Interculturality as a pivotal aspect of education for democracy: A dialogue with Sylvia Schmelkes

Abstract

In this dialogue, the editor of the Inter-American Journal of Education for Democracy, Bradley Levinson, interviews the distinguished educator and educational researcher Sylvia Schmelkes, member of the Editorial Board of this Journal, who is currently the Chair of the Department of Education and Director of the Institute for Educational Research of the Ibero-American University of Mexico. Sylvia Schmelkes has a long and prominent trajectory as an educational researcher, specializing in values education, popular and non-formal education, and aspects of quality in basic education. Among her more significant books and articles are Quality in Primary Education in Mexico; Toward Better Quality in our Schools; and Values Education in Basic Education. For many years Ms. Schmelkes was a researcher for the Center of Educational Studies, and later on, the Department of Educational Research (CINVESTAV-IPN), in Mexico. After 2001 she joined the Secretariat of Public Education as Director of the Office of Intercultural and Bilingual Education, a position she held until 2007.