El Salvador's Children - Risk, Poverty and Education

Program dates in 2010: TBD

EDSP 488B/788B/ CPSP 379E (3 credits)

Most of this two-week service-learning experience will take place in a small, rural village, one to two hours from San Salvador. You will live with campesinos (poor, rural families), learn about their culture, and work alongside them to carry out a project that promotes education and social opportunity. We will focus on factors that expose children, youth and families to intergenerational poverty and force many to risk migration to the United States.

In addition, we will tour the capital of San Salvador, make side trips to urban schools, and talk with NGO leaders and public officials. We will also visit the colonial, lakeside town of Suchitoto and visit areas impacted by the civil war during the 1980s. Students will have the opportunity to hike the mountain of Guazapa – a stronghold for guerilla forces during the war – visiting caves that were used as hiding places, and enjoying the beautiful views of the mountains and lake.

Living and working with campesinos in a poor rural village is a meaningful adventure that can have a lasting impact on you and promote education in a community of need. Your visit will inspire a rural village in a country where children often drop out of school by 3rd grade and families commonly struggle to survive on $300 a year.

The objective of the course is to understand the complex factors that have contributed to centuries of poverty, limited educational opportunity, caused a civil war, and forced hundreds of Salvadorans to risk migration to the U.S. each day. You will learn about popular education, and how it promotes literacy and social consciousness. By understanding the social and cultural context, you will also better understand how to serve a growing population of Latino children and families now living in the United States.

Faculty Director

Dr. Paula Beckman is a Professor in the Department of Special Education who specializes in working with young children and their families, cultural influences on development, and developmental risk factors. She has worked in Central America for eight years, leading trips of high school and college students. She has trained preschool teachers in 20 rural villages, and conducted needs assessments and trained teachers in urban and rural schools in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. She is currently conducting research as part of public-private partnerships in Central America. Dr. Beckman may be reached via e-mail or phone, at 301-405-6492.

For questions about the application, registration and pre-departure logistics, please contact Regina Harple, a Program Assistant in the Study Abroad Office.