El enfoque de sistemas aplicado a la educación: el caso

del Centro de Estudios Justo Sierra, CEJUS

Jaime Jiménez1, Ramón Marín2

1Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad

Nacional Autónoma de México (MEXICO)2Academia Mexicana de la Ciencia de Sistemas A.C. (MEXICO)

jjimen@servidor.unam.mx

Tercer Seminario de Pensamiento Sistémico y Análisis de

Sistemas26 de mayo, 2014. 13:30 horas

Laboratorio de Sistemas, Tercer piso del Departamento de Ingeniería

de Sistemas, Edif. Bernardo Quintana Arrioja, Facultad de Ingeniería,

UNAM.

INTRODUCTION

• TAKES PLACE IN A SMALL RURAL COMMUNITY: SURUTATO.

• UP IN THE MOUNTAIN RANGE OF SINALOA, NORTHWEST MEXICO.

• DIFFICULT TO REACH.

• WITH ABUNDANT NATURAL RESOURCES.

• 2500 INHABITANTS, 29000 HECTARES OF COMMUNAL PROPERTY.

INTRODUCTION

• WHEN STARTED, 1978: THERE WAS NOT:

– ELECTRICITY, PIPED WATER, SEWAGE, TELEPHONE, MAIL, TELEGRAPH.

• TO SEVEN HOURS OF NEAREST URBAN SETTLEMENT.

• SURUTATO PARENTS PERCEIVED AN IMPORTANT COMMUNITY PROBLEM.

• WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?: EDUCATION.

– ONLY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

– ONE TEACHER FOR SIX DEGREES.

– TEACHERS FREQUENTLY ABSENT.

– NEXT LEVEL OUTSIDE THE COMMUNITY.

– THOSE WHO LEFT BECAME ALIENATED.

– PARENTS WANTED THEIR CHILDREN REMAIN IN THE REGION.

– DOING AGRICULTURE, CATTLE RAISING.

• IMPORTANCE: EDUCATED KIDS PROBABLY WON’T JOIN DRUG MAFIAS.

• THE EXPERIENCE INVOLVES TWO ED. PROJECTS:

• CEJUS: JUSTO SIERRA STUDIES CENTER, AND

• CIDE: CENTER FOR INNOVATION AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

• CEJUS: LOCATED IN SURUTATO INSIDE THE: “GOLDEN TRIANGLE”.

THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE

Creation of CEJUS

• PARENTS NEGOCIATED WITH THE ED. MINISTRY AUTHORITIES:

- ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS WERE NOTABLY IMPROVED.

- GOT OFFICIAL SUPPORT TO DESIGN THEIR OWN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT: CEJUS

- WITH THE HELP OF A PARTICIPATIVE PLANNING MODEL.

‐ AND A SMALL REVOLVING FUND.

• A 4-YEAR POST-ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WAS DESIGNED.

• THE 4TH YEAR FOR SOCIAL SERVICE. STARTED IN NOV. 1978.

Some Results

• CEJUS LEARNED AND ADAPTED THE PARTICIPATIVE PLANNING MODEL.

• CREATED THEIR OWN EDUCATION MODEL.

• EVENTUALLY CEJUS PROVIDED EDUCATION FROM PRE- TO HIGH-SCHOOL, WITH THEIR OWN DESIGN.

• AFTER FINISHING A 6-YEAR STUDY PERIOD, THEY ARE PREPARED AS COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROMOTERS (CEP).

• THE CEPs WORK WITH SIMILAR PROJECTS IN OTHER RURAL COMMUNITIES OF SINALOA.

THE CIDE:

renewed struggle for higher education

A “NEW” MODEL OF HIGHER EDUCATION –LEARNING GEARED TO RESEARCH.

• IT COMBINES:

– LEARNING BASED ON PROBLEMS,

– SELF-STUDY,

– FLEXIBLE CURRICULUM,

– INTENSIVE USE OF ICT’s,

– ACQUISITION OF GENERIC COMPETENCIES FOR RESEARCH.

10

CIDE

• CIDE’S SOME EXPLICIT OBJECTIVES:

– TO DEVELOP AN INNOVATIVE MODEL OF RESEARCH WHERE PROJECTS ARE LINKED TO SOCIAL NEEDS.

– TO REACH AN INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE LEVEL IN THE RESULTS OF RESEARCH THROUGH SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION IN VISIBLE PUBLICATIONS.

– TO PRODUCE SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL AID NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BY THE SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT.

• CIDE’S TEACHING/RESEARCH GROUP:

– UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS,

– FROM DIFFERENT PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS,

– MORE THAN 25 YEARS EXPERIENCE.

• CIDE’S SHORT HISTORY:

– STARTED AS AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENT BETWEEN

UAM-X AND THE U. OF COLIMA IN 1982.

– EXPERIENCED A LONG PERIOD OF INSTABILITY.

– FINALLY IT BECAME STABLE BY ASSOCIATING WITH CEJUS IN 2003.

• CIDE HAS NO PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.

• NO SALARY FOR THE PROFESSORS/ADVISORS.

• STUDENTS AND ADVISORS MEET ONCE A MONTH FOR TWO FULL DAYS TO SOCIALIZE KNOWLEDGE AND ADVANCE THE STUDENTS’ PROJECTS.

• THE STUDENT APPROACHES CIDE WITH SOME ACADEMIC UNREST.

• GENERALLY, WITH SOME LOCAL/REGIONAL PROBLEM FELT BY THE COMMUNITY HE/SHE WISHES TO SOLVE.

• CIDE’S STUDENTS:

• UNABLE TO JOIN A CONVENTIONAL PhD PROGRAM.

• GENERALLY TEACH FULL TIME IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

‐ MAKE THEIR OWN CONTACTS WITH SCIENTISTS WORKING AT THE FRONTIER OF KNOWLEDGE.

‐ THROUGH INTENSIVE USE OF ICT’s.

‐ AVERAGE AGE IS 48 YEARS.

‐ WORK IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS (86%).

THE SYSTEMS APPROACH FEATURES OF

THE CIDE-CEJUS MODELS

CIDE-CEJUS Characteristic Systemic Characteristic

Community responsibility,

identity, and commitment.

Focus on what is wanted now,

not on what is not wanted or

what is wanted in some distant

future.

Self-learning and group work. Development is a matter of

learning, one cannot do it for

another. The only kind of

development possible is self-

development. However, one can

facilitate the development of

another by encouraging and

supporting their learning.

CIDE-CEJUS Characteristic Systemic Characteristic

Education related to the rural

environment.

Helping youth to improve the

quality of life in their

community.

Educational system should be

viewed as an institution that

has certain social functions.

Accepting the rhythm and

dynamics established by the

community. All participants,

men, women and children

wrote down on a card the

problem they considered to be

most important affecting them.

Governance: Participative

democracy. The governed

should be self-governing.

CIDE-CEJUS

Characteristic

Systemic Characteristic

The need for some type of

post-elementary education,

more related to local

economic needs.

Reformations are concerned with

changing the means systems

employ to pursue their objectives.

Transformations involve changes in

the objectives they pursue…a

difference between doing things

right (the intent of reformations) and

doing the right thing (the intent of

transformations).

Education would lead to

development. The real

development could not

come from the outside, it

had to be generated from

within, and it had to be a

product of collective

decisions and actions.

It is only through creative thought

and innovation that society can be

transformed into one that provides a

more equitable distribution of

wealth, quality of life, and

opportunities for development.

CIDE-CEJUS Characteristic Systemic Characteristic

Maintain students'

disposition to trade skills,

encouraging awareness of

their own environment.

Schools should connect to the real

world and especially to the larger

learning process that occurs outside

the schools.

Establishment of

workshops and knowledge

of technologies oriented

toward community

development needs. Based

on a community decision,

CEJUS was built

collectively, utilizing local

materials and technology.

The initiation of development in a

less developed society or community

is not just a matter of more resources

for the less developed. It is one of

enabling less developed to use

whatever resources they have

access to in a way they (not others)

believe will most accelerate their

development.

CIDE-CEJUS Characteristic Systemic Characteristic

The production cooperative

is administered by the

students themselves with

the object of providing them

with the skills necessary to

manage productive

businesses.

Education is maximized when it is

coordinated an integrated with work,

play, and inspiration.

Participative educational

planning process.

All the stakeholders in a system

should participate in its idealized

redesign.

CIDE-CEJUS

Characteristic

Systemic Characteristic

Educational emphasis

was changed from

teaching to learning,

based on personal

and group study

carried out by the

students, supervised

by professors-

advisors, and flexible

curriculum.

Socialization of

knowledge with other

students.

What is learned in school is not nearly

as important as learning how to learn

and being motivated to do so

continuously.

The role of the “teacher” should be that

of giving others an opportunity to learn

by practice, encouraging them to do so,

supporting them when they fail,

recognizing success when it occurs,

and offering to try to provide whatever

type of assistance they request.

Teaching others encourages and

enables students to learn on their own

and consolidate what they have

learned.

CIDE-CEJUS Characteristic Systemic Characteristic

Research projects were

linked to social needs.

Growth is an increase in size or

number. Development is an increase

in competence, the ability to satisfy

ones needs and desires and those of

others.

Growth is a matter of earning;

development is a matter of learning.

THANK YOU!!!