Relevance of the Rural Teachers’ Training Colleges in Mexico. Reflections from a Rural Teachers’ College in Oaxaca

Abstract

This article aims to show the current relevance of the Rural Teachers’ Training Colleges in Mexico,
after more than one hundred years of their foundation, from the analysis of some elements of the school
culture in the Teachers’ College Vanguardia, located in the state of Oaxaca (Mexico) and constituted as a
women's boarding school. Methodologically, the research is based on the ethnographic approach in
educational contexts and is supported by field work within the Teachers’ College during the 2018-2019
school year and the community context where it is located, as well as by a series of interviews with students,
alumni and teachers from the institution. Theoretically, the central concept for the analysis was that of
school culture (Rockwell, 1997; 2010; Viñao, 2002) focusing on three aspects of it: 1) the material culture
of the boarding school, 2) agricultural practices and 3) teaching practices. Among the most important
findings was that Rural Teachers’ Colleges, in addition to being a possibility of schooling for broad social
sectors, constitute pedagogical spaces in daily life within the boarding school, sites of subjective
configuration and construction of community, with a particular type of political and pedagogical subject
with educational commitment and social justice. These elements allow us to sustain that these educational
institutions remain relevant and valid even after more than one hundred years of their foundation.