Martha Moscoso Carvallo
Teaching & Learning with HECUA Students
The time in which I had to live and perform, was a time full of ideals and idealisms, encouraged by the winds of different world revolutions, by the fights against meaningless wars, by different proposals made by the hippie generation, by free proposals of art, by the Latin-American "boom" of the literature and music created in this continent by singers like Victor Jara, Violeta Parra, Mercedes Sosa and many others. It was a time to fight against the horrors of dictatorships and to support all the Latin American people forced to leave their countries. All of these experiences had evidently marked my ideals of a different world, a more human world.
At the beginning of my commitment to HECUA, at the end of 1998, I did not know that my experience will be one of the most enriching and fruitful that I had ever had. At the start I had doubts about how important was to bring foreign students to come to live in Ecuador, and I thought that some would act as observers of the reality, while others would act as tourists. That fear was based on the knowledge I had regarding other student programs in this country. With all this ideas in mind I visited HECUA for the first time and I met the people working there. As the days passed, and I learned more and more about the work of the organization and their commitment, I changed my mind and I realized that working with them was the best decision I could take, and now I am more and more convinced of that.
Working with students is an innovative, committed, and shared educational experience. Our teaching methodology is not a traditional one. Together with everyone, teachers and students we are engaged in a learning process to construct knowledge, to learn about a concrete reality, the Ecuadorian reality. This is a mutual learning process in which students and teachers have a roll as apprentices and instructors, each of us with our own knowledge, our own life experiences and with our own abilities and perceptions in search of a common goal. This is one of the most enriching aspects for me and the work team.
Teaching then is a process in which academics and politics are combined in order to form citizens who are conscious of the challenges they have to face to overcome the inequalities of the society. Teaching then is a process oriented to defending life, achieving autonomy, with responsibility and ethics, for one’s own life and that of those around us.
My participation in CILA goes far beyond the academic sphere, for among my tasks is that of preparing the right conditions for the integral learning of the students. This includes looking for the organizations for the internships, families with whom the students will live, topics of interest to be analyzed, and orientations so that their stay in Quito be sure, but at the same time enjoyable. In CILA, we analyze the situation of Ecuador, the type of democracy present, its economy and restricted benefits, plus the ongoing crises being lived through due to the economic model in effect. But above all we place emphasis in the study of alternatives proposed by social sectors to change the society. Thanks to internships and field visits, the students have the opportunity to obtain first - hand knowledge about some initiatives, and participate in actions.
As the situation in Ecuador is always changing so too is the CILA content. We introduce in each program new content, new possibilities of internships, and new field visits. These constant changes allow us to offer many possibilities for reflection. Ecuador is a country that changes, a country that suffers, that opens itself outside or that falls back searching for its own identity, that open its arms, but that is also rebellious.
My Research and Current Projects
As I was formed in History and Sociology, my experience as a teacher and researcher has mainly developed in these two areas. Both in my work on the past and in that of the present, my axes of interest have been the indigenous community in the Andes of the south of Ecuador, women, boys and girls. Within my research and publications on historical topics can be found: the analysis of gender roles in the first Ecuadorian novel written about a woman, La Emancipada (The Emancipated). Others refer to women and education, indigenous women and the "mestizaje" process in the cities, women and family, domestic violence, the legal system, the roles and images of women. In regard to studies of the indigenous community, the publications refer to the system of state and indigenous authority, tributes and contributions, forms of work, land ownership systems, and social upraising and conflicts. The present studies have to do with the work of women and girls, secondary education in Ecuador and experiential education. I have made numerous publications regarding these topics, and have participated in many congresses, conference and seminars.
Presentations and Publications
Recent Publications:
Dynamiques du développement de l'Education Secondaire et Transfert de modèles éducatifs en Equateur durant les XIXe et XXe siècles. Actes du Seminar Secondary Education Worldwide: Assessments and Perspectives, Geneva, International Bureau of Education (IBE-UNESCO), the University of Geneva and the Service de la Recherche en Education de Genève (SRED), 2005.
"Imágenes y roles de género en 'La Emancipada'. Primera novela ecuatoriana, 1863. Women and Gender History Seminar, Lima, CENDOC-MUJER, 2006.
Recent Presentations:
Ecuadorian Congress of History, Ibarra-Ecuador, July 12 - 15, 2006. Presented paper: From the religious to the liberal moral. Women as teachers.
Third meeting of the Ecuadorian Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), FLACSO, Quito, June 29 - July 1, 2006. Presented Paper: Women and work, social representations at the beginning of the XX Century.
International Meeting on History of the regional education and the actual prospective in the Andean America, sponsored by the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Frensh Institute of Andean Studies, Universidad Salesiana and the TEHIS, Quito, May 10-12, 2006. Presented Paper: Preparing Women for Work through the Education. Beginning of the XX Century.
Ecuador: introducing internships to local and international social justice and social service organizations. Challenges and best practices. "Developing Culturally Appropriate Models for International Internships", NSEE/ICEL Annual Conference, Miami, October 2004.
Preliminary seminar of the International Conference on Education (ICE), sponsored by the International Bureau of Education (IBE-UNESCO), the University of Geneva and the Service de la Recherche en Education de Genève (SRED), Geneva, September 5 - 7, 2004. Presented paper: See publications.
Women and Gender History Seminar, Lima, November 2003. Presented paper: See publications.
Seminar The transference of models of secondary education, sponsored by the International Bureau of Education (IBE-UNESCO), the University of Geneva, the Université d'été des droits de l'homme de Genève, Geneva, September 25 -27, 2003. This Seminar was hold to present the results of the research done in Ecuador.
Resume / CV
