Rural schools and Indigenous education in Yucatan (Mexico) in the 1930s

Abstract

In the early 1930s, the cultural policy of Mexico in relation to the rural population was finally adopted and the main instruments for the consolidation of the post-revolutionary state were determined. The first priority in post-revolutionary Mexico was to carry out a large-scale education reform among the rural Indigenous population. The article considers the key points of the rural schools project in Mexico in the 1930s and the characteristics of its practical implementation in the state of Yucatan. The study of the issue was made possible due to the wide involvement of the archival materials that constitute the fund of the “Department of Rural Schools” of the Historical Archives in the Ministry of Public Education of Mexico, in particular, the methodological works written for missionary teachers, the reports of school inspectors and rural schools directors. The analysis of the office documents from the Mexican Ministry of Public Education demonstrated a discrepancy between the expectations of the education reform as part of the strategy for the integration of the indigenous population, and its practical results. The study of the educational policies of the post-revolutionary Mexican government in the state of Yucatan made it possible to conclude on the passive resistance of the rural population to the new socio-cultural elements in the country, as well as to understand the specifics of the interaction between the different levels of government in the region in the field of education policy.