This handbook focuses on and compares the education systems in the three Americas: North, Central and South America, and includes a chapter on most countries in the region. The chapters follow a common structure and include schematic diagrams of the structure of mainstream education from pre-primary to tertiary level. Each chapter starts with a description of the historical and social foundations of the education system from the post-World War II period up to today, including political, economic and cultural contexts and conditions. By highlighting important dates and structural decisions, the current education system can be understood as resulting from past developments. The first part ends with a description of the transitions to the labour market that are offered, and the way in which these are organized in the education system described. The second part consists of an overview of the institutional and organizational principles as well as the structure of education from pre-primary to tertiary level. It includes a focus on legislative bases and financial provisions for the education system and a description of the structure by using the ISCED-classification. It further includes information of the supply of human resources such as teachers and other educators. The third and final part of the handbook discusses selected educational trends and aspects. In this context, three topics are of particular interest: dealing with inequality, ICT and digitization activities, and STEM-related policies and programmes.

This Open Access book is an excellent synthesis of the initial and continuing preparation for Mathematics Teaching in Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru, from which comparative analyses can be made that show similarities and differences, and highlight various perspectives. In February 2016, the 5th Capacity and Networking Project (CANP) workshop of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) was held in Lima, Peru. The coordination of this two-week workshop was undertaken by an international scientific committee (IPC), with equal participation by mathematicians and mathematics educators from the region and from the international ICMI and IMU community. The goal of CANP5 was to improve the quality of mathematics education in the region, which led to the main theme of the scientific program “Initial and Continued Teacher Education”. Country Reports on the main theme of teacher education systems for each country in this region were presented and discussed to detect common issues that might be improved through a collaborative network. One of the most important results of this event was the creation of a Mathematics Education Network, namely the Comunidad de Educación Matemática de America del Sur – CEMAS. This book brings to the international Educational Community an important collection of experiences and ideas in the Mathematics Education of four Latin-American countries in the developing Andean region and Paraguay. The dissemination of these results can promote the search for international collaborative actions in a wider scale.

Education in South America is a critical reference guide to development of education in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The chapters, written by local experts, provide an overview of the education system in each country, focusing particularly on policies and implementation of reforms. Key themes include quality and access, multicultural education and the management of education systems. Including a comparative introduction to the issues facing education in the region as a whole and guides to available online datasets, this book is an essential reference for researchers, scholars, international agencies and policy-makers.

This handbook provides an unmatched, comprehensive political history of Ecuador written in English. Ecuador is a nation of over 13 million people, its area between that of the states of Wyoming and Colorado. Like the United States, Ecuador's government features a democratically elected President serving for a four-year term. The Galápagos Islands, well known as the birthplace of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, are part of a province of Ecuador. The History of Ecuador focuses primarily on the political history of Ecuador and how these past events impact the nation today. This text examines the traditions established by Ecuador's great caudillos (strong men) such as Juan José Flores, Gabriel García Moreno, and Eloy Alfaro, and documents the attempts of liberal leaders to modernize Ecuador by following the example of the United States. This book also discusses three economic booms in Ecuador's history: the Cacao Boom 1890–1914; the Banana Boom 1948–1960; and the Oil Boom 1972–1992.

In November 1998, the author arrived in Mascarilla, a small village in Ecuador's predominantly-black Chota Valley, to begin a six-month teaching assignment at the Escuela "Hernando Tquez" (the local primary school). Based both on his own observations and on the assessments offered by various former students, parents, community leaders, and Ecuadorean scholars, the author judges the educational performance of the Escuela "Hernando Tquez" to be grossly inadequate. Indeed, the various shortcomings attributed to the school (and documented as a case study in chapters three and four of this book) are so glaring that the author was led to question how such a dysfunctional school could be allowed to exist in a country where the government states that "to improve education is to improve the quality of life of Ecuador's people." Ultimately, the school's failure to provide quality education to its students forced the author to reconsider the true purpose of public education. Indeed, why does the state provide public education? It is generally assumed that the state builds and supports public schools because it believes in the potential of education to affect great changes in society. Specifically, most government officials contend that public school systems are designed with two primary goals: to contribute to the state's socio-economic development through the creation of "human capital," and to preserve and promote national unity and democratic values. Reflecting on the poor performance of the Escuela "Hernando Tquez," the author (in chapter five) asks whether there might be a hidden agenda regarding the state's role in public education. Perhaps the state's rhetoric regarding the potential socio-economic and political benefits of public education is used to obscure the public school system's true purpose. Perhaps the state (acting as the representative of society's dominant classes) provides public education in order to control oppressed groups, to ensure that they do not challenge the status quo. Perhaps the state provides public education solely in order to ensure the social reproduction of injustice and inequality. The final chapter considers the relationship between education and development, observing how the prevailing development-as-economic-development definition has often led to increased inequality and injustice. Proposing a new understanding of development based on humanist ideals, the author explores how public schools such as the Escuela "Hernando Tquez" could be transformed from the control mechanisms that they are, into the instruments of social justice that they could be.

Describes the country of Ecuador, including its history, geography, economy, and the cultures of its people.