
• Capacity for analyzing personal reality, both familial and social and designing strategies that contribute to their transformation.
• The skill to adapt the contents and methodology of La Escuela in accordance with the characteristics of their groups.

Stemming from the educational necessities of the dirigentas and the principles that sustain the curricular design of La Escuela, we have defined thematic spheres integrated in the five modules currently used by La Escuela:

• Citizenship, power and participation of rural women
• Health and environment
• Health and sexuality
• Development, environment and regional economics
• Methodology for the organizational strength of rural women

In light of the educational perspective that sustains our training program and our political perspective as a collective of women that drives the building of an alternative development model, we have defined four dynamic axis points that have a transversal character over time at La Escuela, though in each module some carry more emphasis.

The gender axis Equality consists of recognizing inequality amongst men and women and fighting for the establishment of a new form of relationships between genders, in search of equality in a more dignified life for all.

The development axis Sustainability permits an analysis of life experiences in rural communities that help satisfy their needs using models of historically-driven development; searching for and instigating the use of natural resources and an improved relationship between people and their environment: one less predatory, more respectful, and with a perspective that looks towards the future.

The identity axis Intercultural awareness attempts to generate reflection on the recognition and appropriation of distinct social and cultural identities. The open and horizontal dialogue between them strengthens the identities of rural, mestiza and indigenous women.

The empowerment axis Autonomy is centered in the development of the potentials of women as integral beings capable of appropriating themselves in and making decisions about their own lives, always in relation to others, but independently.

Achievements of la Escuela

In each generation of la Escuela rural women who are willing to give their time participate and assume the challenge of traveling from their place of origin to a place in the center of the country where they will complete their workshop, exchanging experiences and knowledge with other campesinas and indigenous women with whom they share the desire to continue to overcome difficulty and grow as women.

In this way, la Escuela constitutes a kind of conference in which diverse women come together: some have a long organizational trajectory, while others have only a very short time in their groups; a few have worked with gender issues before, while the majority begin to discover in their own workshops that inequality between sexes is not “natural” and that they can be transformed; some are indigenous women who have always had a certain pride in such areas, while others, indigenous and mestiza, perceive for the first time the value of other cultures and the richness of the dialogue between them; some are young, others mature.

For the program it is recommended that the participants know how to read, write, and add; however, it is neither a prerequisite nor obligatory. We sometimes find among our older participants women who helped out in the schools for a few short years or are even illiterate; in contrast, the younger members read and write at a high level and are better educated in general. This circumstance makes it possible that while the youth support the older women in reading and understanding written material, the older dirigentas share their brave organizational experience which is the fruit of their trajectory. This educational situation favors the learning process by offering to each participant the opportunity to contribute in a specific way.

Depending on the personal characteristics of each dirigenta and of the process that their organization follows, the impact of la Escuela varies. But according to their testimonies, for all of them the experience of forming part of a group of such diversity amongst those who go through training and share their vision of the world and the problems they face, such as the strategies they follow in their region in order to overcome a problem, constitutes a significant experience and represents a privileged opportunity to continue forming and developing as women leaders who inspire diverse social initiatives.

It is clear that by participating in la Escuela the dirigentas take on worth as campesinas and indigenous woman and that this heightens their self-esteem. What’s more, many recognize that they are worth more, understood in terms of courage: now they are brave women who dare to do and say what before they could not even imagine.

However, not all the women who arrive at La Escuela are able to overcome the difficulties that they confront in being able to attend all the workshops and complete their training. Because of this there exists a rotation of participants which is in some cases related to the life cycles of the women, especially the growth and care of their children, and in others to family and community pressures which cause them to desist. In any case, this reality is faced methodologically by Comaletzin, giving La Escuela a flexible modular structure that allows participants to carry out training in a specific theme each time they come to a work-shop and finish the practical tasks assigned. They are always given the opportunity to make up the modules they missed in the following generation.

To summarize, we can confirm that training in La Escuela has contributed to widening the understanding of the dirigentas concerning the problems of women from a much more political perspective, and that they can count on supplies and tools for the fulfillment of their distinct functions. For the most part, the focus on gender and methodology for working with their groups has been a specific contribution of the program because even those who already manage this concept theoretically or have familiarity with it show that they did not understand it fully before. Nor did they have the methodological elements for their application in their groups.

It is important to emphasize that in the process of leadership training for women, local consultants play a fundamental role. Where they provide their support for continuing the study of la Escuela’s material and completion of the intervention tasks, the results are much better in terms of the skills they hope to develop.

Current challenges for la Escuela

Given the understanding that the number of rural women who are able to participate in this program of Educación Popular is very small and because of that, benefits only a few organizatons, the current goal of Comaletzin consists in designing strategies that provide the real possibility of extending the coverage of this political-pedagogical proposal, providing this service to the greatest number of groups.

For this reason, Comaletzin has begun to explore two possibilities:

• the detection of key locations in the country for establishing Escuelas Regionales (regional schools), which could be in charge of the social organization of women and independent teams of local consultants interested in the spread of the program with whom Comaletzin would share their educational model and who would provide support, particularly in its beginning stages.
• the production of educational material that is “self-administatable,” that is that can be used as didactic support within the framework of the thematic workshops for whichever team is dedicated to the women’s training in the rural sector or by the actual campesinas and indigenous women of the group.

Both strategies involve distinct aspects of methodological character, logistic and financial, which are not easy to solve. However, at Comaletzin we are convinced that it is worth working on both initiatives in order to benefit the greatest number of social organizations in our country and for that matter, Latin America .

The future of this program will be marked, as it has been up to now, by the challenge of continuing to improve our proposal from the vantage point of our experience, allowing us to renew the cycle of experience-theory-experience, that gives life to Educación Popular and searches to contribute in an efficient manner in the fight for gender equality, an indispensable condition for the building of a new society.

Questions for discssion:

• In what ways have you suffered from gender inequality?
• To what extent does Educación Popular constitute an effective way to combat gender inequality in traditional sectors?
• In what way could you influence the populations of other socio-economic groups in order to establish a new type of relationship between men and women, a necessary condition for the creation of a new world?
  
  

NOTES

Emphasizes, among others, the theoretical support and training workshops of trainers in Mexico by the Instituto Mexicano de Desarollo Comunitario (Mexican Institute for Community Development) and in South Africa by the team Training for Transformation.

Féliz, Roque. “Elementos esenciales de la Concepción metodológica dialéctica y sus implicaciones para el quehacer de la Educación Popular,” in Documentos de apoyo para la Escuela Metodológica Nacional, IMDEC, 1999.

Lagarde, Marcela. Metodología de trabajo con mujeres, Organización Canadiense para la Solidaridad y el Desarrollo, y Organización Internacional del Trabajo, Nicaragua, 1992.

Adapted from Andrea García de la Rosa, “Los tres momentos de la metodología de educación popular desde un enfoque de género,” in Carpeta de apoyo V Taller de la Escuela nacional de formación de dirigentas campesinas e indígenas, Comaletzin, A. C., México, 2004.

Personal notes from Training for Transformation Course, Sudáfrica, 2002.

Ferro Calabrese, Cora. Primeros pasos en la Teoría Sexo – Género, EMAS, México, 2001.

Recognized by Comaletzin in the evaluation of the impact of the Escuela Nacional de formación de dirigentas campesinas e indígenas, completed by the collective in 2004.

The range of ages is from 17 to 58.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carmona de Alva, Gloria et al., Aspectos metodológicos del trabajo con mujeres rurales desde la perspectiva de género, Red PAR, México, 2002.

Comaletzin, A. C., Modelo Educativo para la Formación de Dirigentas de Organizaciones de Mujeres Rurales, Mestizas e Indígenas , México, 2002.

Comaletzin, A. C., Evaluación de impacto de la Escuela Nacional de formación de dirigentas campesinas e indígenas, México 2004.

García de la Rosa, Andrea, “Los tres momentos de la metodología popular desde un enfoque de género,” in Carpeta de apoyo V Taller de la Escuela Nacional de formación de dirigentas campesinas e indígenas, Comaletzin, A. C., México 2004.

Féliz, Roque, “Elementos esenciales de la concepción metodológica dialéctica y sus implicaciones para el quehacer de la Educación Popular,” in Documentos de apoyo para la Escuela Metodológica Nacional, IMDEC, A. C., México, 1999.

Ferro Calabrese, Cora, Primeros pasos en la Teoría Sexo – Género, EMAS, México, 2001.

Freire, Paulo, “Textos escogidos,” en Documentos de apoyo para la Escuela Metodológica Nacional, IMDEC, A. C., México, 1999.

Lagarde, Marcela, Metodología de trabajo con mujeres, Organización Canadiense para la Solidaridad y el Desarrollo (OCSD) y Organización Internacional de Trabajo (OIT), Nicaragua, 1992.

López, Cuauhtémoc, “La cuestión de la dialéctica dentro de la concepción metodológica de la Educación Popular,” in Documentos de apoyo para la Escuela Metodológica Nacional, IMDEC, A. C., México, 1999.

Núñez, Carlos, “Educación Popular, cultura y desarrollo” conferencia pronunciada en el seminario Cultura y Desarrollo realizado en La Habana, Cuba, 1997.

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