The Nueva Escuela Mexicana reform in Mexico: Promises and tensions in revaluing the people’s Mexico

Abstract

The Nueva Escuela Mexicana (NEM)—an education reform implemented in Mexico since 2023—represents a departure from previous neoliberal education reforms, emphasizing inclusion and diversity cultivated through active and project-based learning. As one of the first large-scale qualitative studies on the NEM, this study aimed to situate the reform within the experiences and challenges faced by educational stakeholders in Mexico, and to consider whether and how the reform may or will have contributed to addressing them. We carried out a total of 79 semi-structured individual and group interviews with various educational stakeholders in the three states of Nuevo León, Hidalgo, and Chiapas. The NEM was seemingly accepted by many participants because it helped “rescue” Mexican traditions and cultures, by contextualizing teaching and learning in their localities, and through the increased autonomy granted to teachers. However, several participants expressed their confusion about the potentially excessive flexibility in the NEM’s curriculum and pedagogy. The NEM also seemed to accompany a risk of “reverse discrimination,” as some people may not always have related so closely to the emphasis on Indigenous Languages and cultures. The article concludes with policy recommendations for the NEM, as well as for reforms implemented in similar contexts.